Oxfam: 8 richest men worth equivalent of half the world

Quote: Evenbob

looking at that list makes me think of
John D Rockefeller.

Bill Gates is worth 1/240th of the GDP of USA. Rockefeller was worth 1/65th of the GDP of the USA at the time.

Quote: Face

Which party do you (formal) prefer? National Action Party, Democratic Revolution Party, or the Party of Institutional Revolution?

Wrong thread, but I think Wiz's stuff is working ;)

I'm sorry to have to do this:

Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD)

Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI)

And if you ever figure out what the last means, I'll give you $5 ;)


I do like the PRD's take on social issues. They were the first to legalize abortion, to recognize civil same sex marriages, and to allow transgender people to change their birth certificates, all in Mexico City.

Now, if they could get over their irrational fear of pot...

My favorite story of the wealthy is Onassis purchasing a house near every restaurant he liked to frequent around the world. Not to stay in. Just to have a private bathroom nearby.

-as told by Liberace on the Oprah show.

Quote: Evenbob

looking at that list makes me think of John D Rockefeller.

He is usually considered the wealthiest American. One list places him just below an African who lived in the middle ages.

10. Cornelius Vanderbilt, $185 billion
9. Henry Ford, $199 billion
8. Muammar Gaddafi, $200 billion
7. William the Conqueror, $209 billion to $229 billion
6. Jakob Fugger, $221 billion
A relatively obscure historical figure compared to many other members of the world’s wealthiest, Jakob Fugger nonetheless was able to hoard $221 billion through his merchant and banking activities. Fugger lived from 1459 until 1525, having been both born and dying in Augsburg, Germany. The Fugger fortune was made through textile trading in Italy mostly, but also through the mining of silver and gold in Hungary and Bohemia.


5. Mir Osman Ali Khan, $230 billion (6 April 1886 – 24 February 1967)


4. Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov, $300 billion
3. Andrew Carnegie, $310 billion
2. John D. Rockefeller, $340 billion
1. Mansa Musa, $400 billion
Far and away the richest man to ever walk the face of the Earth was Mansa Musa, or Musa I of Mali. As the reigning emperor of the Mali empire, Musa commanded a fortune worth a jaw-dropping $400 billion. That’s worth more than four times the current richest person in the world, to put things in perspective. Musa was born in 1280 and lived until 1337 as a devout Muslim, constructing numerous educational centers and mosques across Africa,.

Physical photograph showing DJT made deal with hell

Quote: Pacomartin

Far and away the richest man to ever walk the face of the Earth was Mansa Musa, or Musa I of Mali. As the reigning emperor of the Mali empire, Musa commanded a fortune worth a jaw-dropping $400 billion. That’s worth more than four times the current richest person in the world, to put things in perspective. Musa was born in 1280 and lived until 1337 as a devout Muslim, constructing numerous educational centers and mosques across Africa,.

Interesting. how did he make his fortune?

Mike Duncan makes a good case for Crassus as one of the wealthiest men to have ever lived. Will Webb, of the Heritage Podcast, makes a good case that Crassus was the most despicable Roman of all time.

That's tough competition, considering Nero had his own mother killed, Caracalla killed his brother in front of their mother, Sulla issued proscription lists of his enemies and/or those whose fortune he could put to good use, and later Augustus and Mark Anthony did the same thing.

Crassus, among other ventures, was in real estate. He ran a fire brigade, which would rush to any fire at any time, and demand the owner sell cheap or they'd let the building burn. He then used slave labor to rebuild.

One thing we don't see in movies is how much of Rome was made of wood. Sure, the palaces, temples, monuments, and houses of the rich were stone, with lots of granite and marble. But the teeming tenements of the poor and the homes of the very small middle class, along with many buildings like shops, workshops, bakeries, warehouses, etc. were made of wood. Fires were routine.

Quote: Pacomartin

Far and away the richest man to ever walk the face of the Earth was Mansa Musa, or Musa I of Mali.

It's a flawed list, as Wiki points out. You
cannot compare wealth of that period
with wealth of the modern period and
get a true comparison. Musa was the
wealthiest of his period, Rockefeller
the richest of his. We cannot know
who was the wealthiest.

'Due to problems arising from different definitions of wealth, ways of measuring it, various economic models throughout history, as well as multiple other reasons—this article discusses the wealthiest people in the following separate historical periods: Antiquity, Middle Ages and modern period. Accordingly—because of the previously mentioned difficulties—it is not possible to determine the single richest person in all of history.'

Quote: Nareed

Interesting. how did he make his fortune?

He increased wealth money the same way as William the Conqueror, by taking over another people.

Quote: Evenbob

You cannot compare wealth of that period with wealth of the modern period and get a true comparison.

Of course.

Musa Keita I (c. 1280 – c. 1337) was the tenth Mansa, which translates as "sultan" or "emperor", of the wealthy West African Mali Empire. The Tsar of Russia was born into that position. He didn't make money like Rockefeller on a stock exchange.



Even in the post WWII some rich lists would automatically put Queen Elizabeth II as the wealthiest person in the world. Today, most of the palaces, castles, and jewels are considered as belonging to the "crown estate", while the Queen's personal fortune, estimated by the Sunday Times at $490 million.
The "crown estate" which pays the Queen, but is not considered the monarch's personal fortune since 1760 is more than 30 times the value of the personal property of the Queen.

While that is certainly enough to put her in the top 1000 richest in Britain, the Duke of Westminster is today estimated to have a personal fortune 20 times that amount. While the Duke is the wealthiest aristocrat, the Sunday Times lists 5 common Brits with a larger fortune.

Quote: Pacomartin

He increased wealth money the same way as William the Conqueror, by taking over another people.

That's the same way the Vatican got rich,
by stealing whatever they could get
their hands on for a thousand years. I
tried to get FrG to talk about this but
he refuses to say a word. The Church
was the early Mafia, nothing but a bunch
of crooks.

Biltmore in North Carolina was built by one of the grandsons of Cornelius Vanderbilt, George Washington Vanderbilt II ( Born November 14, 1862) who inherited roughly 5% of his grandfather's estate.


The Breakers in Newport was built by his oldest brother, Cornelius Vanderbilt II Born November 27, 1843


A third brother built this home on 5th avenue in NYC, but it was demolished in 1926.


A fourth brother built this home in Hyde Park. It was only one of several homes he built. His homes in Newport and the Adirondacks are shown below.

Back to the original post.... I was under the impression that if you count true net worth, meaning debt is subtracted from your stuff, there are a hundreds of millions of people worth less than nothing. So anyone with a positive net worth is worth more than the bottom (insert accurate number here) million people.