Member-only story
Technology’s Impact and the Perpetuation of Economic Inequality
By the time you finish reading this article, the ultra-wealthy would have amassed more wealth than you can possibly spend your entire life.
If you are a lawyer working at a rate of $250/hr, it would take you 720,000,000 hours, or 30,000,000 days or roughly 82,192 years to earn the equivalent of one man’s net worth. Jeff Bezos’ net worth is roughly $180,000,000,000. Unfathomable doesn’t quite capture what it means to have that much money.
Bill Gates is the second richest person in the world behind Jeff Bezos with a net worth of $103,000,000,000, followed by either a Mark Zuckerberg or Warren Buffet who trade spots for third at over $80,000,000,000 each. Collectively, these four individuals alone own more wealth than half the population of the United States or 164,000,000 Americans. The average middle income of someone living in California is $77,000. Jeff’s net worth alone is equivalent to the average middle income of nearly 2 million Californians.
The ultra-wealthy are in a category that is unlike anything resembling the now infamous top 1%. Billionaires are not millionaires, and the top 1% are not all millionaires, let alone billionaires. The roughly 800 billionaires in America today are in a…
