A little lesson in humility(and thanks)

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Originally posted here by souleman

Except the richest person in the world is an Arab.... I can't remember exactly, but I believe Bill Gates (the richest man in America) is like #4 or 5 in the world.... America is not the richest country.

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Oh yeah, as an aside I thought I would say that you are entirely correct that America is not the richest country... per capita. Per capita I think we are listed as number 9. BUT in terms of GDP then we are the strongest economy in the world, even with this huge hit in the stock market that we have been going through.




El Diablo

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...you are entirely correct that America is not the richest country... per capita. Per capita I think we are listed as number 9.

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You're correct when you say we're not the richest country in the world. We happen to be the SECOND richest country :)

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Luxembourg $36,400
United States $36,200

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Source..http://www.worldfactsandfigures.com/gdp_country_asc.php

It really depents on what you use as unit. If you go look for the land with the most gold you find another country then the one with the highest anual income per person. (btw. that was an example. I didn't really checked that)

well whatever:
I've never been so happy to own a computer... :) Aren't there any rich dutchman? :(

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Originally posted here by neel
It really depents on what you use as unit. If you go look for the land with the most gold you find another country then the one with the highest anual income per person. (btw. that was an example. I didn't really checked that)

well whatever:
I've never been so happy to own a computer... :) Aren't there any rich dutchman? :(

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There is supposedly a Lost Dutchman Mine Located somewhere in the USA's Death Valley...wanna claim it?

I know...off topic sorry, I just had to add that...:D

hmmmmmmm makes me feel kinda shitty to have a laptop a server and 2 desktops (not to mention the countless other scrap parts) for a 3 person family......

<edit>i wish i could say that my money has dropped by 10 billion $ in the last 2 years and i still had 52 more to go</edit>

There was a discussion a couple of years ago that said that the Sultan of Brunai was indeed the "richest" man in the world. Their standard was liquid assests which Bill does not have. I think in their list of the top 10 Bill wasn't even mentioned, but like I said that was a couple of years ago so my memory is kind of fuzzy about the details.

I have read quite a bit of information on the Sultan, and I think his personal net worth is around 20 Billion at the moment... and all of that is liquid. He's an interesting fellow to say the least :)


I'll see if I can dig up some info on him today while I'm bored at work.






El Diablo

Hmm, do you suppose I could claim any of that Walton money since my last name starts with WAL too?

Deb :D

who are these walton people.......? a family of billionares? i never heard of them..... come to think of it i never heard of anyong below bill but to have 5 people on the same list with rougphly the same amount of money leads me to think that they inherited money from somewhere/someone....... whats the deal with them?

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Originally posted here by Mahakaal


You're correct when you say we're not the richest country in the world. We happen to be the SECOND richest country :)



Source..http://www.worldfactsandfigures.com/gdp_country_asc.php

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Hehehe...You are correct about the GDP per capita. Luxembourg wins that round. Now lets look at some GDP (purchasing power parity) figures:

United States: $9.93 trillion (est.2000)
China: $4.5 trillion (est.2000)
Japan: $3.15 trillion (est.2000)
India: $2.2 trillion (est.2000)
Germany: $1.936 trillion (est.2000)
France: $1.448 trillion (est.2000)
United Kingdom: $1.36 trillion (est.2000)
Russia: $1.12 trillion (est.2000)
...
Saudi Arabia: $232 billion (est.2000)
...
United Arab Emirates: $54 billion (est.2000)
...
Luxembourg: $15.9 billion (est.2000)

This list is not an all-inclusive top-11 list. I'm sure some countries were omitted.

And just to add a sobering sidenote, the Gross World Product (GWP) was $43.6 trillion (est.2000). There were 267 recognized nations in 2000. The combined GDP of the 11 I listed above was $25.81 trillion.

source: 2001 CIA World Factbook

ah found some quick info on the Sultan while cruising around Frobes a couple of minutes ago.

According to them at it's height his personal net worth was around 38 Billion, but that has been depleted to around 10 Billion now. Here is a little blurb I found on him from March of this year.

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Originially posted on Forbes.com:

The Sultan, who is the absolute ruler of Brunei, controls income the country receives from its oil and gas exports. Forbes estimates that his fortune, once as high as $38 billion, has been depleted to $10 billion. The Sultan's brother, Prince Jefri, squandered billions on decadent knick-knacks like Mercedes Benz fire engines and gilded toilet paper holders. Some 10,000 of these items ended up on the auction block last summer in a well-publicized fire sale to repay creditors of Amedeo, a debt-heavy private company Prince Jefri once headed.

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Interstingly enough there was another Royal listed on there that was NOT listed in the top 10 I found earlier. It's King Fahd Bin Abdul Alsaud of Saudi Arabia, and he's worth around 25 Billion. Here's the blurb I found on him.

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Originally posted on Forbes.com:

King Fahd remains the technical ruler of Saudi Arabia, but the stroke he suffered in 1995 means his half-brother Prince Abdullah rules de facto. Much of his fortune is owed to oil interests, real estate and equity investments. His palaces in Riyadh and Jidda are said to have cost a combined $5 billion.

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Now the caveat of WHY they weren't listed in the Richest People in the World list that Forbes makes every year.

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Originally posted on Forbes.com

NEW YORK - Forbes indulges in some wealth watching of royals and dictators below. Be warned: Valuing these folks is a tricky business. For starters, one must figure out what actually belongs to them and what belongs to their throne or their country. For instance, Forbes does not count the crown jewels or Buckingham Palace as part of Queen Elizabeth II's net worth. She enjoys these riches, but they technically belong to the British state, much like the White House belongs to the U.S. government.

Some of these estimates are pretty rigorous. Others are a little fuzzier. For example, we calculate the net worth of Castro based on a percentage of Cuba's GDP. We separate these folks from our traditional ranking of the world's billionaires because of these reasons and because a couple simply do not boast the $1 billion purse necessary to qualify.

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As to the question about the Waltons. Indeed they inherited their money. It all came from Sam Walton who was by FAR the richest man in the world, but was never listed and I can't seem to find a good explanation as to why.

Sam Walton is the guy who started the mega-chain, and worlds largest retailer, Wal-Mart. He passed away a few years back and his kids inherited all of that money. Most of them stay out of the public eye though, so the majority of people have never heard of them before. Combine all of their fortunes and you start to get a pretty good idea of the money that man had.




El Diablo