The rich keep getting richer while millions struggle to earn enough to eat

Snejana Farberov
Daily Mail UK
Wed, 30 Sep 2015 01:03 UTC

© icanhascheezburger.com

The rich are richer than ever: Forbes list of 400 wealthiest Americans reveals Jeff Bezos made $16BILLION in a single year - and Mark Zuckerberg broke into the top ten for the first time

Comment: To put that into perspective, that means that Jeff Bezos made $1,825,273.40 an hour for every single hour of the year.

• America's top 400 billionaires have combined wealth of $2.34trillion, up $50billion from a year ago
• Bill Gates has retained his No 1 spot for 22nd straight year with a net worth of $76billion
• Amazon's Jeff Bezos, 51, has emerged as biggest overall gainer, coming in at No 4 with $47billion
• Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, 31, this year landed in seventh spot with $40billion after cracking the top ten list last year
• Cost of admission to the 2015 list was the highest ever at $1.7billion, up from $1.55billion a year ago

America's top 400 billionaires are now richer than ever, boasting a record-smashing combined wealth of $2.34trillion, up $50billion from a year ago, according to the latest issue of Forbes Magazine.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates continued to dominate the prestigious list for the 22nd year in a row with a $76billion fortune, retaining his No 1 spot despite losing $5billion from 2014.

But it was Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos who has emerged as the biggest overall gainer, adding a whopping $16.5billion to his war chest in a single year after his company posted a quarterly profit in July.

© Getty Images

Raking in billions with monopolistic business practices and low worker wages

© Bloomberg via Getty Images

Comment: From Why 'Arrogant Jerks' Become Rich And Successful In Silicon Valley

For instance, Mark Zuckerberg, who is now worth tens of billions, famously ousted his friend Eduardo Saverin from Facebook. He also stole his business idea from the Winklevoss twins. "Yah, I'm going to fuck them," he told a friend over IM about the pair. "Probably in the ear."

The Richest Of The Rich: Forbes 45 Wealthiest Americans

1. Bill Gates $76billion
2. Warren Buffett $62billion
   
   
   
   Comment:

   

   © AP

   Making billions of dollars from the quadrillion dollar derivatives market, then "donating" money to a "charity" that gives money to companies he owns stock in
3. Larry Ellison $47.5billion
4. Jeff Bezos $47billion
5. Charles Koch $41billion
6. David Koch $41billion
7. Mark Zuckerberg $40.3billion
8. Michael Bloomberg $38.6billion
9. Jim Walton $33.7billion
10. Larry Page $33.3billion
11. Sergey Brin $32.6billion
12. Alice Walton $32billion
13. S Robson Walton $31.7billion
14. Christy Walton $30.2billion
    
    
    
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    The Walton (WalMart) family: Making billions by paying their workers poverty-level wages
15. Sheldon Adelson $26billion
16. George Soros $24.5billion
17. Phil Knight $24.4billion
18. Forrest Mars Jr $23.4billion
19. Jacqueline Mars $23.4billion
20. John Mars $23.4billion
21. Steve Ballmer $21.6billion
22. Carl Icahn $20.5billion
23. Michael Dell $19.1billion
24. Lauren Powell Jobs $19.1billion
25. Anne Cox Chambers $18billion
26. Paul Allen $17.8billion
27. Len Blavatnik $17.7billion
28. Charles Ergen $16.4billion
29. Ray Dalio $15.3billion
30. Donald Bren $15.2billion
31. Abigail Johnson $14.2billion
32. James Simons $14billion
33. Thomas Petterfy $13.5billion
34. Elon Musk $13.3billion
35. Patrick Soon-Shiong $12.9billion
36. Ronald Perelman $12.5billion
37. Steve Cohen $12billion
38. Rupert Murdoch $11.6billion
    
    
    
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    Making billions through propaganda
39. Stephen Schwarzman $11.6billion
40. David Tepper $11.6billion
41. John Paulson $11.4billion
42. Andrew Beal $11billion
43. Philip Anschutz $10.9billion
44. Charles Butt $10.7billion
45. Donald Newhouse $10.6billion

The 51-year-old CEO's $47billion nest egg catapulted him into the fourth spot on this year's list, 11 positions up from 2014.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made it into the top 10 list for the first time ever, landing at No 7 on the strength of his impressive $40billion fortune. Last year, the social-media wunderkind only barely cracked the list, coming in 10th.

In all, 25 newcomers made it into the ranks of America's wealthiest billionaires, including 25-year-old Evan Spiegel (#327) of Snapchat, the youngest on the list, worth $2.1billion, Brian Chesky (#194) of Airbnb at $3.3billion and Bill Haslam (#327), governor of Tennessee, at $2.1billion.

Travis Kalanick (#80), the tech guru behind the popular ride-sharing service Uber, was the biggest percentage gainer, doubling his fortune to $6billion in a single year.

The old guard of the annual Forbes list remained largely intact, led by Gates, 58, and his friend Warren Buffet, the 85-year-old CEO of Berkshire Hathaway ($68billion), who has occupied the second spot on the list since 2001.

Comment: These people, if you can even call them that since it's highly questionable that any of them actually has a conscience, aren't job creators in any sense of the word and have wrought economic destruction upon the planet for their insatiable greed and ruthless (if not flat-out illegal) business practices. While the middle class is being eviscerated and the economy is tanking, they make exorbitant amounts of money without actually providing anything of value to humanity.

As they say, the scum rises to the top.

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