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Every time I see these articles I smile to myself. Do people seriously think these guys are richer than Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud? Or Vladimir Putin? They ha

by Gud 3y ago

Every time I see these articles I smile to myself. Do people seriously think these guys are richer than Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud? Or Vladimir Putin? They have nation states at their disposal. Golden palaces. Large armies. National oil and gas industries under their control. Their wealth and power is so obscene it’s hard to even quantify.

cntlzw 3y ago
Can't agree more. Imagine you own a resource that every one on the planet needs. Pretty much everyone on the planet is your customer. You have a monopoly. Little to no competition. You control the prices. No need to pay taxes. You are the government, the police and in some cases even the religion. Ellison can't beat that.
constantcrying 3y ago
At these scales "wealth" becomes almost impossible to quantify in any meaningful way. These lists gather some rather arbitrary metrics and combine them into a single number. Comparison only makes sense within a narrow field, comparing Musk, Bezos, etc. is somewhat reasonable as their wealth is mostly the value of their companies multiplied by their ownership percentage. Comparing the Saudi regent to an american buisiniess man in networth seems quite meaningless.
expertentipp 3y ago
> They have nation states at their disposal Owning an island inhabited by people gets him close. His only mistake was being born in wrong country. General mindset is the same.
namaria 3y ago
I honestly think such lists and media attention to some or another private person who owns a big chunk of a highly valued publicly listed company is a distraction. It's designed to keep the public's attention from the reality of the old fashioned monarchies that still rule over half the world's population. All the ink in the world can't change the fact that Russia and China are ruled now as they were in the 9th century: top dog calls the shots and ices enemies.

by Gud 3y ago

cntlzw 3y ago

Can't agree more. Imagine you own a resource that every one on the planet needs. Pretty much everyone on the planet is your customer. You have a monopoly. Little to no competition. You control the prices. No need to pay taxes. You are the government, the police and in some cases even the religion. Ellison can't beat that.

constantcrying 3y ago

At these scales "wealth" becomes almost impossible to quantify in any meaningful way. These lists gather some rather arbitrary metrics and combine them into a single number. Comparison only makes sense within a narrow field, comparing Musk, Bezos, etc. is somewhat reasonable as their wealth is mostly the value of their companies multiplied by their ownership percentage. Comparing the Saudi regent to an american buisiniess man in networth seems quite meaningless.

expertentipp 3y ago

> They have nation states at their disposal Owning an island inhabited by people gets him close. His only mistake was being born in wrong country. General mindset is the same.

namaria 3y ago

I honestly think such lists and media attention to some or another private person who owns a big chunk of a highly valued publicly listed company is a distraction. It's designed to keep the public's attention from the reality of the old fashioned monarchies that still rule over half the world's population. All the ink in the world can't change the fact that Russia and China are ruled now as they were in the 9th century: top dog calls the shots and ices enemies.