this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2025
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Its all losses on paper, unrealized losses.
I could see them all coming out ahead in some other way, tax minimization, write downs/write offs, other financial methods not accessible to normal people that don't have a fleet of accounts and tax lawyers on retainer. And they'll all be ready to profit massively during and after any future crash.
The cynic in me says that they all have a bunch of call/put options, algorithmic high frequency trading and dark pools at the ready, or other bets that'll make them massively rich and any upcoming stock market crash is calculated and planned by influencing a bought president. Maybe that's giving them too much credit but the people that advise these billionaires and the president are definitely ready to profit off of whatever is coming.
That's the neat part. You don't give them credit. Their lawyers and hedge funds do this for them and are rewarded the more fraudulent they can get
I don't know. I were filthy rich, I for one probably wouldn't mind a small (and quite likely temporary) hit on my net worth if it means I get to buy promising upstarts and some of my competitors for small change because they're now grossly underfunded/undervalued thanks to the crash.
But then again, I'm a cynic, and probably just projecting here.
Really? Because if I had even a fraction of their wealth, I would stop working and just enjoy my life because I already had far more money than I could ever need. I would fund passion projects, and give away money to causes that I believe are important.
These are not normal people. It's never enough for them.
I think they are people with an endless greed that feeds into itself. With their money, they can generate millions in passive income just by having investments. The system rewards their behavior
An analogy that pops into my head is when you have people that are high rank in a multiplayer game, create a new account so that they can be paired with people who are just starting out. The system feels like it's just letting smurf accounts demolish everyone.
That analogy maybe isn't perfect, though, because it implies the ultra wealthy are more skilled when it's really just a resource allocation issue.
All cynicism aside, so would I, probably. What good is immense wealth if you don't use it as a means to gain happiness?
As much as it pains me to say this as a decades-long passionate M$ hater, Bill Gates is doing something right there.
But you're right about one thing of course ...
IMHO Melinda changed Gates's view on the world. As much as her desktop idea was nightmare fuel, they did create a foundation, had some kids together, and that let Gates grow as a person away from Ballmer's "Developers, Developers, Developers!" culture.
Also the bit that everyone's leaving out, since election day, all these guys had huge boosts to their stocks. All the current losses basically corrected whatever gains they got since November.
Basically, they aren't hurting yet.
Exactly. You could reduce their wealth by a factor of 1000, and they would still have more than 90% of people. They will never be genuinely hurt by losses. Not like 99% of people would be.
The chart shouldn't make anyone happy. The true horror of it should be realized; in reality it's an accounting of how much they're "spending" money to make money. They will continue to make more. The scales here are unfathomable to most people.
It's borderline misinformation to not include their total wealth for context.
It is misinformation. It was probably designed to make us think we've won and to relax our gaurd