• California businessman Glenn Stearns, the star of the Discovery Channel's "Undercover Billionaire," built his fortune after founding the mortgage lender Stearns Lending at age 25.
• Stearns Holdings, the parent company that owns Stearns Lending, filed for bankruptcy in July, USA Today reported.
• Stearns once owned a superyacht, a three-story French chateau in Newport Beach, California, and a house in Fiji.
• Stearns and his wife Mindy starred on another reality television show loosely based on "Gilligan's Island" in 2004, according to The Orange County Register.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

California businessman Glenn Stearns may be attempting to build a million-dollar business from scratch in 90 days on the Discovery Channel's "Undercover Billionaire," but he has already experienced enough drama in his real life to fill another reality television show.

Stearns, according to his Discovery Channel profile, had a troubled childhood before going on to found Stearns Lending, the mortgage lending company that has afforded him an opulent lifestyle complete with beachfront mansions and superyachts. After a battle with cancer, Stearns decided to embark on the challenge of growing a million-dollar business from scratch on "Undercover Billionaire."

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A Stearns Lending spokesperson declined to comment on Stearns' personal history and involvement with the company when reached by Business Insider.

Keep reading to learn more about the "Undercover Billionaire" star.

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Stearns had a troubled childhood.

"I wasn't the greatest kid growing up," Stearns said in a 2005 interview with American Executive obtained by Business Insider. "I grew up in a rough neighborhood in Maryland. I could have gone down a much different path if it wasn't for some people who were very influential in guiding me the right way."

Stearns has said he is dyslexic and struggled in school as a result, according to The Orange County Register. Stearns eventually attended Towson University and got a job as a loan officer, according to his interview with American Executive.

Stearns founded Stearns Lending at age 25 in 1989.

Then called First Pacific Financial, the company started off bidding on contracts from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Stearns told American Executive in 2005.

Stearns Lending also provides foreclosure, title, and escrow services, according to The Orange County Register.

The company had annual revenues of over $500 million, according to a 2015 report by the Orange County Business Journal.

Stearns sold 70% of Stearns Lending to Blackstone in 2015, but retains a 29% stake, per USA Today. USA Today also reported that the company has 2,700 employees and is the 20th-largest mortgage lender in the country, as of July.

He predicted the financial crisis.

A reporter for The Orange County Register asked Stearns in a 2007 interview obtained by Business Insider whether a credit crisis was imminent.

"Yes, I think there is. I think the reason is because of the whole knee-jerk reaction in Wall Street and the fact that we have been making bad loans for a while," he replied at the time.

Stearns also expressed concerns about the state of the housing market, which experienced a full-blown meltdown beginning in December 2007.

"I think we are at the very beginning of this still," Stearns told The Orange County Register in 2007. "If you look at this, it's usually a four- or five-year cycle of property values increasing or decreasing. We are really, what, in the first year of this."

His wife Mindy is best known for being "discovered" during a 1996 appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," in which she made animal noises.

Oprah first noticed Mindy in her audience after overhearing the Oregon native making animal sounds, according to the Willamette Week.

Mindy worked as a dental hygienist but was offered a job as a presenter at a radio station in Saginaw, Michigan, the Associated Press reported in 2004. She went on to appear on several VH1 specials and work as a reporter for "Entertainment Tonight."

The couple first met in a casino in Las Vegas but did not stay in touch, The Orange County Register reported in 2004. Stearns asked her out via email after seeing her on television and later surprised her with a marriage proposal while she was reporting a segment on "Mansions of Southern California."

The couple wed in 2003 and now has two daughters.

"Undercover Billionaire" isn't Stearns' first foray into reality television.

Stearns and his wife starred in the first season of the TBS show "The Real Gilligan's Island," according to Today. The show featured two teams of seven people that filled roles based on the original "Gilligan's Island" characters. The participants were made to compete in various challenges, and during filming, the couple had to live in a 200-square-foot hut in Mexico.

The Stearns were cast in the roles of "the millionaire and his wife," according to The Orange County Register. Stearns was the show's winner and donated the $250,000 cash prize (and an additional $250,000, matched from his own fortune) to charity. 

At the time, the couple lived in a mansion in Newport Beach, California.

The Stearns hosted a viewing party for the season finale of "The Real Gilligan's Island" at their 15,000-square-foot home, according to a 2004 article in The Orange County Register obtained by Business Insider.

The house is a seven-bedroom, three-story French chateau located in Newport Beach's Pelican Hill neighborhood, according to The Orange County Register. The property also features views of the Pacific Ocean and Pelican Hill's golf course.

There is also a swimming pool, a patio with a fire pit, a wine cellar, a spiral staircase, a home theater, and a game room, according to The Orange County Register. 

The house was originally listed for $23 million was on the market for several years before it was sold for $19.65 million, The Orange County Register reported in 2017.

Stearns has since moved out of Orange County.

Stearns now resides in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 

The town is known for being a favorite skiing destination for billionaires and celebrities, Business Insider previously reported.

Stearns also owned a home in Fiji, he told The Orange County Register in a 2004 interview.

Read more: A 3-day trip to Jackson Hole during what I thought would be the low season ended up being a valuable lesson in writing off ski towns as winter-only destinations

Stearns said he paid $250,000 for a ticket for a suborbital flight with Virgin Galactic in 2014.

Stearns was one of 700 early customers to do so, The Orange County Register reported in 2014. Other buyers include Leonardo DiCaprio, Ashton Kutcher, Justin Bieber, and the Winklevoss twins.

Mindy wasn't as excited about space exploration as Stearns, he told The Orange County Register in 2014.

"She said, 'Get your affairs in order — your life insurance,'" Stearns told the Register. "It was sort of joking, sort of not."

Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson is "good friends" with Stearns.

"Glenn maintained his legendary humor throughout his illness," Branson wrote in a 2015 blog post about Stearns' battle with cancer, "and [Glenn and Mindy] joked about wishing [Glenn] could have a strong margarita before beginning his treatment."

Read more: Richard Branson, who turns 69 today, is sitting on a $4 billion fortune but reportedly wears the same jeans every day — see how the eccentric billionaire spends his money

The Stearns family spent 15 months sailing around the world on a superyacht.

The Stearns made the trip on a 58-meter yacht named Minderella, Mindy told Boat International in 2018.

The couple had the boat refitted before taking off. The renovations included enlarging the spa pool so it fit eight people instead of two, hanging hammocks on the deck, and installing a deep fryer to make French fries.

Mindy told Boat International that the couple's daughters were homeschooled on board in the mornings.

The best part of the trip, according to Mindy, was that the entire family ate every single meal together — something that her husband's busy schedule normally would have prohibited.

Stearns said a fight with cancer inspired him to take on the challenge of "Undercover Billionaire."

"I'd had cancer," Stearns previously told Business Insider. He decided to do "Undercover Billionaire" because "life is short and I don't want to have my last breath and have regrets [about wanting] to see if I could build a business." 

On the show, Stearns goes to Erie, Pennsylvania, to see if he can create a million-dollar business in 90 days with only $100, a cell phone, and an old pickup truck, and without any of his business connections. He hid his true identity and assumed the alias of "Glenn Bryant," a "regular guy" who had always dreamed of starting a business and was participating in a new TV show called "The American Dream."

Read more: Discovery's 'Undercover Billionaire' explains how recovering from cancer inspired him to try and turn $100 into a million-dollar business in 90 days on TV

Despite Stearns' financial savvy, his company filed for bankruptcy in July 2019.

The company was struggling with a large amount of debt and an increase in interest rates, according to USA Today. The company had already cut jobs and reduced its annual expenses by 40% in an attempt to stay afloat, court documents analyzed by USA Today show.

However, Stearns might not actually be a billionaire.

Discovery Channel pegged Stearns' net worth at over $1 billion — hence the name of the show. However, we were not able to independently verify that figure, as Business Insider's Nathan McAlone reported in July ahead of the series' premiere.

The Orange County Register previously reported that the Stearns had a net worth of "about $500 million" when they appeared on "The Real Gilligan's Island" in 2004.

• In a final message written shortly before his death last week at 91, the oil magnate T. Boone Pickens shared the lessons he learned about how to succeed in business and in life.
• Pickens said he credited his success to his ability to take responsibility for his mistakes.
• He also encouraged his followers to be generous with their money.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

In a message he wrote shortly before his death, the legendary oil magnate T. Boone Pickens recalled the lessons he learned about how to succeed in business and in life over nearly a century on Earth.

The oil magnate died on September 11 at 91. Pickens made his billion-dollar fortune after founding the oil and gas company Mesa Petroleum, later starting the hedge fund BP Capital Management.

Before his death, Pickens wrote a letter, recently released by the T. Boone Pickens Foundation. Chief among the lessons in it is to take responsibility for your failures (and successes). Recalling his grandmother's advice, Pickens said he never blamed other people for his mistakes in the 50 years he ran his business.

Read more:Oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens has died. Here are the lessons he used to guide his career.

"My failures? I never have any doubt whom they can be traced back to," Pickens wrote. "My successes? Most likely the same guy."

He addressed the letter to his "followers"— 1.9 million on LinkedIn and 145,000 on Twitter, the latter of which he credited to his viral "feud" with the rapper Drake in 2012.

He said he would give up "my wealth and success, my 68,000-acre ranch and private jet" for a chance to start his life over.

The oil magnate also wrote that he aimed to be as generous as possible with his wealth during his life. The philanthropist donated his money to various Republican politicians, and he signed The Giving Pledge in 2010, promising to give his wealth to charity after his death.

"I liked knowing that I helped a lot of people," Pickens wrote. "I received letters every day thanking me for what I did, the change I fostered in other people's lives."

Here's T. Boone Pickens' full letter:

If you are reading this, I have passed on from this world — not as big a deal for you as it was for me.

In my final months, I came to the sad reality that my life really did have a fourth quarter and the clock really would run out on me. I took the time to convey some thoughts that reflect back on my rich and full life.

I was able to amass 1.9 million Linkedin followers. On Twitter, more than 145,000 (thanks, Drake). This is my goodbye to each of you.

One question I was asked time and again: What is it that you will leave behind?

That's at the heart of one of my favorite poems, "Indispensable Man," which Saxon White Kessinger wrote in 1959. Here are a few stanzas that get to the heart of the matter:

Sometime when you feel that your going

Would leave an unfillable hole,

Just follow these simple instructions

And see how they humble your soul;

Take a bucket and fill it with water,

Put your hand in it up to the wrist,

Pull it out and the hole that's remaining

Is a measure of how you'll be missed.

You can splash all you wish when you enter,

You may stir up the water galore,

But stop and you'll find that in no time

It looks quite the same as before.

You be the judge of how long the bucket remembers me.

I've long recognized the power of effective communication. That's why in my later years I began to reflect on the many life lessons I learned along the way, and shared them with all who would listen.

Fortunately, I found the young have a thirst for this message. Many times over the years, I was fortunate enough to speak at student commencement ceremonies, and that gave me the chance to look out into a sea of the future and share some of these thoughts with young minds. My favorite of these speeches included my grandchildren in the audience.

What I would tell them was this Depression-era baby from tiny Holdenville, Oklahoma — that wide expanse where the pavement ends, the West begins, and the Rock Island crosses the Frisco — lived a pretty good life.

In those speeches, I'd always offer these future leaders a deal: I would trade them my wealth and success, my 68,000-acre ranch and private jet, in exchange for their seat in the audience. That way, I told them, I'd get the opportunity to start over, experience every opportunity America has to offer.

It's your shot now.

If I had to single out one piece of advice that's guided me through life, most likely it would be from my grandmother, Nellie Molonson. She always made a point of making sure I understood that on the road to success, there's no point in blaming others when you fail.

