Just a question....

[litfan10]

If you look at mainstream romance publishing there is a massive proliferation of books with 'billionaire' in the title, such as "Beauty and the Billionaire" "The Billionaires Baby" and countless others.

My musing is are our financial outlooks so bad that millionaires just don't make the cut anymore? They're a cheap thrill, dime a dozen.

According to Forbes, there are currently 2,781 billionaires around the world. That isn't remotely enough to cover all the romance books out there featuring them.

What? Are they all poly? Is their divorce rate sky high?

Generally the non billionaire lead in this tale of HEA passion is from much more common backgrounds and bank accounts. How realistic is this? I've certainly never even remotely come across a billionaire, honestly even a millionaire, though I have met many highly successful authors, but still.

What odds are we talking: close to 3,000 billionaires to over eight billion the rest of us. Not spectacular odds.

I feel confident that trillionaire romances are a ways off. The three wealthiest billionaires are each over $8 billion off.

I do for mind fluff read occasional romances, but I just can't bring myself to read anything with billionaire in the title. Seems way to sci-fi and desperately needy for me.

Any one want to chime in?

 

[nice90sguy]

I think some genius author must have figured out, that because wealth and sexiness are correlated in a linear relationship, that a billionare has to be 1,000 times sexier than a millionare. After that everybody copied her.

 

[lovecraft68]

This has been an existing device for some time, but it got an uptick thanks to 50 shades of abuse.

 

[AlinaX]

Erotica is obscenity, and what could be more obscene than a billionaire?

 

[nice90sguy]

A billionare taking a shit on a poor person

 

[AlinaX]

Isn't that implied?

 

[litfan10]

A billionare taking a shit on a poor person

Thank God I am not even remotely into scat play so this certainly won't get me rushing to billionaire romances.

 

[StillStunned]

Clearly it's one of those 3000 billionaires writing all the stories to feel better about themselves.

 

[litfan10]

Clearly it's one of those 3000 billionaires writing all the stories to feel better about themselves.

Nah, I bet they pay poor, starving ghost writers a paltry amount to write it for them with ironclad contracts risking the loss of a limb and first born children if their identities are ever revealed...

 

[intim8]

A person needs to be a 3.6 millionaire today to be as rich as a millionaire in 1980. And that's an awkward number to put in a title.

The "millionaire" trope started back around the turn of the century ( which to us old fogeys will always mean 1900). It has been stale for generations, but it hasn't been realistic to speak of billionaires until a few decades ago.

There are an estimated 24,000,000 millionaires in the US. I know a few of them. It's too common to be interesting.

 

[MrPixel]

"Billionaire" in this context is not necessarily excluding the tens of thousands who don't make the $1B cutoff, the word is just shorthand for "wealthy without limits," and especially above the law.

I think there was at one time a mystique, since who other than a billionaire (or multi-millionaire, i.e., >100M) would own a private tropical island or build a fortress of a sprawling mansion? What were they spending so much money on in order to keep their private activities out of view?

IRL billionaires' perversions are increasingly being outed. The pulp romances are sort of life imitating art, or, rather, art capturing the essence of what unlimited resources can acquire. I'm thinking of Bill Gates, and the late Jeffery Epstein and his "friends". I also get the impression that Bezos is not that far off the mark either, and who knows what lurks in the mind of Elon Musk for nobody else to see.

 

[Blind_Justice]

A billionare taking a shit on a poor person

Like a certain Vincent Kennedy McMahon. (Allegedly)

 

[litfan10]

A person needs to be a 3.6 millionaire today to be as rich as a millionaire in 1980. And that's an awkward number to put in a title.

The "millionaire" trope started back around the turn of the century ( which to us old fogeys will always mean 1900). It has been stale for generations, but it hasn't been realistic to speak of billionaires until a few decades ago.

There are an estimated 24,000,000 millionaires in the US. I know a few of them. It's too common to be interesting.

again according to Forbes the top eighteen millionaires in 1918 would be considered billionaires by today's terms.

 

[litfan10]

Like a certain Vincent Kennedy McMahon. (Allegedly)

Eeewwwwwww, so not going in any of my romance stories or even erotica. Nope, nope, nope. Going to my happy place, shit free happy place.

 

[nice90sguy]

Going to my happy place, shit free happy place.

Sad to hear you're leaving lit after all these years...

