It must be great to be rich. For example, look at this post. How Affluent Americans Live. So, what billionaires can afford to buy will fill up many shopping carts! And the rest of us may envy this. In addition, they could contribute to making the world a better place.
What Billionaires Can Afford to Buy
Thanks to Emily Campbell of Siege Media for authoring this section of today’s post. And to Self Lender for the infographic.
“Did you know that over 700,000 U.S. workers make only minimum wage? Or that the average American has credit card debt of over $6,000? What about the 554,000 homeless Americans? Have you heard that almost 43 million Americans have unpaid medical bills? How will students pay off their collective debt that exceeds $1 trillion?”
“The billionaires of the world might be able to solves these challenges and more. There are 2,208 billionaires globally. With a net worth of $4.1 billion each!! Collectively, their net worth surpasses $5 trillion.”
“Self Lender conducted a study using averaged values, such as a billionaire’s net worth and total number of billionaires, to see whether they have the resources to fix some or all of our complex monetary problems.”
“Diminishing student loans would enable millions of people to invest in real -state, vehicles, and even college funds for their own children. Increasing earnings by raising the minimum wage to $15 could result in an increase in productivity and funds that workers can put back into the economy.”
“In addition to the study, the infographic features three billionaires who lead by example. Self Lender calculated the ‘generosity index’ of Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and George Soros by dividing their lifetime donations by their net worth. The end number, or index, represents what percentage of their net worth they have generously donated.”
“Check out the infographic below to find out if billionaires have the resources available to solve some of our largest economic dilemmas.”
The info-graphic simplifies the ways in which billionaires can end poverty and make society a better place. However, no billionaire will donate their hard earned money for betterment of the society because if they do that then they will have to cut down on their luxuries and the chances of that happening are very slim. Every billionaire will tell you to work hard, but people are already working hard in their minimum wage jobs to provide for their families. There are very few billionaires who will agree with the info-graphic.
It’s surprised me that there are only 2,208 billionaires around the world now. I thought it would be more numbers of billionaires. Bill Gates made outstanding contributions to our society but I would say not every billionaires are willing to donate their worth to help solve social problems even though they have resources.
I think most people who are wealthy and for the sake of this article, billionaires, are generally generous with donations. Most of the people on this list have earned the money they now have. In a capitalist society, people can earn as much as they are capable of. If the wealthy are required to pay off others debt, then what would stop anyone from accumulating debt? Robbing the wealthy to pay to poor has never worked.
It makes me sad to know that people who work a full-time minimum wage job only make around $12,000. I know from experience that working a minimum wage job, such as retail or the food industry, takes a lot out of you. It consists of long days, relentless customers, and manual labor that can get very tiring at times. Perhaps raising the minimum wage would be a good idea to allow these people to have more money to put back into the economy. It is not ideal to make just enough to survive and have none left to spend on personal items you may want. In regards to the $2,208 billionaires in our world today, some of them, such as the three listed above, do put a lot of their money towards donations and helping those in need. However, not all of them donate their money toward bettering our society. While these billionaires worked hard for their money, some of them were born with better opportunities than others. The world is not fair, but it is up to you to take advantages of the opportunities that are given to you and make the most out of them.
Seeing inforgraphics like this truly puts the wealth divide present in America today into perspective. It’s wild that 2,000 people could solve the problems of millions. Seeing how wealth is distributed makes me both facinated and upset. While it’s great to see billionaires such as Bill Gates donting to those in need, but unfortinately this is unrealistic. I think the purpose for this visual is to show the shocking difference that a handful of people could make to the world. It’s also a little bit defeating to know that I will never make near that amount of money and I’ll likely be struggling through student debt for the rest of my life. But that’s okay!
Though this seems like a viable solution to us, we have to put ourselves in the shoes of a billionaire. Someone who either earned their immense wealth or came from wealth is usually not going to just give up a significant chunk of their money. This could lead to lifestyle changes for them, a lack of the feeling of security, and could be frowned upon by advisors. If someone or a few billionaires were to donate and solve a problem in the US, too many people may rely on them in the future or expect all well off people to donate. The average person would say that this is selfish and that the would donate if they had money, but realistically speaking this is a tremendous task for even a billionaire to take on.
This is very shocking and interesting information. Seeing all the numbers broken down into categories such as credit card debt and student loan debt with all the values really puts everything into a better perspective. With their being 2,208 billionaires around the world, I feel as if it would be important for them to see these info-graphics to understand how they could all contribute to make a difference.
