Forbes' "Rich List" Includes 793 Billionaires, Down from Last Year

The old saying, "The rich get richer..." isn't always true in an economic downslide that is a recession and depression in our times. This year, Forbes announces it's well-known "Rich List", called Forbes World's Billionaires List 2009. Comparing my copy of last year's list to this year's list, it's clear that the rich aren't getting richer, and in fact, the world's richest people saw more than a two TRILLION dollar decline in total net worth for 2009 compared to 2008.

Of course, sadly, Yahoo! reported that 18 members of the Forbes Rich List who were on the list last year died, and therefore are no longer included on the list. Death and depression both can cause a member of the Forbes Rich List to fall right off the list.

To get a complete copy of the list, you'll have to pick up a copy of Forbes Magazine, like I did, but I can share some interesting people who made the Forbes Rich List.

First, let's look at the first woman on the list, Alice Walton. Ms. Walton is part of the Walmart heirs, and she is currently 59 years old. Her estimated net worth is over 17 billion.

She was not the only 'Walton' family member on that list, and in fact, the Forbes Rich List has many Walton heirs and their families. Guess Walmart, a discount supermarket and hard goods store, is thriving, even in and especially in a tough economy.

Also on the Forbes Rich List, you will find Michael Dell, of Dell Computers weighing in on the Rich List at a cool $12.3 billion. Mr. Dell is among the youngest members of the Forbes Rich List, at age 44.

In fact, many of the Forbes Rich List members are over the age of 60, with a considerable number of the top 50 richest billionaires in the world over 70-80 years of age.

Another interesting fact to note is the number of times some of the Forbes Rich List members have been married. Many on the list are stated to have been married three, four or more times. The Forbes Rich List does note the ones who were widowed, and then how many times each have been divorced, whether or not they are remarried, and how many children they have.

Makes me wonder... perhaps the rich aren't as happy as us poor working class might think!

Like Mr. Dell, other computer or internet related Forbes Rich List members include Larry Page and Sergey Brin, both making the list from Google. Again, much younger members of the Forbes Rich List, being 36 and 35 respectively.

Then comes our Microsoft Billionaires on the Forbes Rich List. Steve Ballmer, Microsoft, weighs in at $11 billion. Paul Allen, also Microsoft, comes in just under that at $10.5 billion. I wonder if he really missed that .5 billion he has less than Allen?

So is there any guess who made the number one spot on the Forbes Rich List?

It came as no surprise to me that, once again, Bill Gates was on the Forbes Rich List. In fact, William (Bill) Gates III is once again considered the richest man in the world. Even though he has stepped down from running Microsoft, and even though he reportedly lost $18 billion last year, he's still capping out at over $40 billion, claiming him that coveted top spot.

You can see the Forbes 50 Richest People in the World by clicking this link.