Ask HN: What reason would you have to chase wealth beyond $50M? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What reason would you have to chase wealth beyond $50M?

I can’t actually figure this out. I thought I always knew. There’s no way a sound heart would pursue that unless … unsound.

It’s a feeling I can’t really shake right now with the images on the news.

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There’s this commercial lot nearby, abandoned scrapyard, selling for around $150M. It would be such a cool piece of property for hosting robot fights and drone swarm training arena. Lots of random junk and equipment from being an operational recycling facility for decades. Enough space to imagine building community maker shops.

$50 million?! That's about three orders of magnitude above where I got off the rat race. With any luck it'll hit a four orders of magnitude, though the Timon of Athens problem is not unknown.

Endow a university or private high school somewhere?

Pay for research on something you think is interesting or worthwhile?

Create a park or a museum?

(A bunch of billionaires-in-today's-terms from the 19th and early 20th centuries tended to do stuff like that, and a lot of the stuff they endowed is still around!)

Pay for an expensive social, architectural, scientific, or ecological experiment of some sort?

I guess what I’m asking is, as innocent as those things you’ve listed are, are they really pursuits of a sound heart? Your first three suggestions can be named after you, for example (if you catch my drift here as a critique of the ego).

As in, you know those prices can’t be looked at without … I don’t know how else to spin it, it’s impossible to do without being greedy.

Inflation?

For your grandchildren, and your grandchildren's 2.3 children.

leaving your children and grandchildren money is surefire way to make sure they never do anything with their own lives

How do you reconcile that opinion with the usual "entrepreneurs started rich" story (Gates, Elon).

to quote Shaq of all people, "I am rich, my kids are not rich." growing up in a wealthy family should not mean that you are starting rich (although of course one will be afforded many opportunity less affluent kids won't have). what I was trying to say is that I would never leave my kid bunch of material things (money, house(s)...). what I would do is help her starting a business (e.g. Bezos) and would always make sure she has roof over her head etc... but nothing more than that. I have a few personal experiences (family, friends) of kids getting things from their parent (we are not talking here gates/elon-type deals but plenty) where kids literally did nothing with their lives and have spent (still spending, in their late-30's, early-40's) their inheritance doing absolutely nothing. And it is not even a "good nothing" - volunteering, contributing to society with something they are passionate about... I think it is just recipe for disaster to leave your children enough such that they do not have to make their own way in this world

Purchase^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H Bankroll campaigns for one or more representatives in Congress.

maple syrup farms

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