I clearly remember looking at Forbes first Billionaires list with my brother in 1987, and being amazed that there were 140 such people in the world, worth a combined $295B. Today, there are up to 4,000 Billionaires worldwide, worth a cumulative $20T+. In the late 70s and early 80s, the term Billion wasnt even widely used, except maybe in science. A Millionaire (even with only 1M) was considered very wealthy. While technology, globalization and the internet has enabled the elite to access wider markets and therefore accumulate more wealth, the main reason we have seen such an elevation in the number and worth of the elite, is money printing and currency debasement over the past 50yrs. This year, if the SpaceX IPO goes well, and Tesla also performs decently, Elon Musk should become the world's first Trillionaire. The first Billionaire was John D. Rockefeller in 1916, due to the success of his company Standard Oil. So it will have taken 110yrs to go from the first Billionaire to the worlds first Trillionaire. But how long will it take until the emergence of the worlds first Quadrillionaire (1000 Trillion)? My guess is much sooner than 100 years due to money printing, currency debasement, the cantillion affect and the emergence of Ai.