I may be stupid, but he doesn't have that money, right? We all know this is net worth, and what he has is likely only a small fraction of this. In fact, if he was to try to liquidate this wealth, it would go poof due to how the market works, right?

So, why is the author so mad about it? If I make a company and sell one percent to someone for 1000 USD, my net worth would rise by around 100k (as a bad example), but have pretty much none of that. Right? Thats what this is, isn't it? Im sitting there with 1000 bucks which I spend on the next phone, and im dirt poor with a lot of """wealth""".

I find these comparisons a bit disingenuous