The visualization is cool, but the purpose is questionable.
tl;dr: wealth is a result of transactions and market valuations--not from stealing from a finite pile of money.
I personally don't care for this individual. However, this individual's wealth is largely a result of stock value. The individual owns stock in companies that the market has determined has extraordinary value.
In many of these articles posted here, the implication is that the individual has taken that wealth from others--this is a false narrative and it is meant to incite anger and jealousy, in my opinion.
Wealth is not something finite, like a lake full of money. There was not $1 trillion of money that could have been distributed to the masses.
Wealth is created in economic transactions--people decide the value of something owned by someone else. If someone decides to value your car at $1 million, then you have wealth in that car.
This individual created the companies with help from others (capital investment) that now hold the value that the market has assigned. The individual's wealth could go to 10 cents tomorrow if the market decided to do revalue the shares.
If people wanted to, the could donate all of their money that they use to buy stock to the masses. But that's just not human nature.
effed3•1d ago
stocks values are deep linked to real economy, moving such amount of value can do big effects on real world, inflations, investments, development decisions..
In the hands of such small elite individuals is even worse, because financial activity at this levels call for deregulations more and more, and without clear rules the effects on all the ordinary people are big and real, the "pile of money" is the real money missing in the lives of all the rest of the world.
Big wealths are ok, but when some (millions) are (quite) missing the basic for living, i think some adjustments are needed.
setheron•1d ago
The purpose is just to visualize scale.
Similar to Jeff Dean's visualization of numbers every programmer should know, visualizing scale is helpful -+ or at least I find it so.
jschveibinz•1d ago
tl;dr: wealth is a result of transactions and market valuations--not from stealing from a finite pile of money.
I personally don't care for this individual. However, this individual's wealth is largely a result of stock value. The individual owns stock in companies that the market has determined has extraordinary value.
In many of these articles posted here, the implication is that the individual has taken that wealth from others--this is a false narrative and it is meant to incite anger and jealousy, in my opinion.
Wealth is not something finite, like a lake full of money. There was not $1 trillion of money that could have been distributed to the masses.
Wealth is created in economic transactions--people decide the value of something owned by someone else. If someone decides to value your car at $1 million, then you have wealth in that car.
This individual created the companies with help from others (capital investment) that now hold the value that the market has assigned. The individual's wealth could go to 10 cents tomorrow if the market decided to do revalue the shares.
If people wanted to, the could donate all of their money that they use to buy stock to the masses. But that's just not human nature.
effed3•1d ago
In the hands of such small elite individuals is even worse, because financial activity at this levels call for deregulations more and more, and without clear rules the effects on all the ordinary people are big and real, the "pile of money" is the real money missing in the lives of all the rest of the world.
Big wealths are ok, but when some (millions) are (quite) missing the basic for living, i think some adjustments are needed.
setheron•1d ago
Similar to Jeff Dean's visualization of numbers every programmer should know, visualizing scale is helpful -+ or at least I find it so.