Increase in the Wealth of the Richest People on Earth in 2017

In 2017, one trillion dollars was added to the wealth of the richest people on Earth. According to Bloomberg, the number of billionaires worldwide increased by 23 percent compared to the previous year. Overall, the growth in wealth for these individuals was four times that of the previous year. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, surpassed Bill Gates, who had held the title of the richest person in the world since 2013, by adding more than 34 billion dollars to his wealth. Bezos's wealth is estimated at one hundred billion dollars, which is about nine billion dollars more than Bill Gates's wealth. Gates spends a significant portion of his wealth on humanitarian efforts around the world. In October of this year, it was revealed that George Soros, another American billionaire, had donated a large portion of his wealth to the Open Society Foundation, an organization that promotes democratic ideas. Soros donated 18 billion dollars to this organization. According to Bloomberg, as of December 26, 2017, the total wealth of five hundred billionaires on Earth was 5.3 trillion dollars, which is nearly one trillion dollars more than the same time in 2016. Among 49 countries, 38 Chinese billionaires added 177 billion dollars to the total wealth of billionaires worldwide, marking the highest percentage growth of billionaires. The wealth of 'Hai Ka Yan', the founder of a development company in China, increased by 350 percent last year, reaching 25.9 billion dollars. The wealth of Asian technology billionaire Ma Huateng, one of the founders of Tencent Holdings, doubled to 41 billion dollars. Consequently, the number of Asian billionaires surpassed that of American billionaires for the first time. However, the growth in wealth among American billionaires, who added 315 billion dollars to their total wealth in 2017, remains the highest of any country. Additionally, 27 Russian billionaires added 29 billion dollars to their total wealth of 275 billion dollars last year. Technology billionaires also had a 'fruitful' year, with 262 billion dollars added to the wealth of 57 technology billionaires. Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, saw an increase of 22.6 billion dollars in his wealth, although he plans to donate 18 percent of his shares in Facebook to humanitarian efforts. Max Lawson, the policy director of Oxfam, an international organization fighting poverty and injustice, stated to Reuters last January that while it is a good decision for billionaires to choose to donate part of their wealth to others, social inequality is an existing issue. He emphasized that one cannot have an economic and social system where billionaires systematically pay less tax than their secretaries or servants. In his view, there are other ways within the capitalist system that could benefit a larger segment of society.