Yesterday, the Forbes 400 dropped, a cumulative list of the wealthiest people in the country. Unsurprisingly, Bill Gates topped the list at just over $50 billion, followed by Warren Buffet with just over $40 billion. The rest of the list, however offers some pretty surprising insight into the breakdown of the super-rich of America. I think it says something troubling about our culture that our country boasts no less than 391 billionaires. I think it says something downright fucked up that numbers four through seven on the list are occupied by various members of the Walton family, to whom we owe the corporate empire known as Wal-Mart. Click MORE for the full list and more info.
Name/ Net Worth ($MIL)/ Source
1 William Gates III/ 50,000/ Microsoft
2 Warren Buffett/ 40,000/ Berkshire Hathaway
3 Lawrence Ellison/ 27,000/ Oracle
4 Christy Walton/ 21,500/ Wal-Mart
5 Jim C. Walton/ 19,600/ Wal-Mart
6 Alice Walton/ 19,300/ Wal-Mart
7 S. Robson Walton/ 19,000/ Wal-Mart
8 Michael Bloomberg/ 17,500/ Bloomberg
9 Charles Koch/ 16,000/ manufacturing, energy
9 David Koch/ 16,000/ manufacturing, energy
11 Sergey Brin/ 15,300/ Google
11 Larry Page/ 15,300/ Google
Full list here
Some other notables include Phil Knight of Nike ($9.5 billion), Ralph Lauren ($4.2 billion), Oprah ($2.3 billion) and perhaps most interestingly, 24-year old Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook who enters the list this year with an estimated $2 billion. Despite the scattered major celebrities though, the list is mostly made up of people you or I have heard very little about, if anything. I think it’s only strategic; the less we know about the people who have the most economic control, the easier it is for them to manipulate things.
Looking at the list has to at least make you wonder how we can justify an economic system that concentrates $1.27 trillion into the hands of 400 individuals. The question remains then, how do we go about changing the system so that the wealth doesn’t get so disproportionately concentrated at the top? In any case, I’ll leave you with a quick observation. The median personal net worth in the U.S. is estimated at just over $86,000. That means the 400 people on this list have a combined net worth equal to that of more than 14.7 million people, on average (about 1/20th of the population). Just a thought.
One Comment
“The less we know about the people who have the most economic control, the easier it is for them to manipulate things…” too true.
2 Trackbacks
[...] food in a country that boasts some of the world’s most exorbitant wealth. Someone should ask these folks. Full story [...]
[...] gap that exists between classes in American society. When we’re presented with lists like the Forbes 400, it’s hard to do anything but marvel at the impossibly high net worth of the nation’s [...]