Who wouldn’t want a billion dollars?
Honestly…you might not want a billion dollars, once you hear why being a billionaire actually
sucks.
First, and this should be the most obvious - wealth may not necessarily change you, but
it definitely changes the people around you.
In a survey of the ultra rich conducted by Boston College, respondents claimed that their
personal relationships were directly impacted by their wealth - and how much of it they
spread.
As one put it: “I start to wonder how many people we know would cut us off if they didn’t
think they could get something from us.”
Co-workers, friends, even family members, all become suspicious characters to a billionaire
- how much of their affection and attention is the real thing?
It’s why people such as Presidents adopt a “no new friends” rule after attaining
higher office - like the mega-wealthy, the mega-famous and mega-visible are prime targets
for opportunists from every corner.
One financial firm even has psychiatrists on staff specifically to address wealthy clients’
issues with family members.
And don’t get us started on the love lives of billionaires.
In addition to the worry that your spouse may just be a gold-digger, writer Paul Sullivan
pointed out that the expense of a divorce suit, which gives most of us pause, is not
a concern for the ultra-wealthy, making intimacy disposable.
But don’t take our word for it.
Let’s look at J. Paul Getty, the petroleum industrialist worth over 6 billion dollars
when he passed away at age 83 in 1976.
Getty was married five times in his lifetime - four of those marriages lasted less than
four years, and all of them ended in divorce.
Getty also had a rotating door of mistresses, but his failed marriages continued to haunt
him.
Despite the money, despite the ready access to willing lovers of all ages, Getty said,
“A lasting relationship…is only possible if you are a business failure…I would gladly
give all my millions for just one lasting marital success.”
Getty’s five marriages did result in five sons, but that brought another headache - and
our second reason why you don’t want to be a billionaire: you’d worry more about
your kids.
Some billionaires have said that they worry their children will become too comfortable,
too entitled - and may even resent not having more, not just in terms of material wealth,
but in terms of being automatically trusted to take on the family business.
Ben Mezrich, author of The Accidental Billionaires and a slew of other books on millennial wealth,
said, “The children of the supremely wealthy often have lots of issues, because they’ve
never had to struggle - and struggle makes us strong.
…If you don’t have to struggle…you just drift along.”
Or as Michael O. Church also puts it, the children of the wealthy, “tend to live in
an uncanny valley…enough ambition to know they ‘should be’ making something of themselves
but not enough…discipline to actually do it.”
In a BBC article from 2015, one alleged son of a billionaire wrote that many relatives
of the patriarch, not seeing the work that goes into starting, building, and maintaining
that wealth, expect to live lavishly now, without having to earn any of the benefits
the chief breadwinner works for.
Now imagine you’re the billionaire - you know your struggle to make money, you know
how to maintain it - but since you can’t take it with you, wouldn’t you want your
kids to have those same skills?
To see money not as a given, but something to be valued?
That’s something the Getty family dealt with a lot.
With five sons and fourteen grandchildren, most of whom Getty was estranged from, there
was bound to be some trouble.
One of his sons was Eugene Paul Getty, who adopted the name John Paul Getty, Jr., when
he reconciled with his father after twelve years apart.
Getty named Junior the President of Getty Oil Italiana in Rome, and while it was fine
for a while…the drift occurred.
Two years after divorcing his first wife, Junior married Dutch actress-model Talitha
Pol.
Together, the two embraced the counterculture of the late-60s, living off of Junior’s
annual 100-thousand-dollar income from the family trust.
Junior lost his job with the company as he and Talitha fell into drug addiction; the
two separated as she got sober.
Junior wound up running from Italy to escape drug charges…leaving behind his 16-year-old
son, John Paul Getty the Third.
Paul also drifted - kicked out of school, left to his own devices, he spent his nights
in discotheques and his days squatting with friends.
Even if Paul didn’t have his grandfather’s money, he had the name, and he used it to
his advantage - he wasn’t even above using that name to get paid for a nude photo spread
in an Italian skin mag.