Here's how she put it:

"Sonny, I don't care who you are. Some day you're going to have to sit on your own bottom."

After more than half a century in the energy business, her advice has proven itself to be spot-on time and time again. My failures? I never have any doubt whom they can be traced back to. My successes? Most likely the same guy.

Never forget where you come from. I was fortunate to receive the right kind of direction, leadership, and work ethic — first in Holdenville, then as a teen in Amarillo, Texas, and continuing in college at what became Oklahoma State University. I honored the values my family instilled in me, and was honored many times over by the success they allowed me to achieve.

I also long practiced what my mother preached to me throughout her life — be generous. Those values came into play throughout my career, but especially so as my philanthropic giving exceeded my substantial net worth in recent years.

For most of my adult life, I've believed that I was put on Earth to make money and be generous with it. I've never been a fan of inherited wealth. My family is taken care of, but I was far down this philanthropic road when, in 2010, Warren Buffet and Bill Gates asked me to take their Giving Pledge, a commitment by the world's wealthiest to dedicate the majority of their wealth to philanthropy. I agreed immediately.

I liked knowing that I helped a lot of people. I received letters every day thanking me for what I did, the change I fostered in other people's lives. Those people should know that I appreciated their letters.

My wealth was built through some key principles, including:

• A good work ethic is critical.
• Don't think competition is bad, but play by the rules. I loved to compete and win. I never wanted the other guy to do badly; I just wanted to do a little better than he did.
• Learn to analyze well. Assess the risks and the prospective rewards, and keep it simple.
• Be willing to make decisions. That's the most important quality in a good leader: Avoid the "Ready-aim-aim-aim-aim" syndrome. You have to be willing to fire.
• Learn from mistakes. That's not just a cliché. I sure made my share. Remember the doors that smashed your fingers the first time and be more careful the next trip through.
• Be humble. I always believed the higher a monkey climbs in the tree, the more people below can see his ass. You don't have to be that monkey.
• Don't look to government to solve problems — the strength of this country is in its people.
• Stay fit. You don't want to get old and feel bad. You'll also get a lot more accomplished and feel better about yourself if you stay fit. I didn't make it to 91 by neglecting my health.
• Embrace change. Although older people are generally threatened by change, young people loved me because I embraced change rather than running from it. Change creates opportunity.
• Have faith, both in spiritual matters and in humanity, and in yourself. That faith will see you through the dark times we all navigate.

Over the years, my staff got used to hearing me in a meeting or on the phone asking, "Whaddya got?" That's probably what my Maker is asking me about now.

Here's my best answer.

I left an undying love for America, and the hope it presents for all. I left a passion for entrepreneurship, and the promise it sustains. I left the belief that future generations can and will do better than my own.

Thank you. It's time we all move on.

SEE ALSO: Take a look inside the 100-square-mile Texas ranch that T. Boone Pickens, the oil magnate who just died at 91, listed for $250 million in 2017

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Anna Kasprzak is one of the richest millennials in the world and one of only eight billionaires under 30 years old. with a net worth of $1.1 billion, according to Forbes.
• She is an heir to the Danish ECCO shoe fortune, along with her brother André Kasprzak and their mother Hanni Toosbuy Kasprzak.
• In 1963, Anna's grandfather, Karl Toosbuy, started ECCO in Bredebro, Denmark. 
• The company now makes a reported $1.46 billion in sales, according to Forbes.
• While Hanni and André sit on the board of the family company, Anna remains more removed. She is an accomplished Olympic dressage horseback rider, and she even runs her own stables.
• Here's what we know about the somewhat reclusive life of Anna Kasprzak.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

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Anna Kasprzak is one of the richest billionaires under 30 years old, according to Forbes.

Source: Forbes

Her $1 billion fortune comes mostly from her partial ownership of ECCO — a shoe company based in Denmark.

Source: Forbes

Kasprzak's grandfather, Karl Toosbuy, started the company in 1963.

Source: ECCO

Toosbuy was a shoemaker by trade and managed a shoe factory in Copenhagen by the time he was in his early 30s.

Source: ECCO

He wanted his own company, so in 1962 Karl and his wife Birte took out an ad in Jyllands-Posten — a newspaper in Denmark — asking, "Who wants us?" They were looking for some business partners.

Source: ECCO

By 1963, the company was fully established — they were able to hire 74 employees in the year following.

Source: Associated Press, World Ocean Council, ECCO

The company has since grown drastically — it expanded into the US market in 1994, when it was named Footwear Company of the Year.

Source: ECCO

Today, the ECCO company makes around $1.46 billion in sales, according to Forbes.

Source: Forbes

Kasprzak is part owner of the company — along with her mother Hanni Toosbuy Kasprzak and brother André Kasprzak — but running the business isn't her full-time job.

Source: ECCO

The heiress is actually a professional horseback rider. She competes in a sport called dressage riding where the goal is for the rider to train the horse to respond to subtle commands.

Source: United States Dressage Federation

She is part of the Danish national team, which allows her to travel internationally for competitions ...

Source: Getty Images, Kasprzak Dressage

... and she has also attended 12 Olympic Games.

Source: Olympics

Kasprzak has not yet medaled in the Olympics, but she has had success at other tournaments and dressage events like the CHIO Aachen in 2017. Also in 2017, her national team took home the silver medal at the FEI European Championships.

Source: Olympics, CHIO Aachen

Kasprzak also runs a private dressage barn in Haderslev, Denmark. Some of the horses at the barn are already trained and have been competing with Kasprzak, while others are still being "educated."

Source: Forbes, Kasprzak Dressage

"These horses are top athletes, and if we want to deliver results, we need horses that are healthy and strong — physically as well as mentally," Kasprzak said. "I take great pride in working with this dimension of the sport."

Source: Kasprzak Dressage

Her website also says the team at Kasprzak Dressage believes no two horses are alike. "I spend a lot of time getting to know my horses and understanding their personalities," she said.

Source: Kasprzak Dressage

Kasprzak and her brother seem to share a love of sports. He was a professional golfer, according to Forbes, and joined the ECCO board in 2017 — their mother is the chairman of the supervisory board.

Source: ECCO Shoes, Forbes, ECCO

Kasprzak is a mother herself — her daughter was born in the spring of 2018.

Source: Eurodressage

While not much is known about the rider, aside from her athletic profession and involvement with her barn ...

Source: Forbes

... we do know that her inheritance has placed her among the top 8 billionaires under 30.

Source: Forbes, Insider

• In a rare move toward transparency, Facebook livestreamed its employee Q&A session on Thursday evening.
• It covered a wide range of topics, but one particularly interesting question concerned Sen. Bernie Sanders' recent statement that "I don't think that billionaires should exist."
• Zuckerberg, a billionaire, partially agreed with Sanders. "On some level, no one deserves to have that much money," he said. "I think if you do something that's good, you get rewarded. But I do think some of the wealth that can be accumulated is unreasonable."
• "I think you can think at the same time both that it's unfair that any individual might have that much wealth, yet still think that it's better for everyone that there's choice and competition of the ideas that get pushed out there," he said.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is a billionaire many times over — somewhere in the range of $70 billion, according to this year's Forbes 400.

In September, 2020 US presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders made a declarative statement about billionaires in an interview with The New York Times: "I don't think that billionaires should exist."

When Sanders said as much, he was explaining his plans for a wealth tax and a National Wealth Registry. "This proposal does not eliminate billionaires, but it eliminates a lot of the wealth that billionaires have," he said, "and I think that's exactly what we should be doing."

On Thursday, in a rare move toward transparency within Facebook, the social media giant livestreamed its employee Q&A for anyone to see — and one brave employee asked Zuckerberg about being a billionaire.

"As the only billionaire I can consult this matter on, Mark, what is your perspective on Senator Sanders' statement?" he asked.

"I understand where he's coming from," Zuckerberg said. "I don't know if I have an exact threshold on what amount of money someone should have. But on some level, no one deserves to have that much money. I think if you do something that's good, you get rewarded. But I do think some of the wealth that can be accumulated is unreasonable."

Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have pledged to give away much of that vast wealth across their lifetimes through their philanthropic organization. But, as Zuckerberg pointed out, this type of philanthropy from the ultra-rich is widely criticized as a small group of unelected wealthy people choosing what does and doesn't get funded.

Read more: Mark Zuckerberg livestreamed his latest Facebook employee Q&A and blamed an intern for leaking the last one

"We're funding science for example," he said, in a reference to the philanthropic organization he and Chan run. "And some people would say 'Is it fair that a group of wealthy people get to, to some degree, choose which science projects get worked on?' I don't know how to answer that exactly."

Zuckerberg then made the argument for philanthropy and, more broadly, for the approach to philanthropy taken by billionaires like Zuckerberg.

"The alternative would be the government chooses all of the funding for all the stuff," he said. "What I worry about a little bit when I hear sentiments like what the Senator suggested is the suggestion that this should all be done publicly, I think, would deprive the market and world of a diversity of different attempts that can be taken."

This free market argument is a foundational belief in Libertarianism — that choice in the market is more important than government regulation. Sanders' wealth tax is a refutation of that philosophy that intends to impose strict financial regulation on the wealthiest Americans.

Zuckerberg believes you can have it both ways. 

"I think you can think at the same time both that it's unfair that any individual might have that much wealth, yet still think that it's better for everyone that there's choice and competition of the ideas that get pushed out there," he said.

Check out the full Q&A right here:

SEE ALSO: Bernie Sanders says billionaires shouldn't exist as he rolls out a wealth-tax plan that's even more aggressive than Elizabeth Warren's

Join the conversation about this story »

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• A recent slash of Juul's valuation stripped cofounders Adam Bowen and James Monsees of their billionaire status, Forbes' Sergei Klebnikov reported October 4.
• Bown and Monsees are now worth $900 million apiece, Forbes estimates.
• The e-cigarette maker is reportedly under criminal investigation by the US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California amid widespread public concern about its marketing tactics and the long-term health impacts of its products amid a rising number of vaping-related illnesses and deaths.
• On September 25, Juul announced that CEO Kevin Burnes had resigned and that it would stop advertising in the US.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Juul cofounders Adam Bowen and James Monsees are no longer billionaires, according to Forbes estimates. 

The majority of the pair's respective net worths are tied to their 1.75% stakes in the e-cigarette maker, Forbes' Sergei Klebnikov reported. One of the company's biggest investors, hedge fund Darsana Capital Partners, reportedly cut the company's valuation by more than a third on October 3, slicing Bowen and Monsees' net worths, too. The pair first became billionaires in December 2018.

Juul did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment on Bowen and Monsees' net worths or their status as billionaires.

Read more: The precarious path of e-cig startup Juul: From Silicon Valley darling to $38 billion behemoth under criminal investigation

Juul is now worth $24 billion, down from the $38 billion valuation the company hit after an investment from tobacco maker Altria in December 2018, Markets Insider previously reported. Altria's $13 billion investment made Bowen and Monsees billionaires for nearly ten months, according to Forbes estimates. 

The pair founded Juul after meeting on smoke breaks while studying product design at Stanford University in 2004, Business Insider previously reported. Ploom, a precursor to Juul, was launched in 2007 and first released Juul products in 2015. The company's Juul line was spun into a separate firm in 2017.

Juul has faced widespread public concern over its youth-focused marketing and the long-term health impacts of its products amid a rising number of vaping-related illnesses and deaths. The Trump administration is currently exploring a ban on flavored vaping products, The Wall Street Journal reported. Such products are responsible for nearly 80% of Juul's sales in the US, according to The Journal. The e-cigarette maker is also reportedly under criminal investigation by the US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California.

