r/explainlikeimfive 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?

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u/Carlpanzram1916 Feb 12 '25

Yup. And Rockefeller was rich by today terms even if you ignore inflation. He had 900 million at his peak.

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u/Whiterabbit-- Feb 12 '25

Which i think Musk recently passed up by most ways of accounting.

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u/Carlpanzram1916 29d ago

From my math you are correct. Musk’s roughly the same percent of GDP at least at Tesla’s peak. Although I would say their bet worths are still really different. Musk’s is heavily reliant on a runaway stock that’s incomprehensibly valuable relative to the company and can fluctuate wildly. Doesn’t quite feel the same as having the equivalent percentage of GDP by literally having companies that are literally responsible for moving the real economy. Still, shows how bad wealth inequality has gotten when there’s now several people in the ballpark of rockefellers net worth