According to the information in this post, i am surprised by how much each billionaire’s net worth is. They could easily solve most problems of the economy by just donating part of their net worth. And in fact, some of them are very generous. Like Bill Gates, he has donated almost one-third of his net worth to help this world.
I think it is great when billionaires donate their time and money to those who don’t have as much as they do. But with that being said, I do not believe it is their responsibility to pay or buy things for other people. If they work hard for their money they should keep it. Minimum wage isn’t meant to provide you with a ton of money, minimum wage is generally entry level jobs. At these jobs you should work your way up to then be paid more. If billionaires just paid off debt and loans, what would motivate people to not accumulate more and buy whatever they want?
The numbers shown in this article are staggering and crazy to see how concentrated wealth is to a select few while other live below the poverty line. It’s also crazy to see how many problems their fortunes could solve and prevent. Fortunately, there are a few very generous billionaires that give back, and it’s crazy that although their wealthy takes a hit, they still have so much left to their names.
I understand how someone cannot want to help other people out if they have that much money. A person must get some satisfaction for helping the poor and needy. I would think that people would want to help more if they are in that position. Good on the ones that do however.
The statistics stated at the start of the article is mind blowing. The fact that there are over 700,000 minimum wage workers and that there are 554,000 homeless Americans is insane. I believe that billionaires should donate time and money to helping out people who are struggling. Sometimes people have too much money and being able to donate would help citizens immensely.
It is no surprise to me that based on net worth and lifetime donations of the top billionaires listed, that Warren Buffett is the most generous. He is a simple guy, who is a genius and worked hard all his life for what he has. He bought a simple ranch house in 1954 and still lives there today. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his philanthropy and I believe he is what we should all strive to be like, a selfless guy with a good head on his shoulders and a wit like no other. Warren Buffett truly is the epitome of the American Dream and a member of the Greatest Generation which is no surprise to me either.
Poverty and debt in The United States keeps on increasing. I was very familiar with Warren Buffet and Bill Gates donating large amounts of money but I did not realize that it was about thirty percent of their total net worth. If every billionaire was as generous as them, the world would be a much better place. And I understand that the average human would not donate around 30 % of their wealth but if everyone donated about 10 percent, many of the problems in this world would decrease.
This article is a huge topic of discussion, and is also upsetting to read. There is no real need for someone to have a net worth of 4.1 billion dollars, while someone else who is not considered the ideal worker (being a woman, poc, etc) can only make minimum wage to provide for their family. People who have high net worths should consider donating or setting up scholarships for the future leaders of America, so they can actually make something of themselves instead of being stuck in lifelong debt. People like LeBron James, who has an immensely high net worth, is doing good for the students by opening up his own school and giving scholarships for students to go for free, where there are people like Donald Trump who spends their money golfing at different clubs. It isn’t forced, but should be highly considered.
It was very shocking to see that 2,208 billionaires exist in the world today. With all of them combined, they can maybe end world hunger and give the proper education people need but lack. With that being said, many of the billionaires do give back into their choice of philanthropy. It is sad to hear that the combined debt can be over 1 million and about 700,000 make only the minimum wage.
I’m sure that if all 2,208 billionaires came together to pay off these costs, millions of people would be gracious for their actions and maybe even better the economy from it. Some of these can be fixed if each billionaire donates a couple million dollars towards the cause. To them, that’s not a lot. That’s donating one-one thousandth of their net worth. As nice as it might be, it’s highly unlikely for them to come together to help these problems. Nearly all of these problems listed in the “What problems Billionaires could solve” diagram. It says there are 2,208 billionaires globally. Of those, Around 550 live in the U.S. That does mean that their combines net worth is above $5.38 trillion (stated at top of diagram), but they’re most likely more focused on investing elsewhere and not paying of the debts and loans that they could or could not have contributed to.
Correction: Nearly all of these problems listed in the “What problems Billionaires could solve” diagram [are situated in the United States].
I agree that it must be great to become rich. It is not surprising to see from the infographic just how many things billionaires can use their wealth to do. Though these billionaires can solve many problems with their wealth, I don’t think some social problems can be completely solved. Billionaires don’t get rich easily. From my perspective, instead of donating money directly to help the poor, it is better to teach them how to make good use of their money. This can solve the root of the matter instead of temporarily solving the problems.