Philip Joubert

I have the same phone as Elon Musk

Philip Joubert -

You could argue that having an iPhone isn’t actually something to write a blog post about. After all, there are over a billion people who can say the same. But that just makes it even more incredible.

The richest person in the world has the same phone, uses the same software and listens to the same music as us normies do. Take a moment and let that sink in.

Elon’s got the money, so why doesn’t he have a $10,000,000 phone with a fancy-pants OS? The reason is simple: the iPhone is the best phone that money can buy, and it just so happens to retail for $1,000.

I started thinking about this idea while exploring Bryan Johnson’s Blueprint. He’s spending $2m/year on a team of researchers to develop a protocol for extending his life.

What surprised me was that, if you cut out the expensive tests, the average middle-class person could afford the same food, supplements, exercise programs, and equipment that Bryan uses. We could all live like bonafide billionaires - albeit in a small home rather than on a yacht.

What’s so fascinating to me about this is that while billionaires may live in mansions and fly in private jets, often they end up buying the exact products you or I would. That’s because, for certain categories, the best products are available to anyone.

Here are some examples of the products that you and the average Forbes billionaire probably share:

  • Consumer electrics like iPhones and Macbooks
  • Consumer software like Google, ChatGPT, MacOS, Windows and Wikipedia
  • Media like movies, series, music and podcasts
  • Consumer goods like Coke and Ziplocs
  • Video games
  • Books

This phenomenon is not driven by the inherent benevolence of companies, but rather by their economic incentives.

There are massive upfront costs to develop modern electronic devices, software, and media. However, once developed, manufacturing and replication costs are often very low. As a result, companies maximize their profit by offering products to as many people as possible rather than catering only to the wealthy elite.

While some of these products might start out as luxury goods, eventually, the money is in the mass market. See the Tesla Master plan as a fantastic example of this.

Hope you’re enjoying your semi-billionaire lifestyle 😎