Land of Opportunities

Indeed USA is a land of opportunities. There are many many who have achieved their American Dream of being rich and powerful, in the old-fashion way - they have earned it. The list is impressive although post Enron, WorldCom and the sub-prime induced recession, their asset value may be slightly reduced.
According to Forbes Magazine, currently there are about 1011 billionaires globally, of which 403 are in the USA followed by a distant second place, China with 66. China's top 10 billionaires total asset is just over US$46b, which does not even match one Warren Buffett. In time to come, there will be more emerging billionaires from China joining the top rank, considering the exponential growth in the Middle Kingdom of the 21st Century.
The 2010 list of top billionaires in the US includes
Bill Gates III ($53b); Warren Buffett ($47b); Sheldo Adelson ($26b); Lary Ellison ($25b); Larry Page ($19B); Sergey Brin ($19b); Michael Dell ($17b).....
Most of these billionaires are businessmen and entreprenuers. They may not be saints but they have complied with the law of making money. Along the way, they may have caused pain to their competitors and staff alike. Of course, the cynics and critics would still say that they maybe lucky to have escaped the long arm of the law.
There could be more billionaires spending their time in the Chinese prison in future, if some of them do not learn the hard lessons from the West or from those who have been executed for corrupt practices in the One-party state. Watch out the two evils - greed and temptations!