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They would still have all the advantages of the business connections they made as a billionaire, and would still have a massive advantage over everyone else.
Run the experiment.
But many of their connections would be poor as well. Do you think people actually care what Elon or Bezos think? They're not geniuses, they just have money. Compare them to Steve Jobs or Warren Buffett, who actually knew what they were doing.
No one seriously asks Bezos or Elon for advice because they were just lucky. Their companies succeed despite them, not because of them. Like the guy who started Uber (forgot his name). Nobody listens to them.
Compare them to Steve Jobs or Warren Buffett, who actually knew what they were doing.
Steve Jobs, the man who thought he could beat pancreatic cancer with a juice cleanse?
The guy who wanted to build fanless computers. Forcing designers to turn down the fans on laptops, having them cook but silent.
Yeah, that guy was a true genius. /s
He was great with words though.
The Apple Silicon machines are fucking awesome though, and most of them are fanless. Even the ones that do have them, you have to do some pretty special shit to make them turn on.
I hope the Linux world gets proper ARM machines some day too, but for the time being, the Apple machines are like a full generation ahead.
I mean, Jobs was long dead by the time Apple Silicon came along.
Well, being super smart in one field doesn't necessarily mean you have common sense. You could be the greatest physicist in the world but still think lizard people control everything.
TBF Woz was the brains behind Apple. Jobs was just a good salesperson.
Jobs was good at getting the right people together.
So maybe Woz would get rich again? There have to be a few others…
I don't think Woz would. He had the opportunity but realised he had more than enough to last his whole life, so noped out of there to play pinball and watch his children grow up.
He really is the smart one.
Woz really was the friend that Jobs didn't deserve.
This goes along with a thing I like to say: Being rich doesn't make one an asshole. It takes an asshole to become rich.
Love it
Except Elon is stupid in all fields.
He's great at hustling though.
Tesla has literally an unrealistic valuation based on Elon fanboys
Steve Jobs was a grade A cunt with the rest of them. Don't give him a pass for his high charisma score. Dude walked into Atari with no fucken shoes on back in the 70s trying to get a job. I used to work with a 72 year old dude who was a head repairman there working on the consoles. Its all confidence, smoke, and mirrors. Skills are secondary to spewing bullshit and making people feel excited.
If he wasn't integral to Apple's success, then why did they fail after he left, and then succeed after he returned? What innovative products has Tim Apple created? Air Pods? The Apple Watch?
Why do we have party faces in tabletops? Why focus our skillsets on salesmenship while others become engineers? He was a great ringleader, he could probably sell people a wet banana peel like it was life changing. Maybe the products themselves aren't as stellar as Jobs made them out to be. Maybe a phone is just a phone and when Merlin isn't there blowing smoke up your ass you can finally see that.
Or would their connections who weren't billionaires just exploit them so they could take the top spot?
Only one way to find out
Take the money away and the connections are worthless. They have business connection because of money.
I don't think so. They know each other.
Rich people are not good at being friends, especially the one who are in charge of large businesses. They are good at exploiting others.
Do some of them have big brains/work ethic?
Not all the random massive family inheritance people obviously. Just imagine some folks worked really damn hard to earn an unethically yet unfortunately legally large amount of money.
Do some of them have big brains/work ethic?
Gates seems smart enough. If he lost all his money I am sure he is capable to saying being the store manager at. Walmart.
Well, if you remove from ALL billionaires, they won't be much different from me or my neighbor
They would still have all the advantages of the business connections they made as a billionaire
Business connections to other people who also had their money stripped away.
I mean, we'll never run the experiment because the folks in charge of the Laboratory of Democracy all sit on the boards of Microsoft, Boeing, and Berkshire Hathaway. But Bill Gates doesn't benefit by hobnobbing with Warren Buffet when neither of them have any money.
We would need to remove all the effects of the birth lottery as well