Makes the World Go 'Round

I see where Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, is leaving the bulk of his wealth to his philanthropic enterprises. He is at the moment being treated for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. I hope that he fully recovers and lives a very long life.

Apparently Mr. Allen has committed to giving away about seven billion dollars. His net worth is approximately 13.5 billion dollars. That seems to me quite a lot of money. But what struck me in the news article regarding Mr. Allen was the fact that he is only the 37^th richest man in the world. There are 36 people richer than he, thirty-six people whose accumulated wealth is in excess of 13.5 billion dollars!!

And I find that quite remarkable. Now I understand that several of them are probably not United States citizens, but of those that are, if they were to give some of that money to the states to help balance their budgets, then perhaps the economic climate might dramatically improve for those of us who have not yet earned even our first million!

How could anybody acquire that much money?