this post was submitted on 08 Mar 2026
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You're right that material conditions are the main contributing factor in the creation of billionaires, but why do you think it's the only factor?
There were thousands of individuals who had the right connections, the right age, the right group of friends, etc. Only a small percentage become billionaires. Do you think this selection process is purely luck?
I think there is something that sets apart one class of obscenely-wealthy oligarchs from their slightly-less wealthy counterparts. Maybe it's sociopathy, or adhd, or extreme greed. It definitely looks like mental illness.
"Material conditions" isn't a single factor, its a plethora of interlocking economic systems.
Meanwhile, there is no singular psychological profile that defines "billionaire". Elon Musk and Warren Buffet and Michael Bloomberg and Miriam Adelson and Donald Trump are all totally different people.
Quite a few of them become mega-millionaires. It's not as though only having $500M makes you some kind of failure. Some people just get luckier than others. The folks that got rich on AOL and Yahoo never reached the heights of Google or Comcast, but it hardly matters. They're still stupid rich.
Sure. Dumb luck.