TLDR; Wealth is like a box of Chocolates, you never know what it's gonna get. Any asset is only worth as much as you can sell it for. It doesn't matter if it's

TLDR; Wealth is like a box of Chocolates, you never know what it's gonna get. Any asset is only worth as much as you can sell it for. It doesn't matter if it's a Mint copy of the Beatle's White Album, an NFT, or 50 acres of prime deep soil farmland. Anyone who grew up going to flea markets knows this. There is always a risk, when you go to sell something, that there is no demand, or worse yet... you have to pay to get rid of it. For example - land that is listed as "federally declared wetlands", you can't build on it, but you still have to pay taxes, or try to get a greater fool to take it off your hands. When someone appears on the Forbes list, and is said to have a net worth of $239 Billion, that represents an expression of an opinion, a guess, at best. If that person then goes on to do something brilliant, showing their leadership is likely to increase the value of the things they own, that opinion may go up... however... if that person makes a tactical error... (let's say, offering way too much, on an impulse, to try to buy a social media platform, for example) that opinion may go down. None of that, however... really matters until the assets are sold, OR if there is a "mark to market" rule somewhere in the agreements used to leverage those assets for a loan. A margin call could then occur, forcing unplanned liquidation, and an even larger downward trend in "value". If you're not careful, all of this leverage can wipe you out, due to events outside your control. When an entire class of people are dependent on an asset class for their retirement, and begin to retire at the same time due to deteriorating health and working conditions... the market could collapse in value, a systemic risk is present.