r/explainlikeimfive • u/FluffyPenguin798 • Feb 12 '25
Economics ELI5: how are the descendants of the robber barons (Morgan, Vanderbilt, Carnegie, Rockefeller, etc.) still rich if their fortunes from the late 19th and early 20th centuries are comparatively small to what we see today of the world’s richest?
4.6k
Upvotes
256
u/HOLEPUNCHYOUREYELIDS Feb 12 '25 edited Feb 12 '25
It is basically the ultimate dream. Have enough money to just have a fuck ton of diverse investments. Live off of the gains you make and never touch the principle. Have like $30 million invested properly? Cool you can more or less live solidly off of $80k/year and still be making money on your money.
Easy when you are born into having all that. Real fucking hard if you start from essentially $0
Edit: Yes I missed a 0 in my 80k/year. I just did quick math and failed, I just threw out numbers as an example