Seriously, why would anyone want $20 Billion Dollars?

[Real_Person]

Please help me understand the thoughts of people who actually want (for example) $20 Billion Dollars. Depending on where you live, wouldn't $5M be about enough?

"Poor man wanna be rich,
Rich man wanna be king,
And a king ain't satisfied,
'til he rules everything..." ~The Boss

Could you be happy (for example) in a comfortable middle-class life? In case you do not know, excess money can create related problems. Seriously, why would anyone want $20 Billion Dollars?

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[jackg]

$1 Billion gives a bit more security than $5 million. You can do a bit more with it without worrying about the loss of funds for certain things.
It's true, that $5 million would sustain people quite well. It was said that $2-3 million is the average amount someone spends in a rich country in their lifetime so that is all that is really necessary (this is also the amount earnt).

There is also an issue that if you do get $5 million or more, you don't need to work and if you don't need to work then you have to find other ways to preoccupy yourself and it just turns into something where lots of people hate work, however, lots of people would also hat eto be paid to do nothiing and live in isolation for the rest of their lives (ie. everyone else you know works and you just spend many hours on your own and get to a point where you either have to work or get extremely bored and lonely further than you already have been from when you got the $5 million).

And it is true that everyone wants more than they can't have (generally).

[suchmoon]

Different people - different needs/wants. Lots of billionaires don't spend any significant part of their wealth on themselves but rather invest or donate to charity.

$5 million doesn't go as far as you think. I'd rather have $100 million invested in a solid business that can provide for me (and 100 employees).

And some people just like working, whether the money is the goal or they like the work and the money is a side benefit. I know my own retirement goals have shifted over the years because my idea of retirement has changed.

[angel55]

There is really no point to having over a few million dollars.  Once your basic needs are met, extra money won't do much for you.  I consider people like jeff bezos and bill gates to be real psychos.  Bezos treats his workers like slaves.  Bill Gate's "foundation" is nothing more than a depopulation, vaccine giving, evil money fund.

It's mostly just a power thing.  Billionaires wan't the power to control how the government makes laws.

[paulmaritz]

Please help me understand the thoughts of people who actually want (for example) $20 Billion Dollars. Depending on where you live, wouldn't $5M be about enough?

"Poor man wanna be rich,
Rich man wanna be king,
And a king ain't satisfied,
'til he rules everything..." ~The Boss

Could you be happy (for example) in a comfortable middle-class life? In case you do not know, excess money can create related problems. Seriously, why would anyone want $20 Billion Dollars?

Personally I would be satisfied with the knowledge that I have enough money to lead a comfortable middle-class life for the rest of my life. I might have exactly that now, but things can change pretty fast. Those who are chasing $20bn are either doing it out of greed, a need for security or a combination of both. Both $20bn and $5m are very relative given the bigger picture. E.g. there were plenty of billionaires and even trillionaires in Zimbabwe during their currency crisis, yet the majority had a hard time to survive.

[fernandoaleixo]

Wait, why not? What's the difference between accepting 5 million and 20 billion? You're gonna be rich and able to buy virtually anything in boty scenarios. But yeah I can see the problem, with 20 billions there is a lot of responsability involved.

[Cobalt9317]

$5 million I can't even guess how to spend all of those money it could be a lot of money in my country even $500K would be large sum of money, and $20 Billion that's really great but the problem is within the amount of that because with that sum of money you would think of a lot things like how to save and secure the funds in other words below average middle class have nothing to worry in terms of money management because they only think of daily expenses.

Where Ignorance is bliss ~Thomas Gray

[cool_93]

5 mln is more than enough to have a great life, but why won't you want to have more? Nothing really wrong with that, it opens up tons of new possibilities. What if someones dream is to buy an NBA franchise? 5 mln$ is not nearly enough for this I mean the end goal for every person is to be happy, and if making money makes someone happier than actually spending it, than they should do just that.

[EthanB]

Depending on where you live, wouldn't $5M be about enough?

Depending on where you live a house could easily cost above $5M.

Could you be happy (for example) in a comfortable middle-class life?

Yes.

