With a $20T GDP that would be a $300B net worth in today’s dollars or around 200% what Bezos is worth.
Don’t worry. This second gilded age that we are living in is on track to ensure we have a trillionaire in short order.
That's close enough, and hardly make him "a pauper compared to JDR".
And of course, you got to also examine how the rest of "America’s total economic output" was divided back in JDR era compared to today.
Perhaps JDR had 1.5% of US output, but the rest was more equally distributed. E.g. today Bezos might have "just" 0.75% but a larger percentage than in JDRs time might be held by people like Bezos (and in all likelihood it is).
In other words, what's important is how much more not just the richest man, but the top say 100 rich commanded then and now?
Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musa_I_of_Mali
For one, Rockefeller grew rich quickly coz there wasn’t as much regulation as compared to what Bezos had to face.
On the other hand, Rockefeller wasn’t in the Internet age and Bezos banker on the exponential rise of internet.
I am sure there are many more variables.
Eh, Bezos got rich off of not having to pay state sales taxes while his brick and mortar competitors did.
But AWS makes up for that IMO.
Back then, federal income tax was way way lower than what it is today. At some point the highest income tax bracket was 7% but today it's 37%.
I'm not a history buff but Google says social security taxes first started in 1937. That could be potentially another 13% less taxes paid back then.
Also Google says corporate tax was hovering around 12% during the 1920s but it's upper 30%s now.
Imagine how fast you could gain wealth if the govt. only took 20% of your income instead of 50%.
Bezos rode the boom in the internet revolution.
Two paupers = a king?
Why bother with historical comparisons ? I hear it frequently reported that Putin is currently worth $200 Billion ...