“Bill Gates, founder and chairman of Microsoft Corp., is the world’s richest person for the seventh consecutive year with a net worth that has risen to $46.6 billion, according to Forbes magazine. Gates, whose company is the world’s largest computer-software maker, saw his net worth increase 14 percent over the past year, the magazine said. Investor Warren Buffett was second on the annual Forbes list of billionaires. His net worth climbed $12.4 billion, or 41 percent, to $42.9 billion,” Bloomberg reports.
“A recovery in the global economy helped add $500 billion to the total net worth of the world’s 587 billionaires, making them collectively worth $1.9 trillion, Forbes said. Buffett’s increase was the biggest of any of the billionaires, as he closes the gap with Gates, the magazine said,” Bloomberg reports.
Apple and Pixar CEO Steve Jobs places in a fifteen-way tie at number 262 on the list with an estimated $2.1 billion.
Full list here.
Must be nice…
I wouldn’t mind being on the 486th place
News flash: I just sent Steve Jobs a dollar, allowing him to break the tie and take sole posession of 15th place! However, that lost dollar moves me down to 298,451,372nd place, in a tie with Joe McConnell.
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487th would be OKAY. But 486 would be nice. (Big jump)
It is very reassuring to know that the rich are getting richer. Those who think a massive budget deficit and tax cuts for the rich aren’t helping anyone just need to read this article. I don’t want to be in 486th place, I just want to work again so I can someday own an iPod and feed my children (in that order).
Grandpa, you are off the chain.
Personally, I would like to be 145,298th on the list.
Although I applaud Jobs and his fellow billionaires, I think it is OBSCENE that we have such a HUGE gap between the haves and have nots in this country.
<<Although I applaud Jobs and his fellow billionaires, I think it is OBSCENE that we have such a HUGE gap between the haves and have nots in this country.>>
Well, it’s called free enterprise. The only other alternative is socialism/communism and that really got the Soviet Union a long way didn’t it?
It also depends on what you call a “have” and what is a “have not”. Seems to me we’re doing pretty damn good in comparison to virtually all of the rest of the world. A lot of the things we take for granted here are considered luxuries elsewhere…oh, like freedom for example. So like I said, until somebody else comes up with a better idea, I think I’ll deal with how it is in the USA right now thank you very much.
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Jimbo, it’s still a nice neighborhood
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Amazing that Steve’s networth/Bill’s networth is so close to Apple’s computing market share.
Both his mothers must be very proud.
A free market economy is fine but there needs to be some controls on it. A pure free market economy will fail as miserably in the end as pure socialism. There needs to be a happy medium where the economy ticks along but the big corporations aren’t able to ride rough-shod over the average Joe. The Republicans never seem to get that bit. Rep’s would make lousy engine mechanics (what the hell is this flywheel thingy on the engine – it just puts drag on the engine – lets take it off so the engine can really run) of course any idiot knows an engine runs like crap without a flywheel but what the hell.
I have no truck with rich folks – but it bugs the hell out of me when they get that way by working the hell out of poor dumb slobs like us and then take away our benefits/pensions/retirement.
I have a lot of respect for people who worked hard to become rich on their own. Not those that were children of millionaires and used that money to become billionaires or Senators or Presidents. Hell, I have more respect for someone who won the lottery than someone who was born into wealth. At least they had to make an effort to play the lottery.
But lets face it. We play by their rules. The hardest million to make is the first. And if you’ve already got that, you’re pretty much set.
Dan, I agree with most of what you have to say. I don’t know that it can be pinned strictly on the Republicans however. I think it’s government in general, as special interests have always bought their ways.
I don’t think it’s as easy as have and have not. I see plenty of people everyday who have no ambition or desire to better themselves in any way. There are a lot of people in this country that have worked their way up from having nothing to having a pretty good life for themselves and their family. They might not be on this list, but I certainly wouldn’t call them have nots. Bottom line, for most people it takes a lot of hard work and a lot of guts and determination to make it to where they are. Some people just can’t cut it and I don’t think those that do should be responsible for them.
Even people born into money have to work to keep it or to build on it. Its easy to ride on the coat tails of those that went before and waste what you dont respect. Keeping money can be just as hard as earning it.
