To wonder what it must be like being a billionaire?

[malificent7]

And what kind of personality these people have?
Just facinated by star link and Elon Musk's space ambitions, also by Bill Gates and all the hysteria around him at the moment.
I mean these characters have so much power and influence.
Just musing on how much easier it must be being in lockdown with all that cash but also wondering if any of them are true philanthropists.
Im a socialist at heart but wonder at how these people managed to hoard so much of the worlds resources. It seems vastly unfair.

Go to the big. Take a dump. That's what it's like to be a billionaire taking a dump.

Sorry, bog

@Lostvoiced but they don't earn a billion. They are worth a billion. Those are two very very different things and the vast majority of that worth will be subjective and susceptible to falls in markets.

On a smaller scale, it's a bit like my parents being millionaires. They don't have a million pounds in cash. They're not earning a million pounds. My mum's a part time admin assistant and my dad's retired. But they have a house which they bought some 25 years ago which in theory with the right buyer could now be sold for about £1m. However, the housing market could crash and it could only be worth say £200k. But for the moment, we could say that they are worth £1m.

Billionaires are the same thing, on a much bigger scale and with companies and investments instead of a house.

E.g. Richard Branson might be worth X amount of money. But that worth is due to the theoretical valuation of Virgin shares, for example. If Virgin goes bust, it's worth fuck all. Saying he is worth Xbn is not the same as earning Xbn.

I haven't met any billionaires or rubbed shoulders with stars. People in my life are just ordinary. Im happy being ordinary. I work for what I have and have a comfortable life and good health. Im grateful for everything.

Steve Jobs wrote a list of things that money can't buy before he died
One was good health

That Steve Jobs death bed speech was a fake though.

One of the weirdest things I read about Steve Jobs is that he had one of the types of pancreatic cancer with a survival rate that's not too bad. But he delayed treatment for months to use alternative treatments, which likely killed him. Crazy to me that someone that smart who could have had the best care in the world would do something so dumb.

I think if you are Bill Gates/Mark Zuckerberg and very brainy you are less likely to get bored - you’ll always be working on stuff.

But if you’ve just inherited it, have no drive, ambition or interests then it must be quite boring.

Billionaires shouldn't exist. I think its disgusting that they do. Most people dont realise how much money a billion really is. I think as soon as you earn more than a billion the rest should be redistributed. Nobody deserves that much money to just sit on. Just shows how broken our society is.*

What a load of old cobblers.

Billionaires who own and run companies aren’t hoarding billions. Their wealth is tied up in their companies shares, and it usually takes a long time before those companies are secure enough for the founder to start selling off large chunks of shares without absolutely tanking the value and threatening the company. Bezos only got to that point where he can sell without the market getting nervous pretty recently. Musk is still a good 5-10 years away. In the mean time they borrow against the shares, and while they can’t borrow anything like what they’re worth on paper they’re still usually leveraged to the hilt. Most people would be eaten up with stress carrying that kind of debt, especially in a time like this when the future of everything is uncertain and the markets unstable. Someone like Musk could be completely wiped out by margin calls if the market suddenly crashed.

I wouldn’t want to be a billionaire. Even the low profile ones who just quietly inherited family money from families no one remembers of ever really knew the names of have endless security concerns. Also, as far as philanthropy, it’s not actually that easy to give away billions. If you don’t care where exactly it goes you can just hire a big team to handle it for you, but if you want to be sure it’s being used well then that’s a full time job, and not one you’ll automatically be suited to. A lot of people have tried to do good and just ended up throwing a fortune away.

IIRC JK Rowling isn't a billionaire any more as she's given so much away. And she pays her taxes.

I met two a couple of years ago through work. I had to take them for lunch. They wanted to go to Vietnamese place and eat noodles and dumplings - great! I love that kind of food.

It was a bit stilted at first so I asked them if they had dogs because I'd recently got a puppy. Well, that fixed everything! The phones came out, we showed photos of the dogs and the conversation flowed. Kids, houses, everyday frustrations. They were really nice and we had more in common than I imagined. Never got any further business out of it but it was a nice afternoon.

I find it odd that the super rich watch the same films and TV as the rest of us - there isn't a higher grade version for them to watch. Same for lots of things. If they drive then they hot the same traffic and pot holes, albeit in a nicer car and possibly being chauffeured.

In my friends circle there a few couples who are millionaires and honestly you wouldn't be able to tell. In my experience what rich people covet most is privacy and once you reach a certain level of wealth that gets harder and harder to achieve.

We live in Geneva, arguably one of the most wealthy places in Europe. It's amazing to see the wealth on display but old money is far harder to see because of how much privacy is valued. My DD goes to and international school with a member of the Saudi royal family and she dresses in Primark clothes. You wouldn't be able to tell if it weren't for the bodyguard.

My DD goes to and international school with a member of the Saudi royal family and she dresses in Primark clothes.

If you want to dress your daughter in Primark clothes, Good for you.

@1555CC not my daughter, the Saudi royal. My point was that you wouldn't know by looking at her.

@Justajot, but they can afford the best seats for every opera house, theatre and classical music venue in the world. They could hire the Berlin Philharmonic for a private concert for their birthday. They can arrange private viewings of any art exhibition they like, anywhere in the world. They can fund arts festivals or support musicians and artists.

Well, that’s what I’d be doing with my billions.

Do you think they get bored? The thrill of everything must wear off. I mean, you can only have so many cars, holidays, whatever.