Thing is, most billionaires like Bezos, Musk, or Gates tend to have very different finances than other classes of people. What they own is pieces of a company or companies, as opposed to a house, bank account, or being poor as fuck. Owning that means owning shares in the company, not having liquidity that they can just go throw around. So it's not really a matter of whether they have more than they can use in a lifetime. It's a matter of having enough to retain control over generally how the company is run.

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 10 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I've heard this argument before, and it's patently false. These people clearly do have a ton of liquidity that they spend on their incredibly lavish lifestyles. You could make the argument that their valuation is inflated because financial wealth doesn't directly translate into actual wealth, but these people own tons of physical property. For example, Gates is the biggest private owner of farmland in US.

[–] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Oh shit he's even mega kulak in addition to all rest of crap.

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 years ago

Most people don't realize just how despicable Gates is. He has one of the best PR teams out there.