It is estimated that 1% of Americans possess 33.8% of the country’s wealth and 50.9% of U.S stock, bond, and mutual funds. Most people anywhere in the world can’t fathom how much a billion dollars can get you or what it even looks like. With money like that it would seem that endless happiness and a great judge of morals, ethics, and character would be bestowed upon you, right? Read this article and see before answering that.
This is a picture of a Maybach Landulet. It’s a German luxury car (my vote was that it was a German composer!). Only 63 of them are owned in the world. Why? They cost at least $1 million dollars. Rush Limbaugh has six of them.If you had a billion dollars, you could afford one thousand of them!
If you were to be lucky enough to stay at the Mardan Palace Hotel in Turkey, or the many other top most expensive hotels in the world, it would only cost you a cool twenty grand a night (or more!). Remember, that is the average yearly salary for Americans. If you had a billion dollars, you could stay in one of those hotels every night for 137 years!
Want the best yacht that money can buy? Of course you do. Here are the 10 most expensive yachts in the world in all their magnificence and glory.Get out that checkbook now. You can get 10 yachts that cost $10 million for a mere billion dollars.
Tired of being groped and frisked by the FAA security? Naturally anyone in this day and age would want their own jet. It is so expensive to fly, the food is horrible, you have to deal with other people’s crying brats, and there is lay over. What you need, billionaire you, is to get a jet. Check out these jets. There are 15,000 of those jets flying around enjoying the view in the U.S, according to this reliable source. However, if you are an environmentalist like me, you will take solace in the fact that business aviation is touted as an excellent source of job growth and they have a small carbon footprint with an exemplary environmental record. Best of all, you can get 25 jets that cost just $60 million with your hard-earned billion dollars!
It’s frustrating to have neighbors that annoy the hell out you. I can’t stand mine myself. My neighborhood is reminiscent of a clown rodeo that had a mass hiring of psychiatric patients that left against medical consent. It would be nice to just buy a private island and get away from it all. It’s hard earning a billion dollars. Have pity for the guy who can get his own private island with a castle for just $24.5 million. At that unbeatable rate, you can afford 40 of them on your cool billion!
Speaking of annoying and bizarre neighbors, why don’t you drag your millions over to this mansion and pick it up on the way home from the spa? It only has seven bedrooms and six baths, but you can overlook this shortfall. With the cheap cost of that mansion and the out of control housing market, your billion can get you 125 mansions like this!
Have you seen those ridiculous Rolex commercials that insist on you buying an over-priced watch simply because you won the tennis match? In our town (we actually have a Rolex dealer in our small Texas town), the commercial even says that ‘you deserve one, you need one’ and ‘she deserves only the best from you.’ Here’s the burning million dollar question (no pun intended): if you save a life from a burning building or rescue people from a historical terrorist plot, what then do you deserve? Getting a fancy watch from a successful tennis match is one thing. But, being a hero is quite another. This watch costs more than a Ferrari. With that price, you can get 200 of them with your billion.
Andrew J. Hall, who was responsible for the oil price jump a few years ago that made a gallon of gas cost almost five bucks bought this castle. Every time you pumped gas, he was making a fortune off of you. He bought some really nice and rare art pieces to fill up his castle. He wanted to send you his thanks for making him a filthy rich billionaire. Since no one will ever be able to afford that castle, the closest look one will ever get of it is this aerial view. What a view it is!
Now, here’s your charge. Get out the calculator and imagine yourself a billionaire. Frivolously dream of getting one of each of the aforementioned items above. Your bill? It’s only $178.5 million. As a billionaire, you would still have $821.5 million left over to spend. You’re not broke. In fact, you could still stay in one of those luxurious hotel rooms each night for the next 112 1/2 years!
Before reading yet another article about Egypt, put down your coffee. Income inequality is worse in America than it is in Egypt. Egypt was able to exceed their government budget deficit last year. America couldn’t boast the same thing.Our shadiest banks in 2010 rival any bank in Egypt.
Because of my strong ties to philanthropy, consider the following after the dreamy walk down the golden brick road for a second:
* 20% of the population of the industrialized countries account for 86% of the world’s total consumption expenditure, while the poorest 20% in the world consume no more than 1.3%.
* An effective improvement in the situation of the 20 poorest countries would cost .5 billion – equivalent to the cost of building EuroDisney.
* Reducing the debt of the most heavily indebted countries would cost between .5 and 7.5 billion – less than the cost of a Stealth bomber.
* One in four U.S. jobs pay less than a poverty-level income.
* Eighty-three percent of those earning $75,000 or more work for companies that offer insurance, versus 24 percent of those who earn less than $25,000.
* Sixty-three percent of federal housing subsidies go to households earning more than $77,000; 18 percent go to households earning less than $16,500.
What legacy do you leave? How important is your money to you? What changes will you make in the future to shorten the financial and social gaps between the poor and the rich?
