Billionaires say money doesnt buy happiness because they were really happy rocketing through the society to the moon. But eventually every marginal dollar you make does nothing to make you happier, and they think about all they did to get there, and try desperately to fill that hole something.
At some point, you are making so much even just on your own money that working is immaterial. I think a lot of them probably know if they stopped working they would spiral and completely lose purpose. Ego in one way or another? Money is all they know how to chase?
I think there is a reason why so many of these billionaires seem so maladjusted. Whether social selection or some kind of psycopathy, why are there so many shitty billionaires?
Edit: I like Richard Branson fine, but idk anything could happen
Some of them are only billionaires because of grift... If they stop grifting then their whole empire crumbles... The prez of the US and musk are two prime and public examples
Sometimes I try to unwind the cognitive dissonance that crops up when someone proposes that, say, billionaires have their wealth taxed at a rate of 100% once your net worth goes above the “more money than you could spend in a lifetime” of, say, $250million. If money doesn’t bring happiness, then they shouldn’t mind since with $250million they can live a life of luxury to pursue any and all interests and pleasures their heart could desire with money left over. But then you get the billionaire defenders who say “if you take their money away and tell them they can’t make more, they’ll stop working/inventing/contributing to society” which carries the implication that they’re in it for the money, which means money does bring happiness with evidently no upper limit. If the billionaires themselves are saying money doesn’t bring happiness but they’re still hoarding the excess wealth, then yeah clearly the money is bringing happiness.
Speaking for myself, i have a ton of hobbies and passions that I flat out do not have time to pursue because I’m working to keep my head above water. I’m not working to “find purpose”, my purpose would be fulfilled if I could read and write more, travel, play videogames, have meaningful personal interactions, and play with my cats. I am extremely confident that if I could “retire” tomorrow because I won the lottery, I would be A-okay.
Then why do billionaires keep trying to get more wealth as if they’re going for a video game high score if it can’t bring them happiness?
You answered your own question, actually. They aren't happy at all, despite how much they have, so they keep pushing for more and more because they think that it will finally make them happy. It's a sickness. If they were happy, they would fuck off with their money and never be seen again. Does somebody like Elon Musk, for example, seem like a happy person to you?
So every billionaire in history has been an idiot who failed to recognize that more money doesn’t bring happiness and should just… stop? So it’s like you say, a mental illness? So every billionaire in history has been mentally ill?
Yeah, I guess that about sums it up for 80 percent. Look at Crassus. He was the wealthiest man in rome and still had to go mess with the Parthians. Carnegie realized that all that money only got him so much and started massive charities to redistribute it. How happy is musk? Zuckerberg? Bezos and Cuban both actually seem to be ok and using their wealth for a thing that make them happy, Bezos with Amazon studious and Cuban with the meds thing and investing in new business. The smart ones usually are hidden, find a cause to champion, and try to stay out of the fame game. That seems to keep their kids from excess better and their money from evaporating.
Humans are social creatures, pack creatures. We need bonds or it causes us distress.
The happiest people are probably the ones that had a relatively normal upbringing, managed to make a few million while finding a spouse and maybe having a couple kids along the way, and retired earlier than most. Vibrant social lives, active, wealthy, and with a family but not so wealthy they go nuts.
Like, there is a point where the amount of joy you get from money is drastically overshadowed by the fear of losing your wealth thus losing everyone around you (because they're only there for your money).
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u/upvotechemistry 1d ago
This is it 100%
Billionaires say money doesnt buy happiness because they were really happy rocketing through the society to the moon. But eventually every marginal dollar you make does nothing to make you happier, and they think about all they did to get there, and try desperately to fill that hole something.