Juul CEO Kevin Burnes resigned on September 25. Juul also said it would suspend US advertising and some lobbying efforts. Additionally, the company is preparing to scale back its staff, The Wall Street Journal reported on September 24.

SEE ALSO: Forever 21 just filed for bankruptcy — and the husband and wife duo who founded it have lost nearly $4 billion from their personal net worths since 2015

DON'T MISS: Mysterious vaping illnesses are causing life-threatening lung injuries and death. Here’s what we know about the people who have been affected so far.

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• In 2018, billionaires paid 23% of their income in federal, state, and local taxes, while the average American paid 28%.
• That's according to an analysis of tax data by the University of California at Berkeley's Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman for their upcoming book "The Triumph of Injustice."
• Between 1950 and 1980, billionaires paid more than 50% of their income in taxes each year, according to Saez and Zucman.
• Saez and Zucman, who also serve as advisers to Sen. Elizabeth Warren's presidential campaign, have proposed a moderate wealth tax as a solution to the US's growing wealth gap.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

In 2018, billionaires paid a smaller portion of their income in taxes than average Americans. That's the first time that has happened in history.

Billionaires paid 23% of their income in federal, state, and local taxes in 2018, according to an analysis of tax data by the University of California at Berkeley's Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman for their upcoming book "The Triumph of Injustice." The average American, meanwhile, paid 28%.

"The US tax system is a giant flat tax — except at the top, where it's regressive," Saez and Zucman wrote in "The Triumph of Injustice.""As a group, and although their individual situations are not all the same, the Trumps, the Zuckerbergs, and the Buffetts of this world pay lower taxes than the teachers and secretaries."

Payroll taxes and regressive sales taxes increase poorer Americans' overall tax burden, according to Saez and Zucman, while capital taxes that target investments typically held by the ultrawealthy have been scaled back since 1980. Between 1950 and 1980, billionaires paid more than 50% in taxes, Saez and Zucman found.

Read more: The racial wealth gap in the US keeps getting bigger — and it could cost the economy as much as $1.5 trillion by 2028

The billionaire investor Warren Buffett wrote in The New York Times in 2011 that the percentage of his income that he pays in taxes has plummeted in recent decades, saying that he pays a lower tax rate than his secretary.

"Last year my federal tax bill — the income tax I paid, as well as payroll taxes paid by me and on my behalf — was $6,938,744," Buffet wrote in The Times. "That sounds like a lot of money. But what I paid was only 17.4 percent of my taxable income — and that's actually a lower percentage than was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office. Their tax burdens ranged from 33 percent to 41 percent and averaged 36 percent."

The wealth gap in America is widening, and even billionaires agree that the system that created their wealth is unsustainable

The top 1% of Americans own 40% of the country's wealth, Zucman wrote in a paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research in February.

Several billionaires, including JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio, have said the current levels of inequality are unsustainable, Business Insider previously reported.

Income inequality is at the highest level ever recorded, the US Census Bureau said in September. Real median household income grew 0.8%, to $61,937, in 2018, the smallest increase in three years, according to the Census Bureau. The majority of the US economy's growth over the past decade has gone to the wealthy and the owners of financial instruments, Timothy Smeeding, a professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison who studies poverty and economic mobility, previously told Business Insider.

Saez and Zucman have proposed a moderate wealth tax as a solution to the US's growing wealth gap

Saez and Zucman also serve as advisers to Sen. Elizabeth Warren's presidential campaign. One of the most frequently cited wealth-tax proposals, Warren's "Ultra-Millionaire Tax," calls for a 2% annual tax on households with a net worth between $50 million and $1 billion and a 3% annual tax on households with a net worth over $1 billion.

The idea has support from ultrawealthy and ordinary Americans alike: An Insider poll showed that more than half of the Americans surveyed support Warren's wealth-tax proposal. Saez and Zucman found in a study published by the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity that if a moderate wealth tax had been introduced in 1982, Jeff Bezos' fortune would be half what it was in 2018. Bill Gates, meanwhile, would be $61 billion less rich.

Fellow presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders unveiled a wealth tax that's even more aggressive than Warren's, telling The New York Times in September that "I don't think that billionaires should exist."

Read more:Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren both rolled out tax proposals in hopes of closing the wealth gap. Here's a side-by-side comparison that shows exactly how they stack up.

Such proposals have been hampered by questions over the effectiveness and the constitutionality of such taxes, Business Insider previously reported.

SEE ALSO: Here's how much money America's 10 wealthiest people would have if the US had a moderate wealth tax

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• Out of the 265,490 people worth more than $30 million a piece on the planet, only 38,700 are women, according to the research firm Wealth-X's 2019 World Ultra-Wealth Report.
• That's an all-time high.
• The number of women who made their own fortunes is increasing, too.
• However, wealthy women tend to be less rich than the average ultra-high net worth individual.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Just one out of every seven individuals worth more than $30 million in 2018 is a woman, a report by research firm Wealth-X found.

And that's the most it has ever been.

"I think what we're seeing is that over the years women are becoming increasingly entrepreneurial," Wealth-X Director of Thought Leadership & Analytics Maya Imberg told Business Insider. "Over a long time period, that began to show itself within the data of who makes up the ultra-wealthy."

Out of the 265,490 ultra-wealthy people on the planet, defined by Wealth-X as those with net worths over $30 million, 38,700 are women, according to the research firm's 2019 World Ultra-Wealth Report. The share of ultra-high net worth individuals who are women jumps to 18.8% when only those under 50 are studied, suggesting that women's share of the 1% will continue to increase with time.

Read more: Luck vs. skill: The founders behind major businesses like Bumble, Shopify, and Away explain what their success boils down to — and they all have different takes

Wealthy women used to primarily inherit their fortunes; now, they're also building them on their own

In past decades, ultra-high net worth women primarily inherited their fortunes, according to Wealth-X. Increasing numbers of female entrepreneurs are directly correlated with increasing numbers of ultra-wealthy women, Imberg told Business Insider.

However, women still face substantial headwinds when launching their own companies, Business Insider's Megan Hernbroth previously reported. In the first half of 2019, investment in female-founded startups accounted for 2.9% of total venture investments. That figure put 2019 on track to be the best fundraising year for female founders ever.

Entrepreneurship is one of the most common ways to create wealth. The proportion of the ultra-wealthy who made their own fortunes has been on the rise throughout the past decade, reaching over 67% in 2018, according to Wealth-X.

Tadashi Yanai, the founder of Uniqlo and the richest man in Japan, said in August that his job as the founder of one of the fastest-growing clothing retailers on the planet is actually "more suitable for a woman" because women are more "persevering, detailed oriented and have an aesthetic sense."

Wealthy women also tend to be less rich than the average ultra-high net worth individual, Wealth-X found. While women comprise 14.6% of the world's ultra-high net worth population, they hold only 10.3% of that group's cumulative wealth. This wealth gap is even more significant in ultra-wealthy people over age 70.

• Read more about the world's richest people:
• Here's how much money America's 10 wealthiest people would have if the US had a moderate wealth tax
• Extroverted, but not neurotic: Here's how the ultra-wealthy score on personality tests
• From Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg to Oracle's Safra Catz, these are the 23 richest self-made women in tech in the US
• The 10 most common hobbies among the richest people in world, from aviation to real estate

SEE ALSO: Melinda Gates just promised to put $1 billion towards gender equality over the next 10 years, and she says she has 3 priorities she wants to focus on

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• The average net worth of China's richest 1,800 people rose 10% over 2018 to $1.4 billion, according to the Hurun Report, which tracks the country's wealthy.
• The number of businesspeople on the list from the tech, pharma and food industries rose, while those from manufacturing declined.
• In contrast to the United States and Europe, where the ranks of the richest people are dominated by inherited wealth, almost everyone on the Chinese list is self-made.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

BEIJING (AP) — China's richest businesspeople got richer in 2019 despite a tariff war with Washington and an economic slowdown, a survey showed Thursday.

The average net worth of China's richest 1,800 people rose 10% over 2018 to $1.4 billion, according to the Hurun Report, which tracks the country's wealthy.

Jack Ma, who retired last month as chairman of e-commerce giant Alibaba, was No. 1 for a second year with a net worth of $39 billion. Ma Huateng of Tencent, a games and social media company, was second at $37 billion, up 8%.
The results reflect the importance of China's consumer market at a time when U.S. tariff hikes have battered export-oriented manufacturing.

The number of businesspeople on the list from the tech, pharma and food industries rose while those from manufacturing declined.

"Wealth is concentrating into the hands of those who are able to adapt to the digital economy," said Rupert Hoogewerf, the report's founder and chief researcher, in a statement.

Almost everyone on the list of the wealthiest people in China is self-made

In contrast to the United States and Europe, where the ranks of the richest people are dominated by inherited wealth, almost everyone on the Chinese list is self-made.

Hoogewerf noted that when the survey began two decades ago, mainland China had no dollar billionaires.
Real estate developer Xu Jiayin, No. 1 in 2017, dropped to third place with $30 billion.

Sun Piaoyang and Zhong Huijuan, a married couple, were No. 5 at $25 billion after their drug company, Hansoh, debuted on the Hong Kong stock exchange. Hansoh makes treatments for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Pharma tycoons account for 8% of this year's list, double the share 10 years ago, according to Hurun.

The net worth of Ren Zhengfei, founder of smartphone maker Huawei Technologies Ltd., which is at the center of a struggle between Washington and Beijing over technology development, rose 24% to $3 billion. He climbed 36 places on the Hurun list to No. 162.

Huawei, which also makes network switching gear, said sales rose 23.2% over a year earlier in the first half of 2019. The company has warned, however, that it will "face difficulties" as curbs on its access to U.S. components and technology take effect.

Consumer industries benefited from an 8.4% rise in retail spending in the first half of 2019. That was despite a decline in economic growth to a 26-year low of 6.2%.

Qin Yinglin and Qian Ying, a married couple who own Muyuan Foods, a pig breeder, profited from an outbreak of African swine fever that pushed up pork prices. Their net worth tripled to $14 billion.

The list included 156 people under age 40, an increase of 24 names from last year.

Colin Huang, 39, of e-commerce company Pinduoduo, ranked No. 7 with $19 billion four years after founding his company.

"Nobody in the world has ever made that much from a standing start," said Hoogewerf.

SEE ALSO: Inside Jack Ma's 60,000-person retirement party, which was held in an Olympic stadium and featured employee performances that made Ma cry

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• Forbes estimates that former WeWork CEO Adam Neumann's net worth has plummeted from $4.1 billion in March to $600 million as of October 10.
• The $3.5 billion fall in Neumann's fortune was caused by a drop in WeWork's evaluation following its botched IPO, Forbes' Samantha Sharf reported.
• WeWork cofounder Miguel McKelvey also lost his membership in the three comma club between March and October, Forbes estimates.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Adam Neumann is no longer a billionaire, Forbes now estimates.

The former WeWork CEO's net worth has plummeted to $600 million, the magazine estimates, paralleling the plunging valuation of his co-working empire following the company's up-and-down IPO adventure that saw the company whipsaw from a $47 billion valuation to talk of bankruptcy in just 6 weeks. Forbes' Samantha Sharf also reported that Neumann's cofounder, Miguel McKelvey, has also lost his billionaire status.

The $3.5 billion drop in Neumann's personal net worth was the result of the declining value of Neumann's 18% stake in WeWork, Forbes reported. WeWork was valued at $47 billion in January following an investment from Japanese investment firm Softbank. However, the company reportedly sought a valuation as low as $10 billion in September as public scrutiny over its steep losses and leadership structure threatened its IPO. Forbes now estimates that the company is worth "at most $2.8 billion."

