“Once a billionaire, always a billionaire”
Do millionaires and billionaires join an exclusive club forever? “once a millionaire, always a millionaire” was cited in print in 1891. “Once a billionaire, always a billionaire” was cited in print in 2000.
However, Barron’s reported in December 2015:
“It’s not easy being a billionaire. Scratch that. It is easy, but it tends to be fleeting. A study by UBS and PricewaterhouseCoopers on the growth of the billionaire class found that only 126 of the 289 people who were on the billionaires list in 1995 remain in the 10-figure class today.”
Google Books
31 December 1891, Pacific Reporter, vol. 28, pg. 558, col. 1:
It can only be upon the principle that once a millionaire, always a millionaire; or once a bankrupt, always a bankrupt.
Google Books
April 1909, Every Where, “Correct Affinities” by George L. Fielding, pg. 82:
‘Once a millionaire always a millionaire’ is their half-unconscious motto.”
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1% of the US population are BILLIONAIRES?
Michael Donohue
10/18/00
Listen, once a billionaire, always a billionaire—-they’re all the same. Lazy shiftless bums living off the fat of the people, drinking gin and gambling in the stock market all day. They won’t work.. They never try to work their way out of ghetto condominiums or Caribbean hideaways. They don’t talk regular English or play basketball or hockey.
Twitter
JLincolnHallowellJr
@JLHallowell
Once a billionaire, always a billionaire.
NYTimes: Mayor Defends BP’s Chief Over Oil Spill in the Gulf http://nyti.ms/cNPGIq
6:17 PM - 14 Jun 2010
Twitter
Tony Kinlan
@tonykinlan
Can you really be a bankrupt billionaire? Is it a case of once a billionaire always a billionaire? #seanquinn
12:08 PM - 25 Jul 2012
Twitter
Trent Waddington
@QuantumG Trent Waddington Retweeted Space Trends
guess CNBC thinks “once a billionaire, always a billionaire” despite Jain’s billions being purely dot com hype. Trent Waddington added,
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Space Trends @Spaceolizer
Billionaire Teams Up With #NASA to Mine the Moon #MoonExpress #space http://space.trendolizer.com/2015/03/billionaire-teams-up-with-nasa-to-mine-the-moon-1.html …
8:09 AM - 2 May 2015
Barron’s
Precarious Billionaires: They Can Fall Off the List
Only 126 of the 289 people who were on the billionaires list in 1995 remain in the 10-figure class today. Death and business setbacks are two reasons.
By ROBERT TEITELMAN AND AVI SALZMAN
December 19, 2015
It’s not easy being a billionaire. Scratch that. It is easy, but it tends to be fleeting. A study by UBS and PricewaterhouseCoopers on the growth of the billionaire class found that only 126 of the 289 people who were on the billionaires list in 1995 remain in the 10-figure class today. The firms surveyed people in the 14 countries that account for the most billionaires.
Some of them dropped off for unavoidable reasons—death being a big one. But most saw their fortunes frittered away by business failures, or diluted among family members. Of the 163 who fell off, 66 died, 24 saw their fortunes spread among their brood, and 73 had business setbacks or other issues. “The old adage of ‘once a billionaire always a billionaire’ just simply doesn’t hold true,” says Michael Spellacy, global wealth leader at PwC U.S.