I have become fatigued with the constant nonsense about Jews being wealthy and the resulting antisemitism that notion gives rise to. I’m annoyed because, as a member of the faith, I work just as hard as anyone else, have the same bills to pay and so do all my friends. Recently in conversation someone said about a possible business venture: “C’mon, you’re Jewish, you know how to make money”.
Recently, an article surfaced discussing wealth disparity.
http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/meet-the-80-people-who-are-as-rich-as-half-the-world/
It lists 80 people in the world who have the equivalent wealth of 3.6 billion of the poorest people on the planet. The total that wealth this list holds is $1.9 trillion collectively. Were this wealth to be redistributed (a verboten term in economics) each of the 3.6 billion people would have $528 US. When considering this figure, realize that $528 US may be a large amount of money for someone in a country with a floundering or non-existent economy. It may seem off topic to discuss wealth redistribution but it has been a common theme in history that ‘fleecing the Jews’ will solve the world’s problems. Not even fleecing the worlds top 80 wealthiest (Jewish and Non-Jewish alike) would accomplish that.
So analyzing the data for the percentage of Jewish people vs Non-Jewish we get 25% whereas, according to Wikipedia, the Jews represent 0.1% of the world’s population. Clearly there is a disproportional representation and numerous essays and books have been proffered to explain the discrepancy. They all revolve around Jews, historically, being relegated to banking and Judaism being an erudite religion. Here is an example of one of the many theories along these themes, this one being relatively new:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/making-sense/the-chosen-few-a-new-explanati/
Just the same 25% does not represent a Jewish monopoly on wealth, far from it.
Moreover, the data reveals that 100% of the Jews on this list were self made whereas only half of the Non Jews on the list were self made. This dispels the notion that a great Jewish conspiracy (specifically collusion) is responsible for Jewish wealth.
I doubt that this data will change opinions however because the need for a scapegoat and someone to blame for one’s lot in life supersedes logic and data. However, if one chooses to continue this diatribe about Judaism and wealth, they should know that the data does not support their twisted world view.
Here is the data I used to derive the statistics:
(source: http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/meet-the-80-people-who-are-as-rich-as-half-the-world/)
Ranking | Name | Wealth ($Billions) | Country | Self Made? | Industry | Jewish? |
1 | Bill Gates | $76 | USA | ✓ | Tech | No |
2 | Carlos Slim Helu | $72 | Mexico | ✓ | Telecom | No |
3 | Amancio Ortega | $64 | Spain | ✓ | Retail | No |
4 | Warren Buffett | $58 | USA | ✓ | Finance | No |
5 | Larry Ellison | $48 | USA | ✓ | Tech | Yes |
6 | Charles Koch | $40 | USA | Diversified | No | |
7 | David Koch | $40 | USA | Diversified | No | |
8 | Sheldon Adelson | $38 | USA | ✓ | Entertainment | Yes |
9 | Christy Walton | $37 | USA | Retail | No | |
10 | Jim Walton | $35 | USA | Retail | No | |
11 | Liliane Bettencourt | $35 | France | Product | No | |
12 | Stefan Persson | $34 | Sweden | Retail | No | |
13 | Alice Walton | $34 | USA | Retail | No | |
14 | S. Robson Walton | $34 | USA | Retail | No | |
15 | Bernard Arnault | $34 | France | Luxury | No | |
16 | Michael Bloomberg | $33 | USA | ✓ | Finance | Yes |
17 | Larry Page | $32 | USA | ✓ | Tech | Yes |
