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Hardly. He’s a pauper compared to John D. Rockefeller who died in 1937. At the time of his death his assets equaled 1.5% of America’s total economic output.

Hardly. He’s a pauper compared to John D. Rockefeller who died in 1937. At the time of his death his assets equaled 1.5% of America’s total economic output. With a $20T GDP that would be a $300B net worth in today’s dollars or around 200% what Bezos is worth. Don’t worry. This second gilded age that we are living in is on track to ensure we have a trillionaire in short order.

coldtea 8y ago
>With a $20T GDP that would be a $300B net worth in today’s dollars or around 200% what Bezos is worth. That's close enough, and hardly make him "a pauper compared to JDR". And of course, you got to also examine how the rest of "America’s total economic output" was divided back in JDR era compared to today. Perhaps JDR had 1.5% of US output, but the rest was more equally distributed. E.g. today Bezos might have "just" 0.75% but a larger percentage than in JDRs time might be held by people like Bezos (and in all likelihood it is). In other words, what's important is how much more not just the richest man, but the top say 100 rich commanded then and now?
- tajen 8y ago
  Plus Jeff Bezos is only in his 50ies, if he’s 0.75% of USA’s GDP now, he may well be the double by the next 30 years.
wilsonnb2 8y ago
That is an interesting way to compare wealth between time periods but I'm not sure it's the most valid method.
- godelmachine 8y ago
  You spoke my mind. For one, Rockefeller grew rich quickly coz there wasn’t as much regulation as compared to what Bezos had to face. On the other hand, Rockefeller wasn’t in the Internet age and Bezos banker on the exponential rise of internet. I am sure there are many more variables.
  - arkis22 8y ago
    Ironically, Rockefeller's wealth grew quickly because of regulation. Trustbusters broke up Standard Oil into different companies and investors kept bidding up the prices of the different pieces.
  - hugh4life 8y ago
    "For one, Rockefeller grew rich quickly coz there wasn’t as much regulation as compared to what Bezos had to face." Eh, Bezos got rich off of not having to pay state sales taxes while his brick and mortar competitors did. But AWS makes up for that IMO.
    - jacobush 8y ago
      Wait what? Makes up for it why? It's not like you couldn't virtualised servers elsewhere.
      - erikpukinskis 8y ago
        Anyone could have. Amazon did.
        jacobush 8y ago
        What about Azure and Google Cloud and a bunch of smaller players? Several did and do, not just Amazon.
        erikpukinskis 8y ago
        They followed.
  - nickjj 8y ago
    One of those variables is likely tax rates. Back then, federal income tax was way way lower than what it is today. At some point the highest income tax bracket was 7% but today it's 37%. I'm not a history buff but Google says social security taxes first started in 1937. That could be potentially another 13% less taxes paid back then. Also Google says corporate tax was hovering around 12% during the 1920s but it's upper 30%s now. Imagine how fast you could gain wealth if the govt. only took 20% of your income instead of 50%.
- claytonjy 8y ago
  Agreed; it's the same GDP vs wealth comparison often railed against on here. Comparing a rate-of-gain with an amount-of-same-thing-already-gained is unsound at best, if not outright misleading. If we're going to use GDP on one side, we should measure how much Rockefeller/Bezos is gaining each year on the other. If we want to use their individual wealth, we should compare to total wealth of all US persons.
ryanmercer 8y ago
And Mansa Musa who would have had a modern net worth north of $400B. He nearly destroyed a regional economy when he went to make hajj to Mecca just doing his personal shopping and handing money out to beggars, some would have it that he had to take out ridiculous loans to try and undo some of the damage he did by dumping 1.5 billion dollars plus of gold into the economy.
- danesparza 8y ago
  I love that they qualified the title with "modern history". For this reason, I'm sure. Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musa_I_of_Mali https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musa_I_of_Mali
  - revision17 8y ago
    Indeed, also Augustus Caesar owned (or at least claimed to own) Egypt as his own private property. That would be difficult to quantify in modern terms.
olfactory 8y ago
Bezos will surpass that several times over in the next few years. He's added tremendous economic value which is why so many of us pay him for his many products and services.
paulddraper 8y ago
$150B is a pauper compared to $300B? Two paupers = a king?
rsync 8y ago
"Hardly. He’s a pauper compared to John D. Rockefeller who died in 1937." Why bother with historical comparisons ? I hear it frequently reported that Putin is currently worth $200 Billion ...

