#while researching this i found out nikki minaj is worth 80k mil and went 'lol poor'

[screamting]

So I've been thinking about this post a lot and how to make it and I figure I'll just throw a shot out in the dark

Reasons why Bruce Wayne is a multi-millionaire, rather than a billionaire:

pays his workers a reasonable wage with benefits.

the post could literally end here but we'll keep going

a billion dollars is the new shorthand for 'big amount of money' but you don't actually need to be a billionaire to be stupid rich. In mid 2021, Caitlyn Jenner's net worth is $100 million. Beyonce is $500 million. Keanu "I have enough money for the next few centuries" Reeves? $360 million.

Harris Rosen, who provides free preschool and college tuition, living, and educational expenses for any kids in Tangelo Park who gets into post-highschool education in Florida? $200 million.

A 'net worth' is different then 'how much does someone have in the bank.' It includes properties (so most of Harris Rosen's money is probably actually the chain of hotels he owns and the land they are on, which is why the scope of his program is a specific town) and intellectual property licenses (like the Beatles' Discography), etc. This all falls under the title of 'assets,' which are things that are expensive without actually being spendable cash. You could use the worth of an asset to buy things, in the same way you can use your gamestation to pay rent-- you sell it. So Bruce's net worth is going to be a combination of how much he is actively making from his CEO job, and the combined assets he owns. If he owns any stocks or bonds (he has children, he absolutely has a few saving bonds for them) those are also part of his net worth.

Things Bruce owns:

1 v big mansion house & surrounding property

probably a few vacation homes/safehouses in other states and countries

Several tall buildings and research facilities

at least one processing plant but probably more

that's probably at least like. 500 million or whatever in assets. To set up a lab building right now, it's probably 150mil just for the structure, but again, he only owns one very fancy house, and most of Wayne Industries has been built up over a few generations, so it came cheaper to him over time; he didn't buy all of this at once. You wouldn't call someone rich for affording to eat, after all, but if you had them buy all the food they would eat over the course of their life at once? It would be a stupid huge amount of money. So the actual cost of the land and equipment are counted in assets, but the labor, setup, amenities, etc are not. They're part of the cost.

As for income generated, I'm gonna admit right now that I do not know how much any specific business may be worth, but Walmart claims to have made 548 million in revenue in 2020 (revenue is all money taken in; it ignores wages and expenditures like actually buying things to stock shelves with) and that's literally the top of the Fortune 500 list. Sam Walton had a net worth of 8.6 billion in 1992 when he died. Costco, 10th on the list, has founder James Sinegal, whose net worth is.... 1 billion. There are 490 other spots on the list. The CEOs are taking a paycheck out of that revenue gained, minus again, all employees and expenditures. Over time, the CEO paycheck has built up their networth.

"but wait" you say. "Bruce Wayne does the justice league's financials. what about all the JL stuff he's bought?"

So Bruce Wayne does eventually come out as the JL's benefactor, which probably makes his taxes a lot easier to file, but for a long time people didn't know about it, and as they're also I guess a separate business? Or a charity?? they don't count towards his personal wealth. So the JL is absolutely a sinkhole of money, especially because of the Fucking Space Station. This man goes through a lot of money. James Sinegal, while a defender of the 1.50c costco hotdog, has never funded a Fucking Space Station or Zod's damage bill. This bitch literally can't save up that much money.

Like, you could argue that the Watchtower and all the batmobiles/computers/etc aren't assets on paper because of hidden identities, and you might have a point there, but for him to sell them (and thus make money off them) he'd have to first come out as owning them, putting them on the paper, so it feels like a bit of a stalemate for me. Like, you can steal the mona lisa, but you can't count the mona lisa as an asset without admitting you have possession of the mona lisa (which you shouldn't, thus getting you in Trouble.)

So I'm not counting the Bat and Friends stuff. Very strictly the public-facing stuff. That means also that Bruce Wayne has a lot of either very strange purchases on his accounts, or he's hidden the purchases for the JL somehow, which is impressive, considering he had to hide enough money over time to create the Fucking Space Station.

So what I'm saying here is: is Bruce Wayne a billionaire? No. A billion is more than we think and he is too busy spending to hoard that much wealth. But is Bruce Wayne a money launderer? Yes.