Bill Gates tops Forbes billionaire list once again with net worth of $76 billion

[Shawn Knight]

Last year it was the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and now Forbes agrees: Bill Gates is once again the richest person on the planet. Gates reclaimed the top spot for the first time in four years after relinquishing it to Mexican investor Carlos Slim.

Gates’ net worth shot up from $67 billion last year to $76 billion this year while Slim’s fortune dropped from $73 billion to $72 billion. It’s worth pointing out that Gates has held the top spot for 15 of the last 20 years.

You also may be surprised to learn that Gates has donated more than $28 billion to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and that a large portion of his fortune isn’t from Microsoft stock but rather from other private investments and financial holdings.

The proclamation came as part of Forbes’ annual rankings of the world’s richest people. Other notables from the tech field include Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin at number 17 and 19, respectively, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos in 18th place and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg at 21 with a net worth of $28.5 billion.

In total, there are now 1,645 billionaires in the world – 492 are from the US and 172 are women. Interestingly enough, 66 percent of those on the list created their own wealth while just 13 percent inherited it (Sam Walton’s heirs, for example).

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https://www.techspot.com/news/55876-bill-gates-tops-forbes-billionaire-list-once-again-with-net-worth-of-76-billion.html

 

[TomSEA]

The guy is giving it away as fast as he can through his Gates foundation and is STILL the richest. Like or hate the guy, that's pretty impressive.

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

Interestingly enough, 66 percent of those on the list created their own wealth while just 13 percent inherited it (Sam Walton’s heirs, for example).

Not surprising really.... Billionaires are a new thing, it's not like people could have made that kind of money back in the 1800s. Because it was only possible recently, most of them haven't died yet.

 

[davislane1]

Interestingly enough, 66 percent of those on the list created their own wealth while just 13 percent inherited it (Sam Walton’s heirs, for example).

Not surprising really.... Billionaires are a new thing, it's not like people could have made that kind of money back in the 1800s. Because it was only possible recently, most of them haven't died yet.

If you adjust for inflation many industry titans of the 1800s would be considered billionaires. The unadjusted figure just reflects the diminished purchasing power of today's dollar.

 

[TheDreams]

If you adjust for inflation many industry titans of the 1800s would be considered billionaires. The unadjusted figure just reflects the diminished purchasing power of today's dollar.

What you say is true, people like Andrew Carnegie and John Rockefeller would have been billionaires in their time.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Slim’s fortune dropped from $73 billion to $72 billion.

Oh Boy this must be really tough. If he carries on at this rate he'll be sleeping rough in about ... 100 000 years.

 

[tipstir]

They have to give it away because if they don't then there is a lot of taxes to pay out. I think they should get rid of that perk so millionaires, billionaires have to pay more taxes or they're fair share. Too much the middle airs have to pay more and get less where the higher end airs pay less in tax and get more end results.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Bill Gates is once again the richest person on the planet

I wonder if they've taken the heads of Columbia's and Mexico's drug cartels fortunes into account as well.

 

[TomSEA]

They have to give it away because if they don't then there is a lot of taxes to pay out. I think they should get rid of that perk so millionaires, billionaires have to pay more taxes or they're fair share. Too much the middle airs have to pay more and get less where the higher end airs pay less in tax and get more end results.

Not true. Only a small percentage of charitable deductions are allowed on tax returns. It's not like it used to be. Also, the top 1% pays 37% of all taxes collected. The top 50% pays 97% of all taxes collected:

http://www.ntu.org/tax-basics/who-pays-income-taxes.html

 

[Brodo Laggins]

"and now Forbes agrees: Bill Gates is once again the richest person on the planet." When he found out:

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

They have to give it away because if they don't then there is a lot of taxes to pay out. I think they should get rid of that perk so millionaires, billionaires have to pay more taxes or they're fair share. Too much the middle airs have to pay more and get less where the higher end airs pay less in tax and get more end results.

You only pay tax on what you make, not what you have. And if you got rid of the charity deduction you wouldn't hurt rich people anywhere nearly as much as you'd hurt the charities. As for someone's 'fair' share.... fairness applies to kids taking turns on the see-saw, not taxes. If fairness applied to taxes, the people using the most would have to pay the most, but that would mean the poor on welfare programs would have to pay the most tax and that's obviously ridiculous.

