The classic philanthropy model (the super rich who devote the rest of their lives to the effective distribution and use of their wealth to alleviate societal ills) is still a long way away for China as it needs to overcome the lack of religious, cultural and historical precedents to philanthropy that is so evident in western countries.

FORBES: Turning down Gates & Buffett: Philanthropy in China requires For-Profit Social Enterprises

Everyday people must recognize that their lives matter just as much as the lives of the rich.

CNN: Promise of the American Dream is broken

And he points to the drug war and the resulting mass incarceration as a factor that has exacerbated the gap between rich and poor by excluding many poor, especially black, men from the workforce during the prime of their lives.

FORBES: Human Capitalism

Despite the fact they have more than enough money to spend the rest of their lives on their yachts, many mega-rich professionals devote more than 40 hours a week in jobs that are oftentimes banal and stressful.

FORBES: Why Do The Mega Rich Continue To Work?

Former homes and specialist museums dedicated to the lives of the rich, famous and fascinating give insights into their assorted ids and egos.

BBC: London��s alternative museums

Adapted from Life 2.0: How People Across America Are Transforming Their Lives by Finding the Where of Their Happiness, by Rich Karlgaard (Crown Business, July 2004).

FORBES: Balancing Act

They live their lives in real-time and expect real-time responses from the information-rich world in which they openly share personal information, opinions and ideas with one another.

FORBES: Does U.S. Election Campaigning Need To Be 'Stripped'?

Even minor characters, from the worldly lesbian that runs April's apartment building, to the hoverchair-bound cyperpunk that lives by the dockside, to the tense-scrambled time-unhinged being that lives in a stone tree in the center of Arcadia, each have their own unique and rich personalities and histories.

CNN: Review: The Longest Journey