Bill Gates No Longer World's Richest Man 413
alphadogg writes "Riding surging prices of his various telecom holdings, including giant mobile outfit America Movil, Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim Helu has beaten out Americans Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to become the wealthiest person on earth and nab the top spot on the 2010 Forbes list of the World's Billionaires." I'd still let the guy buy me dinner if he's ever in my town. He's probably still good for it even though he's fallen on hard times.
Hard times? (Score:4, Interesting)
And now, the $0.5 million question: How much money does Gates give to charity?
So... (Score:5, Interesting)
California's bankrupt and the richest man in the world is Mexican?
Lovin' them apples.
Re:Wonderful news (Score:2, Interesting)
Don't worry, Saint Reagan gives you his word that it will all trickle down eventually, if only your faith is pure and your marginal tax rate low...
IMHO, Reaganomics works only in a country where manufacturing is a strong industry (where the workers of the nation are actually needed); sadly, the USA no longer significantly 'makes' anything.
Re:Wonderful news (Score:5, Interesting)
It doesn't bring a lot of comfort to the Mexicans in that situation. When I lived in Guadalajara, I was a short walk from a row of luxury car dealerships: Porsche, Lexus, Audi, BMW, etc. And I was a short bus ride from people living in dirt floor houses and not eating enough (I was involved in a Christian ministry to some of them).
I'm pretty conservative in general, but that doesn't seem like a healthy economy. It's not encouraging to think that the world's wealthiest person got that way through monopoly deals with a corrupt government whose citizenry is mostly poor.
Re:Wonderful news (Score:1, Interesting)
Fairness? You think Detroit compares to the poverty in the rest of the world? You're very delusional.
Re:Wonderful news (Score:5, Interesting)
This family grew their own vegetables in an allotment. What they didn't eat, they pickled. When the pickled food was eaten, they drank the vinegar. They couldn't afford to waste it.
As a parting gift, the lady of the house made a pair of socks from the hair of the household dog and gave them to my friend. This was an extremely kind gift, as it meant that the lady was left with last year's dog hair socks.
We have it so good.
Re:Wonderful news (Score:5, Interesting)
IMHO, Reaganomics works only in a country where manufacturing is a strong industry (where the workers of the nation are actually needed); sadly, the USA no longer significantly 'makes' anything.
Except that there's no evidence it works there either. There's a lot of reason to think that the whole trickle-down theory was created to accomplish two things:
1. Tax cuts and other benefits for rich political supporters.
2. Reduction of federal tax revenues to the point where the federal government can no longer function (Grover Norquist's "drown it in a bathtub").
I've attended talks by Arthur Laffer (one of the guys who came up with trickle-down theory), and determined after a little while that it was a really superbly designed pile of BS.
Re:Wonderful news (Score:3, Interesting)
I just have to ask. . . generally speaking, the wealth of people on the Forbes' list is comprised *mostly* of equity holdings in companies (that is, Bill Gates is worth 53 Billion, but he doesn't have that in cash - most of it is stock in Microsoft and other companies).
Is that not true of Carlos Slim, too? If that is true, is it really so aweful that the man has built up his companies? Is he NOT helping the economies of those nations by providing them with critical telecoms?
"Instead, Carlos uses the money to expand into banking and other areas to make even more money for himself."
How is building up more companies not beneficial to the economies of those nations? If he makes even more money for himself, and then turns around and yet again invests it into *more* businesses, is that not helping the countries where those businesses operate?
I'm not saying I necessarily think the guy is a Saint. But, I've come to believe that in the world of economics, there's basically no such thing as a company which *only* benefits its owners. That said, I suppose it is possible that if the guy is price gouging people, he might be hurting more than he is helping - but I honestly don't know that is the case.
You can't just say that because someone is very rich, that they are hurting the economy that they are getting rich as part of. That strikes me as a bit of an oversimplification.
Re:Did he earn it? (Score:0, Interesting)
You’re just a lazy fucker who wants a cut of Gates’ wealth. If somebody handed it to you, you still wouldn’t be satisfied, and furthermore you wouldn’t have any reason to actually earn anything, which you currently seem to think is the only reason anyone should have any money at all. Well, that’s a lie: You’d become something even worse than Gates. At least Gates did something to build up his multi-billion-dollar empire. You, on the other hand, sit back and complain that he doesn’t deserve it, while you deserve to be given some of his money for sitting on your lazy fat ass and doing absolutely nothing.
If you were standing on a street corner begging, I wouldn’t give you a penny. I don’t care if you’re homeless. I don’t care what sob story you tell to get money for booze and pot (yes, I’m well aware that soup kitchens will already feed you). Get off your lazy ass and do something instead of bitching about how unfair the system is.
Re:Wonderful news (Score:4, Interesting)
Billionaire is a much poorer proxy for "really wealthy" than medicare and social security are for "not wealthy." The fact of the matter is that the top quartile controls ~90% of the wealth in the US, the remaining 10% is contained almost entirely in the upper reaches of the second quartile. (the bottom quartile has negative wealth)
So the real effect of the fortunes of the 403 billionaires in this country is less keeping people poor and more keeping rich people from becoming super-rich. It's the top 10% as a whole that is keeping other people poor. More troubling is the direction of the trend. Real median income has decreased since the '70s, whereas the income of the 95th percentile has risen exponentially.
Re:Did he earn it? (Score:3, Interesting)
You just gotta love internet debate - no facts need apply when you can just declare your opponents wrong a priori.