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Fall 2003 Edition
Counting Bill Gates' Money
Several years ago, Fair Lawn's Evan Marcus wanted to learn how to program in a new computer language. For fun and to hone his computer programming skills, he set up a web site to calculate Bill Gates' net worth. See Evan's Web Site. Every 15 minutes, Evan Marcus's web site calculates how much money Bill Gates has and how he could spend it. Marcus figures that Bill Gates could buy all the gold at Fort Knox or a few space shuttles for his backyard. Since Microsoft went public, Bill Gates has earned on average, over $150,000 per hour (That's the same as working ten years at McDonalds on Broadway) If Bill Gates wanted to spend all of his money within the next 25 years, it wouldn't be easy. He would have to spend almost $4 million per day every day (If the Gates family decided to move to Fair Lawn, they would probably have to go shopping in Wayne or the Palisades Center on Sundays.) Marcus has had more than one million visits to his site, since he set it up. He programmed the site so it automatically obtains the latest stock price and the number of shares Gates owns. Every once in a while, Marcus adds a new feature to the site based on reader's comments. Putting Bill Gates' net worth into Fair Lawn's terms - Bill Gates could buy every home, store and cookie factory in Fair Lawn. No mortgage necessary. We could all live rent free and Bill could even pay for all our taxes, clothes, kids' college education and food. You could just charge that big screen TV onto Bill's credit card. Bill Gates did not return a phone call from Fair Lawn News, regarding his interest in sponsoring the lives of all the Fair Lawn residents. However, neither Bill Gates nor his corporate interests are neglecting Fair Lawn. Thanks to Windows, Office and numerous investments, Gates is hoping to collect several hundred dollars from every Fair Lawn resident and business in the upcoming year. |