Pet Peeve: Saying someone is "worth" $x million.

[lostnfound]

Whether you have a billion dollars or a $10, your worth doesn’t change. Your worth as a human being is not determined by the money or assets you happen to control.

This is such a disgusting, insidious choice of words.

Mark Zuckerberg is not “worth” $70 billion. He “has”, “owns” or “controls” $70 billion in net assets. No offense, Mark, but you got a lot of learning to do, and so your worth to society at the moment is actually pretty negative.

Michael Bloomberg isn’t “worth” $53 billion. What’s he worth to humanity? He has positives and negatives. I can’t judge.

Somewhere in the world there’s a researcher finding a cure for cancer or Alzheimer’s — he is worth a lot. There are doctors and nurses and EMTs saving lives - they are worth a lot. Greta Thunburg is worth a lot if she energized a movement that slows the climate-driven disasters that will threaten a billion people on the planet. The researcher with an idea to stop the spread of Ebola is worth a lot.

The billionaires OWN a lot, they aren't worth any more or any less than any other human on the planet.

[Recursion]

1. And they don't even "have" that much money

People like Zuckerberg or Bezos have a lot of shares of stock that, if you multiply the current price by the number of shares, leads to these huge sums. But they couldn't actually sell that stock without drastically affecting the price. It's not a "real" fortune like the old-school billionaires have.

[A HERETIC I AM]

5. "like the old-school billionaires have"

What do you mean by that?

Is it your contention that Andrew Carnegie and others of his day actually had their millions stacked in a vault?

[Recursion]

7. They had income-producing instruments

FB and AMZN both don't pay dividends. The only cash-out is to sell them. Carnegie received money from his companies; Zuck and Bezos make $125K and $85K respectively and that's the only money they get from their companies.

[A HERETIC I AM]

8. Fair enough. ....

Though I think you would agree that both Bezos and Zuck can access pretty much anything they want with very little effort, and while I agree to your point that it isn't the same as a steel mill paying them as CEO or owner (to paraphrase), they have enough shares of those non-dividend paying stocks that it doesn't really matter.

In order for either of them to really affect the share price of either company, they would have to sell off ENORMOUS chunks in one trading session, and they can't do that without filing mandatory forms with the SEC and as such, giving the market a heads up, so to speak.

[reACTIONary]

18. I once worked for a "tech startup" that...

.... compensated some employees with shares.

At one of the general company meetings, one of the employees asked the CEO when the stock would start declaring dividends. The answer was "when we are unable to generate more earnings by reinvestment than you would be able to if we paid the money out."

[fescuerescue]

23. There was no income tax in those days

Kinda hard to imagine such a thing in today's age but that was the world that Carnegie and the other robber barons lived.

Then they took their income straight from the company, because it was essentially a passthrough to their personal finances.

Todays Billionaires? They keep their wealth in their companies because pulling it out incurs an income tax or capital gains tax. So naturally their tax planners keep their wealthy in the one of the few places it can grow untaxed - unsold stock.

[Kurt V.]

2. Very well said. Thanks for the post.

[smirkymonkey]

3. Exactly.

Because most of them are actually "worth" shit.

[PoliWrangler]

4. Well said

It's not net worth, it's net wealth.

[Nature Man]

6. I tried paying rent with $10 and a bunch of self-worth:

the check bounced.

[Igel]

9. The word has two meanings.

One is to be ascribed a certain value--that might be currency, it might be merit. The house is worth $1 million. A cat is worth a dozen dogs. The game is worth the candle.

The other is "to have property or money in the value of ..." The client is worth $1 million. That's precisely the definition you claim not only doesn't exist, but cannot exist. Since it does exist, and it's widely documented for many decades, somebody needs to come into compliance with the community of native speakers of English.

Neither meaning undoes the other. One's free to misinterpret things and try to distort them, but educated native speakers know it's a game. "Look, I'm gonna force you to change your behavior because I got power." It's a silly game. It often works. "Educated" does not mean "wise."

You can be worth nothing and still have great worth. That's not a contradiction in terms, a self-falsifying or anomalous assertion. Nor is it a change in meaning to highlight something--"That empty glass is quite full--of air," where "empty glass" usually means "not containing any liquid"--or pointing out a misunderstanding, "That housecat is actually an ocelot."

The noun and verb are different from the adjective, "worthy". We can play the same game there, too, but it's a tedious game.

Polysemy is a thing.

[lostnfound]

20. I understand multiple meanings, I just feel that it's contributing to insidious warping Of values

I love words. The word sanction, for example, has multiple meanings that include two that are almost antonyms. A tournament may be sanctioned by the league (approved off, authorized) or a player may be sanctioned (reprimanded for behavior which is disapproved:. What a wonderful language.

