The Forbes magazine has once again come out with its list of the 400 wealthiest people in America. For the 17th consecutive year it has been topped by Bill Gates who is now worth an estimated $54 billion. In second place, and he has agreed to give away 99% of his wealth to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is Warren Buffett, the stock exchange investor who runs his business through Berkshire Hathaway and at the age of 80 is now worth $45 billion.

The Google founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin both come in at the 11th spot worth $15 billion. What was striking to me was that quite a lot of the people are not necessarily old money – having had the money passed down to them from their families but in fact have made their money in more recent times, largely on the back of the computer industry.