And of course it’s easy for a billionaire to say “money and things aren’t important.”
The important thing that they always miss is why its easy. It goes beyond just being able to afford to hotel hop. In a very real sense everything belongs to him. At least everything that is mass producible. This guy doesn't need a car because wherever in the world he is, he can simply say "get me a car" and one will appear. Substitute boat, plane, ham sandwich, whatever and its still true. When you have that much money, "ownership" becomes entirely a matter of semantics.
I think in some sense we're all moving towards this model of "ownership", in one way or another.
For example, when it comes to the most easily mass producible thing in the world--information--we're all "billionaires" now. I can ask Google to get me all kinds of information, and it just appears. Even 15 years ago some fairly trivial Google searches would have required privileged access to sources of knowledge (libraries, universities, etc... stuff not always available everywhere in the world) and lots of free time.
There are very few limits (or if there are, we haven't reached them yet) on the reproducibility of information. The marginal cost of reproducing information for another ten or twenty billion human beings is fairly negligible. Will it ever be the case that we can overcome the limits on the reproducibility of material goods? Or are there fundamental constraints on material goods that don't exist for information? If we can overcome them, then one day we will all be "billionaires", in this sense.
EDIT: Amazon Web Services is a good example of this kind of transformation; it's made all of us "millionaires" when it comes to computing. A few years ago, "get me a thousand servers" would have required millions of dollars, a fair amount of time, and a lot of technical expertise. With EC2, it requires $100/hr.
The major difference between information and material goods is that material goods also serve as indicators of status. If we evolve toward some other way of indicating status, then one day stuff will be just as free as information is now. But if not, people will continue to spend money on ridiculously overpriced stuff that has no added utility over "regular" stuff, just to show that they're better than those who can't afford it.
And they are better, in a sense. This seemingly childish game of status shouldn't be discounted. It's evolutionarily very important.
> Will it ever be the case that we can overcome the limits on the reproducibility of material goods? Or are there fundamental constraints on material goods that don't exist for information?
Yes, in a sense: see reprap.org, and further along in the future, molecular nanotechnology. However, there will always be a (small) cost for the raw materials that go into the finished product.
yes, that's true. on the flip side, if the meaning of wealth is to have what you want when you want it (apart from ownership), then we're getting closer to an understanding of wealth apart from having $$$, and sometimes this is worthwhile to remember.
Is there not as much ego as wanting to have museums named after you as there is in having fancy cars and houses. This determination to leave a legacy can often be just as conceited. Its not enough to be rich, people want to have a stamp on history like the Rockefellers or Carnegies.
Donating to a museum may seem altruistic but don't be so foolish, you can never really know people's true motivations.
Too true, but I'd rather have him spend his money on a museum or library that I can enjoy than a pair of private jets that I cannot. The original motivation matters very little to me.
When you have US$1,000, you can buy any item that costs up to US$1,000. When you have US$1,000,000, you can buy any item that costs up to US$1,000,000. When you have US$1,000,000,000, well, there aren't many items that have a price tag like that.
And of course it’s easy for a billionaire to say “money and things aren’t important.”
The important thing that they always miss is why its easy. It goes beyond just being able to afford to hotel hop. In a very real sense everything belongs to him. At least everything that is mass producible. This guy doesn't need a car because wherever in the world he is, he can simply say "get me a car" and one will appear. Substitute boat, plane, ham sandwich, whatever and its still true. When you have that much money, "ownership" becomes entirely a matter of semantics.