Blog Post #9

Although Eike Batista, 53, is not the richest man in the world, he is the richest man in the country of Brazil. Slipping short of the being the richest didn't keep him from being the biggest gainer in dollars worldwide. Just over the past twelve months he has added a whopping $19.5 billion to his personal balance sheet. He continues striving to become the richest man in the world. Looking at how he jumped from #61 with 7.5 billion to #8 with $27 billion, I would say he is doing pretty well in achieving his goal.

According to Forbes list, Batista self-made his billions through mining and oil . In 2007, Batista founded the OGX, an oil-and-gas exploration company. It was through this company that Batista made most of his billions. Living in Rio De Janeiro, Batista is one of the eighteen billionaires in Brazil, but he occupies about a third of the total billionaire net worth.

Life is worth much more than any amount of money. Being able to do what one loves is priceless; there is no amount of money that can pay the price. It is interesting to see the lists of billionaires on Forbes and think about how that money is being used. According to one of the movies on the websites also talks about how Warren Buffett is giving away loads of money to charity. It is nice to hear that some people will give what they have to help those in need.

The map below shows the different countries with billionaires. America significantly outnumbers every other country by number of billionaires and their overall net worth. This, however, is not something to be prideful of exactly. In a way, our society is hurting because of the misdistribution of wealth here in the states and in other parts of the world. The rich are extremely affluent and the poor are extraordinarily in need of a better life style.

The bad thing is, most people don't realize they have enough. They can always use more, more, more. Looking at the number of people in Africa that don't even have enough money to buy the necessities too live, I was surprised to see that there were any billionaires there at all. Brazil, too, is a big country but not exactly known for its wealth. Eike Batista seems to be doing pretty well though. Someday, I bet he will make it to being #1, but until then Carlos Slim Helu has the spot for 1st with a net worth of $53.3 billion.