18 | Jeff Bezos | $32 | USA | ✓ | Retail | No |
19 | Sergey Brin | $32 | USA | ✓ | Tech | Yes |
20 | Li Ka-shing | $31 | Hong Kong | ✓ | Diversified | No |
21 | Mark Zuckerberg | $29 | USA | ✓ | Tech | Yes |
22 | Michele Ferrero | $27 | Italy | Food | No | |
23 | Aliko Dangote | $25 | Nigeria | ✓ | Commodities | No |
24 | Karl Albrecht | $25 | Germany | ✓ | Retail | Yes |
25 | Carl Icahn | $25 | USA | ✓ | Finance | Yes |
26 | George Soros | $23 | USA | ✓ | Finance | Yes |
27 | David Thomson | $23 | Canada | Media | No | |
28 | Lui Che Woo | $22 | Hong Kong | ✓ | Entertainment | No |
29 | Dieter Schwarz | $21 | Germany | Retail | No | |
30 | Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud | $20 | Saudi Arabia | ✓ | Finance | No |
31 | Forrest Mars Jr. | $20 | USA | Food | No | |
32 | Jacqueline Mars | $20 | USA | Food | No | |
33 | John Mars | $20 | USA | Food | No | |
34 | Jorge Paulo Lemann | $20 | Brazil | ✓ | Drinks | No |
35 | Lee Shau Kee | $20 | Hong Kong | ✓ | Diversified | No |
36 | Steve Ballmer | $19 | USA | ✓ | Tech | Yes |
37 | Theo Albrecht Jr. | $19 | Germany | Retail | No | |
38 | Leonardo Del Vecchio | $19 | Italy | ✓ | Luxury | No |
39 | Len Blavatnik | $19 | USA | ✓ | Diversified | Yes |
40 | Alisher Usmanov | $19 | Russia | ✓ | Extractives | No |
41 | Mukesh Ambani | $19 | India | Extractives | No | |
42 | Masayoshi Son | $18 | Japan | ✓ | Telecom | No |
43 | Michael Otto | $18 | Germany | Retail | No | |
44 | Phil Knight | $18 | USA | ✓ | Retail | No |
45 | Tadashi Yanai | $18 | Japan | ✓ | Retail | No |
46 | Gina Rinehart | $18 | Australia | Extractives | No | |
47 | Mikhail Fridman | $18 | Russia | ✓ | Extractives | Yes |
48 | Michael Dell | $18 | USA | ✓ | Tech | Yes |
49 | Susanne Klatten | $17 | Germany | Cars | No | |
50 | Abigail Johnson | $17 | USA | Finance | No | |
51 | Viktor Vekselberg | $17 | Russia | ✓ | Metals | No |
52 | Lakshmi Mittal | $17 | India | Metals | No | |
53 | Vladimir Lisin | $17 | Russia | ✓ | Transport | Yes |
54 | Cheng Yu-tung | $16 | Hong Kong | ✓ | Diversified | No |
55 | Joseph Safra | $16 | Brazil | ✓ | Finance | Yes |
56 | Paul Allen | $16 | USA | ✓ | Tech | Yes |
57 | Leonid Mikhelson | $16 | Russia | ✓ | Extractives | Yes |
58 | Anne Cox Chambers | $16 | USA | Media | No | |
59 | Francois Pinault | $16 | France | ✓ | Retail | No |
60 | Iris Fontbona | $16 | Chile | Extractives | No | |
61 | Azim Premji | $15 | India | Tech | No | |
62 | Mohammed Al Amoudi | $15 | Saudi Arabia | ✓ | Extractives | No |
63 | Gennady Timchenko | $15 | Russia | ✓ | Extractives | No |
64 | Wang Jianlin | $15 | China | ✓ | Real Estate | No |
65 | Charles Ergen | $15 | USA | ✓ | Telecom | No |
66 | Stefan Quandt | $15 | Germany | Cars | No | |
67 | Germán Larrea Mota Velasco | $15 | Mexico | Extractives | No | |
68 | Harold Hamm | $15 | USA | ✓ | Extractives | No |
69 | Ray Dalio | $14 | USA | ✓ | Finance | No |
70 | Donald Bren | $14 | USA | ✓ | Real Estate | No |
71 | Georg Schaeffler | $14 | Germany | Product | No | |
72 | Luis Carlos Sarmiento | $14 | Colombia | ✓ | Finance | No |
73 | Ronald Perelman | $14 | USA | ✓ | Finance | Yes |
74 | Laurene Powell Jobs | $14 | USA | Entertainment | No | |
75 | Serge Dassault | $14 | France | Aviation | No | |
76 | John Fredriksen | $14 | Cyprus | ✓ | Transport | No |
77 | Vagit Alekperov | $14 | Russia | ✓ | Extractives | No |
78 | John Paulson | $14 | USA | ✓ | Finance | No |
79 | Rupert Murdoch | $14 | USA | ✓ | Media | No |
80 | Ma Huateng | $13 | China | ✓ | Tech | No |
Karl Albrecht is NOT jewish
Thanks, I used a white supremacy website to find out who was Jewish or not. I guess they tend to ’round up’ because Albrecht sounds Jewish.