Who were these two?
No, that’s where you’re wrong. Fred Trump was about as rich as Donald is, adjusting for inflation and our ignorance about the current details of Trump’s finances.
On the other hand, Bill Gates, Sr. ran a successful law firm. Bill Gates is the richest person in the world. Trump, at best, climbed a step higher on the ladder of success than his dad did. Bill Gates climbed the entire ladder, built a skyscraper on top, then took a rocket to the moon.
Gates had actual talent that didn’t require a ton of capital to get moving. I think he would have wound up just as big had his parents been lower middle class. I don’t believe Gates ever cheated anyone, didn’t stiff his suppliers, and didn’t grab women by the pussy. Talent plus hard work trumps cheating your way up starting from a small fortune.
If the seventh one makes you super rich.
Again, how does Trump define success? Henry Ford may define it differently, but he’s dead and has no stake in Trumpco.
Opinion is divided on the subject. There’s a strong argument to be made that Gates basically purchased a cheap knockoff of Digital Research’s OS and resold it to IBM, thus securing his spot as the OS provider for IBM and its future clones; Gates’s early dirty tricks very possibly drove Gary Kildall to his grave.
It also didn’t hurt that Gates’s mom was on the executive committee of the United Way along with John Opel, the CEO of IBM. She convinced him to take a chance on young Bill.
They are unknown because they never had the chance to exercise their natural talents.
Aptitude is worthless without opportunity.
For more on the theme of potential wasted by circumstances, please read Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.
At least according to some accountings. I remember posing a question about Trump several years ago: “If you have 500 million dollars and you owe a billion dollars, are you rich or are you poor?”
No one has a vault full of cash like Scrooge McDuck; it’s all ledgers, and how much liability you have versus how much you expect (or hope, or pretend) to receive by the time those liabilities come due. If it can restructure its debt and keep its cash flow going, a business can keep dancing on top of the avalanche for years or decades. In that sense, Trump is the most accomplished dancer since Gene Kelly.
That’s not really how a business is run. Most businesses are run on a deficit, because they are growing and most loans are based on a time scale.
If I own something that I could sell for $500m straight up, which earns $100m a year profit, on a $1b loan that isn’t due for 20 years, that’s pretty successful.
If I own something that can only earn $500m profit over a 20 year period, on a $1b loan that’s due in 20 years, that’s not looking too good.
No, you don’t, because Trump did not make himself richer. As has been pointed out, if he’d simply put his inheritance into a portfolio of index funds, he’d have as much or more now than he does. His businesses, in aggregate, lost money. If you were exactly as good at business as he is, you, too, would have less money now than when you started - a failure by your own metric.
Ok. Let’s try that.
Trump received, in 1999, something from $50M to $200M in inheritance.
S&P500, Jan 1, 1999: 1,248
S&P500, Jan 1, 2017: 2,275
Other indexes had similar gains. Around 100%. So - if Trump “put his inheritance into a portfolio of index funds” (and spent none of it), he’d have at most $400M from it today. AFAIU, he’s worth a lot more than that.
Correct me if I’m wrong.
You’re wrong.
No one really knows what he’s worth because,surprise, he won’t release his taxes.
I’m inclined to believe that if he’s worth what he claims and given his huge ego, he would have no problem revealing records to prove his claims. Unless those records are damaging to him and prove what he’s really worth. Or worse.
According to the Wall Street Journal, he owes 1.85 billion.
Iirc, the vast bulk of what he reports as his worth is based on his own valuation of his name.
So, his valuation of his worth may need a grain or two of salt.
Ah so when the meme of “he’d be worth more than the $4-10B if he just invested the money” is proven wrong, the goalposts are moved.
BTW his tax returns will give no clue whatsoever to his net worth.
Objectively, he’s underperformed the rest of the country in the real estate market by 57%.
Has Donald Trump Underperformed In The Real Estate Business?
And outbullshitted them by 100,000,000%.
Then there’s no reason to keep them secret.
Why are you only using the 1999 inheritance as a starting point? It’s not like Trump kept that money in a distinct account so he could track it separately from the rest of his money. By comparing that 1999 inheritance to his current total net worth you vastly overstate his financial performance.
According to this cite Trump was worth $1.6 billion in 1999. I don’t know if that includes the inheritance or not. But he’d need to be in the $3-$4 billion range now just to have kept pace with the market.
Consider it done.
So if Bill Gates had been the son of William and Mary Gates, Seattle area postman and his homemaker wife he still would have succeeded as he did? Would IBM still have taken a chance on him without Mommy pleading her boys case? Gotten as much done with clients Daddy’s law firm negotiating for him a sweetheart deal?
The biggest things Bill got from Mom and Dad was not money it was contacts and introduction, which are far more important than money. He was capable no doubt and deserves his success, but the fact is that it would have been unlkely sans his parents.
Trump got money from his father, but he notably struggled to get contacts and introductions in Manhattan where he made his name, a place where Fred Trump did not venture. And did Fred Trump get him introductions to studio heads so he could pitch or be pitched potential TV Pilots?
I didn’t set any goalposts
Nor did I move any
If anything, I pointed out that we have only a dubious estimate of where the ball is on the field.
It’s just the facts about where he pulls his numbers from.
It seems relevant to the discussion.
use w/e lens you like to view them
but there they are
:shrug:
Because it was in response to the post claiming " if he’d simply put his inheritance into a portfolio of index funds, he’d have as much or more now than he does."