Bill and Melinda Gates: America’s Top Farmland Owner

Re:Bill and Melinda Gates: America’s Top Farmland Owner by kolbe on Thursday January 14, 2021 @03:13PM (#25781839)

Why on earth would Xi allow his wealth to be known? The media in China isn’t even allowed to cover basic actions of the CCP. But China is a country run by bribes and guanxi. And all bribes flow up. It is possible he has decided to not accept the payments, but very unlikely.

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Re:Bill and Melinda Gates: America’s Top Farmland Owner by exclusiv on Thursday January 14, 2021 @04:07PM (#25782540)

That's precisely my point. We only have some very limited data available. And none of that says anywhere near 200B or multiples of that as you present as a fact.

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Re:Bill and Melinda Gates: America’s Top Farmland Owner by kolbe on Friday January 15, 2021 @12:03PM (#25793095)

2015 estimate for Putin was $200b[1] by Bill Browder, who for a period of time, had been mistakenly believed to manage Vlad's wealth, and was active in the privatization investment opportunities in Russia.

In 2015, the richest western capitalist was Gates with $80b[2], which means Putin was worth 2.5x more than Gates.

Another example of how these kleptocracies tend to funnel wealth up into the top is Kadafi, who was estimated to have died with $200b stashed around the world[3]. At that time, Bill Gates was worth $61b[4].

Without proof, I grant that you can believe whatever you want about Xi. But you can believe he's a unique benevolent snowflake in the history of totalitarians, or you can believe he's just like the rest. I'm going to assume he's like the rest and wait for proof that shows the opposite.

[1] https://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2015/02/15/putins-net-wor...

[2] https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2015/03/02/forbes-...

[3] https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-xpm-2011-oct-21-la-fg-kada...

[4] https://www.forbes.com/sites/luisakroll/2012/03/07/forbes-wo...

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