I met a (almost) billionaire once; it was everything I expected
The displeasure was all mine
Years ago my wife and I met a guy who said he was worth $600 million dollars. He attributed his riches to being born wealthy, marrying into wealth, and doing the super important lord’s work of being a hedge fund manager (what would we do without them, folks?). Where I generally don't care for blanket statements about people, I have to admit I saw what I saw and it was indeed everything I expected in meeting someone with that type of obscene wealth- especially someone who is involved in the game of hedge funds (Patrick Bateman being another prime example).
We were at a hotel/bar in the Bahamas right down the street from some of the offshore bank accounts you hear about, as well as lavish gated communities with double barbed wire fencing as guards riding ATVs patrolled between the fences, heavily armed and accompanied by attack dogs. We first noticed him when he was barking orders at the bartenders and generally treating them like shit. He was different from the countless other patrons at the bar; the rest of us were minding our own business and having a few drinks with our friends or family. He made it clear to anyone within ear shot of his loud mouth - drunk on mojitos and asinine myths of capitalism - that it was his world we were just living in it.
For some reason he took a liking to Kara and I and struck up a conversation. She being in school for behavior analysis at the time and me being interested in income inequality, we talked to him for quite a while. One of the first things I asked him was why he was so rude to the staff - couched between random quotes by Machiavelli (#badass) he said things like, "fuck these people, they don't matter" or "people are just inherently bad, why be good to them?"
The 36 year-old said he owned multiple homes around the world, complained briefly that his yacht cost $250,000 a year in upkeep alone, yet still spoke extensively about how bored he was with his life, despite having been everywhere and seen everything. When someone has seen it all, consumed it all, experienced it all using their undeserved millions, what more could they possibly consume or buy to captivate their attention or make them happy on their hamster wheel of life? He later admitted that one of the only things that moved or motivated him was increasing his $600 million fortune, yet still he mentioned multiple times how miserable he was with his life. He didn’t appear to even realize he was playing an unfulfilling game that is impossible to win.
He made some of his money in hedge funds, an occupation that could cease to exist tomorrow and change very little in the grand scheme of things. I suspect this is partly why he couldn’t seem to find meaning in his life. When Kara and I got a word in, a difficult task when talking to a self-indulged narcissist, we mentioned that I was a teacher and she ran an autism program. He said, "yeah, and how's that going for you?" as he continued to discuss his extensive travels and $1.2 million he said he made in the previous month alone.
Sure, I literally make less in a full year of teaching kids than what this guy made in one single day in March of 2019, but I guarantee, thanks to friends, family, community, etc., I live a far more fulfilling and happy life. This person was certainly no smarter, no happier, no wiser, no better than Kara or myself. He certainly doesn't work harder than anyone reading this, people who are worth a tiny fraction of his $600 million. He had more money, for sure. An unspeakable amount of money. An amount of money so vast that the only actual purpose of amassing even more of it is to increase his point total, to say, "look at my bank account" or "I made so much money last month". That's about the only purpose of this type of hoarding, bragging rights - and to think he isn't even a billionaire. But he is never going to be able to magically buy a new thing or go to a new place - for he has done it all already - to bring fulfillment and contentment to his sad life.
What he didn't seem to realize was that the humans he ultimately writes off as "inherently evil" are the same people who would enrich his life far more than the almighty dollar- indeed they already have inadvertently in the form of technological advancements, progress of civilization, inventions, education, service, and even a political systems that inexplicably cater to his financial bracket and worthless profession, but all of that goes unnoticed by someone motivated solely to increase their bottom line and nothing more. Let’s face it - it’s literally other people working who essentially fuel his bank account. For this, and the fact that he mentioned his parents dumped him off at private schools his entire life, in a weird way, I truly feel sorry to this day for the $600 million dollar man.
As Bernie Sanders recently echoed, there is no reason that any person should be worth $400 million more dollars than the guy we met that night. Meeting an ultra rich person did nothing but reaffirm my suspicions (based on extensive reading, not this admittedly anecdotal story) of their banality and confirm my belief that no person needs to amass such absurd amounts of wealth. Billionaires should not be a thing, which might be to the benefit of everyone - including themselves.