How Do Billionaires Become Billionaires?

There’s a viral TikTok “proving” that being a billionaire is immoral.

The creator brings up salient points. Like how it would take you 527 years to amass $1 billion, if you earned $5,000 every single day.

Or how worker productivity has increased by 64.6% since 1979.

While wages have only grown 17.3%.

So far so good. However, the argument itself hinges on the idea that billionaires build their billion-dollar wealth by exploiting others.

Something I agree with. When it comes to certain industries.

Almost all fashion, including many high-end luxury brands, relies on sweatshop labor.

And many gig economy businesses “disrupt” their competition by undercutting them. While also destroying industry wages and being unsustainable in the long-run (see Uber).

However, the vast majority of billionaires are “equity rich” and achieved their wealth through the creation of an asset. One that’s typically a technological innovation.

Larry Ellison, currently the world’s 4th richest man, owns 42% of Oracle.

Oracle is a massive company that processes 33 billion transactions daily.