The wealth of the 400 richest Americans is now at $2.34
trillion, up from last year’s all-time record of $2.29 trillion.
The top three on the Forbes Rich List are Microsoft’s Bill
Gates ($76 billion), Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett ($62 billion) and
Oracle’s Larry Ellison ($47.5 billion).
According to the industry breakdown supplied by Forbes, its
400 include 126 engaged in investment, real estate and finance, 81 from
computer technology and media, 36 from food and beverage, 32 from retail and
fashion (including five members of the Walton family, owners of Wal-Mart), 31
from oil & gas, 20 from health care, 19 from miscellaneous services
(including six members of the Pritzker family, owners of Hyatt Hotels), and 19
from sports and gaming.
Gates, who has held the number one spot on the Forbes 400
for 22 years, has less than 13 percent of his fortune in stock in the company
he founded. According to Forbes, the majority of Gates’ wealth is bound up in
Cascade, the software mogul’s investment firm, which specializes in “investing
in stocks, bonds, private equity and real estate.”
Jeffrey Bezos, owner of Amazon, saw the
largest gain in wealth for the year, making $16 billion in 2015, placing his
total net worth at $47 billion and catapulting him to fourth place.
A US Census report released earlier this month shows that
14.8 percent of the US population lives in poverty; a figure that is unchanged
from a year earlier. The Census findings show that 6.6 percent of the
population lives in “deep poverty,” or less than half of the already
unrealistically low official poverty line in the US.
No comments:
Post a Comment