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Jeff Bezos Surpasses Bill Gates as World's Richest Person (bloomberg.com)

Posted by msmash on from the new-king dept.

An anonymous reader shares a report: A surge in Amazon shares Thursday morning in advance of the online retailer's earnings report has propelled founder Jeff Bezos past Bill Gates as the world's richest person. Shares of the online retailer rose 1.3 percent to $1,065.92 at 10:10 a.m. in New York, giving Bezos a net worth of $90.9 billion, versus $90.7 billion for Gates. If that holds through the 4 p.m. close, Bezos, 53, will leapfrog Gates, the Microsoft co-founder, on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Gates, 61, has held the top spot since May 2013.

6 of 155 comments (clear)

  1. Nobody should have that much money. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    We have anti-trust and anti-monopoly laws. Why not laws that break up the estate of people that accumulate more than say 1000x the median net worth?

    1. Re:Nobody should have that much money. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      "So, if your team is consistently winning because they're hitting a winning formula and they surpass the median wins per venue, then they should have X amount of their titles, winnings, trophies, awards, etc. divvied up to lesser teams."

      The marketplace has adapted. Most major sports have a marketplace rule that penalizes success in the name of balancing the market. For example, the NFL sequences its draft so weaker teams have the opportunity to select earlier in the hopes of getting better players. Do they take away your trophies? No, but they try to make it harder to earn the next one.

      "How about individual athletes that train hard and are just good at their game? Same deal, sorry guys/gals, you were simply too good in your area, so we're stripping you of some of it and giving it to other people."

      Again, the marketplace has adapted. Your contract is too expensive, we are going to cut you so we do not have to pay you this year (NFL). Some sports have fully guaranteed contracts (MLB) but there are cases where you lose money for being too good. You hope the market will reward you but you can never assume that your perceived value will always be paid by the market.

      Are they literally taking money away from these people? No. But the marketplace is adjusting and penalizing them for success to balance the market. The market chooses how to balance itself collectively. In some cases, for the good of the market it is an acceptable response to take value away from a market participant.

      "Because that would be stupid as fuck. Much like you."

      If the market becomes so out of balance that it can no longer function, everyone in the market loses. If a participant in the market is so short sighted that all they can see is their profits, and not the cost to the market of those profits, where in the end they lose everything because of those profits? Well, who is the stupid one now? And don't say that you'll just take your profits and walk away, because your profits are your company's value (stock) so when the market collapses and your stock is worthless, you have nothing to walk away with.

    2. Re:Nobody should have that much money. by kilfarsnar · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Opportunity is God here. Take it or leave it, that's up to you. Some people try and fail, some people try and succeed, that is opportunity. You could make the next Amazon if you weren't too busy worrying about stopping other people from trying because of your butthurt.

      Ah, so some people have God and some do not? Does everyone have an equal opportunity? I think not. Can everyone have 90 billion dollars if they just work hard enough and succeed? Or does the system require that we have a few winners and many losers? Further, what if Jeff Bezos had 90 trillion dollars and everyone else had one dollar? I guess he would have just earned it, right?

      Look, I don't have a problem with some people having more than others. But it's a matter of degree and proportion. I don't see how Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates could have added so much value that they are due 90 billion dollars. And I'm typing this on a Windows PC on a keyboard I bought from Amazon. As my absurd hypothetical above illustrates, it is a matter of degree. Nobody, by themselves, can add 90 billion dollars worth of value. They may have had a great idea and the drive to see it through, and they deserve to be rewarded for that. But really, when one accumulates $90 billion they are taking more than they deserve.

      --
      "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
  2. Re:Raise Your Hand by alvinrod · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Nobody has billions in their checking account. Anyone who has substantial amounts of wealth (and a clue what to do with it) has almost all of it invested or tied up in land or other valuable assets. The only people who have tens of millions of dollars immediately at their disposal are drug lords or foolish lottery winners.

  3. Re:Sounds pretty good eh America! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If I remember correctly, Gates has been automatically selling off 20? million shares of Microsoft every quarter and been giving it to his foundation. He's been giving away billions of his money for years. He would be the wealthiest if he wasn't giving so much away.

  4. Re:Meh by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1, Interesting

    A good book to read is "The Richest Man In Babylon" by George S. Clason. If you can set aside 1/10th of your earnings and reduce your wants, you will grow rich in time.