Click here to listen to Roger Currie’s commentary on what the super rich do with their money
What do the super rich do with their money? We’ve been given some interesting examples in recent days.
Clive Palmer is an Australian mining tycoon whose net worth is thought to be close to $900 million according to Forbes magazine. He’s planning to spend a huge chunk of that to build a replica of the Titanic. The plan is to build the ship in China, and Palmer claims that he has heard from people who are prepared to spend as much as a million smackers to put on period clothes and sail on the voyage that would recreate the original crossing that ended at the bottom of the Atlantic.
RMS Titanic departing Southampton on April 10, 1912.
The Thompson family who began with newspapers and broadcasting stations are believed to be Canada’s richest at something like $20 Billion. Winnipeggers are delighted that David Thompson has seen fit to be the deep pockets behind the Jets. The NHL lockout was aptly described as a “showdown between billionaire owners and millionaire players”, and other pro sports survive and prosper thanks to the super rich.
Michael Bloomberg.
Personally, I’m rather more impressed by Michael Bloomberg. He has been mayor of New York for the past 11 years, and he is estimated to be worth $25 Billion. Michael has never taken a penny from the taxpayers of the Big Apple, and now he’s pledging $100 million to help eliminate polio from the world.
The effort is headed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, who have also welcomed jars of pennies that have been rounded up by members of Rotary clubs around the world. There are still about 200 cases of polio in places like Nigeria and Pakistan.
Bloomberg hopes that his contribution will help to close that tragic book once and for all. He has given away more than two billion dollars over the years, mostly on the quiet.
Sounds better than rebuilding an old ship does it not ?
I’m Roger Currie
