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[Odler]

You do! Get ready for a fierce contest.

There are only fifteen billionaire singles in the whole world, among them Ted Turner (the founder of CNN), Michael Bloomberg (the Mayor of New York City; not Guilani; the new guy). The youngest bachelor billionaire has just turned 18. He is still working, during the weekends, as a waiter in a German restaurant. Does it accept tips?

Among the 497 billionaires cited by Forbes Magazine for 2002, Alice Walton, 53, and Anne Cox Chambers, 82, are the only billionaire singles in skirt. Good luck to you guys who have always loved older women!

Oprah is not on the list. Surprising. She nonetheless made $150 million last year, as the second highest paid entertainer after George Lucas (Star Wars) who filed taxes on an income of $250 million.

As an aside: Did you know that George Lucas (3.0 billions) is richer than Steven Spielberg (2.2 billions)?

Those of you with poor R-ithmetic skills must be aware that to make one billion dollars, you need 1,000 times one million dollars. There are only 243 Americans and 121 Europeans with that kind of money.

By the way, out of the 190 countries registered at the United Nations, only 43 harbor billionaires. Roughly, half of the billionaires live in the U.S. You find four billionaires in Australia, seven in Brazil, two in Thailand, four in the Philippines, three in Israel, one in Lebanon, one in China, twelve in Mexico, and none, zero, ziltch in the Caraibbean (including the Dominican Republic, Trinidad, Puerto Rico, Haiti, and Jamaica). Not a single billionaire lives in any of the 46 countries of black Africa.

Few billionaires are lucky to get this kind of money from dad: 260 have inherited at least some money, but 237 started from scratch. (Lazy are the rest of us!)

Bill Gates, despite losing 5.9 billions (in other words, almost 6,000 million dollars) last year, is still the richest man in the world, the #1 on the list for the 8th year in a row. He weighs 52.8 billions. Warren Buffet is #2, with 35 billions. Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, is #4.

Twenty-five of these lovable billionaires are under 40. Among them, 37 year-old Michael Dell, who grew rich by selling computers by mail, something that we could all been doing, if we were not too busy with school assignments. Cases in point, 27 of these billionaires dropped out of college.

So, do you still want to marry a billionaire?

(OdlerRobert Jeanlouie, Friday, May 03, 2002)