Arbitrarily-Large Bank Account: Difference between revisions
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* The excessive purchase of useless tchotchkies.
* [[Iron Man|Starting insane]] [[Phineas and Ferb|DIY projects]].
* And/or [[Richie Rich (comics)|attempting to buy happiness.]]
Compare the [[Fiction 500]].
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== Comic Books ==
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*** Apparently it never occurred to Robin that he might not be the only person hiding things in the Batarang budget.
* In ''[[Steelgrip Starkey And The All-Purpose Power Tool]]'', Mr. Pilgrim, the mysterious president behind Star Key Enterprises, appears to have one of these. The employees are provided with a New York City apartment suite, a private jet, <s>costumes</s> uniforms, and anything else they need without any concern for expenses. Justified because {{spoiler|the entire effort is run by a group of [[Cosmic Entity|Cosmic Entities]] who can use magic to provide whatever funds are needed.}}
* [[Disney Ducks Comic Universe|Scrooge McDuck]], being the richest man/duck in the world, seems to have however much money he needs at any time, with the exception of the above-mentioned dramatic bankruptcy moments. [[Status Quo Is God|He always gets it all back, of course.]] And yes, Scrooge has done plenty of the stuff on the list, especially insane DIY-projects, buying properties on a whim and giving blank checks (when he's not being a grouchy hoarder, as he usually is). Scrooge's fortune ''does''' sometimes get a specific value placed on it, but it's always so impossibly large than it might as well be written as "infinite". Indeed, one story revolved around Scrooge's fortune being so large that it would actually be physically impossible for him to spend it all because he ''owns everything''. {{spoiler|Except cane factories.}}
** The most ''conservative'' estimate of Scrooge's wealth that I know of that was was when Scrooge once bemoaned that at a loss rate of a billion dollars a minute, he'd go bankrupt in
▲** The most ''conservative'' estimate of Scrooge's wealth that I know of that was was when Scrooge once bemoaned that at a loss rate of a billion dollars a minute, he'd go bankrupt in iabout 600 years. That would imply his net worth is somewhere around 313 quadrillion dollars. As a comparision, IRL the combined net worth of the entire population of the planet Earth is approximately ''one'' quadrillion dollars.
== Fan Works ==
* Most (if not all) of the Wedge Rats of ''[[Undocumented Features]]'' have this in the "Future Imperfect" era and beyond just as a result of being 400+ years old with a reasonably stable galactic economy during all that time -- the simple effect of compound interest alone plus a banking system designed for the kind of cash supply available in an interstellar civilization makes it more or less inevitable. And that doesn't even include stocks, bonds and other investments outside of a plain savings account. MegaZone, in particular, has ''so'' much money on hand that early in the ''Symphony of the Sword'' he makes each of the refugees from Cephiro independently wealthy (except Saionji, who declines the offer) as part of building new identities for them in Midgard, and goes so far as to make Juri ''outrageously'' so. This, he explains, he does using bank and investment accounts he's had sitting around unused and half-forgotten for a century or more.
* Tony Stark is already a lot of this in canon, but the tendency gets even more exaggerated in fanfic, especially Marvel Cinematic Universe fanfic. The following quote from a fanfic where Pepper is conducting an orientation for new Avengers Tower support staff pretty much sums it up:
{{quote|'''Pepper:''' Our Avengers health plan is essentially an address that you send bills to.}}
* Ranma and Kasumi in ''[[Desperately Seeking Ranma]]'' start out with an Arbitrarily-Large Bank Account thanks to Happosai; however over the years rather than deplete it, they maintain and grow it. And when they and several friends stop an [[Colony Drop|asteroid aimed at the earth]], they discover the asteroid -- to which they have salvage rights -- has enough valuable transuranics and other minerals to destabilize an interstellar economy.
== Film ==
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{{quote|'''Stuart''': Not even you have enough money to make up for all this...''[gets check]''...OK...I guess you do...}}
** He's implied to be a major military supplier, presumably with a government contract, if his company can afford to design AI chips and smart missiles.
