Why Don’t Rich People Just Stop Working?

This is a topic I've personally given a lot of thought.

I worked for a Silicon Valley company that became quite successful. I made enough money to quit and live off the investment income. I got to the level of wealth I needed and it was enough for me and retired. I enjoyed my work and my job, but I also wanted to do other things in my life, and having a full-time job in Silicon Valley precluded that.

I was at my employer early enough that I had quite a bit of personal contact with the CEO at this company, and he did not think like me at all. Money wasn't the main thing for him. He wants to chase down his competitor, watch it struggle in death, chew on the meat, bury the corpse, dig it up again, make sure it's dead, and then bury it again. This guy lives for the hunt, and the hunt is all there is.

When I figured this out, I realized I could never be him. I couldn't summon that level of motivation on a constant basis even if I used every bit of my willpower.

And I'm glad that I was on this guy's side and not his competitor.

It seems like the article totally misses the obvious explanation, which is that these people became wealthy by doing things that they enjoy and are passionate about, which just happen to also pay them money. Maybe the people during the dot-com boom whose plan was to make $2M then retire to Napa Valley did exactly that, and by definition, never became billionaires. There are probably billionaires who don't enjoy their work, but I suspect they aren't common.

There should be another word for it.

"Work", for most people, is a thing you have to do until you die or retire.

"Work", for rich people, is a hobby that you can quit whenever you want without suffering dire consequences.

Same word but totally different meanings based on your net worth.

A lot of the comments in this thread are saying it's because the rich are passionate about what's making them money, or their work is like a hobby to them.

I think "work" as it is said in this article, is maybe better read as "making money". The article is more about why do the comfortably rich continue putting in so much effort to make even more money. Sure, they can continue to do hobbies or whatever and call it "work", but why continue trying to make a profit, instead of paying employees more, or running non-profits, or pursuing hobbies in ways that doesn't generate them more massive amounts of money?

Because the only thing left to do is contemplate your existence. Ever tried that for an extended amount of time?

When I was at a start up the CEO was someone who had started a business, sold it, then retired. He said he enjoyed it for a month, he did some things he wanted to do, cooked. Then ended up missing work and applied to our company. Some people love to work.

Why don't all retired people just stop working?

Why don't actors who could live a comfortable middle-class lifestyle off TV residuals just stop working?

It's the same answer: most people like to do productive stuff at least some of the time.

From the Gita:

The demoniac person thinks: "So much wealth do I have today, and I will gain more according to my schemes. So much is mine now, and it will increase in the future, more and more. He is my enemy, and I have killed him; and my other enemy will also be killed. I am the lord of everything, I am the enjoyer, I am perfect, powerful and happy. I am the richest man, surrounded by aristocratic relatives. There is none so powerful and happy as I am. I shall perform sacrifices, I shall give some charity, and thus I shall rejoice." In this way, such persons are deluded by ignorance.

I suspect that for a lot of people it's more fun to make the money than to spend it. Some people (like myself) would rather try to do hard things and fail than to never try at all. If you do this enough times, eventually you get lucky. Once you eventually find yourself with money, the novelty wears off quickly and you realize you want to get back to building and creating things.

This is probably part of the reason why many people who get windfalls (lottery, inheritance, etc) spend all the money and wind up broke again. Easy come, easy go.

If you are good at doing something, in this example that something being making money, ceasing that activity means doing something you are less good at. I don't think many people have the discipline or curiosity to say: "Well that was fun, I figured it out, time to learn something new". It's a brain thing, we get a dopamine reward by succeeding. Moving on requires breaking that addiction. In my opinion, it's not unlike any other addiction.

This is why a UBI doesn't create a nation of layabouts!

A relevant quote from Pink Floyd:

take all your overgrown infants away somewhere and build them a home a little place of their own the fletcher memorial home for incurable tyrants and kings and they can appear to themselves every day on closed circuit t.v. to make sure they're still real it's the only connection they feel

Because they don't work for money but for power.

The same reason rich kings don't just stop being kings.

Michael Douglas said it best: "It's not about the money. It's about winning."

They do, then they get bored

They are not really working. They are now enjoying their hobbies which now includes making more money.

Make no mistake. People work to survive or maintain a standard of living or raise their kids. Many rich people are not doing this. Most of them are doing what they enjoy with extreme intensity. This is NOT work in the same sense that most people "work."

Because sitting around doing nothing all day is boring. Most people that are rich are most likely very competitive and need that competition to feel happy and fulfilled.

They absolutely do stop working and start "working"