Wealth of the World’s Billionaires Has More Than Doubled Over the Past Decade
Driven by massive inequality, the world’s richest grew their fortune from $6.3 trillion to $14 trillion.
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A question I have is once you are a billionaire, why do you need more money?
What is there left that you can't buy?
It's a dick measuring competition with their buddies at that point, at the expense of the rest of us.
Not necessarily true. More money at that level isn't about more material possessions or even more services: it's about more power and influence. It's playing toward oligarchy.
I didn't say anything about possessions and purchasing power, the competition in that echelon is about who has more ability to bend the world around them, thus the dick measuring comment.
Elon Musk bought a president
The personality required to "earn" a billion dollars off the backs of your working employees is exactly why it will never be enough for them. Have enough money that all your grandchildren's entire lives are paid for? Then it's now about control. Who can you influence and how much of your shitty mentality can you project onto others?
People who want money for specific things and will eventually be satisfied stop long before reaching billionaire status.
It's an addiction, plain and simple. If the number isn't going up, they're not happy. They're willing to do anything, hurt anyone, to get their fix.
Billion dollars grows by 70 million passively per year. Next year you have 1,070,000,000 which grows by 74.9 million and next year by 80 million and so on. Basically the more money you have the easier it is to make more money.
Also, a billionaire doesn't have billion dollars in the bank. That's not what being a billionaire means.
Cumulative interest is absurdly powerful. Turns out that the best way to earn a fuckton of money is to start with a heckton.
Tangentially related: a friend told me that they worked out that £1,000,000 in the bank/invested in safe options would accrue enough interest that you could retire and have a decently comfortable income just off of the interest (meaning that the million pounds would remain untouched and able to be inherited by kids of whatever).
It weirdly reminds me of growing things like moss, yeast (for bread) or fungi. It takes far more time than work; you set up the conditions for them to grow, and then you leave them to their own devices for a while. I can't imagine treating money like this; growing up poor means that no matter what level of financial security I achieve as an adult, I will always be acutely aware of exactly how much money I have, and how fast it is growing or shrinking.
It's not about buying things, it's about winning the game and staving off boredom and existential dread.
We need more people like Luigi to add excitement back into their lives!
Because you have to win the billionaire game.
What is there left that you can't buy?
Politicians are cheap, but getting the President of the USA to let you have all the power of the US President is pretty expensive.
Unless you're Putin. But Musk managed to do it without being Putin.
A city on Mars? I'm pretty sure that's what Elon is trying to buy, he's paying several billion dollars to work on it.
If this happens, he gets a pass. It's the only reason I can think of to focus that much wealth in one place.
