Top 5 Facts About Billionaires

The first step of being a billionaire is that you practically have to be a male. We're not being sexist here, we're just going by the facts. True, there are some notable female billionaires; the richest woman in the world is Christy Walton of Walmart, whose worth is about $37 billion. However, it's been concluded that roughly 90% of all billionaires on Earth are male, and to go even further, 65% are white, and 60% are over 60 years old. Figures. Damn the man!

“Downton Abbey” was sort of a cultural phenomenon in the west, and apparently, China loves the show too. Reportedly, many there are desperate to copy the affluent English lifestyle depicted on the series. As of 2015, China boasts more billionaires than any other country– almost 600 of them. As such, there is high demand for fancy butlers to do butler stuff. Like serve their food and, uh, dance for them, I guess? There are at least two butler training schools in China, so get over there and enrol if you look fly in a tuxedo and are good at, uh, removing socks from tycoons. Do butlers do that?

Now there’s a man who could you tell you what a butler does! In 1916, American industrialist John D. Rockefeller had amassed a fortune of a billion dollars, which is roughly equal to $30 billion today. He controlled 90% of America's oil, partly through unethical business practices, accounting for his Lex Luthor-sized fortune. He was so rich that when he died, his assets equaled 1.5% of America's TOTAL economic output. He really was the 1%. Bill Gates, the wealthiest man alive today, would have to quadruple his fortune to match that feat.

A common assumption about billionaires is that they come from a long line of billionaires. Well, that used to be how it was done, but billionaires are slowly becoming more self-made. It's estimated that two thirds of the 7-figure plus club today are self-made, opposed to 43% 20 years ago. This number is projected to rise to 70% over the next 5-10 years. And the average age of the mega-rich is also changing. 46 new billionaires under 40 years old were added to Forbes magazine’s list of billionaires in 2015, a record number. The world's youngest billionaire, Snapchat co-founder Evan Spiegel, is only 25 years old. All in all, the world is probably better off with a lot of newly minted tycoons than trust fund plutocrats because

Makes sense to me; if you came from relatively nothing, you can better appreciate how much money can change somebody’s life. In 2014, researchers looked at the 127 philanthropists who had vowed to donate to The Giving Pledge, a charity which encourages billionaires to donate half of their wealth. They found that self-made billionaires are more likely to hand over large portions of their wealth to charity compared to those who inherit their fortunes. Today, among the nearly 150 individuals or families who have signed up for the pledge, including Bill and Melinda Gates, Elon Musk, and Dustin Moskovitz and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook fame. But, I’m sure they still have plenty left over for a butler to chew their food for them. Or whatever.

So what do you think of these billionaires? Are they do more to help the world, or ruin it? For more top hat and monocle top 10s and Monopoly money top 5s, tell your butler to subscribe you to Watchmojo.com.