If you needed more proof that the rich keep getting richer while the majority of the population scrambles for another side hustle to supplement the income from their full-time jobs, Forbes recently published its annual story on the world’s billionaires, whose earnings have actually increased over the last year.
The highest concentration of billionaires is in the United States, and will probably remain that way with Republicans and Democrats pushing for a Dodd-Frank rollback. Amazon CEO, founder, and chairman Jeff Bezos became the richest member of this three-comma club as his fortune amassed another $39 billion. After besting Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Mark Zuckerberg, what’s Bezos doing to celebrate? Eating some iguana and planning a trip to the moon.
Bloomberg reports that, while accepting the Buzz Aldrin Space Exploration Award at the Explorers Club Annual Dinner last Saturday, Bezos noted that the “price of admission to space is very high.” (You’ll also find photographic evidence of Bezos snacking on iguana in the original article.) So he’s now “in the process of converting my Amazon lottery winnings into a much lower price of admission so we can go explore the solar system.” Like turning an online retail company into its own nation-state, this is one venture Bezos is pursuing in earnest—he’s already pledged to sell $1 billion in Amazon stock every year to fund his own space exploration company, Blue Origin, LLC. What exactly constitutes “a much lower price” for someone currently worth $100+ billion is currently unknown, but it looks like the magnate is ready to give Elon Musk’s SpaceX a run for its money.