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Original poster

A controversial perspective is that the daily work routines of the wealthy and billionaires can, in many respects, be significantly more stressful than those of the average worker.

108 replies

Jonnyenglish · 30/12/2025 11:26

Yes its not as straight forward and yes there are many workers that you could argue do more, but when your guiding and running large businesses and dealing with various people etc,

OP posts:
Sneesellsseashells · 30/12/2025 12:39

There is a strong drive to earn billions that not a lot of people have. As part of that family commitments are dropped, money is used to replace proper human connections. In some ways billionaires are like professional athletes everything is put to one side in pursuit of a goal. Heck even non professional athletes can do this with no financial rewards for it. Balance is much healthier for most people. Poverty is deeply traumatising though, wealth for the person pursuing it, not those they have relationships with, is not.

C152 · 30/12/2025 12:38

Jonnyenglish · 30/12/2025 11:40

but without people like them , half of society would not be workers

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That's a dangerous fallacy. Whilst there will always be those who create and those who follow/work, workers should not be beholden to those who create 'opportunities' (and whether the type of work created by Bezos - low wage, low or no benefits, poor working conditions etc - can really be considered the type of 'opportunity' society as a whole should encourage is a whole other discussion). Convincing a large proportion of society that their safety/wellbeing are reliant on one or two megalomaniacs creates a society of slaves too afraid to rock the boat or allow others to do so. Freely giving this much power to individuals who crave power and money for its own sake makes it extremely hard to remove the despots (Musk) once the consequences of their true nature becomes too glaringly apparent to ignore.

We'd be better placed highlighting the flaws in their thinking and striving/encouraging a more philanthropic approach that lays the groundwork for long-term societal improvement that raises everyone up.

HoppityBun · 30/12/2025 12:37

It’s been known for quite some time- before Google- that those who experience the most stress and ill health are those with little autonomy in their lives.

Original poster
Jonnyenglish · 30/12/2025 12:35

Itsmetheflamingo · 30/12/2025 12:34

None of those things give you insight into how difficult their lives are.

I think you probably mean you would find it difficult.

but you are not them.

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and you could be correct but you dont need to be one to understand one

OP posts:
Original poster
Jonnyenglish · 30/12/2025 12:35

IllAdvised · 30/12/2025 12:32

Which ‘Oxford University research publications’?

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unfortunally i didnt do a source list as im not writing an essay so it basically is a mix

OP posts:
Itsmetheflamingo · 30/12/2025 12:34

Jonnyenglish · 30/12/2025 12:33

research, oxford university publications, then their debates on youtube, then other eg london school of economics, then harvard etc

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None of those things give you insight into how difficult their lives are.

I think you probably mean you would find it difficult.

but you are not them.

Original poster
Jonnyenglish · 30/12/2025 12:34

these days with the internet the information is there its just analysing it thats the tricky part

OP posts:
Original poster
Jonnyenglish · 30/12/2025 12:33

Itsmetheflamingo · 30/12/2025 12:32

So how would you know how difficult their life is?

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research, oxford university publications, then their debates on youtube, then other eg london school of economics, then harvard etc

OP posts:
IllAdvised · 30/12/2025 12:32

Jonnyenglish · 30/12/2025 12:31

deep dive, on wikipedia and oxford university research publications etc

Edited
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Which ‘Oxford University research publications’?

Eyeshadow · 30/12/2025 12:32

OP you’re forgetting that these people love this high pressure, dog eat dog world.

The majority of these people are narcissists which mean they think differently from those of us who aren’t like that.

There is a reason that most of these are men too - because they typically live a bachelor’s lifestyle, even if they are married with kids.

I work in a challenging role which many people would struggle with. It’s also crap money (highest possible salary £40k at management level) but I enjoy it.
However, it’s the rest of life that I struggle with - cooking, cleaning, life admin etc - if I didn’t have any of these then I wouldn’t find my work as stressful.

Its having to deal with parenting and life, I too of a challenging job which is the difficulty - billionaires don’t have these issues as their wives or cleaners take care of it.

Itsmetheflamingo · 30/12/2025 12:32

Jonnyenglish · 30/12/2025 12:31

unfortuanly no

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So how would you know how difficult their life is?

Original poster
Jonnyenglish · 30/12/2025 12:31

IllAdvised · 30/12/2025 12:31

And by this you mean ‘I did a bit of Googling’?

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deep dive, on wikipedia and oxford university research publications etc

OP posts:
Itsmetheflamingo · 30/12/2025 12:31

Jamesblonde2 · 30/12/2025 12:07

I know why you have said this. Many times on here people say workers such as cleaners, call centre staff and the like work “just as hard” as those earning much more.

However, responsibility is a huge factor. For example the CEO could be responsible for 1000 people and them being able to pay their mortgage. And that responsibility is 24 hours, and not downing tools on holiday. And they’re not easily replaced like the cleaner etc.

Some people don’t like rich people (plenty on here) simply because they are rich. They contribute massively to their nations pockets. Let them buy and spend as much as they want I say, for every purchase they’re paying VAT.

People need to stop biting the hand which feeds them.

