The difference in lifestyles between classes can be striking, especially in America. While more than half a million people across the U.S. live on the streets (endhomelessness.org), there are over 600 individuals in the same country with a net worth of at least $1 billion (Forbes). 

But exactly how much is a billion? The number is a concept that is quite literally impossible for a human being to wrap its mind around; one that becomes even more shocking in the context of finances. 

To put it into perspective, someone working full time, minimum wage job would only make about $16,000 a year. Teachers are paid (on average) $35,000-$40,000 annually, just above the poverty line of $32,000. A nuclear family could live comfortably in a nice area with an income of $100k/year.

But what about those who are much more privileged? It can be very difficult to understand the salary of an executive running a company, as they aren’t actually paid by anyone. Most of their fortune is just the money within the company, if it’s privately owned. 

While it’s hard to find their income, it’s easy to find their net worth; and it’s shocking.

A total of 621 Americans have a net worth of over $1 billion (Forbes). This is 100x a million, which is 10x the nuclear family’s 100k. This means that 621 individuals in the U.S. alone are currently in possession of at least 1000x the money necessary for 3-6 people to live comfortably. 

Founder and CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos has a net worth of $114 billion, as of October 2019 (Forbes). This means that the Bezos family has over 100,000x that $100,000. The same applies to Bill Gates, who sits at the second spot on the list with $106 billion. 

Bezos could give every student at every high school in Missouri enough to allow their family to live comfortably, and still have over $14 billion left (high-schools.com) Gates could do the same, still keeping $6 billion. Bezos could then give every single person in the world $2 before he runs out of money. 

When the homeless census is considered, it can be determined that Bezos could single-handedly provide shelters for every shelterless person in America. 

Alone, these people are very powerful. However, if they were to combine their fortunes, they would be able to end one of the biggest and most pressing issues facing the world today: climate change. If Bezos, Gates, and Warren Buffet pooled their money together, they could stop the issue dead in its tracks and still have over $800 million to split between them. 

One way that people commonly defend the extremely wealthy by saying that they will occasionally give away small parts of their fortunes. The Giving Pledge, founded by Bill and Melinda Gates, is an organization in which billionaires will agree to donate 50% or more of their fortunes either in their lifetimes or in their wills. Jeff Bezos has not signed this pledge, but his ex-wife, Mackenzie has.

However, even those who have signed the pledge are still greedy and materialistic, on account of the fact that they would no longer be billionaires if they weren’t. Yes, a donation of $35 billion is very helpful to those in need, but when considered that it’s only a quarter of what could have been given; it’s no longer impressive and quite frankly, disgusting. (see: Bill Gates on Forbes).

To put it simply, billionaires (and multi-millionaires) are greedy. Their ultimate goal is to gather as much wealth as possible to simply show off and hoard. They will blow millions on materialistic and unnecessary things while continuing to hoard millions more. There are people that are dying due to poverty across the same country and yet they are so blind with avarice that they simply ignore them.