As ordinary people, let's conduct a thought experiment. Please follow along with me:
What would you do if suddenly you became a millionaire? You have one million pounds, dollars, euros, whatever.
I would probably look to make sure I would never have to work a dull forty-hour week ever again. I would spend half of it buying property to create a rental income stream. The rest of it I would keep for living expenses. I'm in my mid-thirties, so let's say I have forty-five years to live. I think a conservative estimate would leave me with at least £1500 of disposable income per month. That is plenty of money. If I had children I could send them to private school, go on fancy holidays and keep my family and friends generously.
But what if you become a multi-millionaire? You have ten million pounds...
In that case I wouldn't need to be sensible at all, ever. There would be no need to secure an ongoing income or live by a monthly budget. With that much money, I could buy any experience or thing I could ever want. I could buy anything I don't want, several times over. Why not live in the Ritz for a decade? Michelin starred food for breakfast, lunch and dinner? I suspect after indulging in every conceivable whim for a lifetime, those millions would be exhausted.
What about a hundred million?
At this stage, I think I'm starting to forget the value of money. Even living a high octane, luxury lifestyle of embarrassing decadence would hardly dent such a fortune. Likely, I would consider frittering the money away on notions outside of myself and my own. Perhaps I'd start a charity. Perhaps I'd find and sponsor a modern Leonardo da Vinci.
I might even consider donating money to a political party in order to guide them towards a particular policy... or not.
The point is - If you or I somehow earned millions of pounds, we would retire into luxurious obscurity and enjoy our lives with our families in peace and quiet. That would be the path an ordinary, independent, and free individual.
However, there are persons out there who do not do this. Instead of retiring after making enough money, they keep going and going and going...
Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, is worth $97 billion. A tawdry social media network is hardly interesting enough to keep even a blockhead engaged after they've earned a couple million. What on earth does this sickly looking individual want that much money for? He's 37, so if he was actually sane, he would retire to the Playboy Mansion. That would be the last we hear from him.
Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, is worth $124 billion. This man is the scion of an incredibly wealthy banking dynasty and would have been filthy rich even had he never lifted a finger. Instead of living it up out of daddy's wallet, he created a computer operating system monopoly by patenting software that had previously been shared freely, and used his mother's connections to get that first big contract with IBM. He's rather grotesque. Now we're supposed to believe he cares about our health...
Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX, is worth $151 billion. Credit where it's due, what he appears to be in charge of is quite interesting if you harbour ambitions to secure humankind's distant future. The problem is, his companies consistently made losses for years, yet somehow they kept being propped up by constant investment. Odd. You see, ridiculously rich people don't become so by gambling, they already know the outcome. So when Elon Musk's companies are kept afloat, it's because those investors know fully well such enterprises will have a lucrative future.
Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, is worth $177 billion. Wow – I remember when Amazon was good for a few books. Now it looks like becoming the only shop in the entire world! Somehow, it undercuts high street prices, provides the best delivery service, and a decent entertainment streaming service. What does he want more money for?
Why do these people keep getting absurdly richer? What possible motive could explain the possession of a billion of anything, let alone hundreds of billions?
There are two reasons: power and compulsion.
You recall I considered dipping into political influencing because I didn't know what to do with a hundred million. These people have billions. That much money buys national politics outright. That much money buys global politics.
Yet I doubt the likes of Gates, Musk, Bezos and Zuckerberg, have the wherewithal to control global events with serious malevolence. Gates is giving it a good go, putting his nose in where it's not wanted. He funds the World Health Organisation, has significant shares in the pharmaceutical companies and is in the process with his billionaire chums of buying up America's farmland. No ordinary person would care about any of this.
But I don't think these billionaires do either. They must realise their continued wealth accumulation is pointless on a personal level. They must do it because they have to. Certainly, Gates may be a psychopath as well, but the best explanation is compulsion. The price they paid for their preposterous wealth was to be forever following orders. They are the public face of a shadowy agenda. Why else would they give another interview, buy another newspaper?
In that sense, these sad billionaires deserve a modicum of sympathy. I may not have the jets and the mansions, but I have no master. I am free. I can say and do what I like, and it may cost me, but at least I have the choice.
Technically, the billionaires also have choice. They could pool their affluence together and end world poverty. Until they do they are contemptible. Instead, they will keep following orders, either willingly, which would make them psychopaths, or unwillingly, which would make them cowardly slaves.
So don't worry if you're not filthy rich - you're a good person. You've got something they don't - freedom.
