Gary1878 wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 8:13 pm
I work with/for a lot of clients with net worths between £50m and £300m and on the whole, they are all very decent, very kind people, and very much the same as you or I. They all have families and face the same personal issues that we all do. Most of them support football clubs and go to the games (mainly Arsenal!). They just don’t have to worry about where the next paycheck is coming from (which is obviously a big thing).
Problems do not disappear with money, but different ones are created. Different stresses come along with that.
Now as for billionaires, I have no idea. But I assume there is some sort of God complex / ego that comes alongside that level of money and power. However, I don’t see that in my day to day work. I tend to work with UK resident, non domiciled individuals, so perhaps that has something to do with it. I don’t work with anyone from “old/inherited money”.
I don't think I claimed that they don't have families or personal issues. I said there's a high degree of personality disorder in that strata. With respect I think there is a vast difference between someone with £100m and a multi-billionaire.
There have been numerous studies about the sociopathy of the super rich, numerous examples in the real world of their insanity, and observers who work with/amongst them say that things like Succession are very on point.
I don't think it's an overstatement to say that the very richest people on the planet are the enemy of us all, and amongst the most harmful people who currently exist.
Bluedylan1 wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 8:49 pm
I don't think I claimed that they don't have families or personal issues. I said there's a high degree of personality disorder in that strata. With respect I think there is a vast difference between someone with £100m and a multi-billionaire.
There have been numerous studies about the sociopathy of the super rich, numerous examples in the real world of their insanity, and observers who work with/amongst them say that things like Succession are very on point.
I don't think it's an overstatement to say that the very richest people on the planet are the enemy of us all, and amongst the most harmful people who currently exist.
Well, most of them. Warren Buffet doesn't seem like he's too bad though.
Gary1878 wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 8:13 pm
I work with/for a lot of clients with net worths between £50m and £300m and on the whole, they are all very decent, very kind people, and very much the same as you or I.
Bluedylan1 wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 8:49 pm
I don't think I claimed that they don't have families or personal issues. I said there's a high degree of personality disorder in that strata. With respect I think there is a vast difference between someone with £100m and a multi-billionaire.
There have been numerous studies about the sociopathy of the super rich, numerous examples in the real world of their insanity, and observers who work with/amongst them say that things like Succession are very on point.
I don't think it's an overstatement to say that the very richest people on the planet are the enemy of us all, and amongst the most harmful people who currently exist.
No of course not. There is a big difference between £100m and a multi-billionaire.
I wouldn’t say that Warren Buffet and Bill Gates are enemies. Buffet is leaving 98% of his wealth to charity after his death and Bill Gates is using his wealth to sustainably help the poorest people in the world. They are doing things that Governments cant do or won’t fund.
I would say that wealth tends to make a good person an even better one, and a bad person even worse.
It’s how one uses that wealth and power and it is open to some serious abuse - see Trump, Putin etc (!)
Gary1878 wrote: ↑Thu May 30, 2024 9:27 am
No of course not. There is a big difference between £100m and a multi-billionaire.
I wouldn’t say that Warren Buffet and Bill Gates are enemies. Buffet is leaving 98% of his wealth to charity after his death and Bill Gates is using his wealth to sustainably help the poorest people in the world. They are doing things that Governments cant do or won’t fund.
I would say that wealth tends to make a good person an even better one, and a bad person even worse.
It’s how one uses that wealth and power and it is open to some serious abuse - see Trump, Putin etc (!)
There's a huge amount of controversy and scepticism about Bill Gates' use of money. He gives so much away and keeps getting richer, and there's lots of differing views about just how philanthropic he is. In 2016 he was worth £75bn, and now he's worth £154bn.
Buffet, fair enough. There's exceptions to every rule. There's 2,500ish known billionaires in the world (and probably quite a few more who hide their money) and a very tiny percentage of them are anything other than leaches, building vulgar levels of wealth on the backs of other people while the world quite literally burns.
I strongly disagree with your supposition that insane wealth makes a good person better, and a bad one worse. I think that's somewhat naïve.
Bluedylan1 wrote: ↑Thu May 30, 2024 9:53 am
There's a huge amount of controversy and scepticism about Bill Gates' use of money. He gives so much away and keeps getting richer, and there's lots of differing views about just how philanthropic he is. In 2016 he was worth £75bn, and now he's worth £154bn.
Buffet, fair enough. There's exceptions to every rule. There's 2,500ish known billionaires in the world (and probably quite a few more who hide their money) and a very tiny percentage of them are anything other than leaches, building vulgar levels of wealth on the backs of other people while the world quite literally burns.
I strongly disagree with your supposition that insane wealth makes a good person better, and a bad one worse. I think that's somewhat naïve.
Gates is richer on paper because of his Microsoft shares I suspect, which have had a fantastic run of growth. Look at Steve Ballmer, who was CEO - he owns pretty much all of his net worth in Microsoft shares, and is now reportedly richer than Gates, as Gates diversified his shares into other companies which haven’t done as well, and Ballmer kept his invested in Microsoft.
I think there are some people that have just been in the right place at the right time and so have been incredibly lucky. The oligarchs and some financial professionals spring to mind.
Gary1878 wrote: ↑Thu May 30, 2024 3:04 pm
Gates is richer on paper because of his Microsoft shares I suspect, which have had a fantastic run of growth. Look at Steve Ballmer, who was CEO - he owns pretty much all of his net worth in Microsoft shares, and is now reportedly richer than Gates, as Gates diversified his shares into other companies which haven’t done as well, and Ballmer kept his invested in Microsoft.
I think there are some people that have just been in the right place at the right time and so have been incredibly lucky. The oligarchs and some financial professionals spring to mind.