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phiwong t1_iucs34o wrote

This is comparing two different types of things. GDP is a flow (how much per year). Net worth is a stock (the value of what one owns). They are not fundamentally comparable.

If you owned 10 apples and a farmer owns 1 apple tree, who has more? How is the comparison made?

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abromo7 OP t1_iucwbre wrote

Thanks that's a nice comparison.

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hmm_okay t1_iucro96 wrote

GDP is a measure of the total goods and services sold by a country in 1 year.

Net worth is not that for most billionaires, it's a reflection of the present value of their assets.

The annual GDP of the state of Hawaii is about 100B. Do you think the state of Hawaii could be bought for just 100B?

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MikuEmpowered t1_iucwa2x wrote

No.

GDP is like your annual wage for countries.

But personal asset is ALL that person is worth.

Its kinda hard to say the guy who has 2 billion in asset if you count everything, he owns is richer than the country that makes 1 billion every year.

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ViskerRatio t1_iucs3rp wrote

GDP is how much a nation produces in a year. Being a billionaire is about wealth. So you're trying to compare two different things - it's like asking whether the distance from New York to Chicago is faster than a Porsche.

Probably the question you're getting at is: could a billionaire buy all the goods/services of an entire nation?

To which the answer is "almost certainly not". With the exception of unusual microstates, the value of real property is those nations easily exceeds the liquid assets of any billionaire because as you start buying up that property, the cost of the remaining property explodes in value.

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hiricinee t1_iuct676 wrote

For reference, their net worth is generally a measure of the market cap of a company they are largely owner in, but the proportion of that company they own.

Most of these companies market cap is tens to hundreds of times the earnings these companies make annually.

So the fair comparison would be something like, if that billionaire had a net worth that was tens to hundreds of times the size of a country.

The problem is that its a tough comparison, since the act of gaining ownership of a country isn't easy. Most countries that would be reasonably valued as a company with a market cap of 10 billion aren't just going to let you buy them or even part of them.

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