by Gaius Publius I've been writing about the "billionaire class" lately, trying to characterize them, give them names, faces and wealth numbers. For example, we know that the Top 20% owns 85% of American wealth, as of 2009. We also know that income distribution, which isn't quite the same as wealth distribution, is also very skewed. For example, this is from 2011 data (slightly rounded):
- Average income of Top 0.01% — $23,800,000 per year
- Average income of the rest of the Top 0.1% — $2,800,000
- Average income of the rest of the Top 1% — $1,020,000
- Average income of the rest of the Top 10% — $161,000
We also know that there are roughly 15,000 American tax filers in that top 0.01%, of whom about 500 are already billionaires. (For the difference between wealth inequality and income inequality, check out this chart; source here.) Extend the geography — look at billionaire wealth everywhere — and you're looking at the people who rule the world. Forbes Magazine keeps track of these people, for reasons that you can easily imagine. (If you can't, here's a clue. Donald Trump once wrote: "Money was never a big motivation for me, except as a way to keep score." Greed justified.) This page, "The World's Billionaires," is updated daily, as near as I can tell. I took the list down to 1558th name (you have to keep moving to the bottom and waiting for the next chunk to load), which was at the time I looked the last person owning $1 billion or more.But here's the first 50. The columns show Picture, Rank, Name, Estimated net worth, Age, Source of wealth (approximate), Nationality (nominal). Browse the list; I'll have a brief comment after.The World's Top 50 Billionaires #1 Bill Gates $80.6 B 59 Microsoft United States #2 Warren Buffett $73.1 B 84 Berkshire Hathaway United States #3 Carlos Slim Helu & family $70.4 B 74 telecom Mexico #4 Amancio Ortega $59.3 B 78 retail Spain #5 Larry Ellison $51.3 B 70 Oracle United States #6 Charles Koch $42.2 B 79 diversified United States #6 David Koch $42.2 B 74 diversified United States #8 Christy Walton & family $40.2 B 59 Wal-Mart United States #9 Jim Walton $39.3 B 66 Wal-Mart United States #10 Alice Walton $37.8 B 65 Wal-Mart United States #11 S. Robson Walton $37.8 B 70 Wal-Mart United States #12 Liliane Bettencourt & family $37.6 B 92 L'Oreal France #13 Michael Bloomberg $35.3 B 72 Bloomberg LP United States #14 Mark Zuckerberg $33.6 B 30 Facebook United States #15 Bernard Arnault & family $32.5 B 65 LVMH France #16 Stefan Persson $32.1 B 67 H&M Sweden #17 Li Ka-shing $29.3 B 86 diversified Hong Kong #18 Larry Page $29.1 B 41 Google United States #19 Sergey Brin $28.7 B 41 Google United States #20 Sheldon Adelson $28.5 B 81 casinos United States #21 Jeff Bezos $28.4 B 50 Amazon.com United States #22 Carl Icahn $24.9 B 78 investments United States #23 David Thomson & family $24.8 B 57 media Canada #24 Michele Ferrero & family $24.3 B 89 chocolates Italy #25 George Soros $24 B 84 hedge funds United States #26 Forrest Mars Jr $23.4 B 83 candy United States #26 Jacqueline Mars $23.4 B 75 candy United States #28 John Mars $23.4 B 78 candy United States #29 Jack Ma $22.9 B 50 e-commerce China #30 Jorge Paulo Lemann $22.9 B 75 beer Brazil #31 Phil Knight $22.6 B 76 Nike United States #32 Steve Ballmer $22.5 B 58 Microsoft United States #33 Lee Shau Kee $22.4 B 86 diversified Hong Kong #34 Michael Dell $21.9 B 49 Dell United States #35 Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud $21.5 B 59 investments Saudi Arabia #36 Mukesh Ambani $21.4 B 57 petrochemicals, oil & gas India #37 Leonardo Del Vecchio $19.7 B 79 eyeglasses Italy #38 Aliko Dangote $18.3 B 57 cement, sugar, flour Nigeria #39 Len Blavatnik $18.3 B 57 diversified United States #40 Dilip Shanghvi $18.3 B 59 pharmaceuticals India #41 Charles Ergen $18.3 B 61 Dish Network United States #42 Tadashi Yanai & family $17.8 B 65 retail Japan #43 Laurene Powell Jobs & family $17.2 B 51 Apple, Disney United States #44 Paul Allen $17.1 B 61 Microsoft, investments United States #45 Michael Otto & family $16.9 B 71 retail, real estate Germany #46 Anne Cox Chambers $16.7 B 95 media United States #47 Theo Albrecht Jr & family $16.5 B 63 Aldi, Trader Joe's Germany #48 Robin Li $16.3 B 46 internet search China #49 Alisher Usmanov $16.1 B 61 steel & mining, telecom, investments Russia #50 Susanne Klatten $16.1 B 52 BMW, pharmaceuticals GermanyThe Kochs' net worth number is certainly low, but notice that combined they're richer than Bill Gates — and they are combined; they jointly own more than 80% of Koch Industries. The Walton family ("Wal-Mart"), combined, is the wealthiest family in the world — and the key architects of the "no death tax" propaganda and push, plus all the damage Wal-Mart does. Jeff Bezos is the reason that Amazon is destroying the power of the book publishing industry everywhere in the world. Jorge Paolo Lemann is the richest person in Brazil — he's about "one half of one Koch brother," as I wrote elsewhere — and one of the forces behind the Burger King tax inversion scheme, something he's dabbled in lately.Combined, there's no end to the worldly damage these men and women are responsible for. Yet if you asked them, they're having a wonderful time. Their consciences are clear as a bell and clean as a whistle.If you really want to play, click to the Forbes source page and browse the whole list using the sort and filter tools. The less-than-one-billion, less-rich mark starts around #1550.Then consider that almost all of these people, the hyper-wealthy: (a) do know each other; (b) are indeed a "tribe" as Richard Eskow says, with their own culture, values and mythology; (c) are themselves the source of almost all that's instrumentally wrong in the world — from money-captured governments (all of them), to "education reform" (Gates, Murdoch, others), to bloody global wars (military and "security" company owners and investors), to our broken and obesity-causing food supply (owners of Monsanto, ADM, McDonalds, Burger King, Wonder Bread), to ... well, name it. They will certainly be the reason that atmospheric CO2 will not be constrained to 600 ppm before 2100 without "extraordinary" effort. (We're at 400 ppm today, we're increasing it at a rate of 2 ppm per year, and the rate is accelerating.) Now look at their ages. Most will be dead by the time the rest of us start to suffer and die in great numbers, and the ice starts to melt for good. But hey, as Mr. Trump might say, they ran up a helluva score before they left. And they're having a wonderful time. GP