Seriously, why would anyone want $20 Billion Dollars?

Then they can do things like this : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2418909.0 .

Once your basic needs are met, extra money won't do much for you. 

That sounds like an extremely cyncical view of life. There is more to life than meeting your basic needs.

$5 million doesn't go as far as you think.

There are paintings that cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
$5M will disappear if all you're trying to do is live comfortably in an expensive American city within a few years.

[angel55]

Once your basic needs are met, extra money won't do much for you. 

That sounds like an extremely cyncical view of life. There is more to life than meeting your basic needs.


[/quote]

The extra money won't do much for you.  Of course there is more to life, but it does not involve material goods.

[EthanB]

The extra money won't do much for you. Of course there is more to life, but it does not involve material goods.

Money goes beyond material goods. It is not limited to buying expensive cars, paintings or goods. You are able to develop entire nations, cultures and acquire the means to achieve your dreams with enough money. I disagree entirely that "extra money won't do much for you." If you believe that emotional connections are not influenced by money, and what money is able to accomplish then you are being disingenous. The extra money gives you access to better resources, more effective people, connections, technology, the list goes on and on.

Are all of these things in the category of "not much" for you? I see these all as very significant, they would do much for me.

[angel55]

The extra money won't do much for you. Of course there is more to life, but it does not involve material goods.

Money goes beyond material goods. It is not limited to buying expensive cars, paintings or goods. You are able to develop entire nations, cultures and acquire the means to achieve your dreams with enough money. I disagree entirely that "extra money won't do much for you." If you believe that emotional connections are not influenced by money, and what money is able to accomplish then you are being disingenous. The extra money gives you access to better resources, more effective people, connections, technology, the list goes on and on.

Are all of these things in the category of "not much" for you? I see these all as very significant, they would do much for me.

Good points but sadly most of the wealthy people do nothing to help their communities. Jeff Bezos is worth over 100 billion dollars but hes is threatening Seattle that Amazon will leave because of a homeless tax helping fund.  A guy worth 150 billion dollars won't even help homeless people, sad world we live in.

Sultan of brunei is a greedy pig who owns thousands of expensive cars and lives in a 2 million square foot palace while people around the world can't even survive.

[EthanB]

Good points but sadly most of the wealthy people do nothing to help their communities.

Jeff Bezos ...

Sultan of brunei is a greedy pig who ...

Individuals that you deem to be greedy, selfish people are irrelevant to the good that money can do. It is a tool, and a fundamental tool within our world if you are to achieve any consensual transaction with another human being.

Bezos donated $33M in one donation, more money than I will likely ever make in my life. Has that money not helped anyone, any community or done any benevolence? It is easy to point fingers and say "these people could do more", but realistically they've done more than you will ever do.

Almost everything you have access to is because of a successful and altruistic (to some degree) individual. I agree that there are a disproportionate amount of wealthy people that provide nothing beyond economic speculation, political manipulation or inheritance of a particular bloodline. These are unfortunate cases, but what characterizes the success of people like Bezos or Gates is the ability to bring something of value to a great deal of people in a way that has presumably made their lives better. Without their customers directly benefiting there would be no profit, and in this way they help whatever community they interact with. Of course, there is always an equal and opposite reaction and no good deed goes unpunished.

[angel55]

Good points but sadly most of the wealthy people do nothing to help their communities.

Jeff Bezos ...

Sultan of brunei is a greedy pig who ...

Individuals that you deem to be greedy, selfish people are irrelevant to the good that money can do. It is a tool, and a fundamental tool within our world if you are to achieve any consensual transaction with another human being.

Bezos donated $33M in one donation, more money than I will likely ever make in my life. Has that money not helped anyone, any community or done any benevolence? It is easy to point fingers and say "these people could do more", but realistically they've done more than you will ever do.

Almost everything you have access to is because of a successful and altruistic (to some degree) individual. I agree that there are a disproportionate amount of wealthy people that provide nothing beyond economic speculation, political manipulation or inheritance of a particular bloodline. These are unfortunate cases, but what characterizes the success of people like Bezos or Gates is the ability to bring something of value to a great deal of people in a way that has presumably made their lives better. Without their customers directly benefiting there would be no profit, and in this way they help whatever community they interact with. Of course, there is always an equal and opposite reaction and no good deed goes unpunished.

