how is Elon the richest.. (thelemmy.club)

submitted 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by Muhammad@thelemmy.club to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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Okay hear me out. SpaceX. Not a very successful name as compared to NASA. Microsoft. Apple. Amazon or any Chinese space industries. Same goes for Tesla. There are way bigger car brands like Toyota or honda or Bugatti if we are going big. But think about it. Why arnt the owners of these brands the richest person. When they are clearly more successful and prominent.. same goes with starlink. All of elons companies aren't world wide. So how is he the richest. And plus. Him loosing billions of worth of stocks in a span of days dropping from 1T isn't normal is it....

Are we being lied to?

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[-] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Apologies if the conspiracy stuff is totally off-base. I don't want to strawman anyone.

The UAE has some contenders too, IIRC. I'm not sure about Kuwait. There's plenty more tin-pot dictators around the world that would have billions, and some lieutenants as well, like in Russia. Trillions is another matter, though; that's a lot of money.

Really old money families tend to grow to the point that each branch has a much more modest amount. The Medicis never died out, for example, but good luck finding anyone still rich because of them. Families that hold political power as well are a bit different, because they tend to (ahem) "consolidate" it, but the world has changed a lot over the past couple centuries. Most (all?) of the ancient aristocratic families are either politically sidelined or completely expelled.

[-] Nouvellalia@lemmy.world 0 points 3 weeks ago

So, "yes".

I think that's weird, given, well, everything, but ok. You're right that just having a last name and a great great gammy who had a castle doesn't immediately mean you're moneyed. People marry, siblings are incompetent, cousins even more so, but the money clumps and so do the social structures.

You seem to still be arguing against some idea of '7 secret families with 10 trillion dollars for a thousand years', or something. As you specifically mentioned someone having a trillion dollars, and name dropped the Midici's or whoever. Which is not what I said or mean.

Anyway, I disagree with your assertion that only the Sauds and Pooty have big money, and I think the proof is literally everywhere. We likely have access to different circles and information. So what seems "obvious" to each of us is different.

[-] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

There are families with way more money than musk, all over the world. These are groups of people who made their money a century or several more ago. They are long lived dynasties that have passed-on how to keep power and how to be quiet about it.

7 secret families is pretty close to that. Elon Musk passed a trillion, if you didn't know, which is where that number came from.

this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2026

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