The only thing recently that's hurt the 'middle-aires' is Obamacare and it's evaporating subsidies for families making between about $40,000 and $75,000. If you want to find something to blame for the middle class getting squeezed start with that one. Between the individual mandate, the upcoming employer mandate, and the subsidy structure, anyone in the middle class who isn't working for a large business is going to have a lot less money in the upcoming years.

 

[sdms96825]

They have to give it away because if they don't then there is a lot of taxes to pay out. I think they should get rid of that perk so millionaires, billionaires have to pay more taxes or they're fair share. Too much the middle airs have to pay more and get less where the higher end airs pay less in tax and get more end results.

You only pay tax on what you make, not what you have. And if you got rid of the charity deduction you wouldn't hurt rich people anywhere nearly as much as you'd hurt the charities. As for someone's 'fair' share.... fairness applies to kids taking turns on the see-saw, not taxes. If fairness applied to taxes, the people using the most would have to pay the most, but that would mean the poor on welfare programs would have to pay the most tax and that's obviously ridiculous.

The only thing recently that's hurt the 'middle-aires' is Obamacare and it's evaporating subsidies for families making between about $40,000 and $75,000. If you want to find something to blame for the middle class getting squeezed start with that one. Between the individual mandate, the upcoming employer mandate, and the subsidy structure, anyone in the middle class who isn't working for a large business is going to have a lot less money in the upcoming years.

+1

 

[Raoul Duke]

The guy is giving it away as fast as he can through his Gates foundation and is STILL the richest. Like or hate the guy, that's pretty impressive.

I looked up the foundation expecting to be very disappointed, but it looks like it is the real deal and they are doing good things.

 

[cliffordcooley]

In other words, Bill Gates is once again the single largest leach on this planet!

Edit:
WOW, What changed? The comment posted immediately.

 

[davislane1]

In other words, Bill Gates is once again the single largest leach on this planet!

I'm not picking on you, I've just got to walk through this door before someone else does:

Hater's gonna hate!

 

[cliffordcooley]

I'm not picking on you, I've just got to walk through this door before someone else does:

Hater's gonna hate!

That may be true but it doesn't change the idea, that what I said may be true as well.

 

[Guest]

The "Gates Foundation" that does good things...Oh, yeah, after having Microsoft, put any kind of software in any kind of weapon that evaporates "any human being of any lesser God" anytime, anywhere in the world...Yes Sir, that's the face of charity THEIR media want to sell us!!! It's simple, no matter what people say, humanity is helpless and out of hope...

 

[Guest]

Should I pretend to understand the logic behind this or just laugh?

 

[Lionvibez]

I think your posting on the wrong site guest.

or you haven't taken your medication today!

your mom will not be pleased with you.

 

[Guest]

"If you want to find something to blame for the middle class getting squeezed start with that one."

Or look at the past decades where the middle class has slowly but surely shrunk while the already rich get richer and the gap widens evermore. And that's a fact.
But surely the ACA is the main issue right? We can keep coming with more current issues if we'd like. Many are legitimate issues after all. Or we can look at the overall reason this is happening.

Quite honestly anyone paying taxes, including the middle class, is putting money right into private banks whether we like it or not. The "Federal" reserve system hasn't even been a govt entity since BEFORE THE GREAT DEPRESSION. In fact, once the FRS stopped being.... well... FEDERAL, it was due mostly scare tactics rather than any actual shortage of money. The President who signed off on basically handing over the FRS to privatization even was DOCUMENTED regretting ever signing anything of the sort. Again, we see some of the rich trying to literally fix the system in their favor. And they won.

Politicians are practically hired now instead of elected. This isn't just another conspiracy theory anymore. It's more along the lines of the theory of evolution at this point.

The ACA was implemented at the wrong time for our economy no doubt. And that's even pretending it can work as promised without all of its failures included. However, If there were one issue to address for the middle class, it's corruption. It's literally the rich, not all but some, that have in fact been pushing their way into the government for quite some time as well as their agendas. Debt is slavery. The rich have only become better at keeping the rest of us in debt. Not worse.

 

[Guest]

Also who's obtaining more rights these days? I'll give you a hint: It's not the people.