Eminem hinted at the answer. During the peak of his fame he was at a restaurant with his crew and having a great time and he was making jokes and everyone was laughing and then in a flash of clarity he realised:
> of course they're laughing, every single one of these people are on my payroll.
Riches have an incredibly distorting effect, especially once you cross the threshold of becoming a target. At that point you _need_ security, you _need_ to move to a gated community and you can no longer lead a normal life. The only other people you can meet who aren't trying to get into your wallet are other rich people and they're as insane as you are. You also have "fuck you" money so being nice, having other people like you isn't necessary any more. You no longer have a limiter. It gives people the opportunity to be more monstrous and I worry that much monstrosity lies dormant within us all, simply waiting for its opportunity.
IMHO Hoardcurse only has two cures: put yourself at risk by forcing yourself to interact with normal people who don't owe you anything and don't know how rich you are, or give-away/spend your assets and become normally poor again, which ofc nobody ever does.
It's fame more than riches that does this. You can be as rich as you like, but if you stay out of the news and don't splash cash no-one will ever know. I know someone like this. The live an upper middle class life (nice house, etc.) but could easily afford a lot more. They don't want all the bullshit that entails.
Not entirely, its more a worry than an assertion, humanity's greatest strength is that it isn't a monolith so I'd figure YMMV. Its just when the jeering crowd point and shame others for being reprehensible, part of me wonders if all that crowd would pass that vibe-check if they'd been presented with that same opportunity. Is it morality, or is it just opportunity? Idk but I think its hard to prove either way.
So, true wealth removes the limiters and the consequences that might keep some people in check. It's like how, for all the horrors that religion foisted upon us over the centuries, one of the good things it did was to encourage a general populace to attempt to better people using the threat of hell and encouraging an acknowledgement of sin.
There's also some selection bias going on: in order to become obscenely wealthy, you probably need to lack some empathy and decency to beging with. Once you get there, these qualities can then flourish unhinged.
Eminem hinted at the answer. During the peak of his fame he was at a restaurant with his crew and having a great time and he was making jokes and everyone was laughing and then in a flash of clarity he realised:
> of course they're laughing, every single one of these people are on my payroll.
Riches have an incredibly distorting effect, especially once you cross the threshold of becoming a target. At that point you _need_ security, you _need_ to move to a gated community and you can no longer lead a normal life. The only other people you can meet who aren't trying to get into your wallet are other rich people and they're as insane as you are. You also have "fuck you" money so being nice, having other people like you isn't necessary any more. You no longer have a limiter. It gives people the opportunity to be more monstrous and I worry that much monstrosity lies dormant within us all, simply waiting for its opportunity.
IMHO Hoardcurse only has two cures: put yourself at risk by forcing yourself to interact with normal people who don't owe you anything and don't know how rich you are, or give-away/spend your assets and become normally poor again, which ofc nobody ever does.