[imagesource: Getty Images]

I often wonder what it must be like to know that you can buy pretty much whatever you want, whenever you want it.

If you’ve ever seen the disturbing Michael Jackson doccie, Living with Michael Jackson, from way back in 2003, you might recall the scene where Jackson enters an antique store.

He sees it, he likes it, he buys it without a second’s consideration of the price.

For America’s most wealthy, that’s child’s play, and they don’t come any wealthier than Jeff Bezos. He recently ticked over the $200 billion net worth mark, which is the largest fortune amassed in the past 40 years, even when adjusted for inflation.

The Forbes Richest People in America list, released this week, calculated respective net worths using stock prices from July 24, 2020, which actually takes Bezos down below the $200 mark.

Using that date, his worth is a paltry $179 billion, with Gates in second at $111 billion, and third-placed Mark Zuckerberg at $85 billion.

Here are the top eight from the list, along with their age, majority source of wealth, and philanthropy score.

Based on the percentage of their fortune that they have donated, five is the most generous, which means Bezos has some serious work to do:

Then again, philanthropy from the elite isn’t as simple as calculating their total donations. For a deep dive, here’s a great long read from the Guardian, titled ‘How philanthropy benefits the super-rich‘.

Using July 24 as the date of calculating wealth, Forbes broke down the top five richest Americans in a brief video, which makes for interesting viewing.

We’re off:

Must be nice.

Using Forbes real-time net worth calculator, Bezos is currently worth $186 billion, Zuckerberg $100 million, and Musk $71 million, having suffered a serious knock over the past 24 hours.

Hang in there, buddy.

[source:forbes]