Is Bill Gates our generation of John D. Rockefeller ...?

[online.education]

When John D. Rockefeller was alive and well, he was by far the richest man in the world, and no one really came close. Andrew Carnegie amassed a huge financial wealth, but I think there was a pretty big margin.

Billy seems kind of like that. There are many more rich men and women, but he seems to be ... ahead of others and his margin is pretty big. I also don't see anyone's catching up with him in near future ...

What's your take?

[Wes]

Bill Gates: $56.0 billion
Warren Buffett: $52.0 billion
Carlos Slim Helu: $49.0 billion

Those are the top three richest people. So, any of those bottom two have the potential to pass Bill Gates. And yes, they probably will because when Bill dies, he is donating MOST of his money to charity.

[SilveradoHD]

Check your stats, Bill Gates has been passed by Carlos Slim and is no longer the richest man in the world.

[Patrick]

Yea but that 56 billion isn't including Gates networth in microsoft is it? He has also given away a TON of money.

[SilveradoHD]

I am not sure how they officially calculate it, but he has given a good deal of it away.

I guess one of us will have to look for a news release to get the true numbers.

[Wes]

Silverado, it's actually going back and forth between them.

I saw the article after I got those numbers.

[SilveradoHD]

Hmm..then something big must have happened, because the one I read had Gates behind by a decent amount. He might have gotten a nice tax return lol.

[online.education]

Those are the top three richest people. So, any of those bottom two have the potential to pass Bill Gates. And yes, they probably will because when Bill dies, he is donating MOST of his money to charity.

I often wonder about this charity thing. At the end of the day, Billy owns this charitable organization, so it's as good as he's having the money the organization has.

[Wes]

I doubt he (and his family) will take the money out of their own charity. Otherwise, that would be bad for them anyway. And I'm talking about other charities, not his own.

[online.education]

I doubt he (and his family) will take the money out of their own charity. Otherwise, that would be bad for them anyway. And I'm talking about other charities, not his own.

There is no need for them to take money out of the Gates Foundation. They can just keep using dividends and interests.

I guess that the same thing can be said about Rockefeller. We don't really know how much the foundation has, but we do know that Rockefeller family owns it. We can argue that whatever the foundation owns is a part of Rockefeller family's financial wealth.