All you folks seething with envy over the fabulous wealth in the region, you can calm down a little. Not only is Bill Gates III demoted to No. 3 on Forbes' recent list of the world's billionaires; the Northwest, by my count, only places eight folks in the top 500. Nor does America hog all the wealth, as you might have imagined. Of the top 25 billionaires, only four are from the U.S. of A. They are: Warren Buffett (tops the list at $62 billion), Gates (third at $58 billion), Sheldon Adelson (the Las Vegas developer, 12th at $26 billion), and Oracle's Lawrence Ellison (14th at $25 billion). The country with the most billionaires in the top 10? India (with four). Here's the list of locals who made the top 500: Paul Allen (Microsoft co-founder and multi-venture investor, 41st at $16 billion), Steve Ballmer (Microsoft CEO and maybe future Sonics owner, 43rd at $15 billion), Phil Knight (Nike chief, 73rd at $10.4 billion), Jeff Bezos (Amazon founder and CEO, 110th at $8.2 billion), John Simplot (the Idaho potato baron, 284th at $5.8 billion), Dennis Washington (Montana-based industrialist, 327th at $3.4 billion), and Craig McCaw (cellular phone pioneer, 462nd at $2.5 billion).
We're not as mega-rich as we thought
All you folks seething with envy over the fabulous wealth in the region, you can calm down a little. Not only is Bill Gates III demoted to No. 3 on Forbes' recent list of the world's billionaires; the Northwest, by my count, only places eight folks in the top 500.
Nor does America hog all the wealth, as you might have imagined. Of the top 25 billionaires, only four are from the U.S. of A. They are: Warren Buffett (tops the list at $62 billion), Gates (third at $58 billion), Sheldon Adelson (the Las Vegas developer, 12th at $26 billion), and Oracle's Lawrence Ellison (14th at $25 billion). The country with the most billionaires in the top 10? India (with four).
All you folks seething with envy over the fabulous wealth in the region, you can calm down a little. Not only is Bill Gates III demoted to No. 3 on Forbes' recent list of the world's billionaires; the Northwest, by my count, only places eight folks in the top 500.
Nor does America hog all the wealth, as you might have imagined. Of the top 25 billionaires, only four are from the U.S. of A. They are: Warren Buffett (tops the list at $62 billion), Gates (third at $58 billion), Sheldon Adelson (the Las Vegas developer, 12th at $26 billion), and Oracle's Lawrence Ellison (14th at $25 billion). The country with the most billionaires in the top 10? India (with four).
