Despite this summer's market jitters & current economy downturn. Nearly half of the 45 new members of the 'Forbes Rich List' made their fortunes in Hedge Funds and Private Equity. Money manager John Paulson joins the list after pocketing more than $1 billion short-selling subprime credit this summer. - Investors like John Paulson BTW, fuelled the US real estate crash! (Let's kill him...anyone?) The youngest member of the Forbes 400 this year is 33-year-old John Arnold, a former Enron trader who now runs hedge fund Centaurus Energy and has amassed a $1.5 billion fortune (Staggering ). The oldest member of the list is potato king (lol) John Simplot, who is 98 years old and worth $3.6 billion! OK, so let's cut to the chase, how is today's Billionaire club league standing? Well, the rankings have switched around quite a bit over the years, and here's what they look like today: (1) Warren Buffett - Net Worth: $62.0 billion - Fortune: self made - Source: Berkshire Hathaway (2) Carlos Slim Helu & family - Net Worth: $60.0 billion - Fortune: self made - Source: telecom (3) William Gates III - Net Worth: $58.0 billion - Fortune: self made - Source: Microsoft (4) Lakshmi Mittal - Net Worth: $45.0 billion - Fortune: inherited, invested and growing - Source: steel (5) Mukesh Ambani - Net Worth: $43.0 billion - Fortune: inherited, invested and growing - Source: petrochemicals (6) Anil Ambani - Net Worth: $42.0 billion - Fortune: inherited - Source: diversified (7) Ingvar Kamprad & family - Net Worth: $31.0 billion - Fortune: self made - Source: Ikea (retail) (8) KP Singh - Net Worth: $30.0 billion, inherited, invested and growing - Source: real estate (9) Oleg Deripaska - Net Worth: $28.0 billion - Fortune: self made - Source: Russian Aluminum (10) Karl Albrecht - Net Worth: $27 billion - Fortune: self made - Source: Aldi So, what do you think? Is the gap between the super Rich and the Poor getting wider?
Yes, because it's very easy to turn lots of money into even more money. Where poor people find it hard to make any money at all.
Yes, because poor people seem to be getting good ideas and becoming richer then the other poor people
Though it may seem evident that bridging the gap between the two is becomming an unlikely possibility, HOW do you think we can overcome this inequaility of distribution of wealth...? So in other words, what drastic measures need to be put in place to solve solve the problem of poverty and walth districution..?
Why is wealth inequality a problem? People are NOT equal or identical so there is no reason why there lives should be equal or identical. I do not see anybody hear advocating that heart surgeons be paid the same as Burger King Staff or that the NBA institute a maximum height limit of 5 foot eleven. People and their abilities are different. As long as the law treats all of us equally, I have no problem or jealousy with billionaires making even more money.
Rather then compare ourselves to the rich, why don't we apply ourselves to our best abilities and create our own wealth? It's human nature to want to compare someone's strength's against our our weakness. That to me is a waste of mental energy. We live in a land where opportunites are everywhere! Let's take advantage of those opportunites. Let's create a business that serves to the masses. When we do that, we shall live with the classes! The more people we serve (be it lawyer, doctor, mechanic, internet marketer..) the more money we will be paid and the more wealth we can create. Wealth comes as a result of hard work, being frugal with money, living below one's means, setting goals, etc. Unfortunately, we live in a society that seems to be lacking in all those qualities. instead, we bitch and complain about the "rich" and how "unfair" it is. To me, it's a waste of my mental energies to bitch and complain about the "rich". My 2 cents worths..