Wealth of the long-lived

[Fumarole]

Quote:

About the wealth issue, people compare old lived individuals with big corporations. But imo the better comparison are the wealthy dynasties like the Rockefeller or Rothschild, only that it is now just one person instead of several generations of the same family.

Don't forget the Pentavirate. "The Queen, the Vatican, the Gettys, the Rothschilds... and Colonel Sanders, before he went t~&%-up. I hated the Colonel, with his wee beady eyes... and that smug look on his face. "You're gonna buy my chicken. Oh!""

[BigNorseWolf]

The analogy with a dynasty doesn't work

Rockefeller 1 is smart enough to make a fortune.
he dies

Rockefeller 2... may or may not me smart enough to keep it. I mean its SLIGHTLY more likely given inheritance but not guaranteed.

If a dragon is smart enough to make a fortune they're almost guaranteed to be smart enough to keep it

[Greydoch]

The board games in armory keep being brought up as a ridiculous pricing example, but these games provide a specific and extraordinary effect. Your players want to buy shoots and ladders tell them its a credit and move on but if they want to purchase the uber rare magical version of ultra risk that guarantees to sharpen their mind it might be more expensive and harder to find.
-Beta

[Metaphysician]

BigNorseWolf wrote:

Metaphysician wrote:

Yeah, I think that people are overlooking the issue of constant change and disruption. "Immortal businessman/corporation expands in power and money forever" only works if you assume the state of the world is fixed.

Or that sentient, living, and highly intelligent beings are capable of adapting to new situations. Say by keeping their hoard in a 401k instead of a big heaping pile that they sleep on.

And what happens when the economy tanks, the bank goes out of business, or the planet on which you base your operations gets blown up by an asteroid?

Adaptability is great, but on a long enough time scale you still get disruption, and *some* percentage of even the most successful will get screwed by the disruption.

[BigNorseWolf]

Metaphysician wrote:

Adaptability is great, but on a long enough time scale you still get disruption, and *some* percentage of even the most successful will get screwed by the disruption.

Thats why you don't keep your eggs in one nest and diversify your portfolio. When your fortune is big enough its hard to lose ALL of it. It's going to cut that percentage pretty far down.