Originally Posted by
shroomwell
The lowest of the range of estimates of what he inherited from his father in 1974 is $40 million (he split his inheritance with siblings). Had he somehow liquidated his share of his father's business and done nothing with that money but invest in an index fund that tracked the S&P 500 at that time (if such a fund had existed), and reinvested the dividends, he would have about $3.7 billion today.
A Forbes article in 1982 estimated his wealth at around $200 million. Similarly, had he invested in an index fund at that time and reinvested the dividends, he would have around $8.3 billion today. He has estimated his own wealth recently at around $9 billion, while others have estimated lower.
So who knows what kind of a business man doing "wonderful deals" he is.
Nice thought, but let us compare and contrast to many of our past and present leaders, let's look at some of their fine deals they made for us.
The problem we have is that we think there is a solution from any of these fools.
We are broke and stupid, there is no white knight on the horizon.
We are screwed, always have been, always will be, and you can't pretend the past or future.
As always, we end up running out of other people's money.
Take some math and economics courses or shut up.
Or start charging 300K for twenty minutes of hot air and laundering that into a living.
Grifters seem to do very well in this environment.
For the rest of us it is just unicorns crapping skittles.