I’ve been a journalist for more than 30 years. Maybe that’s why media mistakes get under my skin, especially when they’re repeated day after day in headline after headline.
As I’m sure you know, the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, is now busy hollowing out the U.S. government. As a result, he’s mentioned in the press myriad times daily, often accompanied by an increasingly nauseating nickname, “the richest man in the world” or “the world’s wealthiest man.”
Fellow reporters, we’ve been losing credibility for years. Let’s not make it worse.
Nobody knows, or can possibly know, who the richest people in the world are. Not Forbes. Not Bloomberg. Not anybody.
Let me explain.
Most wealth isn’t public
Most of the people on the “world’s richest” lists own stock in publicly traded companies. For example, Musk has a ton of Tesla stock. It’s simple to find out how many shares he has and how much each share is worth — that’s public information.
Ditto with Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffett … practically all the people at the top of these lists.
But consider this: Can your net worth be determined with public information? Nope. That’s also true of most people in the world.
There are plenty of folks with their fortunes tucked away in private companies, sprawling real estate empires, priceless art collections, offshore banks and lots of other places. Even if Forbes and Bloomberg could figure out who they are and ask them for their net worth, think they’d answer? Would you?
None of your business
Many people want to keep their wealth under wraps. Maybe it’s for privacy. Maybe it’s for, uh, other reasons.
Consider a few examples:
- Political powerhouses: Leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin are rumored to control vast assets through proxies and hidden networks. Some estimates suggest his wealth could surpass $200 billion, but without concrete evidence, it’s speculative. Here’s a fun fact: In this 2022 article from Fortune magazine, Elon Musk admitted Putin is “significantly richer” than he is.
- Royal fortunes: The Al Saud family of Saudi Arabia manages Saudi Aramco, one of the world’s most valuable companies. The Saudi royal family’s collective wealth is intertwined with state assets, making individual net worth opaque. And there are several other royal families with untold vast riches, like the Al Nahyan family of Abu Dhabi, the Al Thani family of Qatar and the Al Sabah family of Kuwait.
- Private magnates: Dynasties like the Rothschilds have long been associated with immense wealth spread across private trusts and holdings, far from public scrutiny. According to this Newsweek article, the Rothschild family across all its branches is estimated to be worth $15.7 trillion.
Forbes and other publications, including celebrity net worth websites, can estimate how much your favorite movie star or business tycoon is worth. But unless that person’s wealth consists entirely of traded stocks, they can’t know their actual net worth.
The bottom line
The folks at Forbes and Bloomberg are mostly working with public information and making educated guesses. They’re doing their best, but they sure aren’t auditing every billionaire’s bank account.
Is Elon Musk the world’s richest man? He certainly could be. On the other hand, it’s quite possible that he’s not. And therefore, he shouldn’t be labeled that way by anyone in the media. Rich? Definitely. One of the richest people in the world? Likely. But the richest man in the world? If you can’t prove it, don’t say it.
Add a Comment