A representative for Neumann declined Business Insider's request for comment on whether Neumann's net worth had fallen below $1 billion.

The Forbes calculation of Neumann's net worth includes:

• $504 million stake in WeWork, and
• $500 million he profited from stock sales,
• minus $380 million in debt disclosed in WeWork's S1 filing.

Read more:The WeWork IPO fiasco of 2019, explained in 30 seconds

Forbes does not believe that either Neumann or McKelvey — who the publication says is now worth $400 million — will likely rejoin the three comma club.

Neumann founded WeWork in 2010 alongside his now-wife Rebekah Neumann and Miguel McKelvey. Concern from potential investors over the company's finances and corporate governance issues pushed Neumann to resign as WeWork's CEO on September 24.

Under Neumann's leadership, the company was plagued by a party culture that included alcohol-fueled company retreats and little work-life balance, Business Insider's Meghan Morris and Julie Bort previously reported.

Have you worked for Adam Neumann or WeWork and have a story you'd like to share? Contact the reporter via encrypted messaging app Signal at +1 (646) 768-4725 using a non-work phone, email at trogers@businessinsider.com, or Twitter DM at @TaylorNRogers. (PR pitches by email only, please.)

Read the full report from Forbes >>

SEE ALSO: WeWork cofounder Rebekah Paltrow Neumann is stepping down from her roles at the company. Meet the former actress, who is former CEO Adam Neumann's 'strategic thought partner.'

DON'T MISS: Meet Masayoshi Son, the Japanese billionaire whose SoftBank mega-fund has been reportedly involved in asking Adam Neumann to step down from being WeWork CEO

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• Rebekah Paltrow Neumann cofounded WeWork in 2010 alongside her husband, Adam Neumann, and Miguel McKelvey.
• WeGrow, the private primary school run by Paltrow Neumann inside WeWork's headquarters, will close after the 2018-2019 school year, The Huffington Post's Rebecca Klein reported October 11. Investor pushback led both Paltrow Neumann and Adam Neumann to give up their posts at the company, Bloomberg reported on September 24. 
• Adam Neumann said in a press release on September 24 that he is stepping down as CEO but will remain WeWork's chairman.
• WeWork first began to strip back Paltrow Neumann's influence over the company in September, removing her from succession planning in the event of the death of her husband and banning her and members of the Neumann family from serving on the board, a document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission September 13 shows.
• The couple was previously reported to have a net worth of at least $4.1 billion, according to a Forbes estimate from March 2019. On October 10, Forbes officially lowered its estimate of Neumann's wealth to $600 million.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Rebekah Paltrow Neumann once wanted to be an actress, she told Fast Company. Later, she became a certified yoga instructor.

She went on to become the chief brand and impact officer of The We Company, before investor pushback led both her and her husband, former CEO Adam Neumann, to relinquish their titles, Bloomberg's Michelle Davis, Ellen Huet, and Gillian Tan reported September 24.

Now, the private primary school Paltrow Neumann headed inside WeWork's headquarters plans to shutter at the end of the school year, The Huffington Post's Rebecca Klein reported October 11.

WeWork first began to strip back her influence over the company in September after filing to go public in August. The company removed her from succession planning in the event of the death of her husband and banned her and members of the Neumann family from serving on the board, a document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission September 13 shows.

Paltrow Neumann cofounded the company — originally known by its most famous business, WeWork — alongside her husband, Adam Neumann, and Miguel McKelvey in 2010. She was also an early employee at the first coworking company Adam Neumann and McKelvey founded, Greendesk, according to Fast Company.

Read more:Before he was a billionaire, WeWork CEO Adam Neumann was broke. Here's the NYC building where he and his wife lived in a tiny apartment before he built a $47 billion company

Neumann declined to comment through a WeWork representative.

Keep reading for a look at the life of Rebekah Paltrow Neumann.

Have you worked for Rebekah Neumann or WeWork and have a story you'd like to share? Contact the reporter via encrypted messaging app Signal at +1 (646) 768-4725 using a non-work phone, email at trogers@businessinsider.com, or Twitter DM at @TaylorNRogers. (PR pitches by email only, please.)

SEE ALSO: WeWork is about to publicly file its IPO paperwork — here’s how its CEO, Adam Neumann, spends his billions

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MORE ANALYSIS: These are the drastic leadership challenges CEOs like WeWork's Adam Neumann can expect after taking their companies public

Rebekah Paltrow Neumann is described in The We Company's S-1 filing as one of the cofounders and former CEO Adam Neumann's "strategic thought partner."

"Rebekah has been a strategic thought partner to Adam since our founding and has actively shaped the mission and strategy of The We Company and its global impact agenda, as well as being the primary voice and leading advocate for the We brand,"the filing says.

"Rebekah has never been paid a salary from us," it says.

Paltrow Neumann, 41, is a graduate of Cornell University.

She's a native of Bedford, New York, according to New York magazine.

She majored in business and earned a minor in Buddhism, according to her profile on WeGrow's website.

Paltrow Neumann worked as a trader at the investment bank Salomon Smith Barney before coming to WeWork, Fast Company reported.

She has also dabbled in acting, appearing in several films.

Paltrow Neumann has long had spiritual pursuits — she reportedly once attended the Dalai Lama's birthday party.

Paltrow Neumann has a certification in Jivamukti yoga and has traveled around the world to practice yoga, her profile on WeGrow's website says.

She even once attended a birthday party for the Dalai Lama, according to Fast Company.

Paltrow Neumann is married to the WeWork cofounder Adam Neumann, but they didn't try to separate work from their relationship.

"We don't have a line at all between work and life," Paltrow Neumann told Fast Company. "It's not even a blurred line. There is no line."

The couple met in 2009, Business Insider previously reported.

"And he walked in, and I saw that he was my soul mate," she told Fast Company about their first meeting. "It's the truth."

Paltrow Neumann also tried to incorporate the couple's five children in their former workplace.

Making her kids feel welcome at WeWork helps Paltrow Neumann balance her career and motherhood, she told Coveteur.

"Kids shouldn't feel like work is something they're not allowed to peek into," she said. "So, for me, the biggest challenge was being able to bring those two worlds together."

Paltrow Neumann also kept a basket of toys for her kids in her office, according to Coveteur.

Paltrow Neumann has made some controversial comments about her relationship with her husband.

"A big part of being a woman is to help men [like Adam] manifest their calling in life," Paltrow Neumann said at WeWork Summer Camp in 2018, according to Property Week.

WeWork faced backlash on Twitter for Paltrow Neumann's statements, but the company declined to comment to CNBC, though it provided more of her remarks from the event for context.

"The reality that I see today is that there is nothing bigger that women can do, in my opinion, than empower their partners," Paltrow Neumann said, WeWork told CNBC, "and that can be a man, a woman, a friend, it doesn't matter, but empower others."

Paltrow Neumann helped her husband quit smoking and drinking soda, tossing his soda and cigarettes down the trash chute of her apartment, they told Fast Company.

After the pair was married, they shared a tiny studio apartment in the East Village.

Adam Neumann discussed his life in the building in an interview with Business Insider's Alyson Shontell and Rich Feloni in May.

A studio apartment in the East Village building was most recently listed for $3,098 a month, and the median monthly rent in the neighborhood was $3,150.

The Neumanns' family office, 166 2nd Financial Services, is named after the building's address, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Read more:Before he was a billionaire, WeWork CEO Adam Neumann was broke. Here's the NYC building where he and his wife lived in a tiny apartment before he built a $47 billion company

The couple now owns several homes in New York.

The Neumanns own a six-bedroom townhouse in New York City's Greenwich Village that has a dedicated "stroller parking garage,"according to New York magazine.

They also reportedly own a 60-acre estate in New York's Westchester County. It has a farm where Paltrow Neumann has brought students from WeGrow, according to Fast Company.

The couple's Hamptons home was purchased for $1.7 million, according to New York magazine.

The Neumanns spend most of their time in New York, but in 2018 they purchased a $21 million house in San Francisco that features a room shaped like a guitar.

They also own some of the commercial properties that house WeWork locations, bringing the estimated value of their entire real-estate portfolio to more than $80 million, per The Wall Street Journal.

Read more:WeWork CEO Adam Neumann dropped $21 million on a San Francisco house with a guitar-shaped room in 2018, and that's just part of his sprawling real-estate portfolio

Paltrow Neumann was responsible for WeWork's focus on wellness, according to Fast Company.

"Rebekah said, 'Stop. No more talking about money,' " Adam Neumann told Fast Company in 2016. "We're going to talk about wellness, happiness, fulfillment, and if the money is supposed to follow, it will. And if it doesn't, it doesn't matter, because we will be happy and fulfilled."

The We Company represents one of the most anticipated IPOs of the year, Business Insider reported. The company encompasses the co-living development WeLive, Paltrow Neumann's WeGrow, the gym Rise by We, and the original WeWork coworking business.

In January, the company was privately valued at $47 billion. As of September 13, however, reports indicate WeWork may be seeking a valuation between $10 and $12 billion in its IPO.

The business of wellness runs in Paltrow Neumann's family: She is related to the actress and wellness icon Gwyneth Paltrow.

Gwyneth Paltrow is Paltrow Neumann's cousin, Business Insider previously reported.

The two once even sat down for an interview for Paltrow's lifestyle blog, Goop, to discuss WeGrow.

Paltrow Neumann was the CEO of WeGrow, a primary school run by WeWork.

She got the idea to add a school to the WeWork network of businesses after being unable to find a school liked for her daughter, she told Goop.

"We had a clear vision of the type of school we wanted her to attend — a place that would not only nurture growth in her mind but also her spirit, a place that had a real culture of kindness, where she would have a real connection to nature, and where her individual gifts, talents, and passions would be recognized and supported," she said.

"Ultimately, we could not find such a place, so we decided to start WeGrow."

The school had approximately 100 students from pre-school to fourth grade during the 2018-2019 school year according to HuffPost. Records from the New York State Education Department show that the school is located on the third floor of WeWork's headquarters.

Read more: A $20 billion startup that rents office space to millennials is opening a grade school inside its offices

In The We Company's S-1 filing, the Neumanns pledged to give $1 billion to charitable causes.

The S-1 says the first contribution of that sort would be for "the conservation of over 20 million acres of intact tropical forest," the same featured on the final page of the document, pictured here.

WeWork slashed Paltrow Neumann's influence over the company in response to concern from potential investors.

Paltrow Neumann was removed from the succession planning in the event of Adam's death as originally planned, the We Company said in a September 13 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All members of Adam Neumann's family, including Paltrow Neumann, were also forbidden from serving on WeWork's board. The decisions were made in "in response to market feedback," according to the filing.

The company also reduced Adam Neumann's voting power from 20 times that of an average shareholder to 10 times that of an average shareholder, the filing shows.

WeWork declined to comment to Business Insider on Paltrow Neumann's role in WeWork's succession plan at the time of the filing.

On September 24, Adam Neumann stepped down from his role as CEO, citing investor concerns. As Business Insider's Ben Gilbert reported, Paltrow Neumann is also giving up her roles at the company.

Paltrow Neumann will remove herself from the company entirely, according to a report by Bloomberg's Michelle Davis, Ellen Huet, and Gillian Tan. Adam Neumann will remain WeWork's non-executive chairman.

"While our business has never been stronger, in recent weeks, the scrutiny directed toward me has become a significant distraction, and I have decided that it is in the best interest of the company to step down as chief executive," Adam Neumann said in a statement.

Business Insider did not immediately receive a response to a request for comment on Paltrow Neumann's employment status.

Read more: Adam Neumann gives up most of his voting power and steps down as WeWork's CEO, saying intense public scrutiny of him was a 'distraction.' 2 execs will permanently replace him.