And when he needed still more money…he plotted his own kidnapping.
It’s the exact scenario billionaires fear: their children and grandchildren, entitled
and not struggling, lean on their family’s money and/or name to live carelessly.
Unfortunately, courting that kind of attention makes you a target - our third reason why
being a billionaire sucks.
When you’re a billionaire, people will try to get your money any way they can.
Bryan Clayton, CEO of GreenPal, started his first company when he was 18 - and claims
the first lawsuits against him came soon after.
It’s an issue that comes up a lot with lottery winners - lawsuits suddenly come out of the
woodwork, whether it’s from the liquor store owner who sold the ticket, or a friend collecting
on a 20-year-old promise to split winnings - it’s why most lawyers advise clients to
retain anonymity after a lottery win.
But beyond the legal battles billionaires deal with on a day-to-day basis, there is
also the threat against them and their family.
Whether from blackmailers looking to exploit the personal lives of relatives, or from kidnappers
looking to extort money.
William Randolph Hearst’s granddaughter Patricia was kidnapped in 1974, and wasn’t
even returned after the ransom was paid - instead, she was brainwashed into joining her kidnappers
in a crime spree, and wasn’t rescued until late 1975.
Many billionaires themselves have been kidnapped, like French industrialist Edouard-Jean Empain
in 1978, who was held for 63 days for an 80 million-franc ransom.
Or beer baron Freddy Heineken, who was kidnapped in 1983, and whose ransom of 11 million dollars
was the highest paid for a hostage.
And famously, that happened with Paul Getty.
Though he didn’t go through with his plan to get himself kidnapped, an Italian crime
syndicate wound up abducting him in 1973.
They demanded 17 million dollars in ransom from his grandfather.
Instead of paying, he negotiated - even after the kidnappers cut off Paul’s ear and mailed
it to a newspaper.
Even when the kidnappers reduced the demand to 3.3 million, Getty only agreed to pay 2.2
million…the maximum amount that could be tax deductible.
He loaned the remaining 800 thousand to his son, Paul’s father, at four percent interest.
Though Paul was returned alive in December, the trauma would affect him for the rest of
his life - he spiraled into drug and alcohol addiction, suffering a stroke after an overdose.
When you have a lot of money, you and your family are in constant danger.
By the way, a lot of people have had a lot to say over the years about Getty’s way
of dealing with his grandson’s kidnappers.
That’s the number four worst thing about being a billionaire.
Your every action and decision is under a microscope, meaning added pressure to behave
the quote-unquote “right way.”
And what do people consider the right way?
Generosity - there is an expectation towards billionaires that, because they have so much
money, they should be ready and willing to give up more and more of it.
Engineer and tech thought leader Phillip Remaker pointed out that “people…presume that
you can readily tap your vast wealth to address any problem.
…You will always be criticized for not spending enough on something to solve some problem.”
The Boston survey we mentioned before?
One of its architects described the word “rich” as having become a pejorative - there’s
an immediate dislike of people we believe have “too much” money.
Some of that dislike makes sense - in economic crises, such as the pandemic lockdowns of
the past year, or the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997, the billionaire class is the least
affected.
While American unemployment rates skyrocketed in 2020, its billionaire class increased their
wealth by over 430 billion dollars.
South Korea, lauded by many for its ability to go from one of the poorest nations in the
world to one of the most developed in less than 50 years, also sees a disparity: with
only 1.3 percent of its population making middle class earnings.
Some of the wealthy try to assuage this “money guilt” by giving more and more - making
charitable contributions, starting philanthropies, sponsoring advocacy groups.
Even Andrew Carnegie, one of the richest men in modern history, said that “the man who
dies thus rich dies disgraced” - he devoted the final 18 years of his life to various
philanthropies and foundations.
