People Are Very Rich

Forbes.com: Forbes World's Richest People 2004: "If Sam [Walton] were alive today, he would be worth twice as much as Bill Gates."

One of the interesting tidbits from this year's list. The five Walton children (now doesn't that make you think of "The Waltons"?) each have $20 billion to their names, which is more than Bill Gates (still first at $46.6 billion) had before he started giving all kinds of money to his foundation (with inflation, I don't know if it would still be less, but you'd also have to take into account changes in Microsoft's stock price, so it's complicated). The Waltons are all tied for sixth place.

A pro-American Saudi prince who supports elections and women's rights is number four with $21.5 billion. Eight of the 10 richest people live in the United States. Warren Buffett is nipping at Bill Gates' heels at only a mere $3.7 billion behind, but surely just a couple of percentage points rise in his stock could change that (if you've never heard of Berkshire Hathaway, you must see that page -- take note of the 52-week range and keep in mind that owning a share of this company is my father's dream).

J.K. Rowling has conjured up $1 billion for herself, earning her a 552 ranking (tied with everyone else at the bottom of the list). She's the only Scottish person on the list. Europe in general has a lot of billionaires, more than the United States appears to. But that's probably because the Waltons and Bill Gates have all our money. America has 275 billionaires, worth a total of $908.9 billion.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the boys who brought us Google (each only 31), also share the 552 spot. Other notables at the bottom are Roy Disney (nephew of Walt) and William Ford Sr. (grandson of Henry).

Other notables not on the list include me, myself and I, and our potential to make the list appears to be nil.