Looking at how the other one percent live
Some of the biggest news in Forbes’ list of 400 richest Americans is the growing wealth of 26-year-old Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg’s net worth is currently estimated to be $6.9 billion; he is planning to donate $100 million to the Newark, New Jersey public school system. Cynics point out that Zuckerberg’s generous philanthropy could be a crafted PR move scheduled a week before “The Social Network,” a not-entirely-complimentary movie about Zuckerberg comes out. All the same, we wanted to know: how do billionaires spend their money?
For the answer, we spoke with Robert Frank, the Wall Street Journal’s Private Wealth Reporter and author of “Richistan: A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich.”
Without federal support, local stations, especially in rural and underserved areas, face deep cuts or even closure. Vital public service alerts, news, storytelling, and programming like The World will be impacted. The World has weathered many storms, and we remain steadfast in our commitment to being your trusted source for human-centered international news, shared with integrity and care. We believe public media is about truth and access for all. As an independent, nonprofit newsroom, we aren’t controlled by billionaire owners or corporations. We are sustained by listeners like you.
Now more than ever, we need your help to support our global reporting work and power the future of The World.