WeGrow now plans to shut down at the end of the 2018-2019 school year, it announced October 11.

"As part of the company's efforts to focus on its core business, WeWork has informed the families of WeGrow students that we will not operate WeGrow after this school year," a WeWork spokesperson said in a statement to Business Insider. "WeWork and the families of WeGrow students are engaging in discussions with interested parties regarding plans for WeGrow for the following school year."

The elementary school often rearranged school schedules without notice and some parents had already begun looking at other schools for next year even before the closure was announced, according to HuffPost's Rebecca Klein.

Read more: WeWork's school is closing at the end of the academic year as the company ditches passion projects to stem its huge losses

• Billionaire real-estate developer David Walentas just pledged to donate $100 million to his alma mater, the University of Virginia, to fund scholarships for first-generation students.
• The gift will cover UVA's $44,724 tuition for 60 first-generation students from Rochester, New York; New York City; or the Commonwealth of Virginia beginning in 2022, the school said in a statement.
• Walentas, who made a fortune developing real estate in Brooklyn, New York, has a net worth of $2.5 billion, according to Forbes estimates.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Real-estate billionaire David Walentas was the first in his family to earn a college degree. Now, he has pledged $100 million to fund the educations of first-generation students at his alma mater, the University of Virginia, the school announced in a press release on October 12.

"Thanks to a scholarship, I was the first in my family to attend college, and my time at UVA completely changed my life," Walentas said in a statement. "There are so many talented young people in this country – in places like New York City and Rochester, where I grew up — who can help make our society a better place if given the opportunity. I can't wait to see how these first-generation college students change the world."

High schools in Rochester, New York; New York City; and the Commonwealth of Virginia will be able to nominate students for the scholarships. In order to qualify to become a Walentas Scholar beginning in 2022, nominees must be the first in their families to go to college, the University said in a press release. Each year, 60 students will be awarded full scholarships that will cover the cost of college for each year they attend UVA.

A representative for Walentas told Business Insider that the program will cover all of each scholar's school expenses for four years including summer enrichment programs, and is permanently endowed. The estimated total cost of attendance for an out-of-state student was between $64,156 and $65,256 for the 2018-2019 school year, including $44,724 in tuition, according to UVA's website. 

Read more: The billionaire who promised to pay off student loans for an entire graduating class just pledged to pay off their parents' educational loans, too

The new scholarship is one part of UVA's ongoing efforts to attract first-generation students, University President Jim Ryan said in a statement.

Walentas, 81, attended the University of Virginia on an ROTC grant, according to Forbes. Walentas told Forbes' Carter Coudriet that he chose UVA from a list of 50 schools provided by the Armed Forces because he thought it would be easier to get into because it was near the end of the list. After graduating from UVA's Darden School of Business in 1964, Walentas founded real-estate developer Two Trees Management, which is credited for revitalizing the Brooklyn neighborhoods of DUMBO and Williamsburg beginning in the 1970s.

Billionaires around the world are helping college students pay their way through school

Walentas' donation follows a string of high-profile gifts aimed at subsidizing the cost of education around the world.

Private equity billionaire Robert F. Smith pledged to pay off the student loans of Morehouse College's graduating class in May. In September, he expanded the $34 million gift to cover any loans owed by the recent graduates' parents, too.

And in June, Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing pledged to spend $14.4 million each year for the next five years to pay for Shantou University's full tuition. Li Ka-Shing, often referred to as Superman, made his way up from an impoverished childhood in southern China to becoming the richest person in Hong Kong.

Education attracts more donations from the ultra-wealthy than any other cause, with 79.5% of billionaires making donations to education-focused organizations in 2018, according to research firm Wealth-X.

SEE ALSO: WeWork cofounder Rebekah Paltrow Neumann's in-house school is closing. Meet the former actress, who is former CEO Adam Neumann's 'strategic thought partner.'

DON'T MISS: A billionaire agreed to pay off my student loans in full. Here’s what it was like — and how I plan to pay it forward.

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• In an essay published in The New York Times on October 14, Salesforce co-CEO Marc Benioff asked for "higher taxes on the wealthiest among us" to fund education, health care, and climate change.
• Billionaires Bill Gates, financier George Soros, investor Warren Buffett, Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio, Kaufman & Broad cofounder Eli Broad, former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban have all spoken out in favor of higher taxes for the 1%, according to Forbes.
• A January Insider poll showed that more than half of the Americans surveyed support Sen. Elizabeth Warren's wealth tax proposal. The tax would make ultra-wealthy Americans pay the federal government a small percentage of their net worth each year.
• Benioff built a $6.5 billion fortune after founding software developer Salesforce.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Marc Benioff is joining the chorus of billionaires asking for higher taxes on the ultra-wealthy to combat the United States' growing wealth inequality problem.

In an essay published by The New York Times on October 14, Benioff advocates for a new capitalistic system that is better equipped to combat inequality and writes that "higher taxes on the wealthiest among us" could pay for it.

"Local efforts — like the tax I supported last year on San Francisco's largest companies to address our city's urgent homelessness crisis — will help," Benioff wrote in the New York Times. "Nationally, increasing taxes on high-income individuals like myself would help generate the trillions of dollars that we desperately need to improve education and health care and fight climate change."

Benioff built a $6.5 billion fortune after founding software developer Salesforce. Benioff currently serves as the company's co-CEO.

Benioff's essay comes less than two weeks after fellow tech founder Mark Zuckerberg said he partially agreed with Sen. Bernie Sanders' declaration that billionaires should not exist at an employee Q&A session livestreamed by Facebook on October 3.

"On some level, no one deserves to have that much money," Zuckerberg said. "I think if you do something that's good, you get rewarded. But I do think some of the wealth that can be accumulated is unreasonable."

Billionaires Bill Gates, financier George Soros, investor Warren Buffett, Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio, Kaufman & Broad cofounder Eli Broad, former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban have all spoken out in favor of higher taxes for the 1%, according to Forbes. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has said the current levels of inequality are unsustainable but come short of advocating for a tax, Business Insider previously reported.

America's wealth gap is widening

An analysis of tax data by the University of California at Berkeley's Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman for their upcoming book "The Triumph of Injustice" found that billionaires paid a smaller portion of their income in taxes in 2018 than average Americans. Billionaires paid 23% of their income in federal, state, and local taxes in 2018 while the average American paid 28%, Business Insider previously reported.

The top 1% of Americans own 40% of the country's wealth, Zucman wrote in a paper circulated by the National Bureau of Economic Research in February.

Read more: Here's how much money America's 10 wealthiest people would have if the US had a moderate wealth tax

In this climate of a widening wealth gap, presidential candidates and ultra-wealthy Americans alike have expressed support for a wealth tax.

Though Benioff did not name a specific tax proposal, Sen. Elizabeth Warren's "Ultra-Millionaire Tax" is one of the most frequently cited proposals. The plan calls for a 2% annual tax on households with a net worth between $50 million and $1 billion, and a 3% annual tax on households with a net worth over $1 billion.

The idea has support from ultrawealthy and ordinary Americans alike: An Insider poll from January 2019 showed that more than half of the Americans surveyed support Warren's wealth tax proposal.

Saez and Zucman found in a study published by the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity that if a moderate wealth tax had been introduced in 1982, Jeff Bezos' fortune would be half what it was in 2018. Bill Gates, meanwhile, would be $61 billion less rich.

SEE ALSO: Wealth tax explainer: Why Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and billionaires like George Soros alike are calling for a specialized tax on the ultra-wealthy

DON'T MISS: Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren both rolled out tax proposals in hopes of closing the wealth gap. Here's a side-by-side comparison that shows exactly how they stack up.

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• Some of the richest people who currently live in the United States were not born here.
• Several billionaires — including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, real-estate developer Jorge Perez, Panda Express founder Andrew Cherng, and Chobani CEO Hamdi Ulukaya— first came to the United States for college.
• Financier George Soros first immigrated to the UK while fleeing Soviet occupation in his native Hungary, before moving to New York to become a stock trader, Business Insider previously reported.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The United States is home to more billionaires than any other nation, according to research firm Wealth-X— but not all of them were born here.

Several billionaires — including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, real-estate developer Jorge Perez, Panda Express founder Andrew Cherng, and Chobani CEO Hamdi Ulukaya — first came to the United States for college. Others immigrated to the United States with their families as children.

Read more: 13 billionaires who dropped out of college before making their fortunes

Keep reading to learn more about some of the most prominent immigrant billionaires in the country.

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Sergey Brin's family emigrated from the Soviet Union when he was 6.

Net worth: $57.5 billion

Source of wealth: Alphabet

The 46-year-old billionaire founded the search engine now known as Google with Larry Page in a garage in Menlo Park, California, Business Insider previously reported. Brin currently serves as the president of Alphabet, the parent company that owns Google, per Forbes.

Read more: Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are worth more than $100 billion — see how they spend it, from trapeze lessons to a 600-foot 'air yacht'

Hamdi Ulukaya founded the yogurt brand Chobani after emigrating from Turkey to attend college in New York.

Net worth: $2.1 billion

Source of wealth: Chobani

Ulukaya, 46, received a $3,000 loan from the Small Business Administration in 2007 and used it to buy an old yogurt plant in Norwich, New York. Chobani now sells over $1 billion of yogurt annually and is America's most popular brand of Greek yogurt, Forbes reports.

Ulukaya now advocates for companies to get involved in the ongoing refugee crisis, Bloomberg reported in August. Chobani recruits refugees for jobs at its plants and encourages other companies to do the same.

Read more: The Chobani billionaire who turned a $3,000 loan into a yogurt empire calls himself an 'anti-CEO' and thinks other CEOs should do the same

Financier George Soros fled Soviet occupation in his native Hungary in 1947.

Net worth: $8.3 billion

Source of wealth: Quantum Fund

Soros, 88, attended the London School of Economics before moving to New York and getting a job as a stock trader, Business Insider previously reported. Soros went on to found what would later become the world's largest hedge fund, Quantum Fund.

Read more: What George Soros' life is really like: How the former hedge-fund manager built his $8.3 billion fortune, purchased a sprawling network of New York homes, and became the topic of international conspiracy theories

Eren Ozmen, the president of aerospace company Sierra Nevada Corp., immigrated to the United States from Turkey.

Net worth: $1.4 billion

Source of wealth: Sierra Nevada Corp.

Ozmen, 61, and her husband used their house as collateral to purchase Sierra Nevada Corp. in 1994, Forbes reported. Ozmen grew the 20-person company into one of the federal government's largest contractors, having sold billions of dollars of planes, navigation gear, and communications systems to the U.S. Department of Defense.

Miami real estate developer Jorge Perez was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Net worth: $1.9 billion

Source of wealth: The Related Group of Florida

Perez, 69, moved to the United States for college, according to Forbes. Perez worked as an urban planner before partnering with Stephen Ross to launch Miami-based luxury real estate developer The Related Group. 

Read more: People are threatening to quit Equinox and SoulCycle following a report that the chairman of the trendy fitness brands plans to host a Trump fundraiser

Bharat Desai, the founder of IT consulting firm Syntel, was born in Kenya and raised in India.

Net worth: $1.4 billion

Source of wealth: Syntel Inc.

Desai, 66, came to the US to work for Tata Consultancy Services, according to Forbes. He and his wife, Neerja Sethi, then started their own consulting company, Syntel, in their suburban Detroit apartment with just $2,000.

Early Google investor Kavitark Ram Shriram was born and raised in India.

Net worth: $2.2 billion

Source of wealth: Venture capital

Shriram, 62, serves on Alphabet's board and holds stakes in numerous tech startups (including Paperless Post) through his venture capital firm Sherpalo Ventures, according to Forbes.

