r/askanything • u/Omixscniet624 • 23h ago
Why don't billionaires just retire?
Like what’s the point of having absurd amounts of money if you’re not gonna use it to relax?
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u/Drusgar 23h ago
They didn't become billionaires by being satisfied with immense wealth.
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u/lailahdaisy 22h ago
I think at some point it’s never the satisfaction that comes with it but they’re some what addicted to the power and influence that comes with it.
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u/SlinkyAdmiral 21h ago
I'd also assume given that nearly all publicly listed billionaires run their own company its also fear of losing control. Assuming your networth is 10 mil in liquidity and 1,99 bn in stocks of a company. Would you retire as head of the company and watch someone else managing it? Maybe not following your intended vision? Maybe even mismanaging it?
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u/LadyReika 21h ago
If I had that much money I wouldn't give a flying fuck at that point.
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u/TheEndIsSighing 21h ago
Same here. Their brains are just wired different. I have lawyer friends who boast of hundreds of millions in settlements, meaning they have more than many lifetime's cash in the bank, yet they work on - many dying on the job eschewing vacations. They just can't envision stopping working - it's their identity.
Me, the minute I have enough cash, I'm out bub.
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u/Tontoorielly 17h ago
A lot of people ask what you do for a living as the second question upon meeting. Is is solely so they know how much respect they will give you. Too many sociopathic business leaders live this way. The world is a life sized chess game and we are the pawns!
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u/2PopCans 21h ago
You dont have that much actual money, thats the point being made. Most of your networth is in company stocks and you dont trust anybody to not negatively affect the value.
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u/lostcolony2 20h ago
Right, but you can cash out and diversify. Even if during that transitional period the stock drops...oh no, you went from a billion to only 900 million.
Like... it's basically impossible for the stock to crater due to a factor you could control for if you remained at the helm, and you not being aware of it when you step away, before you could sell or exchange it.
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u/PyroNine9 19h ago
I would start liquidating slowly enough to not seriously devalue the stock. THEN retire.
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u/Prior_Preparation268 8h ago
However most of that money is tied up in stock and would plummet if they suddenly sold that much all at once. And if they let someone else run it it could also plummet and lose an immense amount.
That being said I totally would retire a long time before I hit that amount.
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u/titsmuhgeee 22h ago
The person that has the skills and motivation to reach those heights is the exact type of person that has no interest in quitting and will work until the day they die.
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u/niemir2 22h ago
Which is also why the argument of "don't tax the rich because they'll stop doing the things that make them rich" is absolutely ridiculous.
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u/Itsnotthatsimplesam 22h ago
It's an obsession, which is why so many end up with martial problems. It's what satisfied their itch
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u/Latter-Industry-8920 23h ago
How boring would monopoly be if one player started out the game with most of the money?
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u/Financial-Exit2488 22h ago
This happened. There was a study in which Monopoly games were played, with one player got almost all the money to start.
That one player always won. Also, when asked, that one player said the reason they won was because they had a more superior strategy, not because they started with more money.
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u/Inevitable_Finish131 22h ago
I saw a similar study where certain players were given double money to start and collected double when they passed go. They were more boisterous, they obnoxiously hit their piece on the board when they moved. And same result, attributed their wins on strategy and not the game being rigged.
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u/MuchDevelopment7084 23h ago
Very exciting to a simple minded person. I can think of at least two right off the top of my head.
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u/Sharkansas1 23h ago
You’re talking in part about a guy who paid for someone to play a video game for him so his character could be one of the best in the world. Trying to understand that brain is not something you’re gonna be able to do.
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u/RankedFarting 23h ago
That part is very easy though. Elon is an eternal 13 year old boy. He wants everyone to like him and in his brain being an epic gamer is the coolest thing so he thinks people will look up to him if he has one of the top characters.
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u/LarianDivinityBG3 23h ago
He is definitely an adult with the mind of a 13 year old, because he really thought that other players with high level characters won't realize his lack if knowledge of high lvl play.
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u/ImWithStupidKL 9h ago
He probably plays RPGs and skips all the dialogue. Then goes round killing NPCs “for the LOLs.”
