[iancmceachern]

It's so weird to me that these folks don't just retire with a bag of money to a nice beach house and enjoy life. They're always seeming to meddle. And in doing so they take away our, and their peace. It's like they're troubled deeply and they need us to be also? Why can't they just not do demonstrably evil, deeply wrong things?

[rchaud]

Because the sample size for "mega-rich" selects for more psychopaths per thousand people than the sample of people who are "just rich".

You can get "just rich" by being a doctor, or a partner at an IT consulting firm, without screwing people over.

But to be "mega-rich", you have to be OK with screwing people over any chance you get. Over time, that behavioural trait has a compounding effect where you don't see things as "right" and "wrong" anymore. That perspective is accelerated further as their money and power insulate them from consequences due to the political and legal latitude it can buy.

Bill Gates plotted to dilute Paul Allen's Microsoft shares because "he wasn't pulling his weight" when he was undergoing cancer treatment. Goldman Sachs' top legal counsel Kathryn Ruemmler accepted expensive handbags from Epstein and called him "uncle" in communications after he was re-arrested on trafficking charges. Bezos, Musk, Zuck, Ellison...need I say more?

[yndoendo]

The saying _Do not fall into the trap of anthropomorphising Larry Ellison_ should transformed to _Do not fall into the trap of anthropomorphising the ultra wealthy_.

[ndsipa_pomu]

It takes a certain personality to continue hoarding wealth even when you know that it comes from exploiting others. The reason why they can't just not do demonstrably evil things is that they have relied on doing evil things to get to where they are.

The kind of person that thinks "I've got more than enough money, I might as well use it to help others" doesn't get to be a billionaire.

[JKCalhoun]

Exactly.

The wife too, "If I were a billionaire…"

I have to stop her right there. I stop myself there too. Neither one of us could, in any iteration of life, become billionaires.

(There's a time-travel story for someone. Like the movie Primer but with one person who round-trips through time—placing stock bets and other investments in order to become wealthy. When they screw up an investment they get a do-over.

Life also happens though: a relationship, marriage… This aspect though begins to play on a sense of guilt and he resists do-overs in the relationship.

By the close of the story his pursuit of wealth wanes, evaporates completely. Contentment comes finally from his relationship, from accepting his missteps, from embracing the uncertainty of the future. The machine is scrapped, no more do-overs.)

[SolarToaster]

Yeah, give me some sunshine and relative obscurity and we're golden.

[sigwinch]

Well the Forbes Top 1000 (which has a lower threshold of $3.8 B) is missing 30-200 wealthy but totally obscure people. That proportion is close to what HN might consider "smart".

[etruong42]

I also suspect there is a vortex of temptation as you become an increasingly interesting person. Rich, famous, powerful, well-connected, beautiful etc are all interesting characteristics to nefarious people since those characteristics can advance their own nefarious interests. I suspect that, as you become an increasingly interesting person, you must actively defend your peace. It's not like they actively undermine their own peace, at least not always.

This vortex of temptation appears to have many points of origin, such as cults like Scientology, or particular persons such as the casually described "gold diggers", or... whatever organization Epstein is a part of, etc.

[duxup]

People probably do that, but they do it as multi millionaires more often than not.

[belter]

You are getting closer to realizing that becoming a billionaire demands a psychological detachment most people would find disturbing...

It is not always brilliance that drives the relentless accumulation of wealth, but a deep, unresolved hole...an inner void shaped by trauma, by the need for validation never received from a parent, a world, or a past self.

That constant dissatisfaction fuels an endless pursuit of wealth they imagine will finally provide meaning or peace, yet never does. The accumulation becomes the self justification. The proof of worth in a game that can never truly be won. And from that height grows the contempt... Not for ignorance, but for poverty itself. Not because the poor are seen as incapable, but because they serve as a reminder of everything these individuals fear becoming.

[andai]

Daddy Issues Billionaire Archetype. Many such cases!

That's our success symbol, in this age. A sad time.