Our obsession with rich lists is a problem
As calls increase globally for a wealth tax, how reliable are these compilations – and why have they become load-bearing?
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Elon Musk’s fortune is estimated by Bloomberg to be worth US$876 billion (S$1.1 trillion) on the occasion of SpaceX’s initial public offering on June 12.
PHOTO: REUTERS.
Clara Murray
Philip Beresford thought the Duke of Devonshire might have dropped dead from shock, so long was the silence on the phone.
At the time a young City reporter at The Sunday Telegraph, Beresford had telephoned to check the numbers the newspaper had compiled on the duke’s assets for the first-ever list of Britain’s richest people. After a butler passed the phone to the duke, Beresford politely asked if he was correct in thinking that His Grace’s wealth in land and art ran to £500 million (S$871.5 million).