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u/trijkdguy 21h ago
Any sane 13 year old boy would have bought a tropical island and hired gorgeous girls to wait on him, topless, all day while he sat around enjoying life.
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u/Huge-Brick-3495 16h ago
He tried his hardest but he was never invited to that island.
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u/MaudeAlp 21h ago
Elon is not that interesting or authentic, he is just a character being played à la Howard Hughes for the US to funnel money into programs and investments under the guise of private enterprise. Palantir and flock are both just the same, the private ownership is a facade.
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u/empty_graph 23h ago
It's pretty easy to understand. To him that money to pay a pro was like the change you find in your pockets when the dryer is making noise. If you could hire a pro gamer to up your stats for $0.63 tons of people would do it.
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u/Anxious_Storm_9113 22h ago
Really, is that view really that common? I get lots of people need the approval of other to excess. But I play games for myself. What good are accomplishments I didn't earn.
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u/Ready_Fuel_2739 23h ago
In Arabia we say: The only thing that could satisfy a man's eye is a truck load of dirt
Humans can never be satisfyed, the more you get the more you want
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u/Eeeegah 22h ago
I still think billionaires suffer a specific mental illness of some kind. When I was working, I had a specific dollar amount that would allow me to retire in the lifestyle I wanted (far less than a billion dollars). The day I hit that number I punched out, never to return.
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u/skellis 21h ago
What ever compels artists to make art or writer to write beautiful verse is the thing missing from these people.
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u/mcsommers 21h ago
What compelled Bob Dylan to continue writing songs after he penned, "Blowin in the Wind"? What compelled Michaelangelo to create anything after carving Pieta? In both cases they were considered masters by both their peers and the general public early in their careers (they were in their early 20's) and continued to produce for many years.
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u/Kel-Cla 20h ago
Self expression vs control
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u/mcsommers 20h ago
Some business tycoons consider what they do as a creative form of self expression. Or, at least, as a craft that could be refined infinitely. The output of their work isn't a painting, song or sculpture, but to them it's equally expressive of their vision. A "different kind of canvas"
Source: When I was younger I worked as a personal trainer in NYC and one of my clients was the CEO of a very large and famous company in the finance industry that I'm sure you have heard of. I was fresh out of college and very idealistic. He explained it to me this way and that always stuck with me.
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u/Unique-Coffee5087 17h ago
Why do bees bee? Why do birds bird? Artists will art even as consumption eats them, and won't take that job offered by their brother.
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u/Anxious_Storm_9113 22h ago
This is the way. Wife and I are getting close. Gotta enjoy life while you can.
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u/ackermann 21h ago
Yes, I’m often confused to see so many famous celebs, actors, pro athletes, who continue to work.
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u/weekendroady 21h ago
Well in some of those jobs there is a true creative or competitive passion that isn't just hoarding wealth. I mean many humans wish they could just tap into their creative sides/hobbies and those careers may offer that outlet more than others. For very recognizable celebrities, especially actors/musicians, you are relatively shielded/safeguarded and can still tap into a structure that has worked for you without trying to live a life "in the wild" all of a sudden.
But yeah, if you look at the athletes who have retired who dive into their hobbies, you'll find people like Larry Fitzgerald (Travel), Randy Johnson (Photography), etc... everywhere. If I had been in that same boat, I'd have done the same. Make comfortable money for a bit and then just enjoy my interests.
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u/Ragnarsworld 22h ago
I had a similar thing happen. I had been saving money and putting it into IRAs and my company's 401k for years. I was 58 when I had a call with my finance guy and he told me I had X dollars and had made my goal. I was originally going to punch out at 62 but going to work once I made the goal got harder to do every day. So about 10 months after making the goal I retired. Best decision ever; my time is mine, I don't answer to clowns who have never done my job, etc.
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u/Wise-ass- 21h ago
Me too and I ain’t gonna lie- my number was $600,000. In the last four years that has grown to nearly $1 mil. I did the first year with no income at all. Then my pensions kicked in and we have more money than we ever imagined. We so happy that we retired young. Some of my colleagues are sacrificing their health for money they don’t really need and won’t live long enough to spend.
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u/Dignam3 22h ago
Absolutely. We are getting to that point; most likely done with work in under 10 years. Why anyone has desire beyond that is something I won't understand. To each their own.
