You could sock away a million bucks every day for a year and a half, and still not make the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans.
The entry bar rose from $625 million in 1999 to $725 million in 2000. A billion-dollar minimum is in sight.
A billion is a thousand million. If a Forbes 400 member worth $1 billion gives away $1 million, that's like the typical American family, with a net worth of $72,000, giving away $72.
The Forbes 400 has a total net worth of $1.2 trillion. That's about one-eighth the total gross domestic product of the United States.
There are 298 billionaires among the 400 richest — 30 more than last year. The total net worth of the Forbes 400 rose 20 percent, despite the big drop in the Nasdaq.
Bill Gates is No. 1 with $63 billion. His Microsoft stock is down, but he's still worth more than the combined GDPs of Costa Rica, Guatemala and the other five countries of Central America plus Haiti.
Larry Ellison, CEO of Microsoft rival Oracle, is No. 2 with $58 billion, an increase of $45 billion from last year. His rising wealth dwarfed Oracle's 1999 after-tax profits of $1.3 billion and $8.8 billion in revenues. Indeed, Ellison did better than General Electric, the most profitable Fortune 500 company, which had $10.7 billion in profits last year.
Ellison's net worth is bigger than the GDP of New Zealand, the America's Cup sailing champion that Ellison plans to dethrone. Peter Blake, manager of the winning Team New Zealand, was quoted saying, "The whole America's Cup game has changed because some teams are backed by the wealthiest people in the world. If you're worth 90 billion U.S. dollars, what's 60 or 100 million? It's like you or me buying an ice cream."
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is No. 3, with $36 billion. Mega-investor Warren Buffet is No. 4 with $28 billion. Intel co-founder Gordon Moore is No. 5 with $26 billion. Steve Ballmer, another Microsoft multibillionaire, is tied for seventh with the five Walton heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune at $17 billion each.
The Waltons have a combined $85 billion. That's more than the GDP of Ireland or Singapore and far more than Wal-Mart's 1999 after-tax profits of $5.4 billion and $70.2 billion in assets.
Holly Sklar is co-author of "Shifting Fortunes: The Perils of the Growing American Wealth Gap." E-mail her at: hsklar@aol.com
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