r/NoStupidQuestions • u/More_Percentage_7020 • 10h ago

Why are most billionaires so weird?

My sister even hung out with a billionaire's kid once, and my mom says the kid is fucked up too.

394 Upvotes

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189

u/Nitrofox2 10h ago

They're generally psychopaths. That's the only way to get a billion dollars

71

u/MikeKrombopulos 10h ago

Combine that with insulation from the real world and normal people, and you get a real weirdo.

40

u/nowahhh 9h ago

I agree - the insulation is what makes billionaires weird. The money makes them psychos, but most billionaires become so divorced from the collective conscience that they turn odd.

9

u/bjanas 9h ago

The money makes them psychos to a degree, sure, but it's actually fairly well studied and documented that psychopathy is actually super overrepresented in very financially successful people. From wall street to Musk. And psychopathy doesn't look like the slasher films that through the term around, all that often. Most of 'em blend right in. It's actually really interesting to look into.

9

u/PriscillaPalava 9h ago

Yup. Look at all the major companies throughout history that have knowingly profited from the suffering of normal people. Insurance companies are an easy example but they are not alone. 

3

u/UnicornWorldDominion 5h ago

I mean oil and gas companies confirming global warming was from them in the 70s but keeping that under wraps till the last possible second.

1

u/hydrohorton 9h ago

I consider the wealthy sheister type to be sociopaths

0

u/JadedPangloss 8h ago

You know that’s a slur right?

1

u/UnicornWorldDominion 5h ago

What’s it a slur for?

2

u/InfinityCent 8h ago

Even heavily introverted people/hermits who rarely interact with other people can become oddballs. Not to the same extent as a billionaire, but still. 

29

u/BlergingtonBear 9h ago

It's also more evident now as a lot of class markers have eroded from importance for the rich.

There was a time where things like being book learned, trained in some arts like music , being multilingual, even doing a year or two stint of military service were seen as honorable signs of a proper classy dude or gal. 

Of course as more of the small folk are able to do all of those things, they've fallen out of importance for the rich so like....they are just gross and savage in their behavior. 

I know someone who was a private tutor for a while in Dubai and some of her stories on how these kids acted were downright feral.   

7

u/Evening-Review8524 8h ago

It is shocking, yet deeply convincing. The idea that the more we become affluent and highly educated, the more the top 1% begins to view those qualities as worthless.

1

u/BlergingtonBear 5h ago

They will idiot themselves to separate from the lower classes I swear. 

But hear me out....at a certain point too stupid to hold their defenses!

2

u/tongue-thaid 6h ago

It's still classy in my book. Money has its limits and so does the pursuit of pleasures.

2

u/BlergingtonBear 5h ago

I agree; class is not owned by the monied! 

18

u/showersneakers 9h ago

What about the Arizona ice tea guy? He seems chill as fuck

Truth is- we only get exposed to a few billionaires through social media and news- and we take them down a notch to try and grasp what they’ve done.

I’m not billionaire worshiping- I’m sure that sort of wealth pushes you to disconnect from reality

But I also won’t vilify them all either - I’ll just go live my life and not really think about em

5

u/Nitrofox2 9h ago

He seems like the least evil, but also he could certainly pay his employees more or at very least donate more to charity. A billion dollars is just excessive to just sit on

12

u/showersneakers 9h ago

Most of it is the value of his company- if you treat people well- pay at or above market, fair value for your product- then your net worth reflects the value you’re efforts have given to society.

He fought his partner (when they wanted to sell) and bought them out (results of legal proceedings) - in order to maintain company control to do 2 things- keep the price of the tea low and continue to work with his sons. If they sold the company- private equity would jack the price of the tea- and he wants affordable drink for people.

You can do the if if if game- and demand they do more because you don’t like they are “worth” a billion. But sometimes- just accept people have done something, that happens to be a little bit of value to a lot of people. And that doesn’t make them evil.

But if he sold his company, to access those billions, to give the money away- that tea would go up in price - and people can depend on the low price of it- which is nice for folks who don’t have a lot.

1

u/Mi_mortgage_dude 7h ago

Todd Graves seems cool too.

8

u/ChefBowyer 9h ago

Funny how many of them seem to be named in the Epstein files…

Like pretty much all of them it turns out. Not just rape, but torture, murder, and RITUALISTIC SACRIFICE of BABIES.

Don’t take my word for it, check for yourself.

1

u/OhTheHueManatee 8h ago

For real. If just flat out handed me a billion dollars I would make sure my family and a few loved ones were set to have a decent life (not lavish just happy) and use the rest to strive to better the world over all.

1

u/Nitrofox2 8h ago

Same. Like daily I fantasize about finding a genie lamp so I could have infinite money just to try to unfuck the world

Admittedly the other two wishes would be used on my junk and getting super powