Amazon Founder & CEO Jeff Bezos has officially crossed the $200 billion threshold in personal wealth (US Dollars**). Despite being a monumental feat, it was something many had anticipated for some time now, and approached with almost a measure of weariness, even collective surrender.
I do feel, however, that we’re all casually glancing over just how ridiculous the total figure of 200 billion really is. We read and hear about it all the time – a billion this, a billion that, throw it around, slap it down, billions upon billions – but have you ever truly considered the scale of a billion… let alone 200?
As a primer, consider the following: Bezos is $90 billion wealthier than his closest rich guy competitor, Microsoft Founder & CEO Bill Gates. Gates only – “only”… lol – possesses $116.2 billion (as of 27/8/20). Meaning Jeff Bezos is an entire Warren Buffett wealthier than Bill Gates with ample billion dollar change to spare. And as of today, he’s also worth two Elon Musks. Do you begin to understand the sheer scale of 1% insanity we’re dealing with?
How long would it take to earn $200 billion?
OK, try this next one on for size. Hypothetically, you were asked to work 24/7 non-stop without ever taking a break while earning $10,000 an hour. Do you know how long it’d take you to earn what Jeff Bezos has? 20 million hours. Or, in a term that’s slightly easier to grasp, 2,281 years. Meaning to have his sort of wealth today, you’d have to start all the way back in 261 BC, the very year when it was possible to witness:
- Legendary commander Hannibal Gisco take on the Roman Empire
- Egyptian poet Callimachus of Cyrene become the Library of Alexandria’s head honcho
- As well as the birth of Zheng, China’s First Emperor – who would only manage to unify the warring kingdoms into what we now know as China 38 years later
Keep in mind, this is still within the context of an insanely hypothetical and insanely optimistic scenario where you could work non-stop without rest and somehow earn $10,000 an hour as human history unfolded. Want to know how long it’d take you to reach $200 billion on a dead average Australian salary? Assuming we take the baseline figure of AU$75,000 – which depressingly amounts to just US$54,300 in the current economy – it would take 3,683,241.12 years. That’s over a million years before the Ice Age and around when humans began to stand upright.
What could you accomplish with $200 billion?
Internet discussions about Jeff Bezos and his net worth inevitably arrive to the subject of how he could end world poverty, world homelessness, and so forth with enough to sit pretty for the rest of his life – as well as having enough in the remainder for the subsequent Bezos generations after him. The issue is the widely circulated figure of $175 billion to solve world hunger and whatever the new figure is to end world homelessness aren’t exactly rock solid facts. While the money certainly wouldn’t hurt both causes, it doesn’t factor in or address many underlying causes that need to be factored in and addressed to truly solve the respective issues. That being said, here is a list of tangible + ridiculous things Jeff Bezos and his $200 billion personal wealth could purchase/achieve:
- Every NFL team (~$91.5 billion) twice over and make all players have their pants around their ankles and do the Eagle Rock shuffle
- Every NBA team (~$56.1 billion) almost four times over and make all players perform a production of Les Miserable
- 3,921,568,627 x VB cases (5.5 litres in each case) to use as water
- 80,032,012 x iPhone 11 Pro Max (512GB) to lob at Elon Musk’s head like hand grenades every time he acts up on Twitter
- 500,000 x Drake’s bed for the world’s largest game of The Floor Is Lava
- 66,666 x Bugatti Chirons to ride on each foot every day – rollerblade style – for the next 91 years without ever having to use one he has already touched
- 4,444 x these AU$45 million Gold Coast monstrosities to demolish and ensure no one has the chance to be that much of an asshole again
- 2,777 x Patek Phillipe Grandmaster Chimes ($72 million) and wear a different three on each wrist like a Soundcloud rapper for well over a year
- Virgin Australia 57 times over because God knows they could use the money right now
- Rupert Murdoch’s soul 11 times over because he totally would if he could
In short, Jeff Bezos is wealthy.
**NOTE: Except when specified otherwise, all values are in USD.
