A Few Good Billionaires

I am thrilled to finally be writing a post after having been sucked into the internet vortex. I’m just now clawing myself out. One of this week’s adventures down the rabbit hole led me to Forbes Magazine, where I limited my interests to just two individuals: the 5th and 920th richest people in the world. Just those two. Of course, there are a few honorable mentions.

My pursuit began with the announcement by #5 on the list, Warren Buffett, that he was retiring. What a slacker, to retire at 94. I was searching for an answer to one question. Is Buffett a self-made billionaire? Okay, two questions… And where did his money come from?

Forbes names Buffett “the world’s most generous philanthropist,” because he has donated $62 billion (with a B) to charitable causes. His net worth is $168.2 billion.

Among the filthy rich are a handful (literally—you can count them on one hand) who intend to donate most of their wealth. This is the list the wealthy should aspire to be on, coming after Buffett:

Bill and (his ex) Melinda Gates have donated $42 billion.
George Soros has given $32 billion.
Michael Bloomberg $21 billion.
MacKenzie Scott has bequeathed $19 billion and plans to continue to disburse her entire half of the Bezos Amazon fortune. (Her ex traded down.)

And that concludes my five-finger count. There are other generous billionaires, like Taylor Swift, but I only used one hand for this list.

The Buffetts were a long-established family of grocers in Omaha, Nebraska. They were well-off, but not wealthy. It was Warren’s father, Howard, who blazed that trail to riches, becoming a stockbroker before the crash of 1929. Timing is everything. Howard Buffett made his wealth by dealing in stable securities and bonds during the depression. He was so respected by his community; they elected him to Congress in 1942. His biography says he was a businessman, investor, and politician, a four-term Republican United States Representative for the state of Nebraska.

Warren’s mother, Leila Stahl Buffett grew up working for her father’s newspaper, the Cuming County Democrat. She and Howard Buffett met in college, and have three children: Doris, Warren, and Roberta.

(Hmm… Democrat + Republican = Warren is a … Republican—boo)

The Buffetts resided among the upper middle-class community. They lived well below their means. Their net worth was over $2 million.

Warren Buffett says he tried to emulate his father’s principles throughout his life. Having started out with an inheritance of $900,000; he invested it wisely.

My search could have ended there—I’d found the answer to my question. Yes, he is technically a self-made billionaire. But he started with a crucial ingredient: capital to invest. And beyond that, his father gave him the understanding and foundation needed to succeed.

A person who lacks understanding will squander any inheritance. *Donald Trump’s father gave him $60 million—and he lost it all. He took that failure even further, filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy not once, but six times. In my view, whatever wealth he holds now is ill-gotten.

*My next post will be titled: “We Are Stupid.”

Warren Buffett invests in companies that he thinks are undervalued. He bought a failing textile business, Berkshire Hathaway, and turned it into an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska.

I find his road to Berkshire Hathaway interesting. In 1962, he bought its stock at $7.50 per share, expecting to sell the shares at a profit. One year later, he owned 7% of the company. He established a verbal agreement with Seabury Stanton, the manager of Berkshire Hathaway, to sell those shares back for $11.50 each. When the offer arrived in writing, it was for only $11.37 per share. The attempt to undercut angered him, and to his better judgment, rather than sell at the slightly lower price, Buffett took a hit, buying more stock at a higher price so he could take control of the business to fire Stanton; Stanton and his son resigned in 1965.

I love a story of revenge, but Buffett regrets letting his emotions come before practicality. He says he could have profited over 100% more with the money he spent to make a point, by banking it.

Fortune now ranks Berkshire Hathaway 5th largest United States corporation by total revenue and 9th globally. He invests his money, and it grows.

My 91-year-old mother, who lives with me, saw the news of Buffett’s retirement and found me tapping away on my phone. She had to tell me—had to—that Warren Buffett is 94 and only just now retiring. I had been researching his biography when she found me. (I need to know everything.)

“He’s older than me!” Basic math puts things into perspective. I asked if she wanted me to set them up. “He’s taken,” she told me, and walked out of the room.

To recap, Buffett inherited $900,000. And turned it into $162 Billion.

What Buffett did not do is:

Illegally immigrate to the U.S. from South Africa, on a student visa, and never attend school.
He does not collect $8 million from U.S. taxpayers every day.
He has not collected $38 billion in government funding.

👆🏼Elon Musk, the world’s richest guy who hired teenagers to hack into the treasury, has done all that. And he’s trying to take over Social Security.

Back to my rabbit hole.

I was simultaneously researching Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker’s family tree. He’s been in the news a lot, opposing Donald Trump’s autocracy and urging the country to unite and fight.

His message is that everyone must be involved, and we need to unify before it’s too late. Someone on social media said Pritzker is also a self-made billionaire, so proof of that was what I was looking for. This is what I found:

His descendants immigrated to the United States from Kyiv, Ukraine, to escape the Russian Empire in 1881. Like President Zelenskyy, Pritzker is a Ukrainian Jew. The Pritzker family of Chicago are lawyers, financiers, and philanthropists.

J.B. Pritzker’s father, Donald Pritzker, and his Uncle Jay A. Pritzker, built the Hyatt Hotel group, starting with the purchase of one Los Angeles Airport motel. By 1972, when Donald died (heart attack) at 39, the chain had grown to comprise 27 hotels. (Uncle) Jay took over. When he passed in 1999, the cousins divided the family fortune 11 ways, giving each $1.2 billion. Although he has tripled, he is not a self-made billionaire.

(I also learned the name Yakov translates to Jacob.)

Pritzker and his family of democrats are equal to Buffett in their philanthropic endeavors, but on a smaller scale, to match their wealth. J.B. Pritzker is by far the best governor Illinois has had.