Yes, it's a bummer common discourse does this. While making the billionaires wealth seem more liquid would seem to overstate their power, I think the real issue

Yes, it's a bummer common discourse does this. While making the billionaires wealth seem more liquid would seem to overstate their power, I think the real issue is quite opposite. The popular understanding of capitalism is accurate prices and liquid goods, and only a few things (as contested in culture wars) are genuine separate axis. The reality is the real power of the billionaires isn't in their "net worth" (however good the accounting is), but in their power over the institutions they control. Look at the size of the flow in and out of those institutions, their capacity for investment. Realize also that even as we collectively have the wealth for much simultaneous investment, earlier investment has a profound and non-erotic effect on future history (e.g. car vs public transit, Unix being entrenched for 50+ years, etc.) This is the real travesty of billionaire power, not the ability of Bezos to buy big yachts or whatever.