Forbes' Richest Americans: How to Spend $1B
N E W Y O R K, Sept. 16 -- It takes all kinds to make the world go round, and it takes all kinds to make Forbes' list of America's 400 Richest.
The billionaires on our list have a variety of strange and expensive hobbies — including funding longevity research, flying military aircraft and searching for extraterrestrial life.
We looked at five classic billionaire personality types:
The Geek, the Limousine Liberal, the Thrill Seeker, the Hedonist and the Narcissist, and came up with some fanciful ways that they might squander their fortunes.
First, the Top 10 Richest Americans:
The Geek
An original 1977 poster print of Star Wars. $344 (after a bidding war with Luke444).
500 black-market clones of himself. At $1.7 million a pop (see "We Cloned You. Now, Here's The Bill"), that's $850 million.
"Big gesture" date with high-school crush. Flies her to his hometown on his private jet (cost $40 million) and has an extravagant dinner (at Olive Garden for an estimated $50). The homecoming queen politely declines invitation to procreate. The geek buys a Russian wife on the Internet for about $5,000. Total cost for companionship? $40,005,050.
Fifty-year supply of McDonald's Big Mac value meal: $9,836,750. Pays $280,800 to have his mother-in-law overnight borscht every week for 60 years.
Gives rest of fortune ($250 million) to a nonprofit scientific research organization in the Russian hometown of his newly acquired wife.
The Limousine Liberal
To feed the 31.1 million Americans living in poverty a $6 tofu turkey sandwich with organic sprouts, tomatoes, non-dairy Swiss cheese on whole-wheat bread, the limo liberal spends $186.6 million.
In a rash act of generosity, pops for idol Lance Bass' trip to the moon on a shoddily made Russian rocket ship. Cost: $20 million.
Adopts 50,000 children for $24 a month for 50 years in Sally Struthers-sponsored Save the Children program. Cost: $720 million.
Donates $5 million to save the endangered American burying beetle and the black lace cactus. He would also save 100,000 acres of rain forest for about $5 million, and using some $17 million in pocket change, he would adopt five miles of highway in a cleanup program.
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