So how does Slim get away with his? Here’s Eduardo Porter’s look at Slim’s entry into billionaire-dom.

In 1990, the government of President Carlos Salinas de Gortari sold his friend Mr. Slim the Mexican national phone company, Telmex, along with a de facto commitment to maintain its monopoly for years. Then it awarded Telmex the only nationwide cellphone license.

When competitors were eventually allowed in, Telmex kept them at bay with some rather creative gambits, like getting a judge to issue an arrest warrant for the top lawyer of a competitor. Today, it still has a 90 percent share of Mexico’s landline phone service and controls almost three-quarters of the cellphone market.
Monopolies tend to generate a ton of money. Mr. Slim, a shrewd investor, deployed it well — buying up hundreds of Mexican companies and entering wireless markets across Latin America. It’s hard for a Mexican to spend a day without handing him some money.

But Mexico has paid, dearly. In 2005, there were fewer than 20 fixed telephone lines for every 100 Mexicans, and less than half had cellphones. Just 9 percent of households had Internet access. Mexicans pay way above average for all these services.

Look out America! Are we headed in the same direction? Porter points out that in the United States, 44 percent our country’s income belongs to the top 10 percent of taxpayers. Don’t dismay. Bill Gates beats Slim in his altruistic endeavors. He has donated $30 billion to his foundation to help fight sickness in Africa and to help low-income high school students in the United States graduate. Slim, on the other hand, announced this year that he will raise his donations from $4 billion to a measly $10 billion.

Image courtesy of Aporte