coldtea 8y ago

>With a $20T GDP that would be a $300B net worth in today’s dollars or around 200% what Bezos is worth. That's close enough, and hardly make him "a pauper compared to JDR". And of course, you got to also examine how the rest of "America’s total economic output" was divided back in JDR era compared to today. Perhaps JDR had 1.5% of US output, but the rest was more equally distributed. E.g. today Bezos might have "just" 0.75% but a larger percentage than in JDRs time might be held by people like Bezos (and in all likelihood it is). In other words, what's important is how much more not just the richest man, but the top say 100 rich commanded then and now?

tajen 8y ago
Plus Jeff Bezos is only in his 50ies, if he’s 0.75% of USA’s GDP now, he may well be the double by the next 30 years.

wilsonnb2 8y ago

That is an interesting way to compare wealth between time periods but I'm not sure it's the most valid method.

godelmachine 8y ago
You spoke my mind. For one, Rockefeller grew rich quickly coz there wasn’t as much regulation as compared to what Bezos had to face. On the other hand, Rockefeller wasn’t in the Internet age and Bezos banker on the exponential rise of internet. I am sure there are many more variables.
- arkis22 8y ago
  Ironically, Rockefeller's wealth grew quickly because of regulation. Trustbusters broke up Standard Oil into different companies and investors kept bidding up the prices of the different pieces.
- hugh4life 8y ago
  "For one, Rockefeller grew rich quickly coz there wasn’t as much regulation as compared to what Bezos had to face." Eh, Bezos got rich off of not having to pay state sales taxes while his brick and mortar competitors did. But AWS makes up for that IMO.
  - jacobush 8y ago
    Wait what? Makes up for it why? It's not like you couldn't virtualised servers elsewhere.
    - erikpukinskis 8y ago
      Anyone could have. Amazon did.
      - jacobush 8y ago
        What about Azure and Google Cloud and a bunch of smaller players? Several did and do, not just Amazon.
        erikpukinskis 8y ago
        They followed.
- nickjj 8y ago
  One of those variables is likely tax rates. Back then, federal income tax was way way lower than what it is today. At some point the highest income tax bracket was 7% but today it's 37%. I'm not a history buff but Google says social security taxes first started in 1937. That could be potentially another 13% less taxes paid back then. Also Google says corporate tax was hovering around 12% during the 1920s but it's upper 30%s now. Imagine how fast you could gain wealth if the govt. only took 20% of your income instead of 50%.
claytonjy 8y ago
Agreed; it's the same GDP vs wealth comparison often railed against on here. Comparing a rate-of-gain with an amount-of-same-thing-already-gained is unsound at best, if not outright misleading. If we're going to use GDP on one side, we should measure how much Rockefeller/Bezos is gaining each year on the other. If we want to use their individual wealth, we should compare to total wealth of all US persons.

ryanmercer 8y ago

And Mansa Musa who would have had a modern net worth north of $400B. He nearly destroyed a regional economy when he went to make hajj to Mecca just doing his personal shopping and handing money out to beggars, some would have it that he had to take out ridiculous loans to try and undo some of the damage he did by dumping 1.5 billion dollars plus of gold into the economy.

danesparza 8y ago
I love that they qualified the title with "modern history". For this reason, I'm sure. Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musa_I_of_Mali https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musa_I_of_Mali
- revision17 8y ago
  Indeed, also Augustus Caesar owned (or at least claimed to own) Egypt as his own private property. That would be difficult to quantify in modern terms.

olfactory 8y ago

Bezos will surpass that several times over in the next few years. He's added tremendous economic value which is why so many of us pay him for his many products and services.

paulddraper 8y ago

$150B is a pauper compared to $300B? Two paupers = a king?

rsync 8y ago

"Hardly. He’s a pauper compared to John D. Rockefeller who died in 1937." Why bother with historical comparisons ? I hear it frequently reported that Putin is currently worth $200 Billion ...