Phwoar! Just seen the woman of my dreams.

[DimPrawn]

Australian woman predicted to become world's richest person - Telegraph

[TimberWolf]

I wonder what stops people from becoming mega rich; e.g. richer than countries. They seem to peak at 10s of billions and stay there, and yet money usually makes money. Sure they die, but people that rich can pass it down the generations with few tax liabilities?

[BlasterBates]

Cor.... just look at those bank balances.

[TimberWolf]

Is she still a virgin?

[doodab]

I wonder what stops people from becoming mega rich; e.g. richer than countries. They seem to peak at 10s of billions and stay there, and yet money usually makes money. Sure they die, but people that rich can pass it down the generations with few tax liabilities?

How do you measure how rich a country is though?

$10 billion a year profit is more than the GDP of some smaller countries. If you look at walmart, the worlds biggest company, their turnover is something like $400 billion, which is more than the GDP of all but the top 25 or 30 national economies.

If you are looking at accumulated wealth it's a bit more complex as most countries have a lot of debt, which obviously is offset by the value of the stuff the country possesses but I don't think there is any standard means of performing such a calculation to calculate a whole country's "net worth". Even if there were, I would guess that an individual worth $40 or $50 billion would actually be richer than quite a few nation states.

[MarillionFan]

Australian woman predicted to become world's richest person - Telegraph

Funny.

I thought it would have been this?

http://thehostess.files.wordpress.co...runk-toast.gif (partially NSFW)

[DimPrawn]

Funny.

I thought it would have been this?

http://thehostess.files.wordpress.co...runk-toast.gif (partially NSFW)

Ah, the day I met my future wife. Brings back so many memories.....

[dang65]

I don't really get this seemingly god-given right to gigantic piles of cash. The story behind this lady's money is that her father happened to fly through a gorge in Australia where he realised there was a lot of iron ore (later revised to a LOT of iron ore). He then basically just claimed the land, and instantly owned enough iron to provide the whole planet. He then did a deal with Rio Tinto to do the actual work of extracting the iron.

This wasn't in, like, 1683 or whatever, it was in 1961! How does a government, even of such an enormous area as Australia, just allow someone to wander in and stick a few flags in the ground and turn themselves into the richest person in the world (a few years later, by proxy)? I can understand the 'There Will Be Blood' kind of scenario where a guy digs for years and eventually strikes oil and builds up his business through hard work and risky investment, but how does this iron ore thing work!?

Lang Hancock - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Clippy]

[PAH]

I wonder what stops people from becoming mega rich; e.g. richer than countries. They seem to peak at 10s of billions and stay there, and yet money usually makes money.

Unless they publicly declare every assett and investment they own, whoever says they are worth x is just guessing.

It's unlikely the mega rich have it all sat in one savings account so even they probably don't know their true wealth, and much of it is paper wealth anyway, based on current investment values that a stock market crash can soon affect badly.

Therefore it's all estimated.