The art of blowing $200 billion

What would you do if you had $1700 to spare? I'd buy a Herman Miller Aeron (idiot!), Cornellius Vanderbilt bought a small ship and turned it into a $200 billion empire.

Back in the Gilded Age between 1870-1900, the US leapfrogged ahead of the rest of the world in creating goods of value, Vanderbilt helped move these goods through his massive network of rail and shipping networks. What started with ubering folks on his small ship between Staten Island and Manhattan soon turned into a giant empire.

Cornellius died in 1877. A little less than a hundred years later, 120 descendants of his met at Vanderbilt University and none of them were millionaires. Vanderbilts squandered away all their wealth on multiple massive houses (you know they built a lot of houses when there's a wiki page for it) and spent millions of dollars on parties.

Wealth creation and retention seem to be a game of roulette — a chance event. How else could we explain why the top 1% in 2001 look very different from the top 1% in 2021.

Fun fact: Grand Central Station in New York was commissioned by Cornellius Vanderbilt.