https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3VFmmqFCoM
Have you seen this? Have you ever thought about how much a billion is? A billion dollars? Remember, each grain of rice represents $100,000, a hundred thousand dollars. Each grain of rice was 100 thousand dollars. At Federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, working 40 hours a week, one of those grains of rice would take 344.8 weeks to earn, that’s over 6 and a half years without a week off. What’s your reaction? Your thoughts? After watching this I was curious about how many US billionaires there are. The United States now has 630 billionaires, whose wealth totaled nearly $3.4 trillion (a trillion is a thousand billions!), as of April 29.  Only 76 had over 10 billion, though. according to Forbes magazine. I almost felt a little sorry for the lowest ones on the list, having just a few billion dollars each.  How does Jeff Bezos get away with paying no income tax in some recent years, and a pittance in others? check out this remarkable article if you’re interested in what he and other billionaires do to avoid paying taxes that could help the rest of us improve public services like education, healthcare, childcare, etc.https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-taxÂ
This is insane. I have always wondered how much a billion dollars is. After seeing this I was surprised. It’s ridiculous that one person could have all that money to themselves and still have starvation, homelessness, unsustainable water, harmful environments, and more. Jeff Bezos could help solve most problems countries face. Jeff Bezos perhaps could have ended hunger in the United States seven times and could give $23 to every person on the globe. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, “Bezos could give everyone in the world about $23.27. Limiting that math to just the United States, Bezos could give each of the roughly 330 million people living in America about $546.66”. This is a lot to take in. He is still making billions of dollars from just Amazon every month. This is sad knowing that someone could have this much money and ignore those who are struggling every day to pay their rent. Jeff Bezos avoided paying taxes by claiming investment losses that were bigger than the sum of his numerous sources of income. Crazy to think rich people are doing illegal actions to trick the system and get away with it. Overall, the advantages these rich people have are behind expectations.
I was impressed by these numbers. The fact that people have to work for 6 and a half years to accomplish 1 percent of what billionaires make in less than a month is impressive to me. It will be hard for a regular person in the middle class to get to that level of wealth. But I don’t think it is impossible because billionaires who were once in the middle class did it, like Ralph Lauren. It means we need to acquire more knowledge to get to that level. I think that people with this level of wealth have a different education than regular kids; their education is based on economics and how to become rich. You can only get an education like that from someone who is wealthy. As Robert Kiyosaki explains in his book Rich Day, Poor Dad.
But I also thought to myself: how do billionaires help the world? What is their purpose with all that money sitting in their bank account? And how they could solve many problems like starving kids and other problems.
After watching the video, I now understand how much a billion dollars is. Just like everyone else, I always knew a billion dollars is a lot of money but after watching the rice video, I now understand how much a billion dollars is. I find it crazy how a lot of people work years of hard work to make not even 1% of what billionaires make in an hour. It creates a separation between the richest and the poor and that doesn’t mean being rich is bad, it’s just how different their lives are from one another. It also made me think about the true meaning of money in this world. Although it may seem that this person may have it all, but to think that once you die, the money no longer belongs to you and has no meaning anymore. I’m striving to make good money but after watching this video, I realized how it’s not always going to be enough and there will always be someone that makes more money. I don’t think billionaires are bad people, but to know they have so much money in their possession and illegally avoid paying taxes while the people who work day and night to make a living are hunted down to pay every penny they owe is crazy. Billionaires are openly avoiding paying taxes while the lower class has to get a huge chunk out of their paycheck every week or they can face severe consequences. This made me think about how there is a gap between the wealthy and lower class and how different the world would be if it was the other way around. Imagine a world where Billionaires were forced to pay taxes on their income and also decided to use their money to improve our education, healthcare, cities, etc. Would there be a significantly lower poverty rate? Would children have better access to education? If all the Billionaires came together and chunked in a small percentage of their earnings, this could help change the world for the better and solve major issues.