A Brief History
On March 6, 2018, founder and former boss of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, was named by Forbes as the richest person in the world, with a net worth of $112 billion. Such wealth makes us wonder, what can you do with all that money?
Digging Deeper
Currently, the richest individual person is Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX, worth $180 billion, while the family of Bernard Arnault of the LVMH commercial conglomerate is worth $211 billion, while the average American household has a net worth of $192,900.
So, what can the super-rich buy with their wealth? A new US aircraft carrier costs about $13 billion, so Musk can buy a fleet of them, more than any country other than the USA. The priciest home in the US is “only” $188 million above Central Park, while the costliest home in the world is Buckingham Palace, at $4.9 billion, but it is probably not for sale!
Bonus: Some other expensive toys the filthy rich might consider include:
The History Supreme, at$ 4.8 billion., the world’s costliest yacht.
The most expensive new car, the rolls Royce Drop Tail at $28 million.
The most expensive collector car, 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 at $142 million.
Private jets cost anywhere from a couple million dollars to over $100 million.
The revolver used by Sherrif Pat Garret to shoot Billy the Kid, $6.03 million.
The most expensive jewel in the world, The Hope Diamond, though getting the Smithsonian to sell it might be difficult.
Question for students (and subscribers): What would you buy if you were super-rich? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Isaacson, Walter. Elon Musk. Simon & Schuster Audio, 2023.
Reynolds, Elliot. Jeff Bezos: Biography of a Billionaire Business Titan. FH Publishing, 2019.
The featured image in this article, a photograph by Seattle City Council from Seattle of Jeff Bezos at Amazon Spheres Grand Opening in Seattle, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
You can also watch video versions of this article on YouTube.
