Vladamir Putin is richer than Bezos and Gates combined.

originally, not essentially

bezos' essence is much different than just a bookseller

I'd go with either Augustus or Tiberius Caesar. Egypt was his personal possession, not Rome's, as were other wealthy territories. All kinds of revenue streams flowing into his personal coffers.

From the standpoint of history, personal wealth is helpful in making you stand out, but hardly sufficient. Most wealthy, even powerful individuals over the centuries have been eminently forgettable. Those we remember tend to be either those who enjoyed great military success that translated into political success (Alexander, Julius Caesar, Genghis Khan) or those who contributed significantly to human knowledge or the arts (Aristotle, Confucius, Isaac Newton, Horace). People motivated by wealth are usually pretty boring.

Hopefully hearing this news will abate some of Jeff's chronic self-doubt and nail biting.

Great photo caption. Dancing, however, is more important. S.Z. for the win.

What he is doing, regardless of how he started with that innocent sounding origin story of selling books out of his garage, is no more than Sears-Roebuck 2.0. Be able to deliver anything you wish to buy, from a entire house to a single apple. Just this time instead of a giant paper catalog, it is all on your online thingy. Or, now it might be an electronic spy you invited into your world. We will see the same problem with Amazon that Sears ran into, at some point. Massive bureaucracy and arrogance, newer, nimbler companies. They have a while to go but Amazon, and Bezos, already exhibit some of the tell-tale signifiers.

Charles,
Bezos graduated from Princeton worked on Wall Street for a number of years before starting amazon. He’s incredibly bright, Read a bit before you spew garbage. I don’t work at amazon, I have nothing to do with the firm.

Crasus said you aren't rich until you can buy an army. It is all relative in historical contexts. None of these billionaires compare to the insane power individuals wielded in ancient times where a someone could personally raise an army to go to war with neighboring empires.

Something like 8% of people in China are direct descendants of Gengis Khan, and also 8% of the Irish (globally) are descendants of Niall of the Nine Hostages. The only form of wealth that matters on a geologic time scale.

This is nothing compared to the wealth held by the Galactic Empire...nothing.

Well put Charles!

@8 - Sears succumbed not to bureaucracy, but bad corporate ideology that advocated the insanity of pitting departments within a single company against one another to allegedly "maximize competition, ergo profits". This led to massive waste of resources, hoarding, distrust, bad morale, and... ultimately decline.

Another major piece of their demise-puzzle is the hostile financialiszation they underwent... which is where capitalism strip-mines 'money-value' from corporations & leaves the hollowed shell to die.

Capitalism will eat itself... and currently is doing so.

@10 - These guys don't have to buy an army. They just let the US Govt act in their stead as the Iron Fist behind their Invisible Hand.

Until one day that they don't trust the government, or the govt abdicates responsibility ("small gummint!"), at which point they'll totally buy some mercenary armies.

Just like the drug++ cartels in Mexico & further south are private armies (complete with plate-armored vehicles & encrypted telecoms). And technically, the Zapatistas, FARC, & FMLN too.

The line between America's rich "being able" to buy an army, and actually doing it is probably thinner than we'd like to think. Lord knows corporations do buy armies in other, less cohesive States. Although outsourcing to Xe/Blackwater is popular I hear.

Anyway, the rich person/corporate warfare these days takes place almost exclusively in the domain of finance and law. And they definitely absolutely go to war with neighboring states and corporate conglomerates.

@12 - The fucking Galactic Empire... their taxes are downright oppressive!