They don't have it in cash under the mattress though, or as yachts and mansions. Let me preface by saying that I do not think that having such inequality is in

They don't have it in cash under the mattress though, or as yachts and mansions. Let me preface by saying that I do not think that having such inequality is in any way good. But there is a widespread misunderstanding of what being rich means, their wealth is not calculated like normal people's wealth (bank account, house, car, job security...). Most of the wealth of the richest people in the world is in the form of investments. This wealth is not liquid and is largely under the control of other individuals. It is used to help start, expand or rescue valuable companies and pay salaries. Often this money subsidies lots of consumer products that are sold at a loss and benefit the population (Uber and Twitter have almost never been profitable for instance, even if their value is debatable). Yes they do "own" it in the sense that they have the rights to future profits, and they can exchange these rights with other investors for cash to a limited degree. But in practice the vast majority of their wealth is in circulation benefiting many others, and they can't take it out of circulation without loosing most of it (so are they even that rich?). And yes, most of this wealth is speculative too (potential of future profits), it's more like a probability of future wealth. They can take some loans against this speculative wealth to have cash at hand, but they do need to pay for the extra risk involved. However, even if the cannot use most of their wealth to buy luxury, they do have significant power in the sense that they can choose who to help with their wealth. They are forced to help many other people (investment), but they do not tend to provide the help that society most needs (mostly because individual consumers don't tend to want what society at large most needs).