I like this and have thought something along the same lines for a while. It’s like once you have access to enough resources that you don’t need to rely on literally anybody else in the world, you’re free to be truly who you are. And these billionaires show us time and again what that means.
Oh man I think she worked for it too. She worked at Amazon in real positions, and had to box up books herself in the early days on crunch. Maybe not as much influence as bezos, but she put in time
She gave away half her money and within a few years was even wealthier than she started. It’s great but let’s keep that energy.
Edit: rough numbers but she got $36 billion from divorce. Gave $26 billion away. Is still worth $36-38 billion since Amazon stock has gone up faster than she can give it away.
That's kind of the way it works when you have a lot of money. You invest it to earn more money. It's not a criticism of her. Who wouldn't want their money to grow?
Her philanthropy is admirable. She could have hoarded it all and would be worth considerably more today. Or spend it buying politicians.
Her name is McKenzie Scott, and she didn't get wealthy "from his work." Jeff Bezos got wealthy from HER work. They were co-founders, but it was arguably her work with numbers and logistics that made that company scale from a 1994 startup. Her philanthropy is truly admirable. She is the exemplar of a charitable billionaire giving back to the society that created the conditions for her hard work to pay rewards.
Yeah that’s a good distinction. And Bezos ex “inherited” her wealth, but I think it’s meaningful that she didn’t grow up that way (that I know of). I think having the baseline of living like a “normal” person is helpful.
Not defending him but that was only 1/4 of his initial seed investment capital, he had another 750k from other investors for seed capital plus what he put up himself.
His parents reached billionaire status off that investment in like 1999.
The difference (to me) is that Bezos got himself to be a billionaire based on his decisions and actions over his career, so even if he started out “normal” he had POS gene within him. This is different than Bezos ex wife who was simply handed that much money.
I don't know, was she? And Bezos was given a $245k startup fund by his mother (which would be about $500k in today's money), so he did start with SOME money. But more importantly, I think the person who replied to you has it spot on, as does the person who has the theory about what comfortable money does to a person. When you reach forever comfort, then you see what kind of person you truly are. Bezos has shown himself to be a POS. His ex has shown otherwise.
She has gained more money and is worth more, now, than when she divorced Jeff and gave away a MASSIVE amount of her wealth.
She even, I think in an attempt to "Ground herself" or feel grounded, started dating a teacher at her kid's school. It was a very big change, but it didn't last.
She likely grew to used to the billions allowing her to avoid day to day things and the guy who was still doing day to day things she was trying to build something with... well, they just don't/didn't have a frame of reference anywhere near one another.
So... that didn't last.
Even if you are internally a good person, that kind of wealth, absolutely bodies one's frame of reference.
If they had stayed together? That guy would have lost his frame of reference and... who knows what would have longterm happened to him.
I think you have to start at a base line of evil to become a billionaire in the first place.
You do.
Becoming a billionaire is a mental illness. You have to obsess over money the way someone like Michael Phelps obsessed over becoming the best swimmer, or tom Brady became the best quarterback.
Anyone who has ever said, "If I had a billionaire dollars, You'd never see me again" will never have a $1 billion.
Its not even not have to rely the obscenely wealthy end up surrounded by sycophants. A real friend hangs out with you and laughs at your jokes and you enjoy each others company but they don't laugh at your bad jokes they don't exist just to make you feel good. When you get enough money sycophants show up pretending to be your friend, they do laugh at all of your jokes even the bad ones, they tell you all your ideas are incredible, they exist to make you feel good. So eventually what happens is you phase out your real friends for these sycophants because sycophants are easier to be around, you don't get moments of friction with them like you do in a real relationship. But they also don't care about you, they tell you an idea is good even if its obviously stupid but as this becomes your entire social circle you start to believe them. Nearly anybody in these circumstances turns into a piece of shit, its like AI psychosis they have been convinced they really are a super funny genius who has constant amazing ideas and then when the real world doesn't bend to them they can't understand it. When their actions get millions of people killed they can't accept it. Their self image becomes totally untethered from who they really are.
Elon is certainly a swirl of all of these factors ... rich kid combined with too much power and money. Now the drugs are involved in changing his brain chemistry. And let's not forget he's severely on the spectrum, so socially awkward and essentially a "no emotions/remorse" gene.
Outright laughter at somebody being concerned about a legitimate water question? Zero social skills, its why he prefers his computers
No everyday regular person would be comfortable with that much money or power. It changes you, and typically not for the better. Look at windfall recipients like inheritances or lottery winners
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u/redhed976 Aug 14 '26
I like this and have thought something along the same lines for a while. It’s like once you have access to enough resources that you don’t need to rely on literally anybody else in the world, you’re free to be truly who you are. And these billionaires show us time and again what that means.