F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of “The Great Gatsby” was fascinated with the uber-wealthy and summarized his observations of them with this famous remark: “Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me” to which a friend replied. “Yes, they have more money!”
The very rich are different in another way. The very rich ones are mostly dead. We know that there have been wealthy people in the past, but there is a tendency to think that today’s moguls like Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Elon Musk have far exceeded financial accomplishments of their historical counterparts.
Not so by a long shot.
To provide some historical perspective in a financial sense, check out this list of the worlds’ richest persons viewed over time. Of the top 13, only 3 are still living. Even Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffett, Larry Ellison, and Google founders Page and Brin did not make the cut. It also provides an interesting perspective on the prevailing concerns around concentration of wealth.
