Job Creators Still at Top of Forbes 400

There may be a few financiers and hedge fund managers at the top of the Forbes 400 rich list. Most of the people on it, however, are individuals who have founded or run companies that have created and maintained tens of millions of jobs, or are the relatives of people who have done so.

Bill Gates of Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway (NASDAQ: BRK) and Larry Ellison of Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) top the list. They are followed by two members of the Koch family, who own one of the largest private companies in America. Three of Sam Walton’s children are among the top 10. And, the eighth richest person on the list, Sheldon Adelson, runs casinos.

The only financier among the top 10 people on the Forbes list is George Soros. At least it took him decades of work to create his wealth, even if he did little to add jobs to the American economy.

Relative newcomers to the list also have started companies with large employee bases. This includes Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), Micheal Dell of Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) and Steve Ballmer of Microsoft. Each either founded or runs a tech company. They are part of the services sector that has created jobs and continues to do so as the U.S. manufacturing base keeps eroding.

The rich are different from you and me. They create significant numbers of jobs.

Douglas A. McIntyre