 

[litfan10]

Pfft, you're not getting rid of me that easily....
I'll just watch where I step.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Being a millionaire by net assets doesn't really make you rich.
There are lots of small business owners who have a paid off house worth $500k, and a business that they could sell for 2 or 3 million but their actual annual income is only 100-200k. That's obviously comfortable but it isn't private jets and vacation homes in Tahiti money. Doesn't make for the same kind of story excitement.

 

[KeithD]

When I recently checked financials to find I qualified as a millionaire, it hit me how little that actually meant anymore.

 

[gunhilltrain]

A person needs to be a 3.6 millionaire today to be as rich as a millionaire in 1980. And that's an awkward number to put in a title.

The "millionaire" trope started back around the turn of the century ( which to us old fogeys will always mean 1900). It has been stale for generations, but it hasn't been realistic to speak of billionaires until a few decades ago.

There are an estimated 24,000,000 millionaires in the US. I know a few of them. It's too common to be interesting.

The way things are going, that won't be such an impressive amount. The U.S. dollar has experienced a 3062% inflation rate since 1913. You now need over $31 to buy what a buck would get you back then. (Bought food recently?) It isn't only Zimbabwe that has experienced this. Germany did too:

https://www.investopedia.com/thmb/r...ion_2009_Obverse-56aa09205f9b58b7d0008c39.jpg

 

[Bazzle]

If you look at mainstream romance publishing there is a massive proliferation of books with 'billionaire' in the title, such as "Beauty and the Billionaire" "The Billionaires Baby" and countless others.

My musing is are our financial outlooks so bad that millionaires just don't make the cut anymore? They're a cheap thrill, dime a dozen.

According to Forbes, there are currently 2,781 billionaires around the world. That isn't remotely enough to cover all the romance books out there featuring them.

What? Are they all poly? Is their divorce rate sky high?

Generally the non billionaire lead in this tale of HEA passion is from much more common backgrounds and bank accounts. How realistic is this? I've certainly never even remotely come across a billionaire, honestly even a millionaire, though I have met many highly successful authors, but still.

What odds are we talking: close to 3,000 billionaires to over eight billion the rest of us. Not spectacular odds.

I feel confident that trillionaire romances are a ways off. The three wealthiest billionaires are each over $8 billion off.

I do for mind fluff read occasional romances, but I just can't bring myself to read anything with billionaire in the title. Seems way to sci-fi and desperately needy for me.

Any one want to chime in?

The 50 shades of gray effect?

 

[gunhilltrain]

Here's the German version:

https://c8.alamy.com/comp/KCEW3A/tw...sued-5th-november-1923-by-germanys-KCEW3A.jpg

 

[gunhilltrain]

Eeewwwwwww, so not going in any of my romance stories or even erotica. Nope, nope, nope. Going to my happy place, shit free happy place.

What kind of drugs are you using? Or are you just high on life?

 

[litfan10]

What kind of drugs are you using? Or are you just high on life?

Truthfully, when I was in college I could reach a high type state simply by relaxing in bed with a cheesy eighties revolving lantern and Pink Floyd's Echoes playing with no drugs involved. Pissed off my druggy roommate and my best friend who both spent tons on drugs to reach the same state.
Watch out as I've gotten real good at meditation.
Life, my friend, simply life

 

[gunhilltrain]

Truthfully, when I was in college I could reach a high type state simply by relaxing in bed with a cheesy eighties revolving lantern and Pink Floyd's Echoes playing with no drugs involved. Pissed off my druggy roommate and my best friend who both spent tons on drugs to reach the same state.
Watch out as I've gotten real good at meditation.
Life, my friend, simply life

Yes, you linked to your 2012 post on that now-dormant thread. If I did the math correctly, you are 69 now, which is within my time "zone" too. So neither of us is going to live to see the year 2099, but I can accept that.

P.S.: We should do another one of those "directory" threads again. There is always some turnover here.

 

[litfan10]

Yes, you linked to your 2012 post on that now-dormant thread. If I did the math correctly, you are 69 now, which is within my time "zone" too. So neither of us is going to live to see the year 2099, but I can accept that.

P.S.: We should do another one of those "directory" threads again. There is always some turnover here.

Close, you missed the "last edited in 2020" when I updated my age. You had the decades part right. I just updated the age again, but still there's no way 2099 will be in my future, probably not my kids either.
Like you, I'm okay with that. In fact with the way my body's already deteriorating, I'd prefer it.