Personally I'd rather live in hunter gatherer time even if I lived a shorter life. Life would be more fulffilling to me.   Bezos donated 33 million dollars, but what percent of his net worth at that?  I've donated 100x the amount he has if you look at the percentage I've donated compared to my net worth.

Don't say there is only profit in helping customers.  Pharmaceutical companies and defense contractors make money off wars and  by poisoning people with harmful drugs.

[Dart315]

Please help me understand the thoughts of people who actually want (for example) $20 Billion Dollars. Depending on where you live, wouldn't $5M be about enough?

"Poor man wanna be rich,
Rich man wanna be king,
And a king ain't satisfied,
'til he rules everything..." ~The Boss

Could you be happy (for example) in a comfortable middle-class life? In case you do not know, excess money can create related problems. Seriously, why would anyone want $20 Billion Dollars?

There is no middle class.

It's done, for your information:
http://fortune.com/2016/07/13/middle-class-death/
https://medium.com/social-club/the-myth-of-the-middle-class-5fbd37256b13

[kevoh]

Being happy is relative and dependent on the individual, his culture, his religion, his mindset e.t.c

There is really no point to having over a few million dollars.  Once your basic needs are met, extra money won't do much for you.  I consider people like jeff bezos and bill gates to be real psychos.  Bezos treats his workers like slaves.  Bill Gate's "foundation" is nothing more than a depopulation, vaccine giving, evil money fund.

It's mostly just a power thing.  Billionaires wan't the power to control how the government makes laws.

I have always argued this with people back home to be some sort of conspiracy theory against Bill. The so called evil money fund is responsible for the total elimination of polio in my country, an act the corrupt ridden government has failed to do despite the huge resources and funds at its disposal.

They cry depopulation and I laugh. For the sake of argument, let's agree there's a depopulation agenda by Bill's foundation, in my opinion it worths it in my home country. You find people who can barely survive on $1 a day marrying 2 to 3 wives and giving birth to 10, 15, 20 children. Who will feed them? Who will pay their school fees? Who will pay their medical bills when they fall sick? Who checks on these kids as they grow up and become nuisance to the society as they as easily absorbed into criminal and terrorist organization!

[yoseph]

Please help me understand the thoughts of people who actually want (for example) $20 Billion Dollars. Depending on where you live, wouldn't $5M be about enough?

"Poor man wanna be rich,
Rich man wanna be king,
And a king ain't satisfied,
'til he rules everything..." ~The Boss

Could you be happy (for example) in a comfortable middle-class life? In case you do not know, excess money can create related problems. Seriously, why would anyone want $20 Billion Dollars?

Even when you want to live a glamorous life, I think that $20 Billion would be just too much for the it. Having a private plane and your own mega yacht as a well as your own island wouldn’t even cost $1 Billions.

[crypto_nd]

Seriously this is a serious question, why would anyone want 20 billion $. The truth is we as human we are all insatiable, always wanting more.
This is just the life we are in, take for example a scammer scammed people off 5 million $ without been caught, which will be ok for him for the rest of his life but then he continues scamming people until things goes wrong for him.
For me i believe it takes the grace of God and a sense of security outside the security money can give for any human to be satiable.

[paxmao]

Guys, we are all so poor that our dreams don´t extend beyond "a few millions". There are things out there that are really cool and cost much more. Not that I know of many, but if you want to f*king cry go here

See... confortable middle class now looks terribly boring, don´t you think?

[suchmoon]

Guys, we are all so poor that our dreams don´t extend beyond "a few millions". There are things out there that are really cool and cost much more. Not that I know of many, but if you want to f*king cry go here

See... confortable middle class now looks terribly boring, don´t you think?

Some of those look very affordable, like only an order of magnitude more than a house in a decent neighborhood. What's the catch? No high-speed internet? Commute 100 miles by boat? Island-owners association fees?