Bill Gates for Emperor! Todd Murchison ski@sover.net Bill Gates, money, Todd, todd, Todd Murchison, todd murchison, murchison, Murchison Of the 500 richest people in America, more than ½ were simply born into money. Of the rest, the people who made themselves, Bill Gates is the 800lb gorilla. Richest man in the world and representative of the fact that the majority of the new super rich making it in high technology. It's the ultimate poetic justice for aging high school bullies - they now have to work for that glasses-wearing geek they used to tease! Bill owns 22% of Microsoft, his net worth changes $83,000,000,000 - it looks even more impressive with all those '0's. On the Forbes 500 of American Companies Microsoft is only at 49 presently, much lower even on the International scale. There are even other computer companies ahead of Microsoft. But as an individual, nobody else owns so much stock in a company of it size. Having pies thrown in his face and people trying to convince us he is evil incarnate - I figure Bill doesn't have much to lose right now in the way of public image. So perhaps he should just get out of the computer biz while the getting is good - if a bunch of losing teams spent years trying to convince the ref's that Michael Jordan had to play with one leg tied up, he might have retired permanently long before he did. Sure he would probably still be pretty good even when trussed up, but where would the fun be in it? Since the whining that Gates is some sort of Evil Nerd Dictator is reaching levels than must be annoying him - I think he should just give them what they want by consolidating his resources, and making one big statement. Maybe Alaska is what he needs - at Alaska's current median income Bill could afford to pay the current wages and salaries of all 607,000 people in the state for about a decade years. Or he could double their salaries for five years - maybe making them happy enough to secede from the union and crown him Emperor! Just buying every town in Alaska, or purchasing the state government might be a lot cheaper. Anyhow, once in charge of things I'm sure Bill could restructure Alaska into a new world superpower. The remains of Russia are right across the water when the itch to buy something new takes over - and of course Canada would be a pushover - though I would think that some kind of Berlin Wall type of barrier around Quebec would be in everybody's best interest. On second thought - isolate Quebec long enough and a new Uber Race of language police would one day emerge from the wall and force us all to speak French. North or South Dakota would be a cheap buy, but it could be that Bill would want a real of change of scenery. A place that is already recognized by the United Nations as a Country would be most convenient. For example he could probably buy Luxembourg, the Vatican & Monaco in one big deal. They are all a bit crowded though, for real space - New Zealand might be the ticket, he has many times the money held in its International Reserves. As prime real estate New Zealand not only comes equipped with great mountains, beaches and forests - it has about 51 million sheep! He could pay the farmers $1,000 per sheep and still be a billionaire, retaining enough money to haul all 51 million sheep over to Washington D.C. No matter how cute people think sheep are, this number of them would bring utter chaos to our nations capitol. It would absolutely immobilize the seat of government and stop the Justice Departments Anti-Trust division from ever trying to "improve" free trade again! Hey - by the way, all the whiners wanting our government to shackle Microsoft, didn't they have to read Atlas Shrugged or The Fountainhead in school? Maybe they should be forced to reread them. Anyway what is certain is that even Microsoft will not reign forever. Gates has mentioned many times that he plans on dispersing most of his wealth, and therefore his stock in Microsoft, before he dies. Upon the advice of Warren Buffet, Bill has stated that he and his wife will not be leaving large inheritances to children or relatives upon their deaths. Maybe this is what Microsoft's competitors should really worry about - twenty years from now, Bill's kids might want to live up to their dads legacy. Since the kids will not be born billionaires, if they want to follow that legacy they will have develop into as intelligent of competitors as their father! I guess Netscape and Apple better hope Bill takes the escape route after all and just quietly buys a country estate (i.e. Kenya or Romania) and retires. Todd Murchison lives in the Eastern Rain Forest in the Summer and the Western Mountains in the Winter. He skis every day in the winter, then in the Spring fattens himself up for summer and retreats to his computerized cave where he is torpid until revived by the cool air of Fall.