“That's because he has all the money in the world.” We often hear this from people who seem to notice how a very rich man usually always gets what he wants. But of course, they don't really mean it in any literal sense because in reality, no single entity is really in possession of all the world's money.
But let's ponder upon the statement and ask ourselves, is it really possible for a single person to own all the money there is? What could be the possible implications and outcomes if such a situation ever took place? Picture yourself as someone who wants to own all the money in the world. That's a really enjoyable thought, but before you enjoy it too much, take a look into some of the reasons why it is actually an ugly idea.
1. There is no way for you to achieve it.
To answer it straightforwardly, you simply can't have all the world's money. No matter how foolproof your stealing plan is, no matter how brilliant you are as a strategist, no matter how many high-powered weapons you have in your home-based armory, or how brilliant you are as an entrepreneur, you simply can't.
No matter what you sell or how you sell it, or no matter how good you are in swindling other people's money, you will never have all the world's wealth. And here, let's analyze why.
All bills, notes, cash, coins or whatever terms are used to label a form of currency are strictly, securely, thoroughly and meticulously supervised and guarded by people that are more materialistic and a lot more greedy than either you or me. And because of that, they're doing all feasible precautionary means to protect what they obtained with a great amount of sweat and blood (and greed).
Maybe you're a genius thief with an insatiable set of goals, you may have the resources, but they have their resources too, which is by far more inexhaustible than what you have. You obviously have lesser resources than them as evidenced by your desire to steal their money.
Why would you even want to steal in the first place if you already have more money than they have? So it's clear then that they can hire more people, buy more guns, build higher fences and buy more protection. And let's not forget that they're a lot smarter than you are in terms of money matters.
After all, how could you explain the fact that they amassed a great amount of filthy cash but you didn't? Unless your brain is smarter than all of the brains of the rich people on earth combined, you can never have all their money.
So there it is, it's not doable, it's absolutely impossible. Get over it.
2. You can't prove you really have it.
The above argument may already convince us that it's really impossible but the question still lingers, “What if one single person actually owns all of the world's money? What could possibly happen when it happens?”
Okay, for the sake of the argument, let's just say you have a giant magical vacuum cleaner that sucked all the money from all the countries in the world and somehow that sucking process placed all that wealth at your doorstep. It's going to cause a great disturbance in the force [of the earth] because people would greatly wonder where all their money went.
What you may do is announce to the world that you are now the richest person in the entire history by paying the most expensive TV broadcast of all time. Sadly though, people would just think of you as a trying hard stand-up comedian. Why? Because the real value of money lies far beyond the glitter of coins and the flapping sound of paper bills.
Money, my dear friend, is created to represent something. And that something could be any commodity: gold, oil, food or even effort. The rules of money-printing dictates that you must never print one if it's worth can't be materialized by any tangible or probable value.
That's why no legitimate currency printing press would be foolish enough to manufacture stacks of cash just because they feel doing so. Even if you have the power and influence to edit all the records and databases on the planet just to prove you own everyone's money, people who are again smarter and greedier than you would just edit the records back, print new money, mold new coins which will make them rich again.
And you... will be more broke than before you even obtained your magical vacuum cleaner. So what will happen to the mountainous bills and coins that you have at your doorstep? Since you already foolishly announced on TV that you magically obtained them, they will be good for nothing, as they will have no value anymore whatsoever.
3. You won't be able to joyfully spend it.
It is one of the fundamental rules of trade and commerce: what you buy is derived from someone else's capital. Since you have all of the world's money, that means nobody else has any money at all, which automatically means that nobody has any capital to invest on whatever it is that you want to buy.
If you go to the boutique to buy some clothes, there would be no salesladies there– their bosses can't pay them, because all the money is on you. If you go to the restaurant for your meal, there would be no waiters– their bosses can't pay them, because all the money is on you.
If you go to a construction firm so that you can have a new mansion built, no laborer would haul the heavy loads – their bosses can't pay them because...
Of course, some of those salesladies or waiters can be paid with clothes or food just to keep them going but for how long? You might be able to buy a few goods for a short while but you would be smart enough to understand in just a few encounters that having all that money is not really joyful at all. And in connection with this, we can then declare that...
4. You would just give it away, anyway.
What good is money if you can't spend it? And how can you spend it if you've got nobody to buy from? You want to eat but restaurant owners have no capital, so you give them some so they can cook your meals. You want to travel for your summer getaway to another country, but no airline would ever book you because they have no capital to finance for piloting, and fuel, so you give them some.
You are now meant to live a lavish lifestyle because you have truckloads of cash, but in order to spend them, you need the cooperation of other inhabitants of this world. Sorry to spoil your plans of hoarding all the money for yourself but before you can even spend it, you need to give a large chunk of it back to the people.
So much for strategic robbery planning and obtaining magical vacuum cleaners. You may still refuse to give the money back but that would lead you in into the situation where...
5. You will be the ultimate target of all the world's bandits.
You found a way to steal from them, so they would naturally do everything they can to steal it back. The rich and smart may just ignore you but then, there are the greedy and the lazy. They would think that stealing your loot is the easiest way to get rich. As what you may have already figured out, you have great trouble in storing and securing your ill-gotten wealth, and not to mention foolishly announcing it on live TV in item number 2.
Even before you finish your self-made, impromptu reality TV show, all of the world's bandits will already be heading to your not so secure and not so secret hideout which had most likely collapsed on its own weight already. Don't be too surprised why the TV producers didn't inform you of the assault on your storage facility, they are most likely the ones who orchestrated it as they are bandits too, only on a much different level.
6. A new currency will be always be created no matter how many times you steal all of it.
Let's say you have somehow created an unbreakable and an impregnable storage facility that even billions of bandits can't penetrate. Let's also assume that somehow you have manipulated very smart people into managing your wealth without pay.
Let's just say, for the sake of that stupid dream that nobody is really bold enough to challenge you as the ultimate holder of the title “I have all the world's money.” So you managed to successfully pull it off, and are always swimming in your pools of bills and coins everyday of your life.
But there is one inescapable truth that you have to ultimately surrender to: as long as there are goods to trade and services to render, buying and selling will always thrive. So if you insist on hoarding your money so the world won't have it, those people who are again, smarter and greedier than you or me, will ultimately create a new form of currency.
You may again devise another plan to steal it or vacuum it through you but chances are, they may have created a much more powerful vacuum cleaner than the one you own. If they have no way of creating such a device, they will certainly never ran out of ways of inventing new forms of money.
Money is more than metal and paper, it is an idea and a representation of something that nobody can ever physically grasp of tangibly hold. Unless there is a real method that can steal all such inanimates, the dream of having all the world's money will always remain as it is... a dream.
Nice update and great article