More billionaires, please

According to the list, the world is now home to 3,279 billionaires, with 167 of them added in the previous year alone

You know the world is becoming a nicer place when the number of billionaires starts to rise. That was the first pleasant thought that occurred to me when I read a recent report about the Hurun Global Rich List 2024. I had no idea this list existed, presumably because I am nowhere close to being a millionaire, but I was happy for the billionaires in question, and the validity granted to them by the list. I imagined the smiles on their faces, and congratulatory high-fives. I imagined them forwarding copies of the report to fellow billionaires on WhatsApp.

This is speculative, of course, because I have no idea how billionaires spend their time. I know some of them engage in pushing conspiracy theories, and others use their money to prop up politicians, whom they can then lean on for easy access to public property. Luckily, this sort of thing would never happen in India because we all know our politicians are not for sale.

Apparently, Bombay now ranks third after New York and London, in terms of billionaires. It occupies a spot last taken by Beijing, which will probably upset the few Chinese people who have access to unbiased news reports. It surprised me that the government of Maharashtra didn't celebrate this with a public holiday or, at the very least, a poorly made statue at a crowded intersection. It also surprised me that there was no congratulatory tweet from the Prime Minister, whose social media team is usually so prompt about addressing anything and everything that happens anywhere outside the state of Manipur. For the Prime Minister's office to not take credit for this development was unusual.

I hope this absence of celebratory spirit is addressed in the weeks and months to come, as more billionaires start to emerge from our tarpaulin-covered streets. It deserves applause because of the potential for change it offers the rest of us. I say this armed with the historical knowledge of how our world has always improved when the rich have become richer. Everyone knows that cities with more billionaires become nicer and more liveable very quickly, so it isn't unreasonable for me to assume that the face of Bombay is set to change any day now. After all, why would any billionaire want to live in a city that doesn't function? They are probably huddled in a stadium-sized living room somewhere even as you read this, working on a plan to make sure Bombay's new bridges meet where they're supposed to.

According to the list, the world is now home to 3,279 billionaires, with 167 of them added in the previous year alone. The United States added 109 billionaires, apparently, and although China was still the world's leader with 814 billionaires, India came in third with 271 after an addition of 84 individuals. If we continue at this pace, I have no doubt that America and China will soon be left behind in the dust of our advanced stage of economic development. Will we get to a point where every street in Bombay will house a billionaire, the way they now house unlicensed pani puri stalls? It could happen.

The nicest thing about billionaires, as we have been made aware of repeatedly, is how their concern for the world around them inevitably leads to the improvement of society. Billionaires in America, for instance, are already working on populating new planets with millionaires who can afford to fly there. Some are engaged in the noble pursuit of improving our collective shopping experience and preventing annoying things like unions from getting in the way. Still others are buying up islands and converting them into bomb shelters, where they will undoubtedly invite the rest of us to reside in the event of a nuclear war.

If there's one thing that confuses me, however, it's another statistic related to taxation. According to multiple sources, 66.5 million individuals in India pay personal income tax, which is 4.8 percent of the country's total population. Of this tax paying populace, 3.2 million individuals account for 76 percent of total personal income tax receipts. Also, taxation experts point out that tax compliance hasn't changed much over the past few years.

This isn't an insinuation about wealthy Indians avoiding taxes, nor is it a comment about black money which we all know barely exists after demonetisation. It's just a thought that makes me wonder if the Hurun Global Rich List has accounted for all the billionaires who supposedly live amongst us.

When he isn't ranting about all things Mumbai, Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet. He tweets @lindsaypereira
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