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I don't want to sound like a Marxist, but after a certain point (which depends on the person and their spending habits), additional money does not appear to hav

I don't want to sound like a Marxist, but after a certain point (which depends on the person and their spending habits), additional money does not appear to have practical value except for being able to brag about holding a high score. I mean, does having $90B confer any benefits above what having, say, $20B does? Of course, that difference matters to companies; the more money you have, the easier it is to buy or destroy competitors. But for individuals, am I missing something?

IslaDeEncanta 9y ago
I do want to sound like a Marxist, but for individuals it grants them an inordinate amount of power. If you want power that's a very desirable fact.
cocktailpeanuts 9y ago
Nah, you don't sound like a Marxist. But the only thing you're missing is how you're stating the obvious. Just Google what rich people say about being rich and you'll find that they say exactly the same thing. After a certain point it's all the same.
- ralmidani 9y ago
  Then why do they keep pursuing more wealth? If you like money primarily for the pleasure it can buy, why not spend more time enjoying it? Why kill yourself just so your descendants can be financially secure?
  - mythrwy 9y ago
    What else do you do? You can't just walk away at that point. Gates appears to be trying to some extent but that much money takes on a life of it's own. You hire people and it keeps growing.
  - gozur88 9y ago
    Money is just a way of keeping score for people like Gates and Bezos. Anyway, if you have the personality that creates a company like Amazon, you can't just sit back and enjoy it. It's just not in your nature. I had an uncle like that - he kept starting companies long after it mattered financially. He'd sell the current one, tell everyone he was retiring, sit around miserably for a few months and then start another. "It's mostly just a hobby," he'd say, and sell it for ten million dollars a few years later and start the whole process over. Also, flooding your descendents with money isn't necessarily a good idea. People who grew up with more money than they could ever spend tend to be pretty unhappy. Warren Buffett claims he left his children enough money to do "anything they want to do, but not enough to do nothing." The rest he gave away.
  - onions 9y ago
    I'm sure to a philanthropist it matters. How much would it cost to eradicate malaria? $100B?
    - ralmidani 9y ago
      Are all billionaires philanthropists?
      - onions 9y ago
        I guess I misinterpreted your question as, "What's the use of all that money?" Philanthropy is one use. There are many others.
jdietrich 9y ago
Wealth beyond a certain point won't buy you any greater material comfort, but it affords you influence. Look at Elon Musk. The market thinks that Tesla is a valuable company, Musk owns a large proportion of Tesla, so the market has decided that Musk gets to make a lot of decisions about how the world's resources are allocated. Musk has decided to allocate resources to sustainable technology and space exploration. Gates has allocated resources to the eradication of disease. Roman Abramovich has allocated resources to sports teams and a series of increasingly massive yachts. $10bn might get you a football team or a big boat, but it won't get you to Mars. It's not necessarily fair or just, but it seems to be quite effective. Lots of alternative systems have been tried, but they've all been woefully inefficient at directing resources towards activities that generate more resources. Capitalism is the best system we've found for coupling "stuff-making ability" to the amount of stuff you get put in charge of. Capitalism doesn't reward hard work, which feels very unfair; there's no real relationship between how hard you work and how much value you create. The typewriter industry was full of incredibly talented and hard-working typewriter designers, but the value of the best typewriter is far less than the value of a crappy computer. Capitalism is also really bad at distinguishing between fairly created value and value that has been captured by theft, fraud or coercion. For that, you need an effective legal system. Free markets and bad laws create a lot of rich gangsters. People who control a lot of resources can use those resources to influence the legal system, which is inherently dangerous unless you've got really good checks and balances.
Noxchi 9y ago
What you fail to consider is that no one owns money. Once you die, you dont take your cash to the grave. Im getting philosophacal here, but people are only shepards to money. They are maintainers and once they die someone (or many) will take their fortune. Like energy, wealth can not be destroyed - only transferred. The reason billionaires are allowed to exist is because they do a good job of maintaining that money for themselves and others.

IslaDeEncanta 9y ago

I do want to sound like a Marxist, but for individuals it grants them an inordinate amount of power. If you want power that's a very desirable fact.

cocktailpeanuts 9y ago

Nah, you don't sound like a Marxist. But the only thing you're missing is how you're stating the obvious. Just Google what rich people say about being rich and you'll find that they say exactly the same thing. After a certain point it's all the same.

ralmidani 9y ago
Then why do they keep pursuing more wealth? If you like money primarily for the pleasure it can buy, why not spend more time enjoying it? Why kill yourself just so your descendants can be financially secure?
- mythrwy 9y ago
  What else do you do? You can't just walk away at that point. Gates appears to be trying to some extent but that much money takes on a life of it's own. You hire people and it keeps growing.
- gozur88 9y ago
  Money is just a way of keeping score for people like Gates and Bezos. Anyway, if you have the personality that creates a company like Amazon, you can't just sit back and enjoy it. It's just not in your nature. I had an uncle like that - he kept starting companies long after it mattered financially. He'd sell the current one, tell everyone he was retiring, sit around miserably for a few months and then start another. "It's mostly just a hobby," he'd say, and sell it for ten million dollars a few years later and start the whole process over. Also, flooding your descendents with money isn't necessarily a good idea. People who grew up with more money than they could ever spend tend to be pretty unhappy. Warren Buffett claims he left his children enough money to do "anything they want to do, but not enough to do nothing." The rest he gave away.
- onions 9y ago
  I'm sure to a philanthropist it matters. How much would it cost to eradicate malaria? $100B?
  - ralmidani 9y ago
    Are all billionaires philanthropists?
    - onions 9y ago
      I guess I misinterpreted your question as, "What's the use of all that money?" Philanthropy is one use. There are many others.

jdietrich 9y ago

Wealth beyond a certain point won't buy you any greater material comfort, but it affords you influence. Look at Elon Musk. The market thinks that Tesla is a valuable company, Musk owns a large proportion of Tesla, so the market has decided that Musk gets to make a lot of decisions about how the world's resources are allocated. Musk has decided to allocate resources to sustainable technology and space exploration. Gates has allocated resources to the eradication of disease. Roman Abramovich has allocated resources to sports teams and a series of increasingly massive yachts. $10bn might get you a football team or a big boat, but it won't get you to Mars. It's not necessarily fair or just, but it seems to be quite effective. Lots of alternative systems have been tried, but they've all been woefully inefficient at directing resources towards activities that generate more resources. Capitalism is the best system we've found for coupling "stuff-making ability" to the amount of stuff you get put in charge of. Capitalism doesn't reward hard work, which feels very unfair; there's no real relationship between how hard you work and how much value you create. The typewriter industry was full of incredibly talented and hard-working typewriter designers, but the value of the best typewriter is far less than the value of a crappy computer. Capitalism is also really bad at distinguishing between fairly created value and value that has been captured by theft, fraud or coercion. For that, you need an effective legal system. Free markets and bad laws create a lot of rich gangsters. People who control a lot of resources can use those resources to influence the legal system, which is inherently dangerous unless you've got really good checks and balances.

Noxchi 9y ago

What you fail to consider is that no one owns money. Once you die, you dont take your cash to the grave. Im getting philosophacal here, but people are only shepards to money. They are maintainers and once they die someone (or many) will take their fortune. Like energy, wealth can not be destroyed - only transferred. The reason billionaires are allowed to exist is because they do a good job of maintaining that money for themselves and others.