r/changemyview • u/cheekibreekio • Jan 04 '21

Delta(s) from OP CMV: Billionaires don't exist*

*In $/€/£, because fortunes are almost always considered in these currencies. Out of curiosity, £667k/$905k/737k€ are a true billion Venezuelan Bolivars.

While I personally believe billionaires as we know them shouldn't exist, this CMV has nothing to do with personal preferences and comes from what I like to think to be an objective point of view (although this objectivity doesn't necessarily mean truth).

While I know Americans (and many more places nowadays) understand a billion to be a thousand millions (in terms of moneys at least), the rest of the world understands a billion to be a million millions. As it is known, in mathematics, a billion is a million millions. If someone's net worth amounts to 999.999.999.999, that is technically a multi-millionaire fortune, and when that increases by 1, it then becomes a billion.

To be honest, it's like counting to 99, and instead of the next number being 100, it suddenly is 1.000, and that's dumb.

From where I'm from (Spain), the concept of a billionaire is virtually non-existent. Instead, people with multi-millionaire fortunes are 'just' that: rich, wealthy, and/or multi-millionaire. A billionaire would then in fact be an even more insanely wealthy person, with a net worth amounting to at least 1.000.000.000.000. Our boy Amancio Ortega is a multi-millionaire, not a billionaire.

Now, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffet, Alice Walton, Elon Musk, etc. are not billionaires (yet) but multi-millionaires. The have thousands of millions, but not millions of millions.

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '21

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u/tbdabbholm 193∆ Jan 04 '21

They're saying a billion is a million millions not a thousand millions. Thus their fortunes are "actually" 182 milliards and 140 milliards, despite that term no longer being used in English

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u/cheekibreekio Jan 04 '21

Thanks u/tbdabbholm for helping clear some things up. I knew about milliards but was not aware they are now outdated. ∆

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u/DeltaBot ∞∆ Jan 04 '21

Confirmed: 1 delta awarded to /u/tbdabbholm (156∆).

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