Facts About Billionaires: Bernard Marcus died today, 11/5/24. He founded Home Depot, so part of his fortune was made selling me TWO defective snowblower in a single month. You may have heard of The Giving Pledge, a public but nonenforceable commitment by rich folks to give away at least 1/2 their money. Bernard, at a time when he had $5,900,000,000, made a pledge to give away 90% of his money. He then gave away a portion of it. That portion was substantial by any measures: $250,000,000 for an aquarium, and $25mil to found Autism Speaks. In total he gave about $2 billion. But while doing that his wealth DOUBLED. When he died he was worth $9,800,000,000. Once someone has a billion dollars, there is no realistic way to punish them or make them poor. If you took 99.9% of Bernard's wealth, he would have $9,800,000, the equivalent of the net worth of fifty US families combined. Is it right for 1 man to have that much money? Billionaires should be illegal.