Mon€y mon€y mon€y.

Sorry but this isn’t going to be an ABBA fanfiction! Although they’re probably rich enough for all of the following article to relate a bit to them.

Today I’ll be speaking of tech money, and famous billionaires in general. Also how counting to millions and billions is quite hard for the human brain. This article is here to make you relate to how absurd all of this can get.

To put things into context, Monday the 20th of July 2020, Amazon stock rose by 7.9%, making their emblematic CEO richer by an astonishing $13 Billion.

IN ONE DAY

But what does that sort of money actually mean, actually represent, actually look like?

Here’s a way to visualize this!

Take a few minutes to scroll, and you’ll end up seeing a few facts. But just the fact that you can scroll for a few minutes is pretty self-explanatory. Look at the first section, and try to scroll a bit after the start of the blue section, it gets pretty nutty.

Ready for round two?

Here’s another way to visualize that amount of money!

I hope you’re realizing what I’m trying to convey by now, but if not:

To finish on a high note:

Looking at the picture below, his worth in $100 bills would literally stack until halfway to the ISS.

As my blog goes, make of it what you want!

My take:

Money is a quite touchy subject, especially when in a blog format. What I’ll say is that I agree with the fact that having this much money is useless. With several billions one could donate 99% of their net worth to charity and not have to change a single thing about their lifestyle nor their family’s .

When we consider that from 2000 to 2017 Jeff Bezos donated less than ONE PERCENT of his worth to charity, then we can start openly criticising his philanthropic antecedents. Whilst I speak of him in this article, he’s not alone in any shape or form.

Following on the first main link of this post, a lot of problems could be solved by taxing the richest 400 members of each developed countries. But that’s not going to happen until unless political change is on its way.

But what does it have to do with tech?

Automation will happen sooner than later, and it will increase productivity of companies tenfold, making the rich owners richer. Considering the current USA wealth inequality levels are higher than France’s pre-revolution, we need to do something about the ultra-rich before technological innovation becomes the main inequality driver in the world. They’re a pure consequence of capitalism, but their existence, power and money hoarding can be a threat towards democracy itself. Tech is just one of the tools they’ll use to keep it that way.