# Worlds first trillionaire
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-first-trillionaire/105481
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 25, 2002, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-first-trillionaire/105481 "2002-04-25T02:10:46Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@insider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/insider)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2002, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-first-trillionaire/105481/1 "2002-04-25T02:10:46Z")
Is it possible in the next 50 years for someone to become the worlds first trillionaire? Who might be some of the candidates and how could they possibly accumulate that much wealth?
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### Author:  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2002, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-first-trillionaire/105481/2 "2002-04-25T02:15:44Z")
A nice catastrophic economic crisis followed by massive inflation followed by a recovery could make it a reality pretty quickly.
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### Author:  [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2002, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-first-trillionaire/105481/3 "2002-04-25T10:43:38Z")
Silvio Berlusconi **was** a trillionaire, until they abolished the lira…
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### Author:  [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2002, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-first-trillionaire/105481/4 "2002-04-25T16:08:17Z")
According to _The Wealthy 100: From Benjamin Franklin to Bill Gates–A Ranking of the Richest Americans, Past and Present_, Klepper and Gunther said that Bill Gates’ net worth of $93 billion at was 1/425 of the US GNP ([Forbes article](http://www.forbes.com/asap/1999/1112/094_2.html)). Gates is the world’s richest man today. To go to $1 trillion in today’s dollars, Gates would have to have more than 100 times his current wealth, or about 1/4 of the GNP. Rockefeller had the highest ratio of wealth to GNP at 1/44. It seems unlikely that anybody could amass wealth equivalent to 10 times that, one quarter of the GNP. Rampant inflation might change the picture, although I’m not sure economically who is in the best position to make that kind of money in a time of high inflation.
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### Author:  [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2002, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-first-trillionaire/105481/5 "2002-04-25T16:14:13Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by CookingWithGas \*
> \*\*According to _The Wealthy 100: From Benjamin Franklin to Bill Gates–A Ranking of the Richest Americans, Past and Present_, Klepper and Gunther said that Bill Gates’ net worth of $93 billion at was 1/425 of the US GNP ([Forbes article](http://www.forbes.com/asap/1999/1112/094_2.html)). Gates is the world’s richest man today. To go to $1 trillion in today’s dollars, Gates would have to have more than 100 times his current wealth, or about 1/4 of the GNP. Rockefeller had the highest ratio of wealth to GNP at 1/44. It seems unlikely that anybody could amass wealth equivalent to 10 times that, one quarter of the GNP. Rampant inflation might change the picture, although I’m not sure economically who is in the best position to make that kind of money in a time of high inflation. \*\*
I think you made a mistake there Gas. 1 trillion = 1000 billion. Therefore, Mr. Gates is almost 10% of the way there already with $93 billion and would only need 10.75 his current amount to make it to $1 trillion.
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### Author:  [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2002, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-first-trillionaire/105481/6 "2002-04-25T16:44:36Z")
Apart from the arithmetic mistake, which has been pointed out:
The quoted Forbes article is from 1999 - Gates’ fortune has since been shaved to fifty billion, give or take, depending largely on MSFT’s current share price. I saw a documentary once which stated that nobody’s fortune has represented a larger slice of the pie than Cornelius Vanderbilt’s. That article places him in third place. Of course, these comparisons are hard to make, and different sets of reasonable assumptions will probably lead to different answers.
Also, the US GNP projected to be around $9 trillion and change this year, so it’s only 1/9, not a 1/4, that someone would have to amass, but the point remains that a trillionaire is unlikely to happen until that figure is subtantially larger, one way or another, or something VERY radical happens that would allow a single individual to build up a truly enormous percentage of the country’s wealth. In the last century, the trend has been the other direction, no matter how mind-bogglingly rich Gates and Buffett are.
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### Author:  [@tgs111](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tgs111)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2010, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-first-trillionaire/105481/7 "2010-08-24T02:22:35Z")
his initials are jgs and he will be a tillionaire before 2020
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### Author:  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2010, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-first-trillionaire/105481/8 "2010-08-24T02:28:30Z")
> [@tgs111](#):
>
> his initials are jgs and he will be a tillionaire before 2020
In what currency?
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2010, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-first-trillionaire/105481/9 "2010-08-24T02:56:32Z")
> [@friedo](#):
>
> > [@tgs111](#):
> >
> > his initials are jgs and he will be a tillionaire before 2020
>
> In what currency?
Zombo-dollars.
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2010, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-first-trillionaire/105481/10 "2010-08-24T03:41:07Z")
> [@yabob](#):
>
> Also, the US GNP projected to be around $9 trillion and change this year, so it’s only 1/9, not a 1/4, that someone would have to amass, but the point remains that a trillionaire is unlikely to happen until that figure is subtantially larger, one way or another, or something VERY radical happens that would allow a single individual to build up a truly enormous percentage of the country’s wealth. In the last century, the trend has been the other direction, no matter how mind-bogglingly rich Gates and Buffett are.
