Home > Terms > English (EN) > millionaires/billionaires
millionaires/billionaires
One million dollars has long seemed the threshold of American plutocracy even if John D. Rockefeller passed the billion dollar mark in 1913. Yet Forbes magazine noted that in 1996 more than 110,000 families reported incomes of over 1 million, while the number of millionaire families topped 5 million at the end of the century and is expected to quadruple by 2010. Reflecting both prosperity and inflation, this benchmark now regularly figures in multimillion dollar contracts for sports figures, Hollywood stars, executives and the “young self-made millionaire” entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley. Yet it is also portrayed as an accessible goal for a typical American person in coverage of lotteries as well as television programs that promise wealth through game shows or televised marriage. Meanwhile, Forbes also noted that their list of billionaires had skyrocketed from 13 in 1982 to 267 Americans in 1999, led by Bill Gates (roughly $100 billion), whose personal charitable foundation alone has assets of over $21 billion. While affirming the American myth of rags to riches, these plateaus also raise questions about equality class and opportunity for many Americans.
- Part of Speech: noun
- Synonym(s):
- Blossary:
- Industry/Domain: Culture
- Category: American culture
- Company: Routledge
- Product:
- Acronym-Abbreviation:
Other Languages:
Member comments
Terms in the News
Billy Morgan
Sports; Snowboarding
The British snowboarder Billy Morgan has landed the sport’s first ever 1800 quadruple cork. The rider, who represented Great Britain in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, was in Livigno, Italy, when he achieved the man-oeuvre. It involves flipping four times, while body also spins with five complete rotations on a sideways or downward-facing axis. The trick ...
Marzieh Afkham
Broadcasting & receiving; News
Marzieh Afkham, who is the country’s first foreign ministry spokeswoman, will head a mission in east Asia, the state news agency reported. It is not clear to which country she will be posted as her appointment has yet to be announced officially. Afkham will only be the second female ambassador Iran has had. Under the last shah’s rule, Mehrangiz Dolatshahi, a ...
Weekly Packet
Language; Online services; Slang; Internet
Weekly Packet or "Paquete Semanal" as it is known in Cuba is a term used by Cubans to describe the information that is gathered from the internet outside of Cuba and saved onto hard drives to be transported into Cuba itself. Weekly Packets are then sold to Cuban's without internet access, allowing them to obtain information just days - and sometimes hours - after it ...
Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)
Banking; Investment banking
The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is an international financial institution established to address the need in Asia for infrastructure development. According to the Asian Development Bank, Asia needs $800 billion each year for roads, ports, power plants or other infrastructure projects before 2020. Originally proposed by China in 2013, a signing ...
Spartan
Online services; Internet
Spartan is the codename given to the new Microsoft Windows 10 browser that will replace Microsoft Windows Internet Explorer. The new browser will be built from the ground up and disregard any code from the IE platform. It has a new rendering engine that is built to be compatible with how the web is written today. The name Spartan is named after the ...
Featured Terms
Hong Kong
Hong Kong (Chinese: 香港) is one of two Special Administrative Regions (SARs) of the People's Republic of China (PRC), the other being Macau. A ...
Contributor
Featured blossaries
Browers Terms By Category
- Contracts(640)
- Home improvement(270)
- Mortgage(171)
- Residential(37)
- Corporate(35)
- Commercial(31)
Real estate(1184) Terms
- Human evolution(1831)
- Evolution(562)
- General archaeology(328)
- Archaeology tools(11)
- Artifacts(8)
- Dig sites(4)
Archaeology(2749) Terms
- Wedding gowns(129)
- Wedding cake(34)
- Grooms(34)
- Wedding florals(25)
- Royal wedding(21)
- Honeymoons(5)
Weddings(254) Terms
- Fuel cell(402)
- Capacitors(290)
- Motors(278)
- Generators(192)
- Circuit breakers(147)
- Power supplies(77)
Electrical equipment(1403) Terms
- Industrial automation(1051)