The Shocking Reality of Billionaire Wealth: How Much Money Do the World's Richest People Make Per Hour?

A Mind-Bending Analysis of Extreme Wealth Concentration and What $1.559 Trillion Really Means.

Here's a shocker for you. Now, before I proceed, here's the legal bit. You know, just in case. If you choose to read further, it is of your own choice and free will. I will accept no legal responsibility whatsoever for any resulting trauma, existential crisis, or temporary brain freeze that may occur. That said, folks, this particular meander into the world of billionaire wealth inequality almost froze my mind to the point where I was not far off suspended animation—and I'm only now beginning to thaw back into what we laughingly call reality.

So let me set the scene with some context that'll make what follows even more mind-bending.

Understanding the Bloomberg Billionaires Index: Tracking Extreme Wealth Concentration.

If you've never heard of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, it's a daily ranking of the world's 500 wealthiest people, with figures updated at the close of each trading day in New York. This wealth gap statistics tracker provides real-time insights into how the ultra-rich accumulate wealth on an hourly basis.

How Billionaire Net Worth is Calculated

The index aims for transparency and accountability in its methodology, using a combination of public and private data:

• Publicly traded assets: Stakes in public companies are valued using the latest closing stock prices.

• Private companies: Valuations are estimated based on comparisons with similar public companies, using metrics like price-to-earnings or enterprise value-to-EBITDA ratios.

• Other assets: The calculations also consider real estate portfolios, art collections, luxury yachts, and other unique holdings, with data gathered from public records and various sources.

Latest Rankings: How Much Do Billionaires Make Per Hour?

The top 5 richest people's combined wealth rankings shift daily with market fluctuations. Here are the current heavyweights:

• Elon Musk net worth: Over $400 billion, built through Tesla and SpaceX—recently holding the top spot as the world's richest person, though his position fluctuates with Tesla stock price movements.

• Larry Ellison wealth: Oracle's co-founder has been a major contender, briefly overtaking Musk after a significant surge in Oracle stock price.

• Mark Zuckerberg net worth: Meta's co-founder has seen his wealth soar due to the company's performance in social platforms and AI technology.

• Jeff Bezos fortune: The Amazon founder remains firmly in the top tier of billionaire wealth accumulation.

The tech industry billionaires dominate the index, with the United States leading in both billionaire count and total net worth. Now, with that foundation laid, prepare yourself for what I discovered...

I only managed to reach the top five on this list of no less than 500 global billionaires before I was forced into taking a sudden lie down on my bed. My mind is now considerably blown.

The Shocking Mathematics of Wealth Accumulation Hourly.

Anyway, having closely averted the sudden need of a codeine based pharmaceutical, no doubt manufactured by at least one person on that list, and thanking whatever god is up there that I abstained from alcohol many years ago - probably provided also by someone on that list, I decided to paddle somewhat cautiously, for fear of drowning myself in mathematics, to unravel how much money the top contender makes each hour. Now, being like the constipated mathematician who tried to work it out with a pencil, I took a shortcut, and on the rare occasion that I use it, I ask AI to help me out.

I stand to be corrected, but yesterday, Elon made $1.16bn for doing sod all. That's $48,333,333 per hour, whatever that is to the likes of you and me, but it sounds like a lot!

So, with that revelation still ricocheting around my skull like a demented pinball, I really put my brain to the ultimate test. While mentally preparing to get my name down for psychiatric intervention, should it all go belly up on me, I decided to do further sums by adding up how much these top five billionaires are worth in total. Now, praying aside—because apparently there's still a dormant Catholic somewhere in the depths of my psyche desperately lighting candles for my mathematical survival—the total equals (brace yourself, I'm feeling another migraine approaching at warp speed) $1,559 billion. Or as normal humans might say: $1.559 trillion.

Understanding Extreme Wealth Concentration: What $1.559 Trillion Actually Means.

To put this astronomical sum into perspective that won't immediately require emergency medical intervention: this could buy you approximately 31 million average UK homes, fund the entire NHS for about 4 years, or purchase every single Tesla currently on the road... roughly 273 times over. It's more than the GDP of most countries—in fact, it exceeds the annual economic output of Canada, Russia, or South Korea.

These five individuals, sitting in their various offices and probably not breaking a sweat, collectively possess more wealth than the bottom 40% of Americans combined. That's roughly 130 million people. Let that marinate in your consciousness for a moment while an entire bottle of codeine appears even more tempting by the second.

The Cosmic Irony of Wealth Research.

Anyway, to continue my story, I chose not to call the Samaritans helpline, reach for the codeine, and not be tempted to walk a short distance to the nearest off-licence. Instead, I decided the best way forward would be to soothe my mind with the Spotify playlist, put on my headphones, lie down and take a break. Now, I haven't used Spotify for a while, and to be honest, I forgot what this playlist consisted of. Only to discover that Pink Floyd's track 'Money' wasn't the best start—I was being cosmically trolled and the universe was clearly having a laugh at my expense.

Now, I have to say this is where I would usually defer to my fellow Substack author, Chris McEvoy, (Bristol Uncovered), whose number-crunching abilities far outshine mine in every possible way. Nonetheless, and in order to prove myself as not being a complete mathematical numpty, I returned to my desktop. Okay, to be honest, I actually decided to duck out of any further brain-numbing activity, as, to be even more honest, potential schizophrenia has never been on my bucket list, and never will be.

Though I did wonder if each of the five gave away 99% of their wealth, they'd still have over $15 billion each left to scrape by on. Hardly destitution, wouldn't you say? Better yet, they'd still be accumulating enough to see them comfortably to the end of their days with billions left over for their great-great-grandchildren.

Global Poverty vs Billionaire Wealth: Maslow's Hierarchy of Basic Needs and the Inequality Crisis.

Now, call me old-fashioned, but wasn't Maslow's hierarchy of basic needs onto something when he suggested we all have fundamental requirements—food, shelter, safety—before we start worrying about self-actualisation? Yet here we are, witnessing the spectacular accumulation of wealth for wealth's sake, while nearly a billion people worldwide still can't tick off step one of that pyramid. The rich don't just get richer; they get obscenely, incomprehensibly, mathematically-impossible-to-spend richer, while the poor get... well, let's just say they're not exactly climbing any ladders.

So there you have it, folks. Five individuals with enough combined wealth to fund small nations, cure diseases, or probably terraform Mars twice over, and I can't even look at their bank balances without requiring medical intervention. Perhaps the real question isn't how much money they have, but why we've created a system where hoarding $1.559 trillion is not only possible but perfectly legal—while millions go without their most basic human needs. But what do I know? I'm just a bloke who nearly needed psychiatric help after reading a financial index. Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I hear my codeine calling again.