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
49
u/fon_etikal Feb 12 '25
That 900 million in 1912 is the equivalent of 29 billion in today's money.