But lifetime is finite, and you can't buy more of it no matter how rich you are. And even the super-rich can get hit by a bus.
Article:
"The biggest problem with pursuing monetary wealth over everything else is the opportunity cost associated with it. How many hours will it take to scale your income from $250k to $500k? $1M? $10M? Will any amount of money ever be enough? What other forms of wealth will you have to sacrifice to get there?"
The opportunity cost is NOT those of the person pursuing money. It's the opportunity cost of all those others having less because a few rich people took it all.
Not getting a decent education because one's parents were poor. Missing out on social events because that costs money one doesn't have. Damaging health because doctors bill would be too high. Contributing less to society due to above & related factors.
Multiplied by the # of poor people. That is the cost to society caused by wealth inequality / allowing to have super-rich people at all.
Some wealth inequality is okay. Too much, and basically everyone is worse off.
I regard money as lubrication oil: when you have none, machinery grinds to a halt. With just a little, you can get things running. With a bit more, things run smoothly. Adding tons more, doesn't help much.
What point is there to have a few people whose machinery runs super-smooth, when that causes everybody else's machinery to grind to a halt?
Getting traction on this problem at the scope of the entire world would indeed be a huge lift. It's a shame that it's impossible to narrow the scope to something more realistic. As everyone knows, prosperous countries doing work to more equitably share that prosperity among its citizens is... a sin?
>And eventually, if you have enough money, working at all becomes entirely optional.
Also eventually, if your expenses are low enough, working at all becomes entirely optional.
It would seem to be possible for these approaches to meet in the middle somewhere depending on the individual.
In terms of time one of the most lavish luxuries is to have the time to clean your own dwelling, make your own meals and low-tech stuff like that without having to be bound to only high-tech and/or high-earning action so strongly all the time.