Long Scale Billionaires/short Scale Trillionaires
In countries that use the long scale number naming system, a billionaire would have one million million (1,000,000,000,000) units of currency. Under the short scale number naming system, an individual with such a fortune would be a trillionaire. There are no known euro or U.S. dollar trillionaires – in U.S. dollars, such a fortune would be roughly equivalent to the entire 2010 gross domestic product of Mexico. However, some individuals have attained fortunes of over one trillion units in other currencies. According to VnExpress, 9 Vietnamese had stock market assets valued at over one trillion đồng (US$47.5 million) by the end of 2011. According to the Korea Herald, there were 16 Koreans with stock market assets valued at over one trillion won (US$895 million) on March 9, 2012. According to the Jakarta Globe, 116 Indonesians had assets worth over one trillion rupiah (US$117 million) in 2011.
In countries affected by severe hyperinflation, some individuals can become trillionaires as currency units are printed in larger and larger denominations, although in such cases the currency itself quickly becomes virtually worthless.
Read more about this topic: Billionaire
Famous quotes containing the words long, scale and/or short:
“In former times and in less complex societies, children could find their way into the adult world by watching workers and perhaps giving them a hand; by lingering at the general store long enough to chat with, and overhear conversations of, adults...; by sharing and participating in the tasks of family and community that were necessary to survival. They were in, and of, the adult world while yet sensing themselves apart as children.”
—Dorothy H. Cohen (20th century)
“I love to weigh, to settle, to gravitate toward that which most strongly and rightfully attracts me;Mnot hang by the beam of the scale and try to weigh less,—not suppose a case, but take the case that is; to travel the only path I can, and that on which no power can resist me. It affords me no satisfaction to commence to spring an arch before I have got a solid foundation.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“However far modern science and technics have fallen short of their inherent possibilities, they have taught mankind at least one lesson: Nothing is impossible.”
—Lewis Mumford (1895–1990)