this post was submitted on 07 Apr 2025
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I don't believe Elon is the richest man in the world. Whoever the richest person in the world is, common men and women wouldn't be allowed to know who that is
Also, citizens united just legalized the bribery, the bribery will still happen with or without it
Richest man that the IRS knows about
the twist there is the IRS knows, but they're never going to speak a word of who it could be, because they'll all be ki...I mean go to prison and kill themselves!...Just like everyone who has something damning to testify about
Honestly, it’s probably a Saudi.
Or royalty in UAE, Bahrain, or somewhere.
Whoever it is, where ever he or she is from. It's probably a member of the WEF. Maybe that old droopy german guy, but most likely it's someone much more reclusive we've never seen
The WEF is just TED talks for the obscenely rich. Conspiracy theorists give it way too much power.
It depends on how you define wealth. Vladimir Putin has de-facto control over all the natural resources of the world's biggest country. He doesn't have much money in bank accounts under his own name, and even if he did, his ability to spend that money would be limited because of sanctions. I would bet that if he wanted anything in the world, he could get it.
Then there's the English royal family. Technically, they actually own all the land in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. When you buy land in those places, you're actually leasing it from the crown. They can't technically sell that land either though, so their ownership of it is moot. They have more direct control of some of the most prime real estate in England, and get direct rent from those leases. There are some legal above-board descriptions of what they acknowledge owning. However, I wouldn't be surprised if there are holdings across the world that are more secret. The British crown controlled almost half the world less than a century ago. I would be shocked if when the British empire shrunk, they didn't sneak some holdings into secret shell companies. But, the amount they can actually spend is pretty limited. The fully legit holdings are very carefully monitored, as is all their spending. If they spent money they're not supposed to have, someone would investigate.
The people who are actually on the Forbes rich list are people who hold stock in public corporations. That information is fully public, so there's no way for them to hide their wealth. People who have wealth through private companies and real-estate holdings generally don't want to appear on those rich lists. They know it just makes them a target.
Having said that, hundreds of billions is a lot of money. Musk has roughly $1000 per American, and it's exclusively his. Many empires in history had control of more "treasure", but it was the empire's wealth, and not separated out for the emperor to use as he pleased. Musk is in the unique position that his riches are entirely his, and he doesn't need to share anything with the country's treasury. So, I'd be surprised if there are many people with more wealth that's truly their own wealth.
Also, I don't think anybody knows who the richest person is. It's not like it's a secret being kept from the common folk. The rich people know more or less the same as we do. It's not like they are open and honest with each-other. There are probably a lot of billionaires who manage to keep their name out of the news, but probably very few of them are centi-billionaires. That's just an absurd amount of money, and it's hard to control that much wealth and not leave a trace.
I live in Australia and I technically live on crown land.
Ahahaha one downvote - the contrast between the factual, informative, and insightful… vs. the embarrassment of giving education a thumbs down and walking away without a word.
Tremendous comment. Handily beat mine from a moment ago. (You’d’ve made my Sidebar point much better if it’d been your own)
It's probably Putin or Mohammed bin Salman, if we're talking about how much money they can personally move around. Or maybe even Trump, since there seems to be no one in the US to stop him from doing whatever the fuck he wants.
100% not any of the offical world leaders, you'd be stupid to think otherwise
So you're suggesting someone somehow owns hundreds of billions and yet nobody had connected these companies despite the name being there? Or the name isn't there and it's all other people to make it harder to detect, in which case they're no more powerful or richer than putin or whatever, are they?
There is definitely room for debate on wealth rankings!
As far as data on billionaires' assets goes, Forbes and Bloomberg would certainly like to think they have a handle on holdings, investments, and real estate… but of course, they're not going to know just how much bullion is under Putin's mattresses.
Sidebar!
I've come to form a perspective over the years: when I read something terrible, I find I can easily discover even more terrible claims that my first few search results can’t immediately confirm. And I actually worry that even a minute spent on the uncertain 'maybes' represents the loss of important time that could be dedicated to a known evil. (Plus, friends and the likeminded end up arguing even when they agree on up to 100% of everything important.)
Coming back to Reich's point: Musk could be number one, number five, or number fifty.
In any case, the fact that individuals can blow unlimited cash in elections remains total garbage.
Well thanks for just calling us stupid and not elaborating at all. Truly something a smart person would do. lol
The bribery should be "illegal". It makes it more negative when we hear about it.
Bribery happened before it was legal constantly, to think that making it illegal again would stop it from happening is just silly.
the elected officals, kings, queens and what have you of the world aren't the ones who run everything. The people who REALLY control everything are totally unknown to the common man
Making it illegal let's you do something about it when people are caught making and collecting bribes.
It was happening long before it was made legal and nothing was ever done to stop it.
Loads of politicians went to prison.
Making it illegal limits how much it happens. It doesn't mean it doesn't happen.
Because everyone knows, if it was allowed to happen in the past, we're not allowed to ever stop it from happening in the future ...
It’s probably PooTin anyway
That dude that invented bitcoin probably