# World's Richest Man - King Abdullah? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 11, 2010, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-richest-man-king-abdullah/532159 "2010-03-11T22:06:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![LonghornDave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a87d85/32.png) [@LonghornDave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonghornDave)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2010, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-richest-man-king-abdullah/532159/1 "2010-03-11T22:06:32Z")
I don’t really understand the methodology that Forbes uses to determine the World’s Richest Man. Forbes recently came out with their revised [list](http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/10/billionaires-2010_The-Worlds-Billionaires_Rank.html), which lists the richest man as Carlos Slim at $53.5 billion. Separately, they, on occasion, do a [list](http://www.forbes.com/2008/08/20/worlds-richest-royals-biz-richroyals08-cz_ts_0820royalintro.html) for the richest royals. Coming in at [number 3](http://www.forbes.com/2008/08/20/worlds-richest-royals-biz-richroyals08-cz_ts_0820royal_slide_4.html?thisSpeed=undefined) on that list is King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia at $21 billion. Saudi Arabia is the owner of Saudi Aramco, which according to the [Financial Times (subscription required)](http://www.ft.com/cms/s/c5b32636-116f-11df-9195-00144feab49a,_i_email=y,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F3%2Fc5b32636-116f-11df-9195-00144feab49a%2C_i_email%3Dy.html&_i_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.mccombs.utexas.edu%2Ftitman%2F2010%2F02%2F10%2Fthe-value-of-saudi-aramco%2F) has a value of approximately $7 trillion. As the ruler of essentially a dictatorship, I can’t possibly see how King Abdullah would only be worth around 0.3% of the value of his country. I realize this is an extremely simply analysis, and that I am essentially equating the value of Saudi Arabia with Saudi Aramco; however, I just don’t understand how they can ascribe so little of the value of Aramco to Abdullah. Further, how does Forbes even come up with the net worth of $21 billion? ---
**Author:** ![Candyman74](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Candyman74](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Candyman74)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-richest-man-king-abdullah/532159/2 "2010-03-12T12:23:22Z")
Being a dictator of a country doesn’t mean you have private ownership of everything within it. ---
**Author:** ![CutterJohn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/91b2a8/32.png) [@CutterJohn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CutterJohn)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-richest-man-king-abdullah/532159/3 "2010-03-12T12:36:05Z")
Yep. Dictators still rule by the sufferance of the people, its just that there is a much, much higher threshold of naughtiness required to be ‘voted’ out. Trying to say you own everything and nobody else owns anything is a good way to kick off a ‘reelection’. Its also a good way to seriously disrupt foreign investment in the country. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-richest-man-king-abdullah/532159/4 "2010-03-12T12:49:05Z")
Bear in mind that rich people are only rich by the sufference of the governments controlling their assets. So it works both ways. After a certain point money stops being relevant, and it all becomes about power. ---
**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-richest-man-king-abdullah/532159/5 "2010-03-12T13:49:57Z")
The current new is that it is a Mexican national who is heavily invested in the telecom industry. Think **"Carlos Slim"** ---
**Author:** ![LonghornDave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a87d85/32.png) [@LonghornDave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonghornDave)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-richest-man-king-abdullah/532159/6 "2010-03-12T15:43:58Z")
> [@Candyman74](#): > > Being a dictator of a country doesn’t mean you have private ownership of everything within it. Sure. I’m not saying it does. However, the Saudi government is essentially the Saud family. Abdullah is the head of the family. How does Forbes even come up with a net worth of $21 billion for Abdullah? It seems to me that his net worth is really however much he can get away with before there is a coup or revolution. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-richest-man-king-abdullah/532159/7 "2010-03-12T15:52:37Z")
> [@LonghornDave](#): > > Sure. I’m not saying it does. However, the Saudi government is essentially the Saud family. Abdullah is the head of the family. > > How does Forbes even come up with a net worth of $21 billion for Abdullah? It seems to me that his net worth is really however much he can get away with before there is a coup or revolution. To an extent, sure - if the King wanted to transfer additional assets from the state to his personal bank account, he could probably do so. However, at the moment he’s got a certain bank account (or maybe several) that consist of “his” money, and other accounts that contain the Kingdom’s funds. King Abdullah _could_ become far more wealthy very quickly if he dipped into the till more - but that would harm his long-term prospects, so he doesn’t. And I assume Forbes is just counting the money he has “on hand”. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-richest-man-king-abdullah/532159/8 "2010-03-12T16:07:46Z")
