No Skin off Gates

No Skin off Gates

http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,55151,00.html

Although he lost almost a fifth of his net worth in the past year, Microsoft founder Bill Gates remained the richest man in the United States, with a fortune of $43 billion, according to Forbes magazine.

The Forbes 400 list will be published in the Sept. 30 issue of the magazine.

Gates lost $11 billion last year, but still remained ahead of investor Warren Buffett -- one of the few on the list to see his fortunes increase in a year when an economic recession brought a sharp drop in stock prices.

Buffett holds the No. 2 spot, increasing his net worth from $33 billion to $36 billion.

Rounding out the top 10 are Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen with $21 billion at No. 3, the five heirs to the late Sam Walton's Wal-Mart fortune (each with $18.8 billion at No. 4), Oracle's Larry Ellison with $15.2 billion at No. 9 and Microsoft President Steve Ballmer with $11.9 billion at No. 10.

It took $550 million to make the list this year, $50 million less than in 2001,

******************************

i guess even the very rich must suffer in these times

Darn, my heart goes out to Bill Gates. I can certainly understand his concern with M$ security now. Don't you think it would be a nice gesture for AO to take up a collection to help him out? He's got to be pinching pennies.

Hmmm, I don't know of anyone else that could loose 11 billion dollars in a year. My goodness, must have been all that money he was spending on 'security'. <<gag>>

3 of the top ten richest people are with microsoft. Anyone else seeing a distinctive trend here? Perhaps now that the news that microsoft doesn't make the most secure products, is getting out, sales are decreasing. Still take a hell of a long time before they are destitute.

And I can't even imagine making 11 billion nevermind losing 11 billion. My heart bleeds purple piss for them.

What the hell do you do with that much money?He's never gonna spend it,so he should give me a few million(pennies to him).Why just have it all sitting in a bank somewhere?

off his hands. Hell, I'd settle for 10 grand.

With many of these rich folks, I think that greed is the driving force. I mean, how in the world could you make that much money and keep working? You should want for nothing, need nothing - well, as far as materialistic things go - and just give someone else the chance to make some money. Spread some of it around for a good cause. It doesn't make sense to me. Maybe it's because I am not a businessman?

I wonder does Bill even work? Or does he just sit back and wait for money to come rolling in? I'm sickened at these rich people, they should do more to help the less fortunate. He's got more money than he'll ever be able to spend. I agree with t2k2 about greed being the driving force...

Many companies are ripping people off. I've been buying pirated CDs for games, music, movies, software for a long time now. The production cost is so tiny compared to sales price which is a bit too high. I guess it's punishment for those companies now that they're losing money as more people are less willing to buy their products.

Sheesh, Bill!! It's a good thing I didn't buy the real Windows XP now that news about it having security problems everywhere and down to it's core. Seems that Windows just becomes increasingly user unfriendly with new versions. XP is like a nightmare compared to 98.

I used to snoop warez sites but never bothered downloading anything. The last time I went to one, my firewall stopped three hits in five minutes. O came from Greece and two from the same place in Spain. It ain't worth the hassle, in my very humble opinion.

Going back to Gates' net worth. A friend of mine told me that Gates' net worth is more than some countries entire national worth. Gates could buy an entire small country and still have money left over. Yikes...His home is worth $55 million. He gives and gives and gives money to various organizations and universities. How about cutting prices on the products Microsoft produces??

Chuck56 <-- I don't snoop warez sites or download software. Maybe divx movies from grokster/kazaa program. With the broadband modem I got back in the UK, cool! :-) I can watch movies before it gets released in UK. Also, I go to Hong Kong during my holidays so I get to buy tons of copies for wicked prices (music album with lyrics, 3 dvds for US$12.5 as well as software CD, latest PC games, playstation games). muho ho ho ho!! (jealous?) You'd be amazed and laughing your socks off about those people operating the illegal shops. They get arrested by the police but next day somebody else moves in, and so the cycle repeats. Got to love them.

bowlfreak <-- I was going to mention but left it out, that Bill could just go and establish his own country and bring his followers to become citizens. And also about cutting prices on his products. That's a reason I didn't buy XP. I had actually considered buying the real deal. Lucky I didn't.

My girlfriends father was the 15th employee for Microsoft and her sister has just started working there. So, I have somewhat of an inside scoop. Microsoft donates tons of cash to many charities and such. If you work for them and you donate money to a charity they'll match and double your donation. This may be Microsoft and not Bill Gates but if he was the greedy bastard you make him out to be I doubt he'd let it continue. Also, I think when your so rich you never need to worry about money again you continue to work just for something to do. Alot of people who win the lottery and such things end up quitting their job, buying a nice house, nice car, ect ect. Then they get bored though and return to a job they really love. Without having to worry about money work can be alot more entertaining I suppose.

Geez, Ikazuchi, where were you when I forked out almost a hundred bucks for this xp ugrade?

Cynic, in my case I'm not criticizing Gates...jealous maybe. Microsoft has created more millionaires from its workforce than any other business in this country, maybe the world. Granted, a lot of it is stock options and that fluctuates with the market. The fact remains, you start with MS at an early age, and you've a good chance to be wealthy later in life.

Gates is a marketing genius and he's hired more marketing geniuses to work for him. I just wished they'd focused as much on security as marketing.