Hmm, I guess Red Wings has never heard of Paris Hilton…
Of course, then there are those of us who choose other priorities. Yeah, we work plenty hard and we provide for our family, but there’s nothing or very little in savings. That doesn’t make me bitter, I’m grateful for the opportunities I have. Fact is, my first thought when I saw the first post was, “Would it really be nice?” I’d hate to be the CEO of one company, much less two. I wouldn’t mind making more than I make now, but that’s mostly cuz my wife isn’t working as much since we started adopting children, so it’s a little harder to make ends meet. I’ll keep our smaller income any day over giving up the kids.
As far as the government is concerned, I think every politician believes that gov’t is the answer, isn’t that why they ran for office, to make a difference in the world? I’ll just leave it at that though.
Politics is a dirty game. Only an exceptional few do it for the good of others. Most of them have vested interests because the system is loaded against fairness. You want to run for a local office without lots of money? You can if the office is pretty small. For a more influential position, you’ll have to raise serious cash and it’s not going to be easy without contributions from organizations Then, there is that ideology thing. I never understand Americans sticking for one party even though they know that the person representing the party is bad. Better a bad politician from your party than a good one from the other. That is only about elections. Things go downhill from there. That is why I hate politics.
It’s true that Clinton’s administration did stupid things, but Bush’s administration takes the whole shebang. God, what a (insert your own name)! I really pity the next generation of Americans who will have to pay for all the tax cuts and the invasion of privacy and to live in polluted environment. What more can that guy do in the next 4 years? Very scary thought.
‘Even people born into money have to work to keep it or to build on it. Its easy to ride on the coat tails of those that went before and waste what you dont respect. Keeping money can be just as hard as earning it.” – Red Wings
Two words: Trust Fund
S*it. We have to start a rescue mission. This is not acceptable, that our favorit Steve is so far below Bill gates. MDN should open a paypal account where we can donate $50 billion to Steve.
Who is this William Gates III? Where is Bill Gates? This list is wrong.
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Americans are so funny with these Senior, Junior, I, II, III stuff.
Reminds me something… Oh yes.
Marshall Mathers III who calls himself M&M.
Hilarious. LOL
There is nothing wrong with capitalism, but the current trend of X-treme capitalism is downright disgusting. With so many in the world without access to education, clean drinking water or decent living conditions, to have people who can buy and sell entire towns full of people just isn’t right. The whole globalisation thing isn’t helping either. When jobs leave the first world, they tend to go to the rich and already educated in other countries, increasing their own wealth gap whilst wiping out the middle class here in the developed West. I also worry that through this constant enforced consumerism we “enjoy”, we are turning the entire planet into a place that won’t support us anymore, further increasing the migration problem we are now beginning to see. Unless things change, the future looks extremely bleak in my opinion, and everyone’s quality of life will suffer, no matter how many billions they have.
This is disgusting. I spent many years in college learning computer science. I thought I had a bright future and career until about 2 years ago, when US corporations discovered India. Now all of my hard work and experience are being tossed out the window for cheap labor in the 3rd world. The most disgusting thing is that the people at the top of these companies continue to get rich, while the people at the bottom that do the real work become poor. People tell me I will just need to retrain to find another job. Can someone tell me what is a higher skilled job (in the IT field) than software design?
Dave H, I agree, only that some billionaire’s will (have?) hole themselves into their gated castles/estates/mansions and ignore what’s going on around them, their quality of life may not change much, but only because they’re hard-hearted. I think Plato argued that democracy would give way to anarchy. Sometimes I think the Xtreme capitalism you mentioned might be helping that process. When the middle class disappears, it primarily gets absorbed by the poorer class, not the wealthy class. History has never shown a two class system in which poverty made up the smaller category.
R.V.,
You make a good point. But don’t begrudge the rich having so much mone. They are in no small part the engine for keeping the economy running.
But what you should begrudge is them resisting an inheritance tax, that would take a small part of the fortunes they build with the sweat-equity of our nation and spread it around a bit. Not to individuals, but to roads, and shcools, and national parks and those things we all need and love and what makes America great.
That’s what we should begrudge. And you can bet, there will be a revivial of the weatherman some day if the inheritance tax is done away with. The middle class always find an outlet to get some of the money back from those “what took it.”