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Forbes Rich List 2011: Carlos Slim, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet…Where Are The Moms?
Forbes Rich List 2011 is out. Where are the moms?
Forbes Rich List 2011 is out, letting us know who’s rolling in dough this year…and who’s not.
The big headline is that the world has a new richest billionaire. Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim has become the richest man alive with a net worth of $74 billion. Bill Gates holds on to second place with $56 billion, and Warren Buffet is close behind him at $50 billion.
Deeper down the list there are some more surprises. Six Facebook leaders show up on the list. What’s just as striking – to me – is what we don’t see on the list: a lot of moms.
The world’s richest woman, Wal-Mart heiress Christy Walton has a son. L’Oreal heiress Lillian Bettencourt has a daughter. They don’t have a lot of company though. There are precious few women on the billionaire list at all.
Does being a mom and being super-rich just not go together? Parenting sure requires a lot of the same skills as wealth: an ability to multitask 24 hours a day, a willingness to sacrifice everything to a single goal. Good billionaires, like good moms, give back once they have it made. Both billionaires and moms work all the time. It seems like superrich moms should be a dime a dozen.
To remove my tongue from my cheek for just a moment, the scarcity of wealthy women – and therefore wealthy mamas – hardly needs commenting on; but this list would be a good gift for the next person who tells you the glass ceiling no longer exists.
Here’s the complete list of the top 20 richest people, according to Forbes 2011:
1. Carlos Slim (Mexico) – $74 billion, telecommunications
2. Bill Gates (USA) – $56 billion, Microsoft
3. Warren Buffett (USA) – $50 billion, Berkshire Hathaway
4. Bernard Arnault (France) – $41 billion, LVMH
5. Larry Ellison (USA) – $39.5 billion, Oracle Corp
6. Lakshmi Mittal (India) – $31.1 billion, steel
7. Armancio Ortega (Spain) – $31 billion, retail
8. Eike Batista (Brazil) – $30 billion, mining, oil
9. Mukesh Ambani (India) – $27 billion, petrochemicals, oil and gas
10. Christy Walton (USA) – $26.5 billion, Wal-Mart
11. Li Ka-Shing (China) – $26 billion
12. Karl Albrecht (Germany) – $25.5 billion
13. Stefan Persson (Sweden) – $24.5 billion
14. Vladmir Lisin (Russia) – $24 billion
15. Lilian Bettencourt (France) – $23.5 billion
16. Sheldon Adelson (United States) – $23.3 billion
17. David Thomson (Canada) – $23 billion
18. Charles Koch (United States) – $22 billion
19. David Koch (United States) – $22 billion
20. Jim Walton (United States) – $21.3 billion
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4 Comments
Amanda commented on Mar 10 11 at 10:03 amMost of these people, even some of the ones who inherited their money but continued to run the family business, work almost nonstop. It’s hard to be a good mother and to work the amount of time it takes it earn this kind of money, I bet.
Duane Seigler commented on Mar 10 11 at 11:39 am
ShineStar commented on Mar 10 11 at 1:04 pmWatch full News on Forbes Rich List 2011 I Carlos Slim – (Mexico) World’s Richest Man – http://bit.ly/gG3gab
Nan commented on Mar 10 11 at 3:15 pmI agree with Amanda. In order to make this kind of money you would have to dedicate your life to work. These men are probably working non-stop every day and likely don’t spend much time with their children. Obviously women are just as capable at doing this but most probably don’t want to if they have children. I don’t know any female billionaires but I do know a female millionaire and she is a workaholic and the kids are definitely paying the price. I would say it’s a matter of choice not sexism.
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