The New York Times has looked at the wealthiest Americans, adjusted for inflation. Our current best, Bill Gates, does no better than fifth.

They have a neat, interactive graph, that seems to demonstrate that the period between 1850 and 1900 was when the wealthiest Americans ran rampant across the plains, or some such. Sam Walton comes in a sorry 13th and Warren Buffet 16th. All the rest of the VERY wealthy old, dead white guys lived in the 1800’s.

My considered conclusion - the NY Times has some talented Web designers working for it.