Billionaries - 1421 Words

Billionaires: We are all the same Billionaires: We are all the same The number of billionaires has risen to a record 1,645 billionaires with an aggregate net worth of $6.4 trillion according to Forbes Magazine (â€Å"Forbes Billionaires†). The year the United States is back at the top with Bill Gates as the richest man in the world, worth about $76 billion (â€Å"Forbes Billionaires†). It seems that even though the amount of billionaires has increased, there are people who still live in poverty. As reported by Forbes (2014), America’s wealth is shrinking because of falling home prices. Rises in home prices help the middle class; while the rise in stock prices help the rich. Wealth inequality has a negative and significant effect on†¦show more content†¦Gates also mentioned that these innovations will help with improving the world and jumpstart the economy. Bill Gates and Melinda Gates started to help the less fortunate and discovered that kids were dying every year over a treatable virus. Rotavirus was killing 600,000 children per year. They decided to pledge $750 million to help with the cost of a vaccine that would save thousands of children (Gates, 2009). These days middle class households are less likely to own homes. The gap between rich and poor has widened with the poor also helping each other (Forbes,2013) The wealthy owns most of the stock. Only 9.5% of middle class families own stock. Middle class income households depend on the rich household on the value of their homes (Forbes, 2013). With rising home prices, people tend to feel more financially secure and more willing to spend. On the other hand, there are also Billionaires that are for the people, such as Mark Zuckerberg(founder of Facebook) and his wife Priscilla Chan. They have given 25 million to the CDC to fight Ebola and gave $120 million to the Bay area schools. Mark Zuckerberg has been extremely generous and plans to donate at least half of his worth of $29.7 billion. Zuckerberg is trying to make internet to all people even people in third- world countries