I assume Aramco is organized like a real company and has shares, pays dividends, etc. True, the king could probably call them up and suggest they forward him a consulting fee of $X million without question, and probably has some sort of standing arrangement to do so. But he does not actually “own” Saudi Arabia or any assets of it. He just gets to tell them what to do with their assets. It’s a fine distinction. ---
**Author:** ![BrightNShiny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@BrightNShiny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrightNShiny)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-richest-man-king-abdullah/532159/9 "2010-03-12T16:13:02Z")
> [@spingears](#): > > The current new is that it is a Mexican national who is heavily invested in the telecom industry. > > Think **“Carlos Slim”** Really? I thought the world’s richest man was someone named Carlos Slim. ---
**Author:** ![Candyman74](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Candyman74](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Candyman74)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2010, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-richest-man-king-abdullah/532159/10 "2010-03-13T00:46:51Z")
Plus, of course, Forbes doesn’t really know anyone’s wealth. It’s all estimates based on observation of visible assets, public information, etc. I’d guess - but don’t know - that the public information available about Abdullah’s wealth is less reliable than that available about, say, Bill Gates. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2010, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-richest-man-king-abdullah/532159/11 "2010-03-13T04:36:41Z")
> [@spingears](#): > > The current new is that it is a Mexican national who is heavily invested in the telecom industry. For some strange reason, I was convinced this sentence had the word “trafficker” in it, and it took me several seconds to assure myself that it didn’t. Regarding rich monarchs, this made me think of a dilemma I ran into when I was contemplating writing a science fiction story. The premise was that someone developed a secret and exclusive means of reversing aging. Given that this was now the most valuable thing in the world, the controllers of the process maximized their revenue by offering it to the mega-rich for an extremely steep price: 90% of their entire worth. What I couldn’t figure out was how the price would be determined for dictators and hereditary monarchs, who couldn’t exactly share or liquidate the source of their wealth. ---
**Author:** ![Carptracker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ac91a4/32.png) [@Carptracker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carptracker)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2010, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-richest-man-king-abdullah/532159/12 "2010-03-13T05:39:40Z")
What’s up with that name anyway? How can the richest guy in the world be named Carlos Slim. Sounds like a pool shark. Or maybe the skinny cowboy that gets killed in the first scene. Or a muscian who is confused about what genre of music he plays. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2010, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-richest-man-king-abdullah/532159/13 "2010-03-13T06:36:10Z")
> [@Carptracker](#): > > What’s up with that name anyway? How can the richest guy in the world be named Carlos Slim. Sounds like a pool shark. Or maybe the skinny cowboy that gets killed in the first scene. > Or a muscian who is confused about what genre of music he plays. Actually, his name is Carlos Slim Helú, but he appears to like to be called Slim. He actually seems to be fairly [chubby](http://velatele.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/carlos_slim1.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2010, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-richest-man-king-abdullah/532159/14 "2010-03-13T07:10:05Z")
1. Abdullah is a King not a Dictator. 2. If he starts doing what is suggested and says “all mine”, well it will last as long as it takes for the senior Princes to explain to His Majesty why he is abdicating…with immediet effect. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2010, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-richest-man-king-abdullah/532159/15 "2010-03-13T13:51:47Z")
Carlos’s second and third names come from Arabic. Slim \< سَليم _salīm_ ‘safe and sound’; Helú \< حِلْو _ḥilw_ ‘sweet’. ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2010, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-richest-man-king-abdullah/532159/16 "2010-03-13T14:01:42Z")
I asked this in the “Who would make a great Bond villain” thread and didn’t get a response, but I guess it is more appropriate here - > [@](#): > > This thread has made me wonder - is Forbes the definitive guide to the richest people on Earth, or are there likely to be people who say to Forbes, “You print my name in that rag of yours and I’ll buy it and make sure there is never a Forbes Rich List again. Kapiche?”? How many ‘unknown’ billionaires are there likely to be? Is it possible to make a billion and stay beneath the radar of all but the select few? ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2010, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-richest-man-king-abdullah/532159/17 "2010-03-14T07:36:01Z")
> [@BrightNShiny](#): > > Really? I thought the world’s richest man was someone named Carlos Slim. You’re thinking of his brother Barbados.