Comment by sergeykish | Hacker News Reader

Comment by sergeykish | Hacker News Reader

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He could fed megalopolis of his time (with what they expected), and pay soldiers of empire of his time, shouldn't we adjust this as well?

* Feed New York for one year, grocery expenses $500/month [1]

8000000 * $500/month * 12 month = $48 billion

18000000 * $500/month * 12 month = $108 billion // metro area

* Pay US Army soldiers for a fifth of a year [2]

$140 billion / 5 = $28 billion

Who have enough to pay that?

Contemporary athletes, even Michael Jordan ($2.1 billion [3]) absolutely can't.

But Bill Gates ($106 billion [4]) can! As well as Jeff Bezos ($114 billion).

Was antique inequality bigger? Yes! "It is believed that Marcus Licinius Crassus expanded his personal fortune to 170 million sesterces, while Pliny the Elder surmised his fortune to be valued even higher, at 200 million sesterces" [5]. That's five times bigger. And Augustus "personally owned all of Egypt". That's $898 billions [6]

[1] https://smartasset.com/mortgage/what-is-the-cost-of-living-i...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_...

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jordan

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Americans_by_net_worth

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wealthiest_historical_...

[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_total_wea...

> Feed New York for one year

Economic comparisons across millennia are close to meaningless. For example, how does one compare modern New York City, with a population rivalling that of the ancient world’s human population, with a Roman urban centre?

The increased population is possible in part because staple prices have fallen enough to support that larger population. Not saying it's a perfect comparison but it can be used as a rough guide because there is no way that's perfectly accurate, the situation of the world has changed so much you can't account for every factor affecting any thing you try to use to create a meaningful baseline across centuries.

It is poetic comparison. Calculations performed out of curiosity.

My point was "comparison with greatest of its time, is it possible today?"

Your question based around "look how magnificent our civilization is."

And perfect counterbalance to your question would be "How does one compare biggest city of its time with New York City?" [1] [2]. I don't like such questions, they already contain judgement. And that I think is pointless.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_urban_community_siz...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_cities

Its funny how many comments in this article question that an athlete could have such absurd wealth, but don't pause to think that there are many modern people that have multiples of his claimed 15 billion in wealth, which is somehow completely not absurd...

I think you're confusing discussions about whether something is (or was) true and discussions about whether something should be true be some moral standards, the classic Hume's is/ought distinction. People in the comments here don't seem to be making any value judgements, just arguing about historical truth.

Bill Gates had huge factor in changing life of bilions people, how's that absurd?

He changed the way almost everyone lives

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