this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2023
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Late Stage Capitalism
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Maybe its cause I’ll never be a billionaire that I don’t understand it. But can anyone ELI5 what you could possibly do with that much money except to give it all away or pass it along to your next of kin when you die? It’s physically impossible to spend all that money, right?
It’s a score. It’s how well you do at capitalism. Number goes up, you did good. It’s not a practical thing. Even at 1bn they had enough to set them, their kids and their grandkids up for life. It’s all about the bragging rights.
It's enough to set up the rest of your family for life forever via passive income (unless one of your fail children spend it all which is always possible)
Exactly.
You could remove a 0 from their net worth and they’d still act exactly the same, because it’s not about the number, it’s about having the most. There is no finish line.
So how much do you need to win?
More than the next guy.
They’ve already won. They’re going for the high score like the high score on an arcade game.
At that point of wealth you aren't thinking about spending money as an individual, or even an individual family (even including hangers on and staff). You are essentially a representative of a power that parallels governments, with worldwide reach, and will think along those lines. You want to implement worldwide policies, dictate the tides of capitalism, play with your own regime change politics, break the barriers of old age, gene manipulation, and get the process started on astro-mining and colonizing Mars.
It's sillier than that and with a lot more solipsistic belief in wanting something and throwing money at that desire making it happen.
https://aiascendant.substack.com/p/extropias-children-chapter-1-the-wunderkind
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/sep/04/super-rich-prepper-bunkers-apocalypse-survival-richest-rushkoff
https://youtu.be/7ApjSrB6E1c
You use your money to influence politics so that you can make more money so you can influence politics better so you can make more money faster.
Whoever has more money has more power... Too make more money lol.
That's the neat part. They're gambling on living forever.
You could indulge your minute desires. You don't just buy s cool car. You buy a new cool car every month, or whenever you see one you like. Houses, jets, yachts. Whatever you want, you can simply get. Like a capricious toddler, throwing a tantrum. It's also why several of those bastards are aiming at the space (besides wanting those sweet airspace contracts).