Forbes rank the 15 riches FICTIONAL Character!

[Henry]

Jed Clampett only had about 30 million dollars in Mr. Drysdale's bank, so he wasn't that wealthy. Admittedly, it was the late 1960's...

And the concept that someone hasn't seen a single episode of Gilligan's Island is wild to me! It's one of those things that you know is ture, but still floors you to witness the reality of it, because in this case, for years it was such a common American cultural icon...

 

[Mean Eyed Cat]

Man, where are the "Anna Nicole Smiths" of the world? Most of these people are single and loaded!

[Okay, Santa, Lucius & Mr. Howell are married, Richie is under-aged and Scrooge McDuck is, well, a duck - but otherwise there are some wealthy & eligible bachelors/bachelorettes on this list ]

 

[buzzard]

Well there is also R.J. Brande, the funder of the Legion of Super Heroes, who owns a planet of his own, and builds fusion power spheres for a living. Of course current continuity may have changed this some, I haven't read that title in ten years or so.

Though I concur with disagreeing that Clampett and Scrooge are on the list. Neither was super wealthy.

Stark should be on the list as well.

buzzard

 

[DonTadow]

Well there is also R.J. Brande, the funder of the Legion of Super Heroes, who owns a planet of his own, and builds fusion power spheres for a living. Of course current continuity may have changed this some, I haven't read that title in ten years or so.

Though I concur with disagreeing that Clampett and Scrooge are on the list. Neither was super wealthy.

Stark should be on the list as well.

buzzard

I disagree. 30 million dollars in the 60s was possibly close to having a billion or so odd dollars now factoring in inflation. I'm always led back to the play "Raisan in the SUn" and how everyone goes crazy over 10k. My teacher had to drill it into our heads that 10k back then was very close to having a half million dollars given the cost of living. So if Jed had 30 million, he was rolling in doe.

Scrooge was always pegged as being the richest person in "his world" but there were several people introduced on thecartoon whom were either as rich as him or richer than him.

 

[buzzard]

I disagree. 30 million dollars in the 60s was possibly close to having a billion or so odd dollars now factoring in inflation. I'm always led back to the play "Raisan in the SUn" and how everyone goes crazy over 10k. My teacher had to drill it into our heads that 10k back then was very close to having a half million dollars given the cost of living. So if Jed had 30 million, he was rolling in doe.
.

Howard Huges had a billion dollars to his name during the 70s (possibly back in the 60s as well, but I know that Guiness used to peg him as having that much back in the 70s editions). Getty of Getty oil had a billion as well or so. Rockefeller had hundreds of millions at the turn of the century, and so did Carnegie after he sold off U.S. Steel. I'm sorry but 30 million is chicken feed this century. While I imagine Clampett would have make the Forbes 500, he would not have made top 50 (or maybe even 100) in the 60s. There are plenty of fictional characters richer than Clampett. I'm not saying he wasn't wealthy. I'm saying he wasn't super rich, which he certainly wasn't.

Historically probably one of the richest people ever was John Rockefeller. To put it in perspective, the man had comparable wealth to the U.S. government budget.

(Gates has $46.5 billion, the federal government's budget is $2.33 trillion. Now of course this is also an issue of growth of government expenditure, but still...)


buzzard

 

[DonTadow]

Howard Huges had a billion dollars to his name during the 70s (possibly back in the 60s as well, but I know that Guiness used to peg him as having that much back in the 70s editions). Getty of Getty oil had a billion as well or so. Rockefeller had hundreds of millions at the turn of the century, and so did Carnegie after he sold off U.S. Steel. I'm sorry but 30 million is chicken feed this century. While I imagine Clampett would have make the Forbes 500, he would not have made top 50 (or maybe even 100) in the 60s. There are plenty of fictional characters richer than Clampett. I'm not saying he wasn't wealthy. I'm saying he wasn't super rich, which he certainly wasn't.

Historically probably one of the richest people ever was John Rockefeller. To put it in perspective, the man had comparable wealth to the U.S. government budget.

(Gates has $46.5 billion, the federal government's budget is $2.33 trillion. Now of course this is also an issue of growth of government expenditure, but still...)


buzzard

Ok ok ok. I'm bored at work so I did some searching. Here's a pretty cool inflation caculator
http://inflationdata.com/Inflation/Inflation_Rate/InflationCalculator.asp

If we put in the date 1966 it tells us there's been an inflation rate of 512 percent since then. Multipling that by 34 mill Jed would be worth close to 175 million dollars. Having this much money back then was a rarity.

 

[buzzard]

Ok ok ok. I'm bored at work so I did some searching. Here's a pretty cool inflation caculator
http://inflationdata.com/Inflation/Inflation_Rate/InflationCalculator.asp

If we put in the date 1966 it tells us there's been an inflation rate of 512 percent since then. Multipling that by 34 mill Jed would be worth close to 175 million dollars. Having this much money back then was a rarity.

Using your inflation adjusted figure Jed doesn't even make the top 400 richest Americans these days. I hate to break it to you, but he simply wasn't super rich. He'd have to have 900 million to get on that list.

The simple truth is that there were a lot of people around in the 1960s with appreciably more than $30 million dollars.

buzzard

 

[DonTadow]

Using your inflation adjusted figure Jed doesn't even make the top 400 richest Americans these days. I hate to break it to you, but he simply wasn't super rich. He'd have to have 900 million to get on that list.

The simple truth is that there were a lot of people around in the 1960s with appreciably more than $30 million dollars.

buzzard

But, you have to think that this money came before sports stars, movie stars, lotteries, tech stocks, and walmart.

 

[Staffan]

Referring to the "historical documents"?

Of course.

 

[sniffles]

Is Lucius Malfoy really that rich?
Never read the books, but I'm curious...

I don't think Lucius Malfoy should be on the list either. He's wealthy, but I don't get the impression that he's rolling in galleons (fabulously rich in Potter-speak).