Good point, especially as to the homeowner, I think we can tweak the cases. Though naturally the billionaire bribes an appraiser to undervalue all the new asse

Good point, especially as to the homeowner, I think we can tweak the cases. Though naturally the billionaire bribes an appraiser to undervalue all the new assets for tax purposes though, right? :) Ok, half joking. More seriously I expect some large investment projects we could use have a value that will only materialize after significant work and capital are burned. You buy a run down warehouse, the debt and building wash out, but you spend a ton of work turning it into the hip new place for aspiring restauranteurs... there's a gap before it's really obvious to the world what you're accomplishing. The debt for the building washes, but early expenses for clean up, refurbishing and advertising would look on paper like they're disappearing. Maybe I should use a hypo like that instead. The biggest problem is that ability to carry debt correlates with expected ability to pay in the future. If someone trusts you to borrow in a way where you immediately burn the money and spiral yourself way negative, however you manage to get there, odds are you are very well off or very convincing. Net worth might be like a horseshoe. The best off might be those both way at the high end and millions in the negatives.