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Jeff Bezos Becomes the First Person Ever Worth $200B

16 points by mgdo 6y ago

chmaynard 6y ago
Just think, if he hadn't cheated on his ex-wife he'd be worth even more.
- anm89 6y ago
  It is a bit absurd to think of the financial consequences of that. More money chabged hands than the GDP of many countries in that divorce
- snypher 6y ago
  And he would have more money too!
bryan_w 6y ago
Some will see this with outrage, but I'm just thinking that it's an ad. I feel like I should get into Amazon stock while it's on the upswing!
- anm89 6y ago
  Buy high sell low right? Being half sarcastic though. There is still an argument that Amazon is a value stock.
- Shivetya 6y ago
  I think it says a lot about a society where a person can accumulate such wealth without being a politician or using military force
TheGallopedHigh 6y ago
Interesting to compare it to this list for some perspective: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wealthiest_historical_figures https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wealthiest_historical_...
- vanusa 6y ago
  ... Which of course the authors of the Forbes article never did, judging by some of the obvious historical competitors (Rockefeller, Carnegie, Vanderbilt, etc) they missed. Leaving aside the bias for figures from the last 200 years (ignoring many figures from earlier epochs, whose shares of global wealth were no doubt comparable, or most likely far higher).
Pompidou 6y ago
If you try to imagine the amount of real things Bezos can buy, and even more, the amazing mass of 200B$ in 10 dollars bills, you then realize his fortune is more a symbolic attribute than the transposition of productible stuffs in real economy. This absurd level of fortune shows us that we don't live in a pure rational world/economy, but rather that we still follow and believe in fictive or conventional representations of wealth. The question is : how long people will still believe in theses social conventions, because as a last resort our actual world stand on social beliefs.
- afiori 6y ago
  That is not the amount of money Bezos has, that is the estimated selling price of the stuff he owns. He could use it as money (by paying in fraction of shares) but a significant part of the value relies on the fact that he is not currently selling (a substantial part) of his wealth. Similarly for Musk, it is easy to imagine how quickly Tesla value would drop if Musk where to tweet "I will now sell all of my shares" (he received a formal complaint because he said something that was vaguely close to it)
  - Pompidou 6y ago
    Ok thank you for your comment, I will go deeply in your point of view later.
- rumanator 6y ago
  > you then realize his fortune is more a symbolic attribute than This isn't much if an epiphany. These net worth values are just loose estimates of hypothetical values obtained by blindly summing coarse appraisals given the current state of things. They have always been like that.
evolve2k 6y ago
Is it still true that he’s behind on paying his taxes?
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
magma17 6y ago
I'll see things he won't.

16 points by mgdo 6y ago

chmaynard 6y ago

Just think, if he hadn't cheated on his ex-wife he'd be worth even more.

anm89 6y ago
It is a bit absurd to think of the financial consequences of that. More money chabged hands than the GDP of many countries in that divorce
snypher 6y ago
And he would have more money too!

bryan_w 6y ago

Some will see this with outrage, but I'm just thinking that it's an ad. I feel like I should get into Amazon stock while it's on the upswing!

anm89 6y ago
Buy high sell low right? Being half sarcastic though. There is still an argument that Amazon is a value stock.
Shivetya 6y ago
I think it says a lot about a society where a person can accumulate such wealth without being a politician or using military force

TheGallopedHigh 6y ago

Interesting to compare it to this list for some perspective: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wealthiest_historical_figures https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wealthiest_historical_...

vanusa 6y ago
... Which of course the authors of the Forbes article never did, judging by some of the obvious historical competitors (Rockefeller, Carnegie, Vanderbilt, etc) they missed. Leaving aside the bias for figures from the last 200 years (ignoring many figures from earlier epochs, whose shares of global wealth were no doubt comparable, or most likely far higher).

Pompidou 6y ago

If you try to imagine the amount of real things Bezos can buy, and even more, the amazing mass of 200B$ in 10 dollars bills, you then realize his fortune is more a symbolic attribute than the transposition of productible stuffs in real economy. This absurd level of fortune shows us that we don't live in a pure rational world/economy, but rather that we still follow and believe in fictive or conventional representations of wealth. The question is : how long people will still believe in theses social conventions, because as a last resort our actual world stand on social beliefs.

afiori 6y ago
That is not the amount of money Bezos has, that is the estimated selling price of the stuff he owns. He could use it as money (by paying in fraction of shares) but a significant part of the value relies on the fact that he is not currently selling (a substantial part) of his wealth. Similarly for Musk, it is easy to imagine how quickly Tesla value would drop if Musk where to tweet "I will now sell all of my shares" (he received a formal complaint because he said something that was vaguely close to it)
- Pompidou 6y ago
  Ok thank you for your comment, I will go deeply in your point of view later.
rumanator 6y ago
> you then realize his fortune is more a symbolic attribute than This isn't much if an epiphany. These net worth values are just loose estimates of hypothetical values obtained by blindly summing coarse appraisals given the current state of things. They have always been like that.

evolve2k 6y ago

Is it still true that he’s behind on paying his taxes?

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

magma17 6y ago

I'll see things he won't.