Michael Bloomberg and Mark Zuckerberg made the list of the world’s eight wealthiest people. These eight men collectively also happen to be worth as much as all the lower half of the world’s population.
Now does that sound right to any one? OK, so many of them, including Zuckerberg and Bloomberg, are giving away a fortune to charity, but some would argue that they only generated their wealth in the first place at the expense of everybody else.
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So who else made the list, which was released by the charity Oxfam International? Bill Gates, of course, came in at number one with $75 billion, Amancio Ortega Gaona was second with $67 billion, then Warren E. Buffett with $60 billion, Carlos Slim Helú has a net worth of $50 billion, Jeff Bezos of Amazon came in fifth with $45.2 billion, then came Mark Zuckerberg at number six with a measly $44.6 billion in total assets and he was followed by Lawrence J. Ellison, the founder of Oracle, with $43.6 billion.
And poor Michael Bloomberg had to settle for coming in last on the list with a paltry net worth of $40 billion. But to be fair, he would be worth a lot more if he did not give away so much money to his personal charitable foundation Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Also, Mark Zuckerberg, together with his wife Dr. Priscilla Chan, has pledged to give away 99 percent of all of his wealth through his Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
So what do the people at Oxfam think about this. Well they said, “Our economy must stop excessively rewarding those at the top and start working for all people. Accountable and visionary governments, businesses that work in the interests of workers and producers, a valued environment, women’s rights and a strong system of fair taxation, are central to this more human economy.”
Hopefully people like Mark Zuckerberg are listening. His company Facebook does not really produce anything. Its just a big toy for people to play with and all of its revenues come from advertising. It will only be profitable until people get bored with it and the vast majority of Mark Zuckerberg’s wealth is based on the value of Facebook stock. Michael Bloomberg, however, has ab old fashioned type of business empire.