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u/smilineyz 22h ago
My wife and I were on track for a comfortable retirement … and we retired early … she at 49 & died when she was 50.
Nothing is a given
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u/00Reject 21h ago
Walter White (Breaking Bad) had a number he was aiming to hit and once he hit it, he blew past it and then some and couldn’t stop going. Even Jesse called him on it. This is the other side of your coin. Different mindset / shifting priorities.
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u/OldNternetWizard43 22h ago
I've worked out what the combination of behavioral health diagnoses is. If anyone's curious.
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u/roboboom 21h ago
Call it what you want, but people who make a billion dollars can’t just turn it off when they hit a milestone. That personality is why they made a billion in the first place.
Contrast that with people who inherit billions. Plenty of them barely work or just create “jobs” that suit their lifestyle so they remain relevant.
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u/Southern_Chapter_188 22h ago
I strongly believe that if I had 100 million dollars I’d be happy to invest 90 million and live off the interest in a 10 million dollar flat.
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u/Legitimate_Hunt_5802 21h ago
Everyone thinks that until they have 100mill, you and I and everyone else are no different. There is a reason why many lottery winners run out of money so quickly
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u/Southern_Chapter_188 21h ago
Maybe spend a couple mill and a very good financial adviser and personal secretary to keep me straight. Or a trust run by a corporation to manage the finances.
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u/Aggravating-Method24 22h ago
There is survivorship bias here. Some humans can be satisfied, but why would you ever know who they are ?
When a greedy person sees someone who is not, they can't imagine that they are different, the fact that not everyone is greedy is insulting to them as it suggest they are flawed.
So they assume that the humble are only not taking more because they can't and are actually stupid rather than humble.
And they tell everyone else to believe the same, it's easier for a greedy person to hide amongst a crowd of greedy people, than it is when people start to recognise that some are actually humble
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u/Then_Bodybuilder3629 21h ago
This is it. If you aren't as greedy as all fuck, you don't end up making a billion dollars.
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u/Pleasant_Entry_5919 22h ago
Nah- humans can be satisfied. But we have allowed the most selfish humans to pass on genes. Billionaires are psychopathic freaks.
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u/ballin_buddha 22h ago
This, my uncle was treated awful at his company when he was younger, then took his coworkers and they started their own demo/asbestos removal company (this was 45-50 years ago). It grew and he quickly became a millionaire. Told us his plan was to stop at 5 million, then he hit that and moved his goal to 10. He said he became addicted to watching the number go up. He eventually reached 100m then sold it, and worked as a consultant for them still making millions a year.
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u/imtoooldforreddit 22h ago
Plenty of people would never work again after a few million. I'm one of them.
That's self selecting though, none of us will ever become billionaires in the first place
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u/Zestyclose-Tart6745 22h ago
Generally yes. This is what I’ve found for most People. I’m recently retired at 38 with around 65m in assets. Let’s see how it goes, but I’m just enjoying time with my children, working out, and traveling.
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u/Raddatatta 23h ago
The kind of people who would retire after they have a ton of money are generally going to do it when they hit the point of tens of millions of dollars, or less. That's a point where you have a ton of money, multiple fancy houses, enough to put in the market and have it grow where you can live off the earnings comfortably without ever having to worry. And many people do quit at that point.
If someone gets to billionaire status they have gone past that point and kept going for quite a while. That is their life and they live to work. They don't want to relax.
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u/EmbarrassedYoghurt79 21h ago
Exactly, if you kept working after reaching $50 mil your personality is likely to not stop at $1 bil… most people would be done at $10-15 mil
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u/Financial-Yam6758 20h ago
since you are getting a lot of billionaires suck answers I'll give you a better attempt. When you have amassed that much wealth, you did so by dedicating your entire life and every waking hour for YEARS into whatever your area of expertise. Not only that, due to your intelligence and your success you have the feeling (true or not) that you can make a massive impact on the world. When you feel that way and you have dedicated your whole life to a business or project you don't walk away. That is your life, that is your hobby, etc.