It’s GDP - Gross Domestic Product. It hasn’t been GNP - Gross National Product - for many years. And the current GDP is over $14 trillion.
You’re also forgetting the power of compounding. At a 7% increase a year\*, the GDP would double every ten years. So in much less than 20 years a Rockefellerian 1/44 would be a trillion. In 50 years, the GDP would be over $400 trillion and a mere trillionaire would be looked down upon.
In addition, the richest man in the world is apparently Mexican industrialist Carlos Slim. Newsweek reported that his companies make up 42% of the basic Mexican stock index. He’ll have a far better chance to be a trillionaire than any American, who is limited in how many monopolies he can own.
\*We wish.
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### Author:  [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2010, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-first-trillionaire/105481/11 "2010-08-24T03:41:08Z")
> [@insider](#):
>
> Is it possible in the next 50 years for someone to become the worlds first trillionaire? Who might be some of the candidates..?
**Ooh, me! Me!**
oh, thought you were taking volunteers…
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### Author:  [@Jormungandr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jormungandr)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2010, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-first-trillionaire/105481/12 "2010-08-24T04:13:07Z")
Technically, the already is/was one, according to Forbes,
John D. Rockefeller- $1,400,000,000
[http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/fortune/0702/gallery.richestamericans.fortune/index.html](http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/fortune/0702/gallery.richestamericans.fortune/index.html)
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### Author:  [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2010, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-first-trillionaire/105481/13 "2010-08-24T04:39:01Z")
I hope it is some computer nerd who invents the sex-bot in the 2030s.
As a pure WAG, I figure with inflation the timeline would be sometime in the 2080s. Gates had 100 billion back in the 90s during Microsoft’s heyday. Had he started the company totally by himself (w/o Allen and others) he may have had closer to 200 billion.
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### Author:  [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2010, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-first-trillionaire/105481/14 "2010-08-24T05:19:31Z")
> [@Jormungandr](#):
>
> Technically, the already is/was one, according to Forbes,
>
> John D. Rockefeller- $1,400,000,000
> [http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/fortune/0702/gallery.richestamericans.fortune/index.html](http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/fortune/0702/gallery.richestamericans.fortune/index.html)
Huh? Do you mean if that was converted into 2010 dollars?
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### Author:  [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2010, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-first-trillionaire/105481/15 "2010-08-24T07:01:08Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#):
>
> Gates is the world’s richest man today.
False. [Carlos Slim is](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbes_list_of_billionaires), and he passed Gates back in April. Where have you been?
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### Author:  [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2010, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-first-trillionaire/105481/16 "2010-08-24T07:40:34Z")
Enjoy the smooth flavor of Carlos Slims.
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### Author:  [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2010, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-first-trillionaire/105481/17 "2010-08-24T08:00:46Z")
> [@Rigamarole](#):
>
> > [@CookingWithGas](#):
> >
> > Gates is the world’s richest man today.
>
> False. [Carlos Slim is](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbes_list_of_billionaires), and he passed Gates back in April. Where have you been?
Stuck in 2002, apparently. 😃
Look at the date of the post. The thread was dormant that long until **tgs111** zombie-bumped it.
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### Author:  [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2010, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-first-trillionaire/105481/18 "2010-08-24T08:32:55Z")
While someone like Rockefeller or Vanderbilt might have been (proportionately) the richest _American_ ever, who was (proportionately) richest ever among all people?
I’ve no idea what the answer is, but will mention a few ancients supposed to be very wealthy:
[ul][li] Marcus Licinius Crassus (Triumvir, died 53 BC)[/li][li] Guillaume de Varennes (who faught under William the Conqueror at Hastings and became Earl of Surrey)[/li][li] Henry Cardinal Beaufort (son of John of Gaunt)[/li][li] Tiberius Claudius Hipparchus of Marathon[/li][li] Hipponicus II (Ammon) of Athens[/li][/ul]
I’ve omitted sovereigns from the above list. Otherwise some ridiculously wealthy persons would need mention: e.g. Kublai Khan (d. 1294) and Charles Hapsburg (d. 1558) who was King of Spain AND “the Romans” AND headed the Austrian Empire.
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### Author:  [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2010, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-first-trillionaire/105481/19 "2010-08-24T09:22:15Z")
I have several genuine 100 trillion dollar bills from Zimbabwe. They are only worth a few cents real money as a curiosity.
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### Author:  [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2010, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-first-trillionaire/105481/20 "2010-08-24T09:46:33Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#):
>
> I have several genuine 100 trillion dollar bills from Zimbabwe. They are only worth a few cents real money as a curiosity.
Wow! I’d be delighted to buy some for _several_ cents, for their curiosity value.
I once had an antique U.S. $500 bill. Did it have a numismatic value of $500.02, or something? (A drug dealer acquaintance said it was no big deal, he and his friends supposedly using $1000 bills in their deals. True?)
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