My April 15 commentary — “Do Billionaires Get Their Money’s Worth from Forbes List?” — was about the Forbes magazine list of billionaires.

I mentioned that the first name on the list, Bernard Arnault, has a net worth equivalent to 84,000,000,000 screwdrivers.

The point was who on earth needs that many screwdrivers? Subsequently, who needs the equivalent in dollars?

In an April 28 letter to the editor, a reader wrote: “I think the headline should have been: “Do Our Children in Need Get Their Money’s Worth from the Forbes List of Billionaires?”

I agree wholeheartedly.

Human beings showed up on the planet 6 million years ago. The first billionaire showed up on the planet just over 100 years ago.

Here is my question: Why don’t the world’s biggest billionaires take on the world’s biggest problems — problems that are worthy of their status in life?

Here’s how they can do it: They decide to meet in Lagos this year, not Davos.

For those not familiar with these cities, Davos is in Switzerland where many of the world’s rich gather annually. Lagos is the capital of Nigeria.

When in Lagos, they ask each other: “What can we do to create a world that works for everyone? We have the biggest fortunes in the world. Let’s tackle the world’s biggest problems!”

The world’s three biggest problems seem to be summed up well by Muhammad Yunus, the founder of the Grameen Bank, a bank that lends to poor people. His bank and many others in the microcredit movement have enabled millions of the world’s poorest to raise themselves out of poverty.

Yunus wrote a book summarizing the three biggest problems: A World of Three Zeros: The New Economics of Zero Poverty, Zero Unemployment, and Zero Net Carbon Emissions.

What if the owners of the world decided to tackle these three great global issues? We may as well add zero population growth.

If we tackled the first two — poverty and unemployment — stabilizing population growth would automatically happen, as it has in all developed countries.

A lot of the work in identifying the world’s biggest sub-problems has already been done as well, by the United Nations. They have come up with the 17 areas that cry for our attention. They call them: The 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

Guess what their goal for this month is? “Partnerships for reaching the 17 goals”!

Wouldn’t it make sense for the billionaires, the most financially powerful people in the world, to take on solving the world’s most powerful challenges? They already have the template for their 17 subcommittees!

This task requires the billionaires to enroll themselves, to be willing to take it on. The poor, with some hope and assistance, are already willing to!

To be successful, all of us, rich and poor, would have to engage in asking ourselves these hard questions: Does the universe, solar system and our planet deserve to be here? Do the goods and resources of the planet deserve to be here?

Do I deserve to be here? Do I deserve all of the resources I have? How many screwdrivers/dollars do I need? Is a world that works for everyone a worthy goal? Am I willing to work for that?

I don’t believe most of the people on the Forbes list are cold, heartless people.

Bill Gates has already used billions of dollars through his foundation to bring better health to the world.

Warren Buffett has contributed $30 billion to Gates’ foundation.

Yvon Chouinard has already swooped off the Forbes list by donating 98% of his shares in Patagonia to resolving the climate crisis.

What’s lacking for the Forbes fortunate to take on the problems of the world head-on? I have no doubt that this would be not only a powerful but also a dangerous undertaking.

It begins with answering the questions above. But it would have to be followed by tougher questions: How do we deal with and  include royalty, legitimate autocrats, illegitimate autocrats, devious “democratic” leaders — none of whom are included in the Forbes list?

How do we take on the criminal underworld, and the underground banking system (not to mention the above-ground) who facilitate the clandestine flow of global funds?

I look forward to hearing about the first organizational meeting in Lagos to transform what I call “the Forbes list of shame” into “the list of fairness.” Maybe Forbes will feature charter members in next year’s list!

I would be happy to step up to the bar in Lagos and buy all the new charter members a round of “screwdrivers”!