Recently an article came across the internet which contained a list put out by Bloomberg and Wikipedia listing the ten richest people currently in the United States. The richest was Jeff Bezos of Amazon with the list saying that he has $114 billion at age 55, but other lists say he has $170 billion. The last on the list of ten was the former wife of Jeff Bezos with $36 billion which she received in a divorce settlement.
The list also includes people who have long been listed as the richest or among the richest people in the United States or even the world such as Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. Other founders of tech giant companies included were Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison, Larry Page, Sergay Brin, and Steve Balmer. A few people had inherited their money such as three Waltons who received their money from the Walmart empire. Michael Bloomberg and Charles Koch were listed as having earned their money, and Julia Koch had inherited her billions.
The list said that the United States is home to 34 people who have a net worth of $10 to $40 billion. There are over 300 people who are said to have $4 to $10 billion. The United States apparently has at least 600 billionaires. That is so much money controlled by a relatively small group of people.
Bill Gates was once interviewed when he became the richest person in the world after he had been the second richest the previous year. He was asked why or how that happened. He said he guessed he didn’t give away enough money. The super wealthy do give away a lot of money, but they could give away so much more to those who are truly in need. Who needs so many billions of dollars? It must be at least partially a matter of power, control, and some greed.
A million dollars seems out of reach for most people, and yet there are hundreds of millionaires being created on a regular basis. One million dollars may not seem like enough in some ways, especially to those who have tens or hundreds of millions. These people are able to have true freedom to spend as they wish and to do pretty much whatever they want. Money is not a restriction as it is to so many people in the world today.
Many immigrants have done very well in the USA after years of hard work and toil. Such was the case for a small handful of Japanese people and their American citizen children who were incarcerated during World War II in the American concentration camps which were set up to house them as punishment for their ethnicity. They were not guilty of any crime and had done no wrong. The racism and prejudice of that time caused them to suffer untold hardship and distress.
Still most of them have endured and triumphed over the difficulties they were caused to bear. While there may not be any billionaires among this group of people, there are millionaires. They have not achieved the very highest levels of income among the population and become part of the ten richest people, but some have attained an incredible amount of success given the treatment they received during the war. Overcoming adversity was difficult but important. It can be done.
There are poor among us. Everyday you can see homeless people or the less fortunate begging on the streets just for a few dollars or change to buy food or other items. Unfortunately, they all too often spend what money they have on tobacco or alcohol. Everyone needs money in some shape and form. Most earn what money they have, but some people must beg for it.
While a small number of people control a huge amount of the world’s wealth, there is room for people to carve out a comfortable living for themselves. It behooves all of us, whether rich or poor, to reach out to those less fortunate. There are so many people in the world who are in need of help.
