zlacker

Why be surprised? This is exactly how it has always been: the rich aim to get even richer and if that brings risks or negative effects for the rest that's A-ok with them.

That's what I didn't understand about the world of the really wealthy people until I started interacting with them on a regular basis: they are still aiming to get even more wealthy, even the ones that could fund their families for the next five generations. With a few very notable exceptions.

>>jacque+(OP)
It's a selection bias: they people who weren't so intrinsically motivated to get rich are less likely to end up as wealthy people.

>>logicc+n2
It's a combination of that and the reality that wealth is power and power is relative.

Let's say you've got $100 million. You want to do whatever you want to do. It turns out what you want is to buy a certain beachfront property. Or perhaps curry the favor with a certain politician around a certain bill. Well, so do some folks with $200 million, and they can outbid you. So even though you have tons of money in absolute terms, when you are using your power in venues that happen to also be populated by other rich folks, you can still be relatively power-poor.

And all of those other rich folks know this is how the game works too, so they are all always scrambling to get to the top of the pile.

>>munifi+ec
Politicians are cheap, nobody is outbidding anybody because they most likely want the exact same thing.