You also have to consider whether many billionaire CEos actually care about thousands of people. You are assuming they’re the same as you.

i know a few CEOs as I sit on boards. Most care very much about their staff.

they earn between £80-£360k per annum.

nothing close to a billionaire.

IllAdvised · 30/12/2025 12:31

Jonnyenglish · 30/12/2025 12:09

and i hate to say it but after researching the system and capitalism and ceo wages etc i agree

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And by this you mean ‘I did a bit of Googling’?

Original poster
Jonnyenglish · 30/12/2025 12:31

Itsmetheflamingo · 30/12/2025 12:29

Do you know any billionaires OP?

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unfortuanly no

OP posts:
Itsmetheflamingo · 30/12/2025 12:29

Jonnyenglish · 30/12/2025 11:26

Yes its not as straight forward and yes there are many workers that you could argue do more, but when your guiding and running large businesses and dealing with various people etc,

Do you know any billionaires OP?

LoveSandbanks · 30/12/2025 12:28

It’s been proven, in academic studies, that poverty is very stressful and takes up too
much “bandwith” in people’s brains. People stressed over poverty have poor decision making skills but when you give them more money and alleviate the “mental load” of poverty they make better decisions.

apparently the benefit system is a disincentive to work. If that were really the case, Elon musk, with more money than he could possibly spend in his lifetime would not work another day.

Kerrylass · 30/12/2025 12:13

Nothing is more stressful that being broke. Not knowing how you can pay the rent, bills, food etc.

Original poster
Jonnyenglish · 30/12/2025 12:09

Jamesblonde2 · 30/12/2025 12:07

I know why you have said this. Many times on here people say workers such as cleaners, call centre staff and the like work “just as hard” as those earning much more.

However, responsibility is a huge factor. For example the CEO could be responsible for 1000 people and them being able to pay their mortgage. And that responsibility is 24 hours, and not downing tools on holiday. And they’re not easily replaced like the cleaner etc.

Some people don’t like rich people (plenty on here) simply because they are rich. They contribute massively to their nations pockets. Let them buy and spend as much as they want I say, for every purchase they’re paying VAT.

People need to stop biting the hand which feeds them.

and i hate to say it but after researching the system and capitalism and ceo wages etc i agree

OP posts:
Jamesblonde2 · 30/12/2025 12:07

I know why you have said this. Many times on here people say workers such as cleaners, call centre staff and the like work “just as hard” as those earning much more.

However, responsibility is a huge factor. For example the CEO could be responsible for 1000 people and them being able to pay their mortgage. And that responsibility is 24 hours, and not downing tools on holiday. And they’re not easily replaced like the cleaner etc.

Some people don’t like rich people (plenty on here) simply because they are rich. They contribute massively to their nations pockets. Let them buy and spend as much as they want I say, for every purchase they’re paying VAT.

People need to stop biting the hand which feeds them.

Original poster
Jonnyenglish · 30/12/2025 12:03

MaggieBsBoat · 30/12/2025 12:01

They’re not stressed, the pay people to be stressed for them.

id say 50/50

OP posts:
MaggieBsBoat · 30/12/2025 12:01

They’re not stressed, the pay people to be stressed for them.

Original poster
Jonnyenglish · 30/12/2025 11:59

BlackCat14 · 30/12/2025 11:56

I’m dying to know what this means!

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well look at how academically the responses are on this thread, vs if i used wikipedia etc i would have essays on all differnet aspects of capitalsim by now but when i dicuss with the general public like im doing now i got this level of quality so yea

OP posts:
Original poster
Jonnyenglish · 30/12/2025 11:58

anonlawyer · 30/12/2025 11:55

I don’t think you can conflate a billionaire and wealthy. You can be wealthy with much less than a billion and I fully agree that there is an element of risk reward (which is hugely stressful) for many wealthy.

A billionaire will operate their whole life like a business and will be reliant on those around them - take family offices for example, the decision makers are usually employed to make those decisions on behalf of the underlying owners.

There have always been super rich people. I don’t think they are the whole issue and they are often employers of numerous. Our current issues are two fold, previously economically poor countries now want to share in the worlds resources (fair enough) and the printing of money since 2008 by the developed world to shore up general lack of productivity. That money printing has driven up asset value but is purely inflationary. There has been no real asset growth and the result is that assets are increasingly unaffordable for the man on the street. We need to stop taxing risk takers into oblivion - and create environments where the average man on the street can have a good idea, start a business, employ others on a fair wage and earn significantly more than they would if they were one of the employees to take account of the risks they are taking. People talk about late stage capitalism being bad - well it’s down to our administration to put in place an environment where individuals can be competitive and you don’t need huge asset backed wealth to change your own outcome. This is badly expressed but if individuals cannot easily improve life quality sufficiently there is no ambition to do so.

from my research eventually it will lead to universial basic incomes due to capitalism running out of steam

OP posts:
BlackCat14 · 30/12/2025 11:56

Jonnyenglish · 30/12/2025 11:44

only with ai as then it can keep up and give detailed answers, i would prefer humans but trying to get the sheldon coopers of society to debate with is very rare

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I’m dying to know what this means!