Microblog Memes

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.