Jan 19, 2002
RAY: When I was a kid, if you really made it, you became a millionaire. And now, today, being a millionaire is nothing. We have billionaires -- guys like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. I'm sure we have hundreds of billionaires in this country.
But, there is not one billionaire in England!
Why not?
RAY: Now, I'm sure a lot of people thought it had to do with their income tax structure, that they --
TOM: Ah. I'm sure a lot of people thought that --
RAY: Yeah.
TOM: -- erroneously.
RAY: And the pound is worth more than the dollar, so it's hard to amass a million times.
TOM: So, it wouldn't be a billion dollars. It would be a billion pounds.
RAY: And that would be harder.
TOM: That's a couple of billion dollars almost.
RAY: Right, but that isn't the answer either.
TOM: Yeah.
RAY: The answer is the definition. What we call a billion in this country is a thousand times a million.
TOM: Yes.
RAY: OK? But a billion in England is a million times a million. So, to be a billionaire in England, you would have to have a million million pounds, or you'd have to have the equivalent of a trillion, what we call a trillion dollars or a trillion pounds. And nobody in England has that kind of money, not even the Queen Mum.
TOM: Wow.
RAY: And we got a thousand million answers to this.
TOM: Did we really?
RAY: I guess everyone knew it but you know.
TOM: Yeah, well.
RAY: You've got to have an easy one once in awhile.
TOM: You do.
RAY: So who's our winner anyway?
TOM: The winner this week is the Reverend --
RAY: Wow.
TOM: The Reverend James D. Richardson. What a nice name. From El Paso, Texas.
