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Jeff Bezos Becomes the Richest Man In Modern History, Topping $150 Billion (bloomberg.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Jeff Bezos is the richest person in modern history. The Amazon founder's net worth broke $150 billion in New York on Monday morning, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That's about $55 billion more than Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, the world's second-richest person. Bezos, 54, has now topped Gates in inflation-adjusted terms. The $100 billion mark that Gates hit briefly in 1999 at the height of the dot-com boom would be worth about $149 billion in today's dollars. That makes the Amazon chief executive officer richer than anyone else on earth since at least 1982, when Forbes published its inaugural wealth ranking. Bezos crossed the threshold just as Amazon prepares to kick off its 36-hour summer sales event, Prime Day. The company's share price was $1,825.73 at 11:10 a.m. in New York, extending its 2018 gain to 56 percent and giving Bezos a $150.8 billion fortune. A little more than a week ago, Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg overtook Warren Buffett to become the world's third-richest person.

7 of 228 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Too much? by geekmux · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When is enough money enough money? I ponder...

    If you're pondering this, you're wasting your time. The disease of Obscene Greed has proven to be limitless, and we'll soon be counting the world's trillionaires.

  2. Telling Seattle to GFY paid off handsomely by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    With a few more years of stagnant employee wages and no corporate tax we can get him to $200 billion in no time.

    Interesting how when he makes $150 billion, it's because he deserves it. When i make $150,000 it's because IT salaries are too high and we need more visas.

  3. All this money by DaMattster · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And he still pays his warehouse workers a shit wage. He's a fucking asshole.

  4. Re:Is he still driving his Honda Accord? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I do not know too much about Jeff Bezos, but this scene from 1999, where he explains why he is driving a Honda Accord...

    (Bezos) "This is a perfectly good car."

    Uh, common sense isn't exclusive to obscenely rich people.

    ...despite being a billionaire, may explain why he is not just your average billionaire, but the richest man on earth.

    He got rich because he had a decent idea and got lucky. Despite intelligence or great ideas, most people don't realize just how much timing and pure luck has to do with great success. Had he tried to launch his company in 2001 after the dot-bomb hit, he may have gone down with many other digital ships.

  5. Re:$50000 by Bryansix · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Either you are really good at trolling or you are the most underpaid IT employee in California.

  6. Re:Too much? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yes. Not because of the stock, because he built Amazon by abusing his employees with shit conditions and wages.

    And if you thought the Microsoft tax was bad, check out the Amazon marketplace tax.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  7. Re:Too much? by geekmux · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The disease of Obscene Greed has proven to be limitless, and we'll soon be counting the world's trillionaires.

    The disease of Obscene Envy is equally boundless it seems.

    Being a control freak imprisoned by your own creation, unable to go out in public without armed escort and incapable of retiring to enjoy life? Hated by thousands, including your own abused employees? Known for getting rich by undercutting every middle man and wiping out hundreds of competing businesses?

    Yeah, fuck that. I'll take my average life (and Freedoms) any day. No envy here.