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Jeff Bezos Becomes the Richest Man in Modern History, Topping $150B

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Re: Jeff Bezos Becomes the Richest Man in Modern History, Topping $150B

#31

Post by dgacmu »

josephjrobison wrote: post #11

If modern history goes back to the 1900s though, Rockefeller still has Bezos beat by more than double: "By the time of his death in 1937, estimates place his net worth in the range of US$300 billion to US$400 billion in adjusted dollars for the late 2000s (decade)." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wealthiest_historical_...

Time for Bezos to endow a university and some libraries?

An earlier major technical university endowed by the richest person of the time is a pretty awesome place... (he says with no bias whatsoever. :-)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Carnegie

Re: Jeff Bezos Becomes the Richest Man in Modern History, Topping $150B

#32

Post by ryanmercer »

godzillabrennus wrote: post #10

Hardly. He’s a pauper compared to John D. Rockefeller who died in 1937. At the time of his death his assets equaled 1.5% of America’s total economic output. With a $20T GDP that would be a $300B net worth in today’s dollars or around 200% what Bezos is worth. Don’t worry. This second gilded age that we are living in is on track to ensure we have a trillionaire in short order.

And Mansa Musa who would have had a modern net worth north of $400B. He nearly destroyed a regional economy when he went to make hajj to Mecca just doing his personal shopping and handing money out to beggars, some would have it that he had to take out ridiculous loans to try and undo some of the damage he did by dumping 1.5 billion dollars plus of gold into the economy.

Re: Jeff Bezos Becomes the Richest Man in Modern History, Topping $150B

#33

Post by zeusk »

nostromo wrote: post #29
Endama wrote: post #15

I feel that America is in the midst of a new gilded age; instead of Standard Oil, we have Amazon. Like the late 1920s, we saw losses in purchasing power of the average American, the collection of wealth among the top 1%, and disruption of our civic spaces as a result. I think the thing that many Americans aren't aware of was just how violent that time in US history was[1]. The US economy isn't just about how comforta…

I think Bezos is a bad argument for us being in a new guilded age. When you look at Rockefeller, Carnegie, Ford, and perhaps even Gates, they had near total control over some aspect of the American Economy. And they used that control to make incredible profits. Amazon is trying to do the same, but they haven't done so yet. Their retail business is not wildly profitable (if at all). They haven't monopolized online ret…

> Amazon is trying to do the same, but they haven't done so yet. They are not wildly profitable (if at all). They haven't monopolized online retail (and may never be able to do so).

Please tell me you're being sarcastic.

They're hiding profits and just plowing all the revenue back into the business while undercutting both competitors and their own employees.

Re: Jeff Bezos Becomes the Richest Man in Modern History, Topping $150B

#35

Post by qop »

nsx147 wrote: post #34
qop wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No shit. The comment you're responding to included the words "catching up"...

I interpreted "catching up" in terms of net worth not age.

Hmm, I hadn't thought of that. I took it the other way. It is rather ambiguous.

Re: Jeff Bezos Becomes the Richest Man in Modern History, Topping $150B

#36

Post by coldtea »

godzillabrennus wrote: post #10

Hardly. He’s a pauper compared to John D. Rockefeller who died in 1937. At the time of his death his assets equaled 1.5% of America’s total economic output. With a $20T GDP that would be a $300B net worth in today’s dollars or around 200% what Bezos is worth. Don’t worry. This second gilded age that we are living in is on track to ensure we have a trillionaire in short order.

>With a $20T GDP that would be a $300B net worth in today’s dollars or around 200% what Bezos is worth.

That's close enough, and hardly make him "a pauper compared to JDR".

And of course, you got to also examine how the rest of "America’s total economic output" was divided back in JDR era compared to today.

Perhaps JDR had 1.5% of US output, but the rest was more equally distributed. E.g. today Bezos might have "just" 0.75% but a larger percentage than in JDRs time might be held by people like Bezos (and in all likelihood it is).

In other words, what's important is how much more not just the richest man, but the top say 100 rich commanded then and now?

Re: Jeff Bezos Becomes the Richest Man in Modern History, Topping $150B

#38

Post by rtkwe »

no_one_ever wrote: post #7
marknadal wrote: post #4

What on earth, he just hit $100B like a couple quarters ago. How on earth did his worth go up by 150% in less than a year? (Edit: up 50%, sorry you are right, I meant 150% of his previous net.)

Wouldn't it be +50%? Doesn't seem unreasonable.

That's a pretty steep rise in a short time for any asset though.

Re: Jeff Bezos Becomes the Richest Man in Modern History, Topping $150B

#39

Post by save_ferris »

nostromo wrote: post #29
Endama wrote: post #15

I feel that America is in the midst of a new gilded age; instead of Standard Oil, we have Amazon. Like the late 1920s, we saw losses in purchasing power of the average American, the collection of wealth among the top 1%, and disruption of our civic spaces as a result. I think the thing that many Americans aren't aware of was just how violent that time in US history was[1]. The US economy isn't just about how comforta…

I think Bezos is a bad argument for us being in a new guilded age. When you look at Rockefeller, Carnegie, Ford, and perhaps even Gates, they had near total control over some aspect of the American Economy. And they used that control to make incredible profits. Amazon is trying to do the same, but they haven't done so yet. Their retail business is not wildly profitable (if at all). They haven't monopolized online ret…

> When you look at Rockefeller, Carnegie, Ford, and perhaps even Gates, they had near total control over some aspect of the American Economy

According to TechCrunch[1], Amazon controls 49% of the entire e-commerce market, and 5% of the entire retail market overall. They're also in a position to jockey for even more market share as retail continues to move online.

Amazon is in the perfect position to completely own e-commerce, so it's quite possible that we're just early in making our comparison.

[1] https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/13/amazons-share-of-the-us-e-...

Re: Jeff Bezos Becomes the Richest Man in Modern History, Topping $150B

#40

Post by arkis22 »

godelmachine wrote: post #23
wilsonnb2 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is an interesting way to compare wealth between time periods but I'm not sure it's the most valid method.

You spoke my mind. For one, Rockefeller grew rich quickly coz there wasn’t as much regulation as compared to what Bezos had to face. On the other hand, Rockefeller wasn’t in the Internet age and Bezos banker on the exponential rise of internet. I am sure there are many more variables.

Ironically, Rockefeller's wealth grew quickly because of regulation. Trustbusters broke up Standard Oil into different companies and investors kept bidding up the prices of the different pieces.
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