Buffett, Gates Don’t Crack The Top 10 Richest Americans Of All Time

With Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century (and arguments about its data) pushing debate about income inequality in the West, CNN Money decided to take a look back to see how today’s richest Americans stack up against history. It’s not surprising that oil baron John D. Rockefeller comes in first with a net worth of $253 billion in 2013 dollars, or that the list is composed entirely of white men, but Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are the only two living people to make the top twenty, and neither are in the top ten. Gates, with an estimated $74 billion, is 12th and Buffet, with $63.8 billion, comes in at 14^th.