* Played with in ''[[The Core]]''. When the inventor of the deep-drilling vehicle mentions the absolutely absurd sum of money that would be needed to build the vehicle in anything less than a dozen years, he is surprised to have his demands met without hesitation. Of course, given that the planet will ''cease to exist'' in less than a year if the vehicle isn't built, this is a "spare no expense" situation if there ever was one.
{{Quote|'''General Percell:''' What would it take to get it done in six months?
'''Dr. Brazelton''': (laughing) Fifty billion dollars?!?
'''General Percell:''' (deadpan) Will you take a check?}}
== Literature ==
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* In ''[[The Merchant of Venice]],'' Portia has an inheritance like this. While the rest of the cast is falling over themselves trying to pay back Antonio's bond to Shylock, when Bassanio tells Portia about the bond, her reaction is "Six thousand ducats? Is that ''all''? Here, give Antonio the money. No, have twice as much. You know what? Just to be on the safe side, let's ''triple'' it."
* In Robert Asprin's ''[[Phule's Company]]'' series, the main character hands someone a credit card, and it is noted that that particular 'level' (gold, silver, platinum, etc) of credit card is usually used for the purchase of entire ''corporations''.
* Unattached Lensmen in "Doc" Smith's ''[[Lensman]]'' series are given unlimited authority to draw upon the government budget to fund their activities. And when they say 'unlimited', they ''mean it''. If a Gray Lensman wants to drop the entire GDP of several planets on buying himself a personal war fleet, all he has to do is sign for it and the check will clear the bank without hesitation. There is no oversight in this process at all (beyond the minimum auditing necessary to ensure that the signature is valid, of course); the only thing that can even review the actions of a Gray Lensman is the assembled ruling council of the galaxy itself, and unless someone crashes the entire treasury and/or creates some other kind of disaster large enough to be brought to the Galactic Council's attention, nobody will even bother to check.
** It's actually to the point that Gray Lensman are not paid a salary of any kind despite being active-duty military officers; it is presumed that should a Gray Lensman actually need money, he'll simply help himself to however much he feels he needs.
** At one point the protagonist, having newly been made a Gray Lensman and still learning the ropes, asks Port Admiral Haynes for permission to fund a potentially-expensive project. The Admiral not only points out that Kinnison doesn't need his permission in the first place and that he's surprised Kinnison even bothered to ask, but brushes aside Kinnison's concerns that he might be an excessive draw upon the budget with reassurances that a) the Patrol's ready cash reserve is ridiculously huge and b) should it turn out that Kinnison's funding actually manages to somehow bust the bank, the Galactic Council is entirely prepared to ''raise the galactic income tax rate'' if necessary to raise the funds.
== Live Action TV ==
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* [[The Addams Family]]. No matter what zany, impossible, or downright idiotic scheme Gomez invests in, he always comes out willing to invest in the next ridiculous idea. Whether or not he actually makes money from these investments is questionable. The Addamses are rich/crazy enough that one year they decided to go to the moon for their family vacation.
** In [[The Movie]], we get a fleeting glimpse of just how much wealth they have. Gordon accidentally activates a rotating section of the vault to reveal a Scrooge [[McDuck]]-caliber money pit, about as wide as an Olympic swimming pool, several swimming pools long, and who knows how deep. And it's most likely filled with gold doubloons, as evidenced by Gomez paying Tully's expenses by shovelling them into his briefcase. For comparison, all the gold ever mined throughout human history in real life wouldn't quite fill a single Olympic swimming pool. Also, consider the construction cost of the vault plus the subterranean canal leading up to it plus the slide system leading down to the canal.