Panda Express founders Peggy and Andrew Cherng immigrated to the US from Myanmar and China respectively, before meeting as students at Baker University.

Collective net worth: $3.1 billion

Source of wealth: Panda Express

Andrew Cherng opened a sit-down Chinese restaurant called Panda Inn in 1973 that was so successful he decided to open an outpost in a nearby mall called Panda Express, Business Insider previously reported. The couple still owns and operates virtually all 2,000 Panda Express locations themselves — they don't franchise them out to other owners, making Panda Express a rarity among restaurant chains of its size.

Read more: Meet the billionaire couple behind Panda Express, who run nearly 2,000 restaurants and sell 90 million pounds of orange chicken a year

WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum immigrated to California from Ukraine with his mother when he was 16.

Net worth: $10.9 billion

Source of wealth: WhatsApp

Koum, 43, founded the messaging service with seed money he raised from his former colleagues at Yahoo, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The majority of Koum's fortune comes from Facebook's $22 billion acquisition of WhatsApp in 2014.

Pierre Omidyar moved to the US from France with his family long before he founded eBay.

Net worth: $12.6 billion

Source of wealth: eBay

Omidyar, 52, founded eBay in 1995 and wrote the code for the website himself, according to Forbes. Omidyar still serves on the board of the online auction house.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk grew up in South Africa and worked in Canada before coming to the US.

Net worth: $20.7 billion

Source of wealth: PayPal, Tesla

Musk, 48, first moved to the United States to attend the University of Pennsylvania, Business Insider previously reported. The CEO founded a city guide service for newspapers called Zip2 and an online banking named X.com that got acquired by PayPal before taking the top job at Tesla. 

Read more: Elon Musk is worth about $22 billion and has never taken a paycheck from Tesla — here's how the notorious workaholic and father of 5 makes and spends his fortune

• Ben Silbermann, CEO and cofounder of Pinterest, has a net worth of $1.5 billion, according to Forbes. 
• The inspiration-based site has helped Silbermann achieve self-made-billionaire status since it went live on the web in 2010. 
• Although he's a billionaire living in San Francisco and working in Silicon Valley, Silbermann has been described as a "modest genius" and a family-oriented, regular guy by The Guardian. 
• The tech giant hasn't had the easiest time in the industry. From his early job at Google to failed iPhone apps and relentlessly connecting with Pinterest users, there was a lot to learn before his golden ticket site really took off. 
• Here's a look at Silbermann's unconventional rise to the top of the tech world.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

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Ben Silbermann is a 37-year-old, self-made billionaire.

Source: Forbes

He currently has a net worth of $1.5 billion, according to Forbes.

Source: Forbes

Silbermann cofounded Pinterest — the online, interactive, inspiration board — in 2010 with Evan Sharp and Paul Sciarra.

Source: Forbes

Before founding the photo-, recipe-, home decor-, inspiration-collecting site, Silbermann was a collector himself — even from an early age he collected things like stamps and insects.

Source: Inc, Business Insider

"What you collect says so much about who you are," he said during an on-stage interview with Chris Dixon — then-cofounder and CEO of startup Hunch — in 2012.

Source: Business Insider, Crunchbase

Silbermann was born in July 1982 to a family of doctors in Iowa — he didn't have a legacy of engineering or product development. His parents Dr. Jane Wang and Dr. Neil Silbermann operated an ophthalmology practice just north of De Moines, Iowa, for 37 years.

Source: Yellow Pages, Business Insider, Inc

He got his undergraduate degree from Yale University where he started out studying medicine and then switched to political science.

Source: Business Insider, Inc, Money Inc.

From Yale, he went on to get a job as a consultant in Washington, D.C.

Source: Business Insider

He told Dixon that while he was in D.C., he spent a lot of time reading tech blogs. "I thought, 'What a funny name for a blog — Tech CRUNCH,'" he said. "I would read about things like Digg and Kevin Rose."

Source: Business Insider

After reading about Silicon Valley from afar, Silberman got a job working at Google. He was brought on to design products for the site, including display ads, and said the company "barely hired" him, considering his lack of experience in the area.

Source: Business Insider

"I thought Google was the coolest place," Silbermann told Dixon. He said everyone working there was "so smart" and working on really interesting things. "I just felt really lucky to be a part of it," he said.

Source: Business Insider

Silberman said Google was doing things nobody else was even thinking of — like taking pictures of streets and making Google Street View.

Source: Business Insider

He said that, while working at the tech giant, he was surrounded by people who were thinking really big, which made him do the same.

Source: Business Insider

Silbermann's head was filled with ideas while at Google, he said, but his job description kept him from building things and experimenting.

Source: Business Insider

He left his job at Google to follow his colleagues' leads and think big — really big. But, he didn't land on Pinterest right away. He spent time developing iPhone apps that flopped and products that not too many people really interacted with.

Source: Business Insider

At the time, Silbermann was collaborating with Paul Sciarra, his friend from Yale, and the pair tried out loads of different product ideas.

Source: Business Insider

Before Pinterest, they came up with Tote — a shopping app.

Source: Fast Company, Fast Company

The biggest issue with Tote was that people weren't using it to shop — rather, they were using it to find things they liked and then they would send themselves pictures so they could shop later.

Source: Fast Company, Fast Company

The app has since shut down, but the way people were using it gave Silbermann the idea for Pinterest — a platform basically designed to save things for later.

Source: Fast Company

Silberman told Dixon that nine months after launch, Pinterest had only generated some 10,000 users, many of whom weren't visiting the site on a daily basis.

Source: Business Insider

He and his team kept at it, though. He was known for reaching out to customers directly, asking for feedback, and putting his personal contact information out there so customers could get in touch with him.

Source: Business Insider, The Guardian, Business Insider

His persistence proved to be effective, and the site kept growing.

Source: Business Insider, The Guardian

In a 2014 interview with The Guardian, Silbermann called Pinterest a "visual discovery tool"— as in, you can type one thing into the search box and be served tons of versions of it that you didn't even know existed.

Source: The Guardian

And he's right. Even a simple home decor search like "soft carpet" can lead you to things you didn't know were even options, like the puzzle-piece carpet below.

Source: The Guardian

Even for something as blasé as re-doing a bathroom, "You don't have to pin photos of your own windowless box," Carole Cadwalladr of The Guardian wrote. "You can pin pictures of the bathroom that you think should define you rather than the one you have." The same is true for any aspect of the home or an aspirational space.

Source: The Guardian, Pinterest

The digital collecting hub went public in April 2019 under the ticker PINS with an initial valuation of $10 billion, according to CNBC.

Source: CNBC

CNBC reported that on the same day, the valuation increased to nearly $13 billion.

Source: CNBC

Today, nearly six months later, the company is valued at $3.96 billion.

Source: Markets Insider

Despite the platform's enormous success and Silbermann's net worth, he has been described as a "modest genius" by The Guardian.

Source: The Guardian

"Yeah, I mean my life is pretty … exciting, but I don't know that it's conventionally glamorous," he told The Guardian in 2014. Silbermann has also been described as a family man.

Source: The Guardian

He said that he was renting a two-bedroom apartment with his wife Divya Bhaskaran — pictured below — at the time of the interview, and his daily routine involved dropping his son off at daycare before heading to work.

Source: The Guardian, Money Inc

Silbermann's platform exudes the same non-flashy, non-pretentious energy that he does as a person.

Source: The Guardian, CNBC

Cadwalladr wrote that Pinterest users believe the site is more robust than other social networking platforms because it "goes far beyond 'showing how many friends you have or how clever you are.'"

Source: The Guardian

And that seems to be intentional. "Pinterest isn't a social network," Silbermann told CNBC. "We really think about it as a utility" rather than somewhere for chatting with friends and following famous people.

Source: CNBC

" ... We're an inspiration platform," he said. "We don't claim to be a free speech platform or a place that everyone can publish anything." That approach has allowed Silbermann and his team to decide what they do and don't allow to take place on their site.

Source: CNBC

From dreaming about getting a taste of the history being made in Silicon Valley to actually being one of the biggest names making that history, Silbermann has had quite the rise to the top.

Source: The Guardian, CNBC

• Some of the world's richest people control wealth more than entire countries' GDPs, and with that comes immense dangers of being attacked or kidnapped.
• Three bodyguards to celebrities, billionaires, and royals, whose clientele include Miranda Kerr and Benedict Cumberbatch, shared their tips on how to protect them.
• Note: This interview was conducted in 2017.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

It can be hard to fathom how some of the world's richest people live, and the vast wealth that they control.

Many billionaires around the world are worth more entire countries' GDPs. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the richest person in the world, controls so much wealth that pending $88,000 to him is similar to an average American spending $1, according to Business Insider's calculations.

Having that much money also comes with immense dangers — Walter Kwok, the eldest brother of Hong Kong's richest family, was kidnapped by a local gang and held for ransom in 1997. He was released after his family paid the gang nearly $80 million, according to The New York Times, and was reportedly traumatized until his death in 2018.

So how does one protect them? Business Insider spoke to three bodyguards from Intelligent Protection, a British bodyguard firm, to find out.

The 60-person firm's clientele has included billionaires, business executives, royal family members, and celebrities, such as supermodel Miranda Kerr and actor Benedict Cumberbatch. The company declined to provide the names of other clients for security reasons.

Intelligence Protection has bodyguards deployed around the globe, CEO Alex Bomberg told Business Insider, with teams in the UK, US, France, Spain, Italy, Monaco, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Jordan, and the Bahamas alone.

Here's are six lessons Bomberg and his colleagues shared on how they effectively protect the world's rich and famous.

1. Communication and diplomacy are more important than size.

Contrary to popular belief, size isn't key to being a good bodyguard, all three experts told Business Insider.

Instead, people with "softer skills" such as communication and diplomacy make more effective bodyguards, Bomberg said. Multiple languages also help, given the company's international work — some of the firm's employees speak four languages.

"Some people in the industry make the mistake of assessing the quality of someone by the figure on the scales," said Graeme Dyson, a bodyguard and manager at Intelligent Protection who previously worked as a counter-terror police officer.

"This doesn't happen with other professions — no one judges their doctor's skills by how tall they are or what they weigh and this should be the same for a professional bodyguard."

"Celebrities in particular like to attract attention to themselves by overtly using bodyguards like these," he added. "However, when it all goes wrong, and they need a different level of protection and professionalism, it is companies like Intelligent Protection that they come to for help and advice."

2. Flexibility is key, even if it means you end up in weird situations — sometimes involving pigs.

Protection tasks can be "frustrating," as officers spend hours planning an event only for everything to change at the last minute, Dyson said.

"Some of the clients you look after lead very chaotic lives and you need to be able to adjust to not being in control of where you are, who you are with, how long you're staying and where you're going next," he said.

"Flexibility, adaptability and being able to think on your feet" are key, he added. For example, he said, a Middle Eastern royal ruined detailed security plans for a restaurant meal by changing his booking at the last minute, and bodyguards had to adapt quickly.

One training exercise two years ago involved going undercover and swimming with pigs in Exuma, a collection of islands in the Bahamas where two James Bond movies were shot.

Bodyguards had to pose as tourists — to practise protecting their clients without their realizing — and ended up swimming with pigs and sharks, traveling by powerboat and jet ski, and even snorkeling to stay incognito.

"It doesn't get much more surreal than that," Polly Wilton, another bodyguard who was on the trip, told Business Insider.

3. Clients' lifestyles are going to be like nothing you've seen before.

Being a bodyguard to billionaires, royals and celebrities offers a glimpse into their lifestyles — for better and for worse.

"You have an insight into how multi-million-pound companies work and the influential circles they move in," said Wilton, who served in the British Army before joining Intelligent Protection.

