October 3, 2022
Forbes Called Out For its List of ‘Poor’ Billionaires That Includes Oprah Winfrey and Michael Jordan
There are so many billionaires in the world that Forbes had to form a list of billionaires who are “too poor” to make the Forbes 400.
The business outlet came under fire last week for promoting its list of American billionaires who weren’t wealthy enough to make their list of America’s wealthiest people. This year it took $2.7 billion to make the Forbes 400.
But unfortunately, for some, they were just a few billion shy of making the list. However, when highlighting those that were “too poor” to make the billionaire’s list, Forbes opted to include Oprah Winfrey and Michael Jordan in the graphic.
“Oprah Winfrey (estimated net worth, $2.5 billion) is too poor. Kanye West ($2 billion) doesn’t have enough,” Forbes shared in the lengthy caption.
“Neither do Kim Kardashian ($1.8 billion), Michael Jordan ($1.7 billion), Peter Jackson ($1.5 billion) or Jay-Z ($1.3 billion).”
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“In all, Forbes found more than 300 American billionaires who have ten-figure fortunes, but not enough dough to crack The Forbes 400,” the outlet concluded.
But many were quick to call out the outlet for its “poor” word choice in today’s inflated post-pandemic economy.
“Please….there’s still time to delete this post,” one Instagram user wrote.
“What a way to humble people,” said someone else.
“What a weird post,” one user added.
There was one person who scolded the outlet for referring to the wealthy public figures as “poor” just because they didn’t meet the $2.7 billion requirement for 2022.
“Using the statement: billionaires “too poor to…” is ridiculous and grossly off-putting. GTFU Forbes!” the user quipped.
The outlet noted the number went down from the $2.9 billion requirement last year, and up from the $1.1 billion required a decade ago. But many felt like the article provided a “negative connotation” around wealth-building and what’s considered rich in today’s America.
If Oprah and Jay-Z are “too poor,” that means the rest of the 99 percent are down bad!