who wants to be a billionaire
Last week we learned how many people would be seen in public wearing a shirt that says: "We should have more billionaires." The answer is at least one–smiling, having his photo taken next to an actual billionaire. This caused somewhat of a stir online, but what's most interesting to me in this conversation is the complicated relationship we have with billionaires.
A billionaire can mean many things to people. They can be a paragon of hard work and talent, as fans of Taylor Swift (estimated net worth: $1.6 billion) might tell you. Or, they're shrewd and disciplined businesspeople, like Warren Buffett (estimated net worth: $141.7 billion). Or, they're robber barons who have exploited their way to the top, like, well, any billionaire if you believe there should be no billionaires.
A Harris poll last year reported that six in 10 Americans longed to be billionaires, and yet nearly the same number said that billionaires were creating a more unfair society1. Mathematically, there has to be overlap between those two groups2.
In other words, at least one-third of the people who wanted to become billionaires understood that they would be worsening society, but still desired to have that level of financial security. So the t-shirt could actually say "The world needs at least one more billionaire: me" but that seems a bit self-centering. (It also presumably doesn't let you brown-nose your boss as succinctly.)
Of course respondents are imagining that level of wealth, and I'd be curious where their thresholds were at. After all, most people wouldn't reasonably be able to spend a billion dollars in their lifetime3. Perhaps they'd be just as happy to split a billion dollars between 20 people, gaining $50 million in the bank and a smaller share of the blame for inequality.
In the 2018 track "Boss" by the Carters, Jay-Z (estimated net worth: $2.5 billion) raps:
"We measure success by how many people successful next to you / Here we say you broke if everybody gets broke except for you / Boss!"
I have no idea what his idea of broke is, but it speaks to the fact that people who have strong ties to a community would probably choose the latter over the former. (I know someone's thinking: "Well, I'd take the billion and then create opportunities for the others!" and to that I'd say, well, imagine yourself on the other side of that scenario.)
We could even extend the thought exercise to wondering how many people would choose an option to take just a dollar so that a billion less one people could be a dollar richer? Now, who that dollar goes to is important: that dollar goes a lot further in a poorer region or country than a richer one.
Wealth is relative, and that explains why billionaires appear to still want to accumulate. Economics likes to pride itself as a rational science, but only touchy-feely psychology can explain why people with more money than they can ever spend are still in a competition to be the richest person on earth.
Psychology also explains why someone would rather align with billionaires even if they are much closer in wealth to the 99% and have very little chance of becoming one. In Western culture, our desires can be traced to one or a combination of three things: power, wealth, and status. The t-shirt, then, isn't really that different from people who sport luxury brands4 in hopes of being seen in a better light.
In both cases, you're hoping to aura farm as much as possible, while ultimately the ultra-rich get richer off your efforts.
[1] I don't know if they distinguish between billionaires actively creating income inequality or benefiting from a system that promotes income inequality, or both
[2] Theoretically, the same six out of 10 who said billionaires promote income inequality could also want to be billionaires, and heck maybe they're for income inequality, but that seems unlikely to me
[3] Most people want to believe that if they were to become a billionaire they would be the exception and choose to do good. What "good" looks like is subjective, and the answers you usually get are essentially business jargon: job creation, stimulating the economy, and so on. That sounds good but remember, the tulip bubble and tobacco companies also created jobs and stimulated the economy
[4] If you're new to the business of fashion, very few brands actually make their money on the clothes. Instead, they rely on high-margin accessories and cosmetics, which don't cost a lot to produce but justify their lofty prices by conveying status through brand association.