"When protecting UHNWI [ultra-high net worth individuals] you have exposure to their unique lifestyles and the vast difference to what normality is to them."

Some bodyguards might "get used to going to good restaurants and eating expensive food, staying in the best hotels," Dyson said. "Some begin to think that is their lifestyle and not the clients', and try and do the same thing when they are not working and bankrupt themselves."

"I have seen a few people ruined by trying to keep up with a client who is financially completely out of their league," he added.

4. Some clients might be harder to deal with than others.

Bodyguards also have to get used to client's whims and behavior.

Some are "shockingly horrible," Dyson said. When one former client got into a bad mood, he would fire "people on the spot because he didn't like their socks," he said.

But "others are really considerate and come across as very genuine, decent people no matter their fame or wealth," he added.

The job also has its perks from time to time: Dyson ended up as an extra on the "Sherlock" TV show while looking after Cumberbatch and had dinner with "Monty Python" cast members on another job, he said.

You can see Dyson behind Cumberbatch in the bottom-right photo here.

5. Men aren't necessarily more effective bodyguards than women.

Protection services are still a "male-dominated industry," Wilton said, describing it as a reality perpetuated by "the old cliché that men are stronger than women."

But the demand for female bodyguards has been increasing over the past few years: The Duchess of Cambridge, David Cameron, Tony Blair, JK Rowling, and Beyoncé all have female bodyguards, author Robert Ryan wrote in The Times of London in 2017.

"UHNWI are becoming more security wary," Wilton said. "With the increased use of social media, them and their families are more exposed."

In cases like this, female bodyguards have an advantage because they look less imposing and therefore draw less attention to those being protected, Wilton said.

Bodyguards with large, imposing figures "actually draw attention to the clients and put them at more stress and risk," bodyguard Lisa Baldwin told The Times. "In a playground I just look like a friend or a nanny, especially if I dress down."

Lone females and clients with children tend to request female bodyguards in their protection teams, Wilton said. Baldwin also noted that Muslim families who prefer that women not mix too closely to men may also prefer female officers.

6. Always be prepared for attacks and disasters. They can happen to anyone.

Disasters can happen to anyone, so it's important for normal people to be prepared and vigilant too, the bodyguards said.

"The world is changing," Bomberg said. "The rise of global terror groups such as ISIS has meant that you are not even safe on a beach vacation in the Mediterranean, drinking coffee in Paris or at a concert in London."

Dyson added: "Everyone should have a basic understanding of first aid, be able to perform CPR, control bleeding and apply a tourniquet."

"Just those basics alone could save your life, the life of a loved one or a stranger in the case of a traffic accident, an accident at work or a terrorist incident," he said.

• You'd need to make at least $515,371 a year to be considered one of the top 1% of taxpayers in 2017, an analysis of Internal Revenue Service data by Bloomberg's Alexandre Tanzi and Ben Steverman found.
• The median taxpayer's income in 2017 — $41,740 — may have grown 20% since 2011, but the threshold to join the 1% has grown 33% in the same time frame, according to Bloomberg.
• America's wealth gap is widening — and it could cost the economy between $1 trillion and $1.5 trillion between 2019 and 2028, Business Insider previously reported.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

It's getting harder to join the 1% in America.

You'd need to make at least $515,371 a year to be in the top 1% of taxpayers in 2017, the most recent year for which data is currently available, an analysis of Internal Revenue Service data by Bloomberg's Alexandre Tanzi and Ben Steverman found. That's 7.2% higher than the year before. No more recent data has been released, Bloomberg said.

While median taxpayer salary is growing, the threshold for being in the 1% is rising even more quickly. The median taxpayer made $41,740 in 2017, according to Bloomberg. Their income may have grown 20% since 2011, but the threshold to join the 1% grew 33% in the same time frame.

But if the bar for being part of the 1% is getting higher, it's gotten even more difficult to join the 0.1%, Bloomberg found. The annual earnings you'd need to join that group — $2,374,937 in 2017 — grew 38% between 2011 and 2017.

In total, 1,432,952 taxpayers fall into the 1%, Bloomberg reported. For comparison, only 143,295 taxpayers fit into the 0.1% category, according to Bloomberg.

Read more: Why Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and billionaires like George Soros alike are calling for a specialized tax on the ultra-wealthy

America's wealth problem

America's wealth gap is widening — and it could have detrimental impacts on the nation's economy, Business Insider previously reported. An August report by consulting firm McKinsey & Company found that the concentration of wealth among America's highest earners could cost the economy between $1 trillion and $1.5 trillion between 2019 and 2028.

The top 1% of Americans now own 40% of the country's wealth, the University of California at Berkeley's Gabriel Zucman wrote in a paper circulated by the National Bureau of Economic Research in February.

A wealth tax has been proposed as a potential solution by presidential candidates and billionaires alike. One of the most frequently cited proposals, Sen. Elizabeth Warren's "Ultra-Millionaire Tax," calls for a 2% annual tax on households with a net worth between $50 million and $1 billion, and a 3% annual tax on households with a net worth over $1 billion.

Sen. Bernie Sanders released his own, considerably more aggressive, wealth tax proposal in September.

The idea also has the support of ordinary Americans: An Insider poll from January 2019 showed that more than half of the Americans surveyed support Warren's wealth tax proposal. 

Read the full report on Bloomberg >>

SEE ALSO: Here's how much money America's 10 wealthiest people would have if the US had a moderate wealth tax.

DON'T MISS: Billionaires from George Soros to Abigail Disney are begging to be taxed more

Join the conversation about this story »

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• In May, billionaire Robert F. Smith pledged to pay off student loan debt for an entire graduating class.  Smith made the announcement that he would pay off the student loans of the 400 graduating seniors during his commencement address at Morehouse College.
• In September, he followed up on the announcement by pledging to also pay off those students' parents' educational debt.
• At the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy award ceremony in NYC on October 16, Smith said the gift was inspired in part by his mother's monthly $25 gift to the United Negro College Fund.
• Smith built his $6.08 billion fortune from his Texas-based private-equity firm Vista Equity Partners.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Robert F. Smith's $34 million gift to pay off student loans for an entire college class was inspired by a much smaller act of philanthropy he witnessed as a child.

On October 16, the billionaire accepted the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy for his donation. In his acceptance speech, Smith explained the role his parents played in inspiring the decision. 

"I saw my parents exhibit a form of philanthropy every day," Smith said at the ceremony, which was held at the New York Public Library's Schwarzman Building. "My mother wrote a check every month for $25 to the United Negro College Fund for over 50 years."

The United Negro College Fund is a nonprofit organization that provides educational programs and scholarships to African American students. Education was a priority in Smith's Denver, Colorado childhood home, Smith said. Smith's parents were teachers, who both went on to earn their PhDs and become principals, according to a biography of Smith provided by the Carnegie Corporation. Smith called his father a philanthropist as well, for his volunteer work at the local YMCA.

Read more: A billionaire agreed to pay off my student loans in full. Here's what it was like — and how I plan to pay it forward.

Smith has been making headlines in 2019 for education-focused donations

In May, Smith made headlines when he announced the gift while speaking at the Morehouse College class of 2019's commencement.

"My family is going to create a grant to eliminate your student loans," Smith told the graduates at the ceremony, Business Insider previously reported. "You great Morehouse men are bound only by the limits of your own conviction and creativity."

In September, Smith went on to expand the gift to include any outstanding educational loans owed by the graduates' parents.

"I'm the first generation in my family to have all my rights in America," Smith said at the October ceremony, "and when I think about that, I  take that responsibility seriously, to bring all of the education and dedication and effort to create in this world, in this economic structure, opportunity that I can then drive into philanthropic fabric to do what I think is the most important thing on this planet, which is to liberate the human spirit."

Smith's gift to Morehouse was far from his first work of philanthropy. He made the largest private donation to the Smithsonian's Museum of African American History and Culture and his Fund II Foundation sponsored The New York Times' 1619 Project investigating the beginnings of American slavery, according to the Carnegie Corporation.

Smith is the chairman and CEO of Texas-based private-equity firm Vista Equity Partners. He has a net worth of $6.08 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy is awarded every two years

The Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy is awarded to influential philanthropists every two years by the nonprofit organizations founded by Andrew Carnegie, the organization said in a press release.

Those organizations include Carnegie Mellon University and Carnegie Hall. Eight other billionaires — Anne Earhart, Mellody Hobson, Henry R. Kravis, Marie-Josée Kravis, George Lucas, Morton L. Mandel, Leonard Tow, and Ian Wood — were also given medals by the Carnegie Corporation for their philanthropic work at the ceremony.

Smith wasn't the only medalist to cite the charitable contributions of ordinary Americans as one of his inspirations.

"We hear a great deal about hate and intolerance these days," billionaire philanthropist Marie-Josée Kravis said, "but every day millions and millions of Americans all through the nation are living and upholding the definition of philanthropy, the love of humanity, and I thank them profoundly."

SEE ALSO: A look at the life of Robert F. Smith, the billionaire investor paying off student loans who owns homes in Malibu and NYC, and married a former Playboy model in a lavish Italian ceremony

DON'T MISS: A real-estate billionaire who was the first in his family to attend college just pledged $100 million to fund scholarships for first-generation students at his alma mater, UVA

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Not all famous people are as rich as everyone thinks they are.
• Abigail Disney, the granddaughter of The Walt Disney Company cofounder Roy Disney, is worth less than the company's current CEO, according to Forbes estimates. 
• And despite their penchant for flashy displays of wealth, few Hollywood stars are actually billionaires.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

In America, there's not just a divide between the rich and the poor — there's also a growing divide between the wealthy and the ultra-wealthy.

Not all rich people with household names are part of the 0.01%. That's especially true of entertainers. Despite their penchant for flashy displays of wealth, few of Hollywood's elite are actually billionaires. Scandals, divorces, and even presidential campaigns have depressed the net worths of other people on this list.

Read more: 5 Hollywood celebrities who became billionaires and are vastly more rich than their peers

Keep reading to learn more about the ultra-wealthy Americans who aren't quite as wealthy as most people assume they are.

SEE ALSO: Billionaire Marc Benioff is asking for higher taxes on America's wealthiest people — and he's just the latest in the chorus of ultra-wealthy people with the same demand

DON'T MISS: 11 billionaires who made their fortunes after immigrating to the US

Abigail Disney, the granddaughter of The Walt Disney Company cofounder Roy Disney, is only worth $120 million, according to her own reports.

That makes her worth less than the company's current CEO, Bob Iger, who has a net worth of $690 million, according to Forbes estimates. Abigail Disney has previously criticized Iger for being overpaid.

"The internet says I have half a billion dollars and I might have something close to that if I'd been investing aggressively," Disney herself told the Financial Times in June. "I'm roughly around $120 million and I have been for some time now."

Disney has given away $70 million of her personal fortune over the past 30 years.

Disney is a well-known and outspoken critic of the wealth divide in America. In June, she was among a group of 19 ultrawealthy Americans who signed an open letter to the 2020 presidential candidates expressing their collective support for a moderate wealth tax on the 1%.

Read more: The Disney heiress who has demanded a wealth tax on the ultrarich and thinks private jets should be outlawed finally sets the record straight on her personal net worth

Tiger Woods was on track to become a billionaire before his 2009 sex scandal; now, he's worth only $800 million.

Woods has made more than $1.5 billion since entering professional golf in 1996, including $116 million from on-course winnings, Forbes estimates.

Woods lost millions in endorsements deals after news of the scandal broke. Sponsors AT&T, Gatorade, Gillette, Golf Digest, and Tag Heuer all dropped him. Woods also paid ex-wife Elin Nordegren a $100 million divorce settlement, further depressing his net worth.