* Whether it was intentional or not, Mulder of ''[[The X-Files]]'' comes off this way. It's implied that he comes from a wealthy family, though never explicity said so. He grew up on Martha's Vineyard, his parents owned a summer house in Rhode Island, he went to Oxford for college, and "rents" a Congressman for his own purposes. Through the series, he's able to do things that are just not feasible on an FBI agent's salary—like travel to Antarctica and rent a Snow Cat. He is also nonplussed every time he is fired from the bureau, saying he would simply continue his work in the paranormal without their help. He is also able to go into hiding during the final season, and concern for money is never shown.
* Charlie Crews on ''[[Life]]'' received a [[Undisclosed Funds|settlement of undisclosed size]] due to his wrongful imprisonment. In addition to the standard [[Big Fancy House]] and [[Cool Car]]s, he uses it to buy things like orange groves (on a whim) and solar farms (after having a dream about it).
* Mr. Finch on ''[[Person of Interest]]''. Nobody knows precisely how rich he is beyond his billionaire status being known, but it does appear that he has a whopping great amount of money at his disposal.
** Given his source of wealth (founding and secretly owning one of the world's largest technology corporations), Finch is presumably 'only' as wealthy as Steve Jobs or perhaps Bill Gates. What makes his reserves of cash seem larger is that he lives an obscure middle-class lifestyle ''at best'' and has seemingly zero interest in capital growth or non-necessary reinvestment, and thus virtually his entire personal wealth is available for funding his vigilante projects.
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== Web Original ==
* The [[SCP Foundation]] averts this
** The very existence of [[Tested on Humans|class D personnel]] in the [[SCP Foundation]] means that this is always played straight.
* KaibaCorp is this trope played straight in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series|Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series]]''. Seto Kaiba has no trouble at all supplying himself with helicopters, planes that look like dragons, underground computer systems, and at one point he just buys his own Duel Monsters tournament. Why does he do all that? Because he's "obscenely rich". No wonder he's the [[Trope Namer]] for [[Screw the Rules, I Have Money]].
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== Western Animation ==
* ''[[The Zeta Project]]'' had Zeta's unlimited credit card. The implication is that he taps into the federal government's accounts, and we all know (especially since this is the future) how much they can spare.
** Actually he states he is able to "create" as much money as he needs, so he has no limit.
* Usually when [[Arch Enemy|Dr. Drakken]] meets ''[[Kim Possible]]'' it ends with his lair being destroyed, but he never has any trouble having it repaired or using another. In the episode "Ron Millionaire" he bemoans his money trouble, just as Kim's sidekick Ron receives an implausibly large [[Continuity Nod|royalty check]].
* No mention is ever made of how ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' can pay for their insanely ambitious projects; presumably, they can find a fix for that just as easily as they can build a ski resort in the backyard. Doofenshmirtz never seems short of funds for his [[Evil Plan|evil plans]] either; it's mentioned he gets alimony from his ex-wife and presumably his corporation makes money for him too.
* Fry on ''[[Futurama]]'' discovers he has one of these at one point due to the power of a thousand years of compound interest. Of course, [[Status Quo Is God|he spends it all on near-extinct ''anchovies'' by the end of the episode]].
** It's unlikely that the interest would have kept pace with inflation. Ignoring that, Fry's bank account is large, but it's clearly not enough to be on par with, say, Mom's.
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== Real Life ==
* Mostly banks and countries, but even then if they spend hard enough things will end up biting them in the end. At the very least someone will notice the wealth being thrown around and take advantage of it.
* In a country where the government monopolizes the production and flow of money via a central bank and the money it produces is backed by nothing other than the promise that the government will take it away from you again after you worked to earn it (fiat currency) then you literally have this. Need another trillion dollars? Just print it! The problem is that when people are unable to produce goods and earn the money then it quickly loses is backing value and turns from money to worthless paper via hyperinflation.
* Frequently subverted when people who've always been poor suddenly come into a lot of money, lottery winners being the best example. Millions of dollars ''seems'' like an unspendably large amount, but when you spend and/or give away without caution, it's amazing how fast fortunes can be lost.
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[[Category:Currency Tropes]]
[[Category:Money Tropes]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Bank and Financial Tropes]]
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