But he knows to the tenth of a cent the labor costs of a factory in China to manufacture computer components or a software mill in India to crank out his product.
Criminy! Who eats that junk? Almost $9 for Pizza Rolls?
Obviously Bill Gates needs to get in contact with Nancy Pelosi.
In his defense, I don’t think I’d have done any better. They should have asked him about the price of ammo. Or pork rinds. Or mud flaps for his pickup.
I wouldn’t get most of that stuff and I shop weekly.
How long has it been since Mr. Gates has done his own shopping?
I have no idea of the prices of these things either.
I don’t shop in grocery stores much. My caring wife takes on that burden for the family!
I shop plenty but I don’t buy any of that crap.
Good on him.
If I had billions I wouldn’t know the price of those things either.
I would however likely know how much a 10,000 SF home on the coast of Hawaii cost, or how much the latest Lamborghini was going for.
I used to tell people that an easy way to imagine what being a consumer is like if you were to earn $1,000,000 a year is to simply pick any item, from a hamburger to a house, and remove a zero from the price (I’m assuming a family income of $100,000 as the “peasant” income comparison).
Are you interested in a loaded pizza for your party? Peasants pay $35. You pay $3.50.
How about a $60,000 pickup? That will cost you $6,000. Or how about an exotic $200,000 car? That will run you the price of a medium quality Kia or $20,000.
And for ten million a year, just lop off another zero.
This really does give some nice perspective. It an also be used to get a feel for what people that make less than you pay for things, relative to their income level, though the math is more complicated when comparing a $200,000 income to a $60,000 income.
I do the grocery shopping-but I buy/eat fresh, unprocessed food-so I have no idea what Rice-a-Roni, pizza rolls or any of that 0 nutritional content crap costs. I also prefer powdered laundry detergent-the pods don’t clean clothes nearly as well IMHO...
Nancy Pelosi thought Rice-a-Roni was $15 a box... and that was after asking the host ‘what’s a rice-a-roni’...
Not saying that white liberal elites are ‘out of touch’ or anything...
I don’t know the cost of those either, and I am a single dad of 3 who does all the shopping.
And NOT a billionaire
LOL.
I moved to the Seattle area 15 years ago.
The first time I shopped in my local QFC grocery store, I saw Bill Gates father.
And, yes, I like telling that story over and over again.
I could not guess the cost of most of those items. Ellen could give this test to most men in the country and they would fail. How much they are worth is not a factor.
To his credit, I’m no billionaire and shop on a regular basis and would still have gotten most of these as wrong as he did simply because I don’t shop for these particular items.
Someone should ask hi how much he pays his janitors at work. Then ask about their retirement plans.
When i was a single guy, i was acutely aware of grocery prices because I did all my own shopping.
But that was long before I was married. I haven’t been in charge of that chore for decades now, and have little idea about the exact costs of grocery items.
Ellen didn’t do anything but embarrass Bill Gates for no good reason.