Celebrity Billionaires

Guess who…?Followed by a Debate

I am the world’s richest man, valued at

$56 billion

Now aged 51, I am involved with tackling AIDS in Africa and set up my own charity to

help them So far, I have given away

nearly $30bn of my fortune

to good causes

I made my money as the

inventor of Microsoft Windows

My name is Bill Gates

My name is Joanne and I am a 42 year

old writer I have sold over

325 million books - the last four have been the fastest selling books in

history

I have a fortune of £545 million

which makes me the thirteenth

richest woman in Britain

I have donated £22 million to Comic Relief

I am the author of the Harry Potter

books

My name is JK Rowling

I am the third richest man in the

world, worth $52 billion I made my

money through

investing in insurance companies

Recently I gave $30

billion of my fortune to

the Bill and Melinda Gates

Foundation - the largest

single donation

ever made in the USA

I only earn $100,000 a

year and still live in the

same house that I bought in 1958 for $31,500

My Name is Warren Buffet

I am 53 and the world's only black

billionaire for three years in a

row I am also,

according to many

assessments, the most influential woman in the

world

I am an influential book critic, an

Oscar nominated actress, and a

magazine publisher, as well

as an award winning chat show

host In 2005 alone I donated $303

million to charity

My chat show is called The

Oprah Winfrey Show

My name is Oprah

Winfrey

I am a Russian oil billionaire worth

$18.2 billion

In Russia, I am well known as the governor of

Chukotka in the far northeast of the

country

I am best known in the UK as the

owner of Chelsea Football Club

My name is Roman

Abramovich

Is it ok for the rich to keep getting richer?

You may have heard the phrase: “The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer”

Is this true? Where’s bulging with wealth over time? And is the wealth gap widening?

Today’s aimsTo understand that global inequalities of wealth are getting worse

To identify ways in which the trickle-down of wealth can occur from the rich to the poor

To appreciate why this problem could need tackling

DebateIn pairs, sort the cards into ‘the problems with billionaires’ or ‘why billionaires are great’Now plan why:

‘STATEMENT 1 – Trickle down – Billionaires already do enough to help the poor as their wealth trickles down to the poor and benefits a lot of people’

OR ‘STATEMENT 2 – Tackle problem – Billionaires need to do more to help the poor, they hold on to too much of their wealth and they don’t need it all’

Whole class debateIn pairs you will be given one of the two different viewpoints.

You will then need to write a 2-3 minute speech. (I will time this and stop you if you exceed the time limit.)

Both people need to speak – so 1 minute 30 seconds each.

The class will be divided into the two viewpoints and after each speech you will be able to ask 1 question to try and point out the weaknesses in their speech.

Winning the debate

This actually counts!

The group at wins the debate will receive a 5 mark extra credit score added to their marks.

Facts you should know If the earth’s population was shrunk to exactly 100 people, and all proportions were kept the same, there would be:

6 people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth and all 6 would be from the United States

8 would have money in the bank The wealth of the world’s three richest people is more than the combined wealth of all less developed countries.

The wealth of the world’s 200 richest people is more than the combined incomes of 41% of the world’s people. By making an annual contribution of just 1% of their wealth, those 200 people could provide primary education for every child on the world (currently 72 million children of primary school age do not go to school).

The gap between the world’s richest countries and the world’s poorest countries is widening rapidly.