World’s richest men added billions to their fortunes last year as others struggled
Musk has quintupled his net worth since January, according to estimates put together by Bloomberg, adding $132 billion to his wealth and vaulting him to the No. 2 spot among the world’s richest with a fortune of about $159 billion. Bezos’s wealth has grown by roughly $70 billion over the same period, putting his net worth estimate at roughly $186 billion as the year came to an end.
Such a rapid accumulation of individual wealth hasn’t happened in the United States since the time of the Rockefellers and Carnegies a century ago, and we as a society are only just beginning to grapple with the ethical implications.
Of course, the wealth of Bezos and Musk exists largely on paper, as it’s mostly tied up in the company stock they own. In order to convert that stock to tangible assets, they would have to sell it, which could potentially crater the stock’s value on top of incurring tax obligations.
Bezos last year announced he would give $10 billion to fight climate change, and in November he announced the recipients of the first $800 million in spending on Instagram. A Washington Post analysis in June of charitable spending by the wealthiest Americans — when Bezos‘s fortune totaled $143 billion — showed he gave $100 million to Feeding America and up to $25 million for All in WA, a statewide relief effort in Washington state. For the median American, Bezos’s giving was the equivalent of donating $85 at that time.
Representatives from Amazon declined to comment, while representatives from Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.
Our ability to reverse that erosion will depend, in part, on whether the staggering amounts of money flowing to the top of society can be put to work to improve the lives of those at the bottom.
