I disagree. I think the primary motivation is you can always lose it all, or at least a lot of it. No matter how much you have or where you put it. The more you have, the more you stand to lose, especially due to macroeconomic shifts beyond your control, hyperinflation, war, etc. That's why what you have is never enough and seems like 3x (twice as rich, plus 1/3 as a backup) would be.
Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have?
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Re: Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have?
#12I disagree. I think the primary motivation is you can always lose it all, or at least a lot of it. No matter how much you have or where you put it. The more you have, the more you stand to lose, especially due to macroeconomic shifts beyond your control, hyperinflation, war, etc. That's why what you have is never enough and seems like 3x (twice as rich, plus 1/3 as a backup) would be.
Yes, or even the fear of dropping a status or income level can be enough motivation for some.
Re: Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have?
#13One comment I read somewhere is that with increasing wealth you lose the ability to make sense of the numbers anymore. What is the difference between 50 and 100 million in an emotional sense?
The fear of losing it all, however, stays the same no matter the amount, and so the urge to keep accumulating doesn't go away despite a rational view that would recognize that 100million is more than enough.
Re: Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have?
#14Some people enjoy making money. It shouldn't be a surprise that very rich people got that way because they enjoy making money - and why should they stop?
Re: Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have?
#15Wasn't it really about power from the get go? Money is a pretty straightforward proxy for power and power(over people) is always relative. To me it all plays out in a much weirder manner among common people in countries that experienced rapid growth. Before my eyes my environment went from that of brutal poverty to - sometimes very uneven - prosperity.
That’s what Nietzche argues is humankind’s ultimate drive — https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_to_power
Re: Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have?
#16I'll buy this picture. Feelings of insecurity created by someone (anyone) who has more than you fits in with 'keeping up with the Joneses'. Further reasoning about irrational behavior is as unconvincing as science trying to explain magic. (Which in many cases might be helpful in explaining the long chains of coincidence that led to wealth, despite the often-fragile egos involved.) Some of the very rich try to invest…
"On the whole, today's ultra-rich seem less-inclined to give a damn"
That view seems inconsistent with this: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/31/14-billionaires-signed-bill-...
Re: Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have?
#17A while back I noticed that my HN karma was rising at a rate that would put me on the leaderboard, so I decided to make an effort to submit content and post quality comments just to see if I could crack the top 100. After a few months I did it, and kept rising up to a high of 85 (today I'm #88). Then I realized I was spending way too much time on HN, and how easy it was to fall into this trap of thinking I was doing something worthwhile just because people were upvoting me. There is something visceral about looking at a number that you have somehow convinced yourself is a measure of your value as a human being, and seeing that number get bigger, even if at the end of the day that number is utterly meaningless. And, of course, when it comes to money the number is not meaningless, which makes the effect that much more powerful.
BTW, money is not just good for buying material things. You can spend arbitrary amounts of money on philanthropy and political donations. Once you start to do that, a lot of people start to want to be your friend. That kind of attention and deference can also be a very powerful drug.
Re: Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have?
#18A while back I noticed that my HN karma was rising at a rate that would put me on the leaderboard, so I decided to make an effort to submit content and post quality comments just to see if I could crack the top 100. After a few months I did it, and kept rising up to a high of 85 (today I'm #88). Then I realized I was spending way too much time on HN, and how easy it was to fall into this trap of thinking I was doing…
Did not even realise there was a leaderboard for HN karma. I stopped tracking my own karma score a while back. I was getting upset by even a handful of downvotes, and as soon as I decided to just publish my thoughts without caring about down (or up) votes, my happiness went up quite a few notches.
Re: Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have?
#19A while back I noticed that my HN karma was rising at a rate that would put me on the leaderboard, so I decided to make an effort to submit content and post quality comments just to see if I could crack the top 100. After a few months I did it, and kept rising up to a high of 85 (today I'm #88). Then I realized I was spending way too much time on HN, and how easy it was to fall into this trap of thinking I was doing…
Did not even realise there was a leaderboard for HN karma. I stopped tracking my own karma score a while back. I was getting upset by even a handful of downvotes, and as soon as I decided to just publish my thoughts without caring about down (or up) votes, my happiness went up quite a few notches.
> Did not even realise there was a leaderboard for HN karma.
It's a well kept secret.
And I've been much happier since I stopped looking at it, but every now and then I fall off the wagon and sneak a peek.
Re: Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have?
#20But isn't it the well oiled marketing and advertising industry that is keeping us constantly unhappy and forcing us to compare our own (projected) shortcomings against others?
My hypothesis is that wealthier people are even deeper in this trap, as once you can afford nice clothes, accessories, cars, houses etc., you are immediately exposed to others in the same (or higher) wealth bracket, thus exacerbating these feelings of comparison and inadequacy. It is a self destructive feeding frenzy that can never assuage itself.