Still, many billionaires note that it’s impossible to fix every problem in the world,
no matter how hard they try, and feel there’s undo criticism that comes their way for not
doing enough - even when they try to do something.
Now, OK, the problem in J. Paul Getty’s case was his kidnapped grandson.
And people judged him a lot for (a) negotiating the final ransom price, then (b) having his
son pay it back.
But consider things from his point of view.
As he pointed out at the time, “I have 14 grandchildren.
If I pay one penny, I’ll have 14 kidnapped grandchildren.”
He also reasoned that, in addition to encouraging other criminals, paying would only whet the
appetite of the original kidnappers - just two years later, Patty Hearst’s kidnappers
refused to give her up after the ransom was paid.
Getty, like many a billionaire before and after him, was left with a tough choice: pay
up, and he exposes himself as a soft touch; don’t pay up, and he confirms the public’s
suspicions that the wealthy are greedy, uncaring people.
Actually, Getty’s actions were pretty canny.
He knew that what the kidnappers wanted more than anything was the millions of dollars
- they weren’t going to get rid of Paul, their only asset, before getting paid off.
In negotiating the price down, Getty refused to let criminals dictate the rules of society.
And in making his son pay back interest on the ransom, Getty was forcing him to actually
take responsibility for a problem he had helped to create.
Though it does highlight a problem that you probably don’t think billionaires have,
and it’s our fifth reason for why being a billionaire sucks - you worry about money.
Obviously, we all worry about money, a lot of us because we don’t seem to have enough
of it.
But being a billionaire doesn’t make that go away.
For one thing, people forget that in order to have billions of dollars, you have to make
billions of dollars - and keep making it!
To quote the producer Remy Blumenfeld, “They worry about losing it, they worry about how
it’s invested, they worry about the effect it’s going to have.”
They also know the value of every penny - Bill Gates admitted that, despite being worth 75
billion, he would still pick up a 100-dollar bill off the street - though he says he would
then immediately donate it to his foundation.
Besides keeping track of all that money, most billionaires also have to keep making it.
And Business Insider pointed out that despite the sacrifices made to build your wealth,
people will perceive you as working too hard, being too ruthless in business, that your
success only comes because you’ve been heartless.
Getty, for instance, could not take a moment off.
His industrial empire consisted of over 200 different businesses, seeing to the demands
of employees, family members - and, apparently, kidnappers.
He worked 16- to 18-hour days, even at the age of 81.
That’s what it takes to maintain a billion dollars.
But because he worked for it, knew the value of it, and had others around him recognize
the value - he was branded a heartless miser.
One of the things he was infamous for was installing a payphone in his mansion for guests
to use - but there was a reason!
Getty found that visitors took advantage of his hospitality and would make lengthy long-distance
calls - on his dime.
A payphone put a stop to that.
His frugality extended to his children: when his six-year-old son needed treatment for
a brain tumor, Getty admonished his fifth and final wife for negotiating the medical
bills ahead of time - his reasoning?
“Some doctors like to charge a rich person 20 times more than their regular fee.”
It’s cold, it’s calculated - it’s how you maintain a billion-dollar empire.
And that’s the final reason you don’t want to be a billionaire - it will change
your sense of morality.
The business acumen that made you a billionaire will also cloud some morality judgments - like
Bill Gates prioritizing maintaining intellectual property rights on life-saving vaccines over,
you know, accessibility to those life-saving medicines.
Or the number of corporations that, during World War II, valued the cheap slave labor
found in concentration camps - corporations like Nestle and Kodak.
When all you see is the bank account, profits become priority over people.
That’s not just a judgment on our part - multiple studies have shown this to be true.
The richer a person becomes, the more likely he is to cheat at games, run red lights, break
traffic laws, even shoplift.
Though as one other wealth expert put it, having access to billions probably exacerbates
your qualities - the worst and the best part of you - because now you have the means to
explore it with few consequences.
Now, check out why you don’t want to make more than 75,000 dollars, or click this other
video instead!