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Comment by JustAnotherPat | Hacker News Reader

I wonder at what point the world's richest will no longer include those philanthropically inclined like Buffet, Gates, and Bloomberg and will be dominated by the likes of Bezos, Slim, and Ortega. (The jury is still out on Zuckerberg and his dubious initiatives)

Our global economy is trending towards benefiting only the most ruthless, even at the very top.

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Lots of billionaires (most?) become more philanthropic after retirement. I don't think we're at a risk of this changing as even the most self-centered billionaire would find more value in spending their money on their legacy rather than buying 10,000 Ferraris.

A high end Ferrari goes for about $400,000. So $10,000 is only about $4 billion. For Gates at least, he could do both.

Nitpick: A high-end Ferrari (and other high end supercars) is well in the millions. You aren't going to see these at your local showroom because they aren't available. They are only offered to folks that already own Ferraris and are Ferrari enthusiasts.

For example - Bill Gates could not buy a Ferrari LeFerrari (from the factory) because they would not sell it. Obviously there is a healthy second hand market - which Ferrari also tries to limit.

https://www.wired.com/2014/10/herjavec-ferrari-laferrari/

(EDIT: Better article)

I was just using the price range provided when I google "ferrari price". The number range passed a sniff test so I picked the highest one and ran with it.

Your numbers and sources are clearly better.

Are there even 10,000 of those "hyper-cars" out there to be bought?

10,000 "brand new" cars available in 2017? I don't think so. 10,000 models ever made? probably.

Generally these cars are very limited production runs starting at 500 examples for the "common" ones (seriously) down to single digit numbers models for the very very exclusive ones. The Lamborghini Veneno Roadster is a recent example: http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/g4107/lamborghini-venen...

Guys like Buffet, Murdoch, Bloomberg, Carlos Slim, etc don't retire. Some may redirect their efforts, but that's the point. The most ambitious continue building their empires.

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