Reinforce the idea that money is something you have, not what you are. It’s a better starting point for discussions about wealth inequality.

[Major Nikon]

24. What you are saying is an eternal truth

But it just doesn’t reflect the society we find ourselves in. When you meet a person for the first time, it’s a safe bet they are going to ask what you “do” within the first few sentences. Our identities revolve around what we “do” for money and how much of it we have whether we like that or not.

[dumbcat]

10. Net worth. It's an accounting term.

It has an accepted definition. You can have your own definition of "worth." It doesn't change the accounting vocabulary.

[lostnfound]

19. I know it's an accounting term, but it's tacky and aristocratic in nature.

I prefer to adopt an assumption of equality and egalitarianism.

[Hoyt]

11. Agree with premise completely, but folks like George Soros do a lot of good for people.

[Perseus]

12. Very good, this needs to be read and heard by everyone

[Auggie]

13. K&R

[Karadeniz]

14. Never thought about how misleading that phraseology is! Thanks!❤

[marieo1]

15. Worthy Human Being

Oh,my, how true. Just because you have a lot of money doesn't mean you are worth a lot as a human being. Just look at the people in the WH!!
I'm sure it's easy to donate $1000, $100,000 or whatever but when it comes to really give of yourself from the heart - many of those people haven't a clue.

[Moostache]

16. Kudos...that really is the truth!

No human being is "worth" any monetary figure. Period.

No one actually "owns" anything either - except for their word, their empathy and their decisions.
You rent everything else, even if you bury it next to your rotting corpse, it is not really "yours".

There is no such thing in reality as Private Property either...there are social norms and courts that make it so - societal consequences that are applied if we try to take from others without the proper "permissions" (money, graft, corporate exploitation, etc.); but if people really think that is going to last when billions are fleeing the ravages of climate catastrophe in the decades ahead, they are in for a rude awakening.

Unfettered capitalism is running amok and will not be tamed now that it has broken loose from the chains of government and societal control. The ONLY thing that can save this species is a drastic break from the status quo and EVERYONE knows this...

The GOP knows it...look at their ads and attacks and petrified stances on Trump and McConnell.
The business world knows it...why else would they be so afraid of Warren and Sanders and their ideas?
The sentient world knows it (at least those with IQs above room temp)...infinite growth in a finite system? (does not compute)...

The only real worth we have or can give is what we are able to pass on - knowledge, experience and the cautions to youth and the future to try to learn from our missteps and do better. But that message has been lost to bling and flash and 'fake it 'til you make it' thinking and paradigms...people know the Kardashian morons and societal vampires, but they have no idea who their state representative is or their state senator of their federal senators and representatives or the members of the presidential cabinet or supreme court.

Net worth? About as many fish as you can catch with it...

[Progressive Jones]

17. Thank You for this post. NT

[DrToast]

21. Oh relax.....everyone knows what they're talking about when they say that

[Odoreida]

22. A peeve of mine, too.

But it has been part of the language for a long time.

Similar expression, same peeve: Net worth (as a financial industry term of art applying to a person).

[delisen]

27. It is part of the national pretense that people are only economic units,

and that the rest of being human has no value unless we monetize it.

The pretense, fostered by the unworthy enriched, has brought us to where we are today-on the verge of the New American Revolution or the New Civil War.

[fescuerescue]

25. I agree, but it's just a verbal shorthand

In the world of 140 character news stories, every letter counts.

Quicker to say/write "worth $70 billion" than "owns $70 billion in assets after subtracting liabilities"

In my industry we have tons of consultants and they are constant referred to as "resources". I friggin hate that and I hated being referred to as a "resource".

I fought it every chance I got but I realized that I was essentially tilting at windmills.

[delisen]

26. Your post is brilliant, clear and sparkling definition of "worth.'

[KY_EnviroGuy]

28. Some day, one of those gods is going to come down and declare.....

every human on earth to be worth $19.95 each. No more, no less....

And, all the shit we own must go to charities and to build good schools and clinics.

Rent is free until further notice. Golf courses are now poor kid's playgrounds......

Yachts will be converted to paddle boats for the elderly and kids. All guns, ammo, bombs, missiles and cannons will be melted down to make better bridges and playground equipment. Cars, airplanes and trucks will be recycled to build trains and bicycles, and crude oil can only be used to lube bicycle chains, farm machinery and train parts.

The international unit of currency will be equal to one hour of labor in an average rice paddy in Vietnam. Highest pay goes to hardest workers like crop pickers and minimum wage to grifter CEOs.

Everyone must be on international food stamps and the earth's land is all in the commons until we get our shit together and demonstrate to the Big Guy we're divorced from greed, racism, usury and corruption.

You get the idea.

Maybe tomorrow before noon.

KY.......

[Straw Man]

29. I always thought ...

... that they were referring to the kidnap value.