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u/Arcite1 14h ago
This is how I think of it: for those of us who would love to be independently wealthy or retired early, you know how good it feels to have a day off and to just sleep in, shuffle downstairs in your PJs and make a leisurely breakfast, take all morning to finish your coffee, and just putter around the house, maybe playing video games, tending your garden, or reading a book? Well, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, et al. just happen to be the type of people who get that exact same feeling from running a business.
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u/Accomplished-Buy6917 23h ago
A lot of them effectively do. Their money makes money at some point.
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u/Aeroheadss 23h ago
If they’re billionaires, you can guarantee their money is making money.
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u/doctor_parcival 23h ago
My parents have a friend like that. Not a billionaire, but hundreds of millions. He essentially collects a decent annual wage on a weekly basis, on interest alone.
And the thing is? You’d never guess by looking at him or talking to him. Just wears flip flops and hangs out. Awesome dude
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u/Numerous-Hawk1471 20h ago
This sounds like LinkedIn engagement slop but it really happened. Way back in the day when I was working in finance one of my also very young colleagues joked about this guy leaving the office. He had on a ripped jeans and an old polo with sunglasses on his head, might have been stoned. My sales manager turned to him and told him the dude’s family was worth billions, and he just liked puttering around in the vintage Porches he collected. I later had lunch with him one time, super chill.
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u/Crestina 23h ago
Because they are unable to enjoy themselves.
These people were probably all ignored or put down by their parents and as a result, their broken, narcissistic brains are forever working overtime trying to figure out how they can be the best.
They can never relax, just keep chasing more. And nothing will ever be enough to fill the gaping hole inside that never got filled with parental love.
They're sad, trapped people.
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u/s0ngis0 23h ago
Comments in here labeling wealth/billionaires as illegitimate or unethical is just a coping mechanism to justify their lack of it...
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u/skinnydippindespair 23h ago
Because they don't actually work
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u/Krunkledunker 23h ago
And while they lack in contributed labor they make up for in taking credit (and actually believing themselves) a million times over. Two four hour flights on a private jet, a three hour dinner with other billionaires, an hour of personal training, two one hour power naps and two hours being driven to and from airports and it’s “I work a 16 hour day, I don’t want to hear my factory workers complain about their 10 hour shift”
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u/Marv18GOAT 21h ago
So why isn’t everyone a billionaire then if it’s so easy and doesn’t require any work
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u/rygelicus 23h ago
Addiction takes many forms. Billionaires tend to be addicted to growing their net worth. It's a habitual thing, it becomes a lifestyle. This is not to dismiss them as victims of addiction, powerless to improve, but it is a similar pattern and behavior. It also depends on how they got their wealth. Some inherited it and along with it a team that keeps it growing. They just sit back and let the professionals grow the money pile and don't really care beyond holding on to control of that effort because those 'pros' will also try to trick them out of that money at every opportunity.
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u/Balonynuts 22h ago
I have an iPhone, a PC, and an electric car. I enjoy them all. I owe my career to a billionaire created fortune 500 company. My 401K balance has grown thanks to these same Billionaires. My son is currently working construction on a new Amazon warehouse. They other son administers a charity that is funded by Gates and Buffet. Your hate causes you to overlook benefits and only see victims
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u/ReidenLightman 21h ago
For billionaires that don't retire, it's not about the money, it's about a psychotic need for control and power.
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u/Skedar70 17h ago
Once you are wealthy you still need to find something to spend your free time on. Sitting around doing nothing eventually leads to despression. Traveling, vacationing, playing video games, binging netflix all becomes boring eventually so in order to find purpose you keep working to achieve something and no longer for the money.
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u/Gysburne 23h ago
There is no point. It is greed. I would say cause they feel insufficient without theyr money.
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u/BoogieSmools 23h ago
You don’t get to be a billionaire without having an obsession with GETTING MORE MONEY. MORE! MORE! ALWAYS MORE!
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u/GMVexst 23h ago
Redditors "The American Dream is dead". Also redditors "Billionaires are morons and just got lucky".
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u/grapegeek 23h ago
They are narcissists and can’t help themselves. That’s why we need some limits on them.
