
Mark Zuckerberg Tops Warren Buffett to Become the World’s Third-Richest Person - snake117
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-06/zuckerberg-tops-buffett-as-tech-titans-dominate-wealth-ranking
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nopacience
third richest person... "officially"

there are so many much more richer persons/families not taken into
consideration by forbes. russians, chinese, indians, non americans. People
that have money spread across borders..

there is no such thing as the officially "Worlds third richest person"... some
are "unkown (by forbes)" trillionaires that are not accounted because there
are no official records

~~~
arcanus
> People that have money spread across borders.. trillionaires

The only person I could even speculate with that sort of wealth could be
Vladimir Putin, if you argued he is a dictator and so controls the entire
Russian economy / wealth base.

~~~
mbesto
Putin is controlled by oligarchs that are much more wealthy than he is. So not
only does he not control the Russian economy (the oligarchs he reports to do),
but he himself does not have the wealth you're assuming.

~~~
ModernMech
It's the other way around. Oligarchs are oligarchs until Putin says otherwise:
[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3011021/Exiled-
oliga...](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3011021/Exiled-oligarch-
Boris-Berezovsky-murdered-hand-Putin-evidence-coup-plot-claims-former-head-
security.html)

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mikece
How much would The Zuck's pile be if he actually tried to cash it out? I think
if Zuckerberg and Buffett cashed out of their holdings over six months the
drop in FB stock would result in the very diversified Buffet having one or two
orders of magnitude more money at the end of it.

On-paper wealth isn't real. If you can't roll around on it or stand it front
of it with an assault rifle to defend it, then it's not real.

~~~
myroon5
Mark Zuckerberg is already constantly one of the largest insider traders. He
currently sells almost $50M of FB stock most days the stock market is open.

[https://finviz.com/quote.ashx?t=FB](https://finviz.com/quote.ashx?t=FB)

(Insider Trading at the bottom)

Better link:
[https://finviz.com/insidertrading.ashx?oc=1548760&tc=7](https://finviz.com/insidertrading.ashx?oc=1548760&tc=7)

~~~
swyx
"Insider trading" is very different from "planned sales as part of normal
executive compensation", despite what your chosen financial software may say.

~~~
myroon5
Not all insider trading is the illegal kind

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insider_trading](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insider_trading)

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ModernMech
I'm sorry, but why aren't there more people outraged and disgusted that so few
people hold so much wealth? It seems like people not only think it's not a
problem, but we gleefully track stats like this. I've seen people argue about
who "deserves" to hold the richest person title. People pick sides like it's
sports. Seriously, what am I missing here?

~~~
vixen99
People typically seek to maximize the return on their activities whatever
their views on inequality. Thus Joseph Stiglitz, author of "The Price of
Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future" has no problem
charging $50,000 - $100,000 for a speech thus making his income proportional
to his talents. That's what most of us do. Famous politicians who've preached
from the same hymn book, go even higher.

The interesting questions are at what level do you set the 'inequality
coefficient' and how would you meet it using rules that don't stifle
innovation and prevent people like Elon Musk, Bill Gates and countless others
from doing interesting things?

~~~
ModernMech
I have no problem with people making a lot of money. I have a problem with
people making obscene amounts of money. Elon and Bill can do interesting
things without personally being worth more than the GDP of some countries.

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anaphor
As an individual looking to make long term investments, I'd still much rather
own stock in Berkshire Hathaway because its holdings are much more diverse
than just Facebook stock. FB is not as safe a long term bet for the average
person.

~~~
sebleon
Right, less downside risk, but Berkshire Hathaway in particular hasn’t even
kept up with the S&P500 for the past decade. Better off with an index fund for
sure.

~~~
anaphor
That's my recommendation as well. If you want to manage your own finances
there are plenty of services that let you buy ETFs with no commission fees
too. I'm definitely not telling people to go out and dump all their money into
BH stock

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melling
Berkshire is sitting on over $100 billion in cash. Buffett will hopefully
double his money in the next 5-7 years.

He’s giving away 99% of all his money. Bill Gates will be using it to make the
world a better place.

~~~
mcintyre1994
FWIW, Zuckerberg has promised to give away 99% of his Facebook shares too.

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gowld
> further solidifying technology as the most robust creator of wealth.

How does such bald propaganda get through a site that calls itself news?

~~~
21
Easy. Just look at the most valuable companies in the world today, and how
long did it took to get there.

Please give another example of people becoming billionaires in under 10 years
who are not in tech.

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the_cat_kittles
give that shit away asap

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omosubi
Why is this news?

~~~
moate
Why is anything news? Because people are interested in it. Nothing has
meaning, everything is made up, we all die in the end, none of this matters.

Let's just go all the way down the the philosophy hole and say we should all
just kill ourselves now since that's faster and more efficient than actually
living.

tl;dr- Because news is news.

~~~
thelastidiot
Laughed so hard reading your reply, I spilled my $8 latte all over!

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thelastidiot
I hate this guy. Even the way him and his wife are making donations is aweful.
Naming an hospital with their names while they are still alive? Pathetic and
not cool at all.

~~~
siculars
When you can afford to buy naming rights to a hospital I'll register your
opinion. Until then, although everyone is free to express an opinion, I'll
file yours under ungrateful jealousy.

~~~
thelastidiot
What's your point? Are you saying that you can only formulate an opinion about
people who are equality or less successful than you in life?

~~~
moate
I think he's saying that your feelings on how people should do charity work is
just like, your opinion man.

You seem salty that some dude has lots of money because you're whole thesis
was "this guy is a jerk because he paid for a hospital and then had his name
put on it".

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thinkcomp
Mark Zuckerberg : Facebook :: Elizabeth Holmes : Theranos

Holmes's biggest mistake was making hardware, so the fraud was more obvious.
Until the media actually digs deep into the fake/fraudulent account problem on
Facebook, the stock will continue to go up.

~~~
lumberjack
Facebook has a built a legal surveillance machine that can read the thoughts
of most people on the planet. That is very valuable. I don't doubt Facebook is
incredibly valuable both for reading our thoughts and for its ability to shape
them. The only current danger to Facebook's model is the EU severely
curtailing their operations within the EU, but even if they have just the US
market that is still hugely valuable.

Of course it is a danger to society and hugely unethical but financially they
are sound.

~~~
nvusuvu
It's only valuable as long as people continue to use it.

~~~
thelastidiot
People can't stop using FB. It's a gigantic flywheel feeding itself back. Your
friends are there, you want to leave, there is no where else to go. You come
back. They win!

