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Comment by randlet | Hacker News Reader

> I understand the self-interested desire for the ultra wealthy to have lower taxes on an individual level,

I don't. It seems like mental illness to me

What is so hard about understanding their desire? They want to keep more money for themselves so they can buy more yachts, invest in more things, whatever. This is just how humans are.

It's up to policy makers (i.e. government when it comes to taxation) to structure the system to mitigate the inherent self-interest that people have. Obviously that's easier said than done when the ultra-rich buy off the politicians, but human nature just is what it is.

The thing is they have so much money they can't buy enough. Even if all they do is consume, consume, consume they will still be trending upwards. In effect, every yacht has a negative price tag.

It bears the same hallmarks as any other addict: the next hit has to be even bigger than the last, and everyday enjoyments in life are practically invisible to them. Their drug of choice may be different, but the outcome on their life, relationships and society is largely the same.

> This is just how *some* humans are.

To clarify, I don't mean all humans want to keep all money for themselves even when filthy rich, I just mean that all humans are self-interested. The extent to which that governs our behavior of course differs and I agree there are people who willingly sacrifice to help others. A bit more in another comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45683652

To clarify a bit...

I meant I understand it in the sense that to get that wealthy in the first place you have to have a special kind of self-interested sociopathy, so in that regard I understand their desire. Not that I agree with it.

Every human is self-interested. Fortunately there are a lot of good people out there who try to temper that instinct, but remembering that everybody by default has a "what's in it for me" line of thinking (even if consciously attempting to subjugate it) is important for understanding as much as we can about how the world works. I don't think a sleasy real estate agent is behaving any differently (by jacking up fees, putting people in properties that may not be in their best interest, strong-arming FSBOs into listing with them) than the billionaire is, it's just the scale of their blast radius that is different. That's not to equate the two, because obviously scale matters, but the underlying motiviation is largely the same.

Gotcha. I should have realized you meant that from the rest of your post.

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