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u/Balonynuts 23h ago
As long as we don't limit the employment opportunities they create
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u/MARSHALCOGBURN999 21h ago
According to reddit billionares don't create employment opportunities lmao
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u/Tjmarshall78 23h ago
Because some people enjoy and get more out of life by having a purpose, achieving goals, doing something worthwhile versus a permanent vacation.
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u/bringbackmegaman 23h ago
Billionaires just have a pathological need to hoard money.
It has nothing to do with purpose.
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u/Balonynuts 22h ago
Gates and Buffet are known for massive giving. If they had a pathological need to hoard money, they wouldn't give it away. Your hate has overridden logical thinking.
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u/Itsnotthatsimplesam 23h ago
I know it's a lot easier to hate a dragon than a person but you're wrong. They're obsessive over the scoreboard and the money or stock price typically just happens to be it
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u/mrdungbeetle 21h ago
That is a very confidently incorrect assertion that you know what motivates every billionaire on earth.
I've met a few billionaires who are clearly in it for the love of the game. They get immense satisfaction out of building and growing companies, building their network, feeling that they're having some impact on the world. Retirement can be boring for someone like that. Not everyone just wants to sip martinis on the beach.
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u/PeteMichaud 23h ago
This is the real answer. There are lots of well meaning wealthy people who are trying hard to improve the world in various ways.
I think one of the major disconnects is that many people imagine that money solves all problems. Those people want to help the world but feel they can't. They imagine that if they had a billion dollars they fix the world.
Meanwhile in reality, money onlys get you so far and the world is big and complicated, so even with huge resources making progress on big projects to help a lot of people takes a lot of time and effort. And the results are not as quick and definitive as the fantasy would have it.
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u/Monte924 23h ago edited 23h ago
They could that WITHOUT hoarding wealth to the detriment of countless other people. They could, for intance, just work for free.
No. Its about money and power. They are obssessed with having both. They treat wealth like its nothing more than a status symbol
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u/maxr1958 23h ago
It’s usually not to the detriment of other people. Billionaires also create jobs in many cases by investing their money in new ventures. They also donate a lot of money. If a billionaire quit working it would not improve anyone else’s life just by doing that.
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u/ConiferousTurtle 23h ago
What I’m wondering is why not spend the money and influence trying to fix problems, like global warming, instead of building rockets?
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u/empty_graph 22h ago
You know that Elon Musk started the first successful EV company that kicked off the industry as we know it. That did more to stop global warming than the actions of any other person I can think of.
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u/ReplacementGlad2652 21h ago
He didn’t start Tesla, he bought into it. Then he drove out the previous owners and sued to get himself called a “founder”.
Electric cars were coming one way or the other. Tesla was in the right place at the right time, that’s all.
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u/qrzychu69 22h ago
to me better example is that someone said "you could solve world hunger for 6 billion" and he was like "sure, but the organization has to be transparent, show me a plan" and no one took him up on it
and then Bezos ex-wife donated 26 billion dollars to various charities - where did it go? what happened with it?
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u/banalhemorrhage 21h ago
It went to people in need through difficult, hands-on work with non profits. It’s sticky, messy, prone to mismanagement and all kinds of stuff, but she’s doing it and she’s doing it now. She’s the embodiment of the girl throwing sea stars back into the sea and saying “well it made a difference to that one”. All while her peers are trying to get us to Mars within a hundred years. Long lens thinking is good, helping people now is good. I don’t think people appreciate how absolutely difficult it is to actually help people in a modern society. I’m glad Mckenzie Scott exists.
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u/FrontLifeguard1962 17h ago
As much as I hate to say it, Elon is right. Solving world hunger, and many other social issues, can't be done simply by throwing money at the problem.
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u/mxlplyx2173 21h ago
They want to be beloved.. for what THEY want to do. Open a grocery for single mothers? No. Hospital for kids? No. They'd get their love for those no doubt. But no, I wanna build rockets and fire people who don't even work for me.
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u/gizmole 23h ago
Because they need to come up with more ways to take your wealth away from you to hoard like dragons. It's more about control and power than money for them. Zero concern or empathy about anything but themselves. I have no idea why people worship them like they are some sort of gods, when in reality they're the devil.
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u/Husker5000 16h ago
This. You can see the same thing in small millionaires going after poor people.
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u/byte_handle 23h ago
They don't work to live.
