this post was submitted on 08 Mar 2026
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I don't necessarily buy into this either i think power corrupts and that causes this appearance. Billionaires are just not special and got that way through a combination of things such as luck,actual smarts, inheritance, Racial and sex privilege and so on.
No it's not corruption, it's an inherent defect in character. There's a certain amount of money that you don't get accidentally or by any amount of honest personal effort.
You could get a "small loan of $1M" as a trust fund baby and grow it at twice the rate of the stock market (~14% apy) for 50 years and not even be halfway to $B. To get there you have to be committing fraud/hurting people/breaking laws.
And there's also the fact that there's no reason to make that much money. The diminishing returns are astounding once you get disgustingly wealthy. Before you hit $1B you could own a home in every major city in the world, own a mega yacht, buy a sports team, own private jets, etc. All without working a day for the rest of your life.
Billionaires are trading precious years of their life, the one resource that can't be bought, to make their numbers bigger. The stress and effort are just not worth it, let alone the harm you have to inflict on others to get there. These people should be stopped for their own good.
I agree, power corrupts, and anyone who climbs high enough will become corrupt. Power is also addictive, they can't give it up.
There are very few exceptions proving the rule in this case.