So, once again, I didn't make the Forbes 400 list of the richest people in America.
Okay, the price of admission to the list was $1.3 billion dollars and I have like twenty-two dollars and eighty-six cents.
All the usual suspects made the list - Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, everyone in the world related to Sam Walton. Most of the list is old white guys. (Surprise, surprise.) Ten percent of the list is women. Oprah is on it. (Again, surprise, surprise.)
The guy who founded Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, is on the list, he's worth $1.5 billion. Oh, and he's twenty four. Yeah. Twenty-four. When I was twenty-four the sum total of my assets was a crappy Ford Tempo and whatever change I could find on the floor and in the seats of the said Ford Tempo. This guy can buy a small country and I had trouble finding enough cash to buy two tacos at Jack In The Box.
Sheldon Adelson lost almost half of his fortune this year and that would make me sad if he didn't still have a net worth of $15 billion dollars. So forgive me, Shelly, if I don't cry too much for you.
I guess what upsets me the most about this list (besides not being on it) is that it represents a kind of wealth that we normal people can't understand. Or at least I can't, maybe you're different. I wouldn't know what it's like to not think about the cost of things. I buy marked down produce and shop the clearance racks at Ross. My mom works at a day-old bread store. That's the reality of my life and it's okay, I'm used to it. But these guys have more money than most people could ever even dream about. I can't fathom money in the billions. A million is still a whole lot of dough to me, and these people have thousands of millions.
Sure, I can imagine of what it might be like to be one of the mega-rich. But I'd still be looking at the prices on the menu and thinking that two tacos are only ninety-nine cents and that 'poulet a la valee d'auge' is really just roast chicken anyway and how can they charge so much for it? Why would I spend six figures on an Hermes Birkin Bag when that's more money than I spent on college? The twenty dollar purse from Target holds my wallet and cell phone just fine. And private jets are not exactly eco-friendly.
Who wouldn't want to be rich? Nobody I know. It would be lovely to give generously to charity and eat and shop wherever you want. To go on vacations that don't require coupons and online discount hotels. But my life is grounded in reality and I'll never be a part of that world. Foe me, I'd settle for not worrying about where car repair money is going to come from. Think that Facebook guy would give it to me?
3 comments:
I have no net worth. It makes me sad and just unhappy to think about the mega rich out there. It just makes me think how nice it would be to not have to worry, hurry, and struggle to make it through life, then I wake up and reality hits me and it makes me so sad. With the way our great American economy is going these days, it makes me even more scared, especially since i have the idea of starting my own business. I'm going to ask Oprah for some money!!! She's the nicest I think. Well its good to know that theres others out there like me that don't really own much. Hope you strike gold or something, if so, help a friend out wont you? -JON
Now why didn't I think of Facebook? Or YouTube?
I wonder what having that kind of money does to a person? Can you ever really trust anyone else? Would you think they only liked you for your money?
I wonder what I would be like if I had that kind of money. I know I say I wouldn't spend ridiculous amounts on stuff like clothes and shoes and cars and extra houses, that I would use it to send underpriveleged kids to college and stuff like that. But maybe I would go a little crazy with it. Maybe I would spend $2000 on dinner at some ridiculously overpriced restaurant. The freedom from worrying might have a strange affect on me.
But since the odds of that happening to me are slim to none I'm not going to worry about it. I'll just keep trying to think of that next billion dollar idea!
Have you ever plugged all your loans, credit cards, bank accounts, etc. into a money software program like Quicken? Or just look at your total account information on your Banking website? For me, it's depressing as all get out.
I have negative net worth. And I'm not talking about a couple dollars in the red, I'm talking thousands! It's called school loans. And I like schools...and have been to many. They say you can't put a price on education, but try telling that to my creditors!
Anyway, I hear ya Shae. If I had that disgusting amount of money, I'd just buy things...all the time, and not care. But I don't think I'd ever buy enough to worry that I was running out of money.
Let's hope our books sell!
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