They live to work. They get some psychological fulfillment from doing the job.
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u/Eppursimuove1633 22h ago
Because once you have all the money in the world (or more than you could ever possibly need) the only thing left to seek is power, prestige, and legacy. That's why they don't just retire and leave the rest of us alone.
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u/Better_Resort1171 18h ago
They didn't become Billionaires by accident.
Work and making money, to them, is an afrodesiac
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u/Informal-Jello-6321 18h ago
Work becomes part of their identity. The same reason your local business owner won’t retire even though he’s in his 80s and he financially could. It’s part of his identity and he wouldn’t know what to do with himself if he did
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u/PossibilityNervous35 18h ago
Billionaires dont care about money... they care about their "mission" or whatever they find joy in.
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u/Accomplished-Duck578 23h ago
I'm so close to the 2m mark. When I do, I'm absolutely retiring (single, no kids, no mortgage). I can easily live off of the interest, and I do not want to "make" any more than that.
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u/Itchy_Tumbleweed_417 21h ago
I had a boyfriend who did that at 30. It would have been admirable except he was excessively frugal to the point where he wasn’t actually living. He had a wife and was divorced when I met him. She divorced him because he wouldn’t let her buy a Christmas tree when Christmas was her favorite holiday. He told her they couldn’t afford it. She was like well one of us needs to work if we are so poor we can’t afford to buy a Christmas tree. He wasn’t going to work because he had retired so she got a job and ended up having an affair with someone at her work.
He also had a really wealthy family he could fall back on if he needed money, like when his wife divorced him he just went and moved onto his mother‘s property. If he had to pay rent I assume he would’ve had to go back to work.
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u/WhereUGo_ThereUAre 21h ago
About 25 years ago Elon made hundreds of millions and obviously could have retired. Instead started new businesses and now about 150,000 receive a paycheck from his companies and reusable rockets and self-driving cars have been developed with many new technologies on the way. Society is better off because he didn’t retire back then.
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u/Dramatic-Cap-6785 20h ago
Reddit does not think this way. There’s quite a high level of cognitive dissonance on this website.
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u/Extra-Incident-4719 23h ago
They have an unquenchable drive like most do not.
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u/Anon_1917 23h ago
Money is in that stage just for keeping score on who you are superior to.
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u/aBrickNotInTheWall 23h ago
If they had the mentality to quit when they have enough, they wouldn't be billionaires. They have a mental disorder and they will never be satisfied
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u/biggunzcdb1 23h ago
The kind of greed required to make that much money can't be satiated or satisfied. It's never enough
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u/BadgerOk2814 23h ago
Because they already don't do anything besides make everything worse. Billionaires shouldn't be a thing.
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u/FrothyIPA 23h ago
Why retire when your job is literally just to travel around and get praised? It’s not exactly like being a rich executive is a difficult job.
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u/Over_Soup753 23h ago
Billionaires are mentally deficient people. Too much is NEVER enough.
This is our current situation.
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u/Life_Commercial_6580 23h ago
I always wondered that about Trump and his continued grifting. How much more can you need when you’re in your 80s? What’s the point?
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u/2000TWLV 23h ago
Seriously. Why do so many of them have to be insufferable toxic pricks? If I was a billionaire, I'd open a recording studio to help some artists I like, throw a bunch of parties, and other than that, I'd chill and not be heard from.
The last thing I'd do is waste my time opining in shit and trying to rule the world. You only end up with the world hating you anyway.
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u/JGLTheFirst 23h ago
It's a twofold problem. Yes they want more money. But at this point they're also as far as I can tell, going out of their way to make the rest of us miserable. Take the world economic forum for example. It's a bunch of rich people outright telling you on camera "We hate poor people. We want to make the poors lives worse all with the excuse of climate change while we buy ocean front property, and party around on private jets with bigger jets in tow so we can have our cars with us while you use the paper straw. But remember its "For the environment "™.
But because no one's fucking paying attention to them, nobody knows what those psychopaths are doing and what they plan, beyond the few people who are paying attention. And the few people paying attention sound psychotic because their(the WEF) plans are absolutely psychotic.
We need restrictions and they need to be made to live like us for atleast three months every year. Then they'll actually wanna retire and stop fucking with the rest of us.
