So who exactly is the Richest Person in the World!?
The competition for the title “Richest Man In the World” has sparked much curiosity
Let’s all admit that we’ve dreamed of achieving something that seems nearly impossible, something that has never happened before or has only happened to selected individuals. Even when the chances are little to nothing, we continue to be curious about our “dream.” In this instance, it’s the throne for the “Richest Man in the World.’’ While the common “John” has no chance of competing with the current title-holder, the fantasy still sparks excitement and curiosity.
America is known for its principles of life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, and, well, for its billionaires. Despite the pandemic, the number of billionaires is increasing by the day; standing in second place behind China, the United States has around 696 of them. With these billionaires comes immense economic strength for both nations from taxes, commerce, and trade. While it’s not surprising that both China and the United States are the two strongest countries economically, the battle for the title “Richest Man in the World” is not between representatives of the United States and China. It’s actually between the United States and South Africa!
Since 2017, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has been the richest man in the world, with a total net worth of $184 billion as of January 2021. Bezos is responsible for running a platform that accounts for 5% of total American retail spending and around 49.1% of all digital spending in 2018. What was previously a book selling platform sought immense growth due to the 2,300% annual growth of the internet in 1994. When Amazon then launched in 1995, it sold books in every state in the US and to 45 countries in the world. Amazon went public in 1997 and survived the dot-com bust. Its annual sales skyrocketed from $511,000 in 1995 to $1.64 billion in 1999 to $3 billion in 2001. The success of Amazon eventually made Bezos one of the most successful men on Earth. Bezos was also an early investor of Google and in August 2013, he bought The Washington Post for $250 million. This move was a success as it surpassed The New York Times in audiences in the US in 2015.
However, Bezos’ previously undisputed throne recently met competition. As the Tesla share price increased, South African billionaire Elon Musk surpassed Bezos as the richest man in the world on January 7, 2021. This is notable considering he was barely the top 50th richest man at the start of 2020. Nonetheless, 2020 has been a fortunate year for Musk and his company. As Tesla stocks skyrocketed by around nine-fold over the past year, Musk added over $150 billion to his net worth of around $27 billion during the start of 2020. By July, Musk had surpassed Warren Buffet as the 7th richest man on earth; by November, he had surpassed Microsoft Founder Bill Gates as the 2nd richest man on earth. In fact, his earnings in 2020 alone were more than Gate’s entire $132 billion net worth. Elon Musk himself was intrigued by this as well, tweeting “how strange” and “back to work.”
Source: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1347204459147902978?s=20
But the long-awaited victory for Elon Musk did not last long. On Monday, January 11, he lost almost $11 billion as Tesla stock price fell about 8%. Again, Jeff Bezos regained his throne. But the roller coaster continued: in less than 24 hours after the stock price fell, he recovered 5.66%, or $10 billion to his wealth, making him the richest person in the world once again.
Fast forward to February 17th, when Musk was worth $191 billion. However, as Tesla stocks fell 25% on February 24, Musk lost more than $16 billion in a single day, and Bezos regained his title. This downfall was not the only thing in store for Elon Musk: his net worth fell from $191 billion to $150.9 billion in just 2 weeks last month
However, having a high net worth does not literally mean that you are in control of all of your wealth. In fact, net worth is the total value of all of your assets. Even though Musk is worth billions, he cannot physically withdraw all of that money because most of it lies in his stocks. Nor can he spend all $150 billion on anything he wants because he will need to physically sell his assets in order to obtain that money.
Clearly, earning the designation “Richest Man In the World” is a multi-faceted ride: today you can earn billions, then lose all of it tomorrow. Of course, for billionaires, immense changes in wealth are normal, as is the case for Musk. However, in simple terms, the richest man currently in the world is still Jeff Bezos.
