Discussions of a person’s worth quickly become very misleading. To say that Paul McCartney is worth $1 billion is to say nothing more than what that former Beatle owns in the form of financial assets. It says nothing whatsoever about his worth as a person, a father, a husband, a friend. But many people on the political left are so obsessed with money that they have a difficult time knowing that one person (say, Paul McCartney) is worth billions while millions of other persons are worth far less. “How is it justified that a mere musician is worth so much money?” they ask. My reaction is very different. When I read of McCartney’s fortune, I am struck by how puny it is compared with the amount of pleasure he has contributed to humankind. Consider: If each viewer of only The Beatles’ first two “Sullivan” appearances deposited $1 into an account in return for watching The Beatles on these telecasts, this account would have had in it, on Feb. 16, 1964, $143.7 million. If this money had been invested at the historical rate of return earned by U.S. stocks, it would have earned an annual return, on average, of 8 percent. Today, this account would be worth about $4.4 billion. Divided equally among John, Paul, George and Ringo, Paul’s share today would be $1.1 billion—his approximate current net worth. And this from only a small payment made 45 years ago by each viewer of a mere two episodes of an American television show.