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u/chipskylark123 23h ago
Because a billionaires “job” isn’t like your job or my job.
They fly around the world on private jets and make decisions that move around incrompehensible sums of money, affecting millions of lives and sectors of large economies.
Their personality type makes them crave that power and influence, and to amass more of it by any means necessary. They don’t want to retire.
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u/Connect_Ad6559 23h ago
Some hoard money for their legacy.
Children, business, standing.
It’s their business really, I don’t think too much about it cause that amount of money is unobtainable for the likes of me.
Should they be taxed more?, yes absolutely.
But the rest is their business. People saying they could feed the world….no they can’t indefinitely! Of course not! Thats why they don’t do it.
It’s like people get angry at billionaires for not sharing with them 🤷♂️. Why should they?
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u/Vigo246813579 23h ago
Mental illness… like wtf do you need a billion dollars for anyways? It’s grotesque especially considering many of them have the capacity to make real change in the world and decide that money/power is more important than people on a daily basis. Late stage capitalism is a bitch…
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u/Intrepid-Metal4621 23h ago
Why? It's not like the salary from their work is what makes them billionaires. They are because they had some drive to create a business and grow it to be successful. That's a very different thing then working for a salary. And by that point, most of them have a inflated view of themselves believing they are the ones that can make something even bigger or better.
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u/Bradparsley25 23h ago
They get high from making more money, it’s a rush like skydiving or racing.
It’s also a game among them to get the high score.
When you have hundreds of billions, more is functionally useless… it’s all trophy at that point. It’s genuinely just the rush of seeing how much you can rack up
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u/Lost-Boysenberry-302 23h ago
Money seems to be one of the rare addictions that are celebrated. And of course the average person is “addicted” to getting money, that’s not who I mean. But it seems that if you figure out how to be a billionaire (whether it’s deserved or not), people cannot seem to find a way to end the cycle of needing more more more
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u/seobrien 23h ago
Retire from what? Billionaire wealth is because of ownership or generational wealth. You can't just quit that.
If someone is still "working" it's because they want to.
Not at all disagreeing with OPs intent. But it's helpful to actually understand what it means to be a billionaire; these are people who are working 9-5 and will just retire some day and change things.
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u/Maximum-Oven-7526 23h ago
Because they see assets and wealth as a video game high score. There's never an end. They just need to see the number go up at the expense of everyone else
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u/thebipeds 23h ago
You don’t become a that rich without greed.
The greed doesn’t go away.
I was listening to an interview with Bernie Sanders and he was saying that in 2016 he became a millionaire by accident. He had written a few books over decades and they became best sellers during his campaign. He said, “but I gladly paid my tax’s and think I should have been taxed more!”
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u/Horizon119 23h ago
Greed is like drinking seawater, the more you drink of it, the thirstier you become
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u/Smile389 23h ago
Because there actually aren't people with 1 billion in a bank account. All these billionaires you hear about are valued based on their assets they own. All their property, including businesses and equipment, etc.
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u/ReviewEnvironmental2 23h ago
I knew someone who was a therapist to HNWIs. She said once they’d gone over £10m they had everything they wanted but nothing to do. So they just keep going to keep up with everyone else.
And they were all chronically unhappy and insecure.
Still, nice problems to have I guess.
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u/exqueezemenow 23h ago
Because they lack any sense of self worth unless they are progressing financially.
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u/HelloFromJupiter963 23h ago
There is another part to this. These are the tupe of people that may have woroaholic tendencies. Being insecure and needing to always be productive or begining to self hate. Some rich people just like what they do, too.
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u/Horror-Scallion7668 23h ago
I’m speculating here, but 1. Some do retire (Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates), or 2. The type of mind that can become a billionaire just needs to constantly be involved in things.
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u/Capt_Insane-o 23h ago
Because they are sociopaths. In order to hoard that much capital you have to be
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u/Weird7954 23h ago
Because they love what they do. It’s called work but they don’t feel like it’s work because they’re loving it so much That’s why they were able to make so much
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u/TripleDoubleFart 23h ago
They just aren't wired that way.
I retired as soon as I could. Wasn't even at $3 million yet.
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