I stared at my computer screen and the number next to the name Bill Gates … $89 billion.
According to Forbes’ list of 400 richest Americans, that is the net worth of the Microsoft founder.
It is beyond my comprehension. I tried. I imagined spending $1 million a day and attempted to calculate how many years it would take to spend $89 billion. I eventually contacted a buddy, math savant, who without assistance of a calculator estimated 240 years, give or take a decade.
Jeff Bezos’ the Amazon man, is ranked number two on the Forbes list. He is worth an estimated $81 billion.
I realize net worth does not reflect cash in the wallet or actual money in the bank.
OPINION
Out of curiosity, I typed $80 billion into a Google search engine and it came up with a story headlined, “Does the U.S. spend $80 billion a Year on Incarceration?” Apparently, during a Democratic Party presidential debate in 2016, Sen. Bernie Sanders said our country is spending $80 billion a year “locking up our fellow Americans.”
Some organization did a fact check and found correctional facility spending at all levels of government (federal, state and local) came to $80 billion in one year.
That would have seemed like a lot of money to me a week ago, but after looking at the Forbes list of richest Americans it lost some of its impact.
Warren Buffett is worth $78 billion. Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York, has a net worth of $46.8 billion.
If Bloomberg offered $10,000 to every person in Cook County who quit drinking soda pop, I bet he could make an impact on obesity far greater than the commercials he funded supporting Toni Preckwinkle’s tax.
Donald Trump’s net worth is listed at $3.1 billion, but that’s a decline of $600 million since he was elected president, according to Forbes.
There are a lot of people, including Trump, who think the wealthy are overtaxed. You’ve got to wonder just how much more these people could be worth if the federal government wasn’t sucking them dry to pay for things like Obamacare, public housing, transportation, federal courtrooms and nuclear weapons. What next, border walls?
Capitalism is wonderful and we can boast more billionaires than any other nation. The odd thing is that communist China ranks second on the list of most billionaires and Russia comes in fifth. I may have to Google the definition of communism because I apparently misunderstood the concept of everyone sharing the wealth.
Speaking of Google, its co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, are listed as the ninth and 10th wealthiest men in America at, respectively, $44.6 billion and $43.4 billion.
The debt of Puerto Rico is about $70 billion. Just saying.
I found myself wondering why Forbes feels the need to place a decimal point after any net worth over $20 billion. It just seems gratuitous, sort of like referring to a man as “96 and a half years old.”
I once read a speech by President Teddy Roosevelt back in 1905 where he talked about a “Square Deal” and noted that throughout history there had been class struggles between rich and poor.
“The outcome was equally fatal, whether the country fell into the hands of a wealthy oligarchy which exploited the poor or whether it fell under the domination of a turbulent mob which plundered the rich….
“The death-knell of the Republic had rung as soon as the active power become lodged in the hands of those who sought, not to do justice to all citizens, rich and poor alike, but to stand for one special class and for its interests as opposed to the interest of others,” Roosevelt said.
Not sure why that speech came to mind. Time to buy a lottery ticket.
Email: philkadner@gmail.com
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