More Billions, No Problems?

Billionaires are always in the news. Whether they are launching spacecraft or running for president, they draw our attention and curiosity. They also prompt questions: Who are these billionaires anyway? How did they accumulate their beaucoup bucks? What could a person possibly do with all that wealth?

Who's a billionaire?
Forbes Magazine follows the ins and outs of the billionaire's club, and publishes an update each spring. As of March 2019, there were over 2,000 billionaires worldwide. Over 600 were in the United States, 244 were women, and just 13 were black.

How much is a billion?
Just a million of anything is a lot, certainly nothing to sneeze at. But the difference between a million and a billion can be difficult to comprehend. If a millionaire chose to distribute all her wealth to us Brooklynites, all 2.5 million of us, we each would get 44 cents. If a billionaire did that, we each would receive $400. Even among billionaires, there are differences in scale. If the world's wealthiest billionaire, Jeff Bezos of Amazon fame, was inspired to join this redistributionist craze, he'd be writing each of us a personal check for over $40,000.

Give it away, give it away now
Our fascination with billionaires has long been accompanied by worries over their outsized influence in the world. And influential they are, not only by their spending and trading and building and making, but by the billions they donate to address global problems or bolster pet concerns. This prompts an additional question: When a billionaire takes an interest in saving the world, through philanthropy or (more recently) by running for public office, what does that mean for the rest of us?

The following lists gather several recent titles that explore the lives of billionaires and their influence on charitable giving and democracy itself.

Billionaire biographies

The Many Lives of Michael Bloomberg by Eleanor Randolph. Publisher's Weekly called this a "respectful but clear-eyed" profile of the former New York City mayor turned 2020 presidential candidate. Two earlier biographies, by Chris McNickle and Joyce Purnick, also offer insights into the prominent billionaire politician.

3 Kings: Diddy, Dr. Dre, Jay-Z, and Hip-Hop's Multibillion-Dollar Rise by Zack O'Malley Greenburg. A wide-ranging look at hip-hop's growth from street pastime to global industry, with a focus on the entrepreneurial drive that allowed Brooklyn-born Jay-Z to achieve billionaire status.

Carlos Slim: The Power, Money, and Morality of One of the World's Richest Men by Diego Enrique Osorno. An investigative biography of Mexico's richest individual, who has drawn criticism for accumulating vast wealth in a still-developing country.

Oprah: A Biography by Kitty Kelley. Unauthorized tell-all highlights the scandal as well as the striving of a troubled Milwaukee teen turned global mogul.

The Gambler: How Penniless Dropout Kirk Kerkorian Became the Greatest Deal Maker in Capitalist History by William C. Rempel. The step-by-step climb of Kerkorian, a child of Armenian immigrants who became a Las Vegas real estate tycoon.

Billionaires in philanthropy and politics

Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World by Anand Giridharadas. Argues that grand efforts by the world's wealthy to reduce global economic inequality have self-serving outcomes. The author recently appeared at Central Library in conversation with Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz.

Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right by Jane Mayer. An expose of the behind-the-scenes efforts by the secretive Koch family to influence American politics.

Billionaires and Stealth Politics by Benjamin I. Page, Jason Seawright, and Matthew J. Lacombe. By following the money, the authors trace the actual political influence of the wealthy (and how they are keeping quiet about their aims).

Billionaires: Reflections on the Upper Crust by Darrell M. West. A political scientist examines the public-spirited ambitions of several billionaires (including Tom Steyer, the first billionaire to enter the Democratic race).

The Givers: Wealth, Power, and Philanthropy in a New Gilded Age by David Callahan. An in-depth look at the machinery of large-scale philanthropy and its effect on public policy, for better and worse.

Mark is a Job Information Resource Librarian and member of the Connected Communities team at the library's Business & Career Center. He enjoys graphic novels, arranging his books by size, and looking for turtles in Prospect Park Lake.