Surprise! Top of Forbes 400 Are Job Creators

Here is an interesting fact that members of the Obama administration should consider: although there may be a few financiers and hedge fund managers at the top of the Forbes 400 list (the list of the wealthiest people), most of the individuals on it have founded or run companies that have created and maintained tens of millions of jobs.

However, according to the Obama administration, they are neither “paying their fair share" nor did they earn their money on their own.

Bill Gates of Microsoft, Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway and Larry Ellison of Oracle top the list. They are followed by two members of the Koch family, who own one of the largest private companies in America. Three of Sam Walton’s children are among the top 10. The eighth richest person on the list, Sheldon Adelson, runs casinos.

The only financier among the top 10 people on the Forbes list is George Soros.

Relative newcomers to the list also have started companies with large employee bases. This includes Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Google, Micheal Dell of Dell and Steve Ballmer of Microsoft. These tech companies are part of the services sector that has created jobs and continues to do so as the U.S. manufacturing base keeps eroding.

These facts are particularly interesting when one considers the claim made by members of the administration that the wealthy are simply hoarding all the money and not “paying their fair share.”

The late, great economist Milton Friedman postulated that the wealthy do not simply sit on their assets. Many of them invest in ventures that produce goods or services, which creates the need for more labor (human capital) and so on.

According to several economists, successful private sector entrepreneurs are more likely to achieve profitable job-creating conclusions with their investments than government entities because they have a genuine concern for the success of the venture.

Through prudent money management and gambling on winning investments, the wealthy are able to create a significant number of jobs. Perhaps it would then be in the country's best interest to allow them to keep the money they earned so that they may continue to reinvest it in job-creating solutions:

1. Bill Gates, Microsoft: 90,000 Employees

2 Warren Buffet, Nebraska Berkshire Hathaway: 260,519 Employees

3. Larry Ellison, California Oracle: 108,429 Employees

4. Charles Koch, Kansas diversified: 70,000 Employees

5. David Koch, New York diversified: 70,000 Employees

6. Christy Walton, Wal-Mart: 2,100,000 Employees

7. George Soros, New York hedge funds

8. Sheldon Adelson, Las Vegas Sands Corp: 12,230 Employees

9. Jim Walton, Wal-Mart: 2,100,000 Employees (this is the same number as entered for number 6 on this list; it is not to be confused as being an additional 2.1 million jobs)

10. Alice Walton, Wal-Mart: 2,100,000 Employees (this is the same number as entered for number 6 on this list; it is not to be confused as being an additional 2.1 million jobs)

(Douglas A. McIntyre/Becket Adams --24/7 Wall St./The Blaze)