Rich, wealthy ... whither money - how much is required in life ? Who is the richest person ??

பணம் தேவையா ! அல்லது தேவையற்றதா ! or how much of wealth is required !! – can you identify this rich person ?!?!?  This is no post on whether the earnings of some is really worth and justified !!

'காசு இல்லாமல் ஹோட்டலில் சாப்பிட்டால், மாவாட்ட வேண்டி வரும்' - பல பழைய படங்களில் நெஞ்சை பிழியும் வகையில் வறுமையை காட்ட  ~ சாப்பிட்டுவிட்டு பணம் தர வக்கில்லாமல் தவிக்கும்படி காட்சி அமைப்பை கண்டு இருப்பீர்கள் !  ஏனோ பணம் என்பது நல்லதல்ல ! - பணக்காரன் நல்ல ஆரோக்கியத்துடன் இருக்கமாட்டான் ! பணக்காரர்கள் சரியான தூக்கமில்லாமல் பரிதவிப்பர் போன்ற கிளிஷே கருத்துகள் தமிழ் திரைப்படங்களில் விரவி இருப்பதை பார்த்து இருப்பீர்கள் !! 

அந்தமான் காதலி படத்தில் சிவாஜி பாட்டு :  'பணம் என்னடா பணம் பணம்!  குணம் தானடா நிரந்தரம்; .. .. ..என்னிடத்தில் இல்லாததா !!  - இரக்க மனத்தை கெடுக்கும் அரக்கன்.. பணம் பணம் பணம் ஆ... 

சமீபத்திய சூது கவ்வும் படத்தில் :  காசு பணம் துட்டு மணி மணி; காசு பணம் துட்டு மணி மணி ;  கொடை புடிச்சி நைட்டுல; பறக்க போறேன் ஹைட்டுல; தல காலு புரியல ; தலை கீழா நடக்குறேன்; நல்ல வாயன் சம்பாதிச்சத - நார வாயன் துன்னுறான் ! கணக்கு போட தெரியாதவன் - காச வாரி இறைக்குறான்  

Whether one likes it or not – fact of life is ‘money is certainly needed’ and most people run after money though financial targets can never give absolute satisfaction !!  - People want to be rich, some want to become rich overnight ! 

Richness is a quality or characteristic, either of having a lot of money or of being plentiful. Wealth is the abundance of valuable financial assets or physical possessions which can be converted into a form that can be used for transactions. The modern concept of wealth is of significance in all areas of economics, and clearly so for growth economics and development economics, yet the meaning of wealth is context-dependent. An individual possessing a substantial net worth is known as wealthy. Net worth is defined as the current value of one's assets less liabilities. 

Adam Smith was a famous  Scottish economist, philosopher as well as a moral philosopher, a pioneer of political economy, and a key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment, also known as ''The Father of Economics'' or ''The Father of Capitalism''. Smith wrote two classic works, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). The latter, often abbreviated as The Wealth of Nations, is considered his magnum opus and the first modern work of economics.  Smith laid the foundations of classical free market economic theory. The Wealth of Nations was a precursor to the modern academic discipline of economics. In this and other works, he developed the concept of division of labour and expounded upon how rational self-interest and competition can lead to economic prosperity.  

Stop .. .. How much is 230 billion? Do you really know, how many digits or cyohers it has ?  - if written in numbers, it would be :  230,000,000,000.  Yes,  – it would be : 2,30,00,00,00,000 [Twenty three thousand crores !!]  … contain your astonishment – if one were to convert the same into Indian Rupees, it would be:  Rs.172,58,58,31,04,511/- 

Elon Musk's net worth has surpassed $230 billion making him the richest man on the planet after shares at Space X soar by 33 percent and sell for more than $100 billion, after only joining the Forbes top ten billionaire list in the middle of last year. The Tesla CEO has now outstripped former richest person, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and is currently wealthier than Bill Gates and Warren Buffett combined. 

The Tesla founder saw his and his SpaceX company's wealth swell after a share sale at SpaceX on October 8 worth $100 billion in a secondary offering. The company had an agreement with both new and existing investors to sell up to $755 million in SpaceX stock from insiders at $560 per share, multiple people close with the deal told CNBC.    The 33 percent increase in its new share price brings the company’s valuation to $100.3 billion after initially offering the deal to investors in February, when SpaceX's valuation stood at $74 billion at 419.19 a share. The first round of offerings raised nearly $1.2 billion, the outlet reports.  

The company's new increased valuation places it in the rare company of a private 'centicorn' or 'hectocorn,' which are companies with a valuation of $1 billion unicorns 100 times over.  Forbes Real-Time Top six  Billionaires List reads :  1.Elon Musk - $214 billion; 2. Jeff Bezos -$197 billion; 3. Bernard Arnault and family - $185 billion; 4. Bill Gates - $132 billion; 5. Mark Zuckerberg -  $116 billion; 6. Larry Ellison - $125 billion 

SpaceX is now the second-most valuable private company worldwide behind only China’s Bytedance, according to CB Insights. That's a far cry from just over a year ago, when Musk didn't even make Forbes top ten billionaires list, which Bezos dominated at number one with a then-net worth of $113 billion. The SpaceX founder was quick to boast about taking the number one spot on the rich list, tweeting a second place medal at Bezos after the Blue Origin and Amazon founder shared some motivational words about his company.

Bezos had previously held the title of world's richest person at $197.8 billion as of 2021, after the pandemic and lockdowns saw a boom in online sales.  In April of this year, Musk pledged to give away $150 million, including a $100 million prize in a carbon removal contest, where the billionaire asked participants to create workable solutions for reducing the planet's CO2 emissions at scale in a 'durable and sustainable way.' The contest started on Earth Day and will run for four years, ending on Earth Day 2025. Since beginning that contest in April, his wealth has increased by around $60 billion, with Bloomberg reporting that the SpaceX deal alone added $11 billion to Musk's net worth. 

The 50-year-old began his career co-founding PayPal before moving on to found SpaceX and Tesla Motors in the early 2000s.  Musk has seen his own net worth soar thanks to Tesla and SpaceX's rising valuations, with the latter having raised billions in an effort to fund two capital-intensive projects, Starlink and Starship. Starlink is a satellite internet constellation operated by SpaceX providing satellite Internet access to most of the Earth, while Starship is a fully reusable launch system currently in development.  SpaceX has already launched 1,740 Starlink satellites to date, currently providing an internet network to over 100,000 users in 14 different countries who are a part of the project's public beta, with service priced at $99 a month. 

Don’t lose sleep over all these – we do not need such riches to be happy- for those who live with contentment, good money is what is good enough to take care of one’s basic needs.

 

With regards – S. Sampathkumar
17^th Oct 2021.