Posted on 03/10/2007 12:13:38 PM PST by Kimmers
The new Forbes billionaires list just came out. It’s always fun to flip through the names, ages and profiles of the billionaires.
I could give you a lot of details about how many more there are than last year, where they’re from, and how much younger they all are. But details like that probably wouldn’t answer your main question:
What could you possibly have in common with a billionaire? The answer is pretty exciting.
Of all the 946 billionaires in the world, 60 percent made their money from scratch. Think about that. The majority of the world’s billionaires once had just as much money in their bank account as you do (or less!). They took what little they had, sunk it all into that product, or service, or midnight notion and built it into a fortune. For all the talk about how unfair the world is, it turns out that pure gumption can be more important than family connections.
Now, that doesn’t mean that just anybody can become a billionaire, or that the process of becoming one is always fair and square. In the first place you have to have enormous concentration and energy. It’s not for nothing that so many of the new billionaires are under 50; it’s very hard to sustain the kind of output necessary to amass so much wealth unless you’re relatively young.
And then there’s the question of whether all these bootstrap billionaires played it on the up-and-up. The fastest growing country of billionaires is Russia, a country not known for its strict adherence to the rule of law. It’s likely that some of Russia’s 53 billionaires (ranking third worldwide, next to Germany with 55 and the U.S. with 415) bent or broke rules to get there.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
That's the beauty of the American Dream.
The fastest growing country of billionaires is Russia...
Huh?
>> Russia tops list of billionaires
Sunday, May 16, 2004
Moscow took over from New York as home to the world's largest cluster of billionaires as Russia's benchmark stock index rose to a record high in April, according to Forbes magazine.
The number of billionaires in Russia jumped by 40 per cent in two months to 36 with a combined worth of $110.2 billion (e93 billion) according to the magazine's Russian edition.
Russia's richest businessmen, including Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Roman Abramovich, made their fortunes buying former state-owned assets cheaply after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Khodorkovsky, the former chief executive of Yukos Oil, is Russia's richest billionaire with an estimated fortune of $15.2 billion. Six of the country's billionaires have some involvement in Yukos.
More than 20 per cent of Russians live below the poverty line. <<
Words well said my friend. I love when Rush starts talking like this or when his callers relate their stories of success. What a great country we live in.
>>Here's What You Have in Common With a Billionaire ...<<
Birth, death, taxes, sin etc... they are just people with a lot of money.
Well, almost everything I might have in common with them - some features in common with this billionaire, and others with that one - except the size of theirs [vs. mine] net worth. The whole approach is flawed: were there a definite set of characteristics guaranteed to make one a billionaire, then it is only reasonable to suggest that everyone not barred by some congenital deficiency would have become a billionaire by now, or would be well on one's way to.
New York does not count as part of America. :-)
Same with Berkley, Boston, and San Francisco.
But not where it really counts: In the bankbook.
"The fastest growing country of billionaires is Russia... Huh?"
Oil and Gas. Also the old Communists took over all the government run businesses, made money off them and once Russia once again goes Communist, all these people will give the companies back to the state to once again run into the ground.
The Politburo Communists realized that conquering the world via military might would never work. They are doing it instead with money. Much easier and you don't have to take and hold land.
That is probably why Americas left is emboldened. They know that if we ever went Communist they wouldn't get a bullet to the head. More the reason to bankrupt the Kennedy's of the world.
Something to keep in mind when the collapse happens over here.
What worries me is how many of these guys made their money by selling surplus nukes to terrorist groups?
My favorite Billionaire has got to be JK Rowling who wrote the Harry Potter books.
I dont have a favorite billionaire. I hate them all. That is, untill I become a billionaire. :-)
They were all born with genius brains. I would take a brain over a rich daddy anyday.
John
I know what I have in common.
They eat, sleep and discharge. They wear clothes.
They drive cars. They get up, go to work, go home and
wonder where the time went.
So!
I go to Yosemite, Calif. Coastal Redwoods, Big Basin State Park, Stanislaus Nat'l Forest (Pinecrest, Hammill Canyon, Hell's Mt., Cherry Lake...)!, Mt. Lassen Nat'l Park, Mt. Hamilton...
They have nothing on me.
The remaining 40% are liberals.....
Now you know where your hard earned money is going.
>>Something to keep in mind when the collapse happens over here.<<
I'm still pretty darn hopeful we are gonna avoid a Soviet style collapse of the United States.
Amen brother!
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