..to which I have no answer. The US Govt wants to put a high tax on the mega rich (No chance of passing it as the powerful and the Republicans would block it. Now I know people like Bill Gates put billions into various foundations and charities, Warren Buffett does the same but they still have billions of dollars of personal assets . No idea about Bezos and Musk regarding These people still have billions in various offshore accounts trust etc. Even if you want a luxury yacht or two! have mansions and the Mega rich life style that goes with it. Even 1bn at 5% yields $50m p.a. pre tax . Whilst I appreciate much of the $178bn quoted as being Bezos current net worth is on paper and not liquid cash but even then what is the point of all that money sitting in offshore accounts, tied up in bonds and securities? Whilst you want to leave your family secure you don't need remotely close to that much wealth to do so. What drives these people to hold onto so much wealth?
A bit of greed, one hell of a lot of fear. Scared of losing it. Scared of being overtaken. Scared of going back to what they once were. A man with £100 wants a £1000. When he gets £1000, he wants £10000. Then £100000. And so on. It's like salaries; you seldom move in the other direction. I'm guessing it is the same for the guys you mention.
I think greed was the start. But now, given the scale of wealth these super billionaires have amassed, they also reach into other areas. Vanity. And the need for real power. Think of the good someone like Jeff Bezos could do with that ridiculous wealth he has. Think what more he could do for his employees. For the environment. For society. And yet his company can't even pay taxes on their massive profits.
No other word for it Mun, Greed, and it's rife all over the world take this country. A certain house of lords Tory Baroness, Michelle Mone she, and her husband run an underwear firm but during the pandemic started up a PPE firm called BPPPEMedbro and got a contract with the government, they bought £46 million of PPE from China and sold it to the Government (NHS) for £136 million and it was rubbish threw it away, it was investigated but swept under the carpet like most things with this government remember that money belonged to us anyone without greed would have donated this profit of nigh on £90million back to the NHS.
Poor man wants to be rich, rich man wants to be king, a king ain’t satisfied till he rules everything
I don't know how much of these people's wealth is quickly accessible and not tied up in shares of businesses such as Amazon etc., but I would imagine a lot of it is like others have said, fear of losing it etc. If I won £100 million on the Euromillions I know there would be a part of me terrified of frittering it away and running out, even with such a huge figure. Highly irrational but I guess it is human instinct. People like this become rich through being very shrewd- getting rid of their wealth goes against everything they've ever learnt.
"A poor man wants to be rich, a rich man wants to be king, And a king ain't satisfied till he rules everything" The Boss, "Badlands".....
For what it's worth, I worked for Jaguar on a very decent salary and my job was outsourced, I briefly did contracting (less than a year) again very nicely paid but then worked for a small web developer for less than half what I got at Jaguar and finished off at British Car Auctions on minimum wage.... Edit. The last few working years were amongst the best; for both the last 2 jobs I was able to cycle commute (I hated the M42 when at Jag with a passion) and at the auctions for the first time in over 30 years I was able to completely switch off when not at work. Circumstances allowed me to live comfortably on the reduced income so I was fortunate and my age was a major factor in finding work in IT. I consider myself lucky really.