Woods' earnings have since rebounded. The golf star signed a $200 million deal with Nike in 2013, Business Insider previously reported.

Read more: Tiger Woods staged one of the biggest sports comebacks ever at the Masters — here's how he spends his millions and lives his life off the course

Presidential hopeful Tom Steyer might be trying to become America's second billionaire president — but he isn't anywhere near as wealthy as our current chief of state.

Steyer, 62, is worth half as much as President Trump, but still far more than any other current candidate, according to Forbes. Steyer made much of his $1.6 billion fortune managing his hedge fund, Farallon Capital.

Steyer will likely be even less wealthy by election day. He plans to use $100 million of his own fortune to fund his presidential campaign, Business Insider previously reported.

Read more: Tom Steyer is running for president. Here is everything we know about the candidate and how he stacks up against the competition.

Taylor Swift was upset that she wasn't given the opportunity to buy her masters, but she might not have been able to afford them anyway.

Swift's masters — along with her former label Big Machine Records — sold for a combined $300 million to Scooter Braun, Business Insider previously reported.

According to Forbes, Swift has an estimated net worth of $360 million — and that's not including the final earnings from her 2018 Reputation Stadium Tour, which was the highest-grossing tour in US history. Such success makes Swift one of the world's highest-paid celebrities and one of the richest female singers. 

Read more: Taylor Swift just dropped a new album after her feud with Scooter Braun, and it's the first time she owns the rights to one of her records. From bicoastal mansions to lavish vacations, see how the superstar spends her $360 million-plus fortune.

Talent manager Scooter Braun — Swift's "worst-case scenario"— is only slightly wealthier than the musician herself.

Braun manages the careers of Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Zac Brown Band, Tori Kelly, Karlie Kloss, Carly Rae Jepsen, The Black Eyed Peas, and J Balvin. Braun has "broken more new artists than any other music executive in the last decade," he says on his personal website. He also has stakes in Uber, Spotify, Songza, Casper, Waze, and Pinterest through his company SB Projects, according to his personal website.

Braun has a net worth of about $400 million, Fox Business reported, citing Celebrity Net Worth.

Read more: Scooter Braun just congratulated Taylor Swift on her new album amid their ongoing feud over the rights to her old music — here's everything we know about the celebrity manager's net worth and career

Kris Jenner may be the "momager" of the Kardashian-Jenner clan, but she's worth far less than daughters Kim Kardashian West and Kylie Jenner.

Jenner has a net worth of $90 million, Insider previously reported, compared with $370 million for Kardashian West and $1 billion for Kylie Jenner.

Forbes estimated that Jenner made $11.5 million in 2016, including her salary for her starring role and executive producer credit on "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" and her 10% cut of her kids' earnings as well.

Read more: Every member of the Kardashian-Jenner family, ranked by net worth

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg's net worth stands at only $1.7 billion.

While a billion-dollar fortune is nothing to scoff at, compare Sandberg's net worth with that of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's — about $69 million, per Forbes' latest estimates.

According to Forbes, Sandberg also took the company from $56 million in losses in 2008, when she assumed leadership, to $22.1 billion in profits by 2018. She has also been fiercely defending the platform as scandal after scandal comes to the light.

Read more: From Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg to Oracle's Safra Catz, these are the 23 richest self-made women in tech in the US

Chris Hughes helped start Facebook, but his net worth pales in comparison to the billions the other cofounders are worth.

Zuckerberg is Facebook's wealthiest founder at $69 billion; Eduardo Saverin is worth $10.5 billion and Dustin Moskovitz is worth $11.5 billion.

Hughes' net worth? Only about $400 million, according to a Forbes report in July.

In 2012 — the same year Facebook went public — Forbes reported that his net worth was $700 million. In 2016, Forbes again dropped his net worth, this time to $430 million. 

Since his Facebook days, he started a social network for nonprofits, which he sold a year later. In 2012, he bought the magazine New Republic for $5 million, then sold it in 2016.

In May, Hughes made headlines after writing an Op-Ed in the New York Times calling for the breakup of Facebook.

Despite Leonardo DiCaprio's impressive filmography and decades in the biz, the actor's net worth reportedly only totals about $245 million.

Commonly considered one of the finest actors of his generation, DiCaprio has starred in record-breaking hits like "Titanic."

He is known for being an enviromental activist and has donated money to various environmental and humanitarian causes around the globe. Reports put his personal fortune at about $245 million.

Despite being a member of the Hilton family, heirs to the billion-dollar Hilton hotel empire, Paris Hilton's personal net worth is reportedly only $300 million.

Her late grandfather, Barron Hilton, opted to donate 97% of his fortune (about $2.3 billion as of 2007) to charity upon his death.

Still, the former heiress has done well for herself. She has a retail empire that includes 50 stores, and has 23 different fragrances that bring in over $2.5 billion a year, The Hollywood Reporter wrote in 2018. Her net worth is about $300 million, according to Town and Country.

Serena Williams is one of the greatest tennis players to ever live, but her earnings aren't on par with the cash her male counterparts command.

Novak Djokovic, the top-ranked men's tennis player in the world, has a reported net worth of $220 million, with career earnings of $132 million. Williams, on the other hand, has a net worth of about $180 million and career earnings of $88.6 million.

• In Amazon's early days, Jeff Bezos asked job candidates for their SAT scores, The Atlantic's Franklin Foer reported.
• Some researchers have found that SAT scores can predict a student's income and occupational achievements long after college, according to The New York Times.
• Bill Gates also screened new hires for intellect in Microsoft's early days, but the IQ test was his preferred metric, Business Insider previously reported.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Most people think their SAT scores don't matter after college, but most people aren't Jeff Bezos.

The billionaire Amazon founder would ask every job candidate how they scored on the standardized test before submitting them to a Socratic-style interrogation in the early days of Amazon, The Atlantic's Franklin Foer reported in a profile of the CEO published in the magazine's November issue. Bezos, according to The Atlantic, believed that candidates' SAT scores were a reflection of their intelligence.

But SAT scores were not the only technique Bezos relied on to measure a candidate's intelligence. Bezos also asked open-ended questions in the Socratic style, such as "Why are manhole covers round?" to measure how logical candidates were, The Atlantic reported. 

The fifth employee that Bezos hired, Nicolas Lovejoy, told Wired's Chip Bayers in 1999 that the CEO was "very, very picky" with who he hired. "One of his mottos was that every time we hired someone, he or she should raise the bar for the next hire, so that the overall talent pool was always improving," Lovejoy told Wired.

Bezos also questioned the other interviewers about their impressions of the candidate and made charts of candidates' resumes on a whiteboard, Lovejoy told Wired.

Bezos founded Amazon as an online bookstore from his garage on July 4, 1994 after quitting his Wall Street job and moving to Seattle, Washington. Bezos now has a net worth of $117 billion, Business Insider previously reported.

Read more: Jeff Bezos just sold about $1.8 billion worth of stock. Here's how the world's richest person makes and spends his billions.

Amazon did not return Business Insider's request for comment on whether select job candidates are still asked for their SAT scores.

What CEOs look for in potential recruits

Bezos isn't the only tech founder to prize intelligence in potential recruits. Bill Gates also screened potential Microsoft recruits for their intellect, but the IQ test was his preferred metric, Business Insider's Shana Lebowitz previously reported.

"The key for us, number one, has always been hiring very smart people,"Bill Gates once said in an interview. "There is no way of getting around that in terms of IQ, you've got to be very elitist in picking the people who deserve to write software."

Intelligence is far from the only trait CEOs look for, though. Hyatt CEO and President Mark Hoplamazian, for one, looks for employees who align their jobs with their own sense of purpose. And as Business Insider's Callum Burroughs reported in August, Flywire CEO Mike Massaro assesses potential hires to see how well they fit with the rest of the team.

Bezos also screened candidates for high levels of personal accountability, Inc. reported in 2017. This was often done with behavioral questions, where candidates were asked to explain how they would handle a specific situation or how they have handled a similar situation in the past.

SEE ALSO: Jeff Bezos had a wild summer of yacht-hopping and jetting off to Wimbledon with his girlfriend. Here's how the world's wealthiest person spent his time.

DON'T MISS: Here's how much money America's 10 wealthiest people would have if the US had a moderate wealth tax

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• Billionaires are "really, really fearful" of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the former Goldman Sachs partner and hedge fund manager Michael Novogratz told Bloomberg's Amanda L. Gordon in an interview published Monday.
• Novogratz, a hedge fund manager turned cryptocurrency investor, lost his billionaire status during the financial crisis, according to Forbes.
• Warren, a leading 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, has proposed a wealth tax designed to reduce economic inequality by taxing ultra-wealthy Americans. A wealth tax proposed by another candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, is even more aggressive.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Billionaires are "really, really fearful" of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the former Goldman Sachs partner and hedge fund manager Michael Novogratz told Bloomberg's Amanda L. Gordon in an interview published Monday.

"Ninety-seven percent of the people I know in my world are really, really fearful of her," Novogratz told Bloomberg. "They don't like her, they're worried about her, they think she's anti-rich ... It's a little carried away."

"You're not victims, you're the richest people in the world," Novogratz continued in the Bloomberg interview. "How in God's name do you feel like a victim?"

Read more: The wealth gap took center stage at the latest debate. Here's a side-by-side comparison of how Elizabeth Warren's and Bernie Sanders' wealth-tax plans stack up.

Any hard feelings toward Warren aren't mutual, the senator who is a leading contender for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination said at the October 15 presidential debate. "Look, I don't have a beef with billionaires," Warren said, according to Bloomberg. "All I'm saying is, you make it to the top, the top 0.1%, then pitch in 2 cents so every other kid in America has a chance to make it.'"

How Warren's wealth tax would affect the 1%

Warren's "Ultra-Millionaire Tax" calls for households' net worth between $50 million and $1 billion to be taxed at a 2% annual rate (the "2 cents" on every dollar she mentioned at the debate) and their net worth exceeding $1 billion to be taxed at a 3% annual rate.

The idea of a wealth tax has support from ultra-wealthy and ordinary Americans alike: An Insider poll of Americans found that more than half of respondents supported Warren's wealth-tax proposal. In June, a group of 18 ultra-wealthy Americans signed an open letter, published in The New York Times, asking presidential candidates to support a moderate wealth tax. And in October, the billionaire Marc Benioff too published a letter in The Times asking for a higher tax on America's ultra-wealthy.

A wealth tax would dramatically change the look of money in America. If the US had implemented a moderate wealth tax in 1982, Jeff Bezos' fortune would be half what it was in 2018, and Bill Gates would be $61 billion less rich, Business Insider previously reported.

While Warren's wealth tax his stirred up a mix of reactions, the wealth tax proposed by her 2020 challenger Sen. Bernie Sanders is even more aggressive. Both proposals have been hampered by questions over the effectiveness and the constitutionality of such a tax.

Novogratz, 54, built his fortune as a partner at Goldman Sachs and the cochief investment officer of Fortress Investment Group, but he turned to full-time cryptocurrency investing in 2015, according to Forbes. The magazine estimated in 2018 that his cryptocurrency investments alone were worth $700 million to $1 billion. Forbes listed Novogratz as a billionaire in 2007 and 2008, but he dropped out of the three-comma club after the value of Fortress shares fell 89% in 2008, at the start of the financial crisis.

Read the full report on Bloomberg >>

SEE ALSO: Here's how much money America's 10 wealthiest people would have if the US had a moderate wealth tax

DON'T MISS: Robert F. Smith, the billionaire who promised to pay off student loans for an entire college class, said his $34 million gift was inspired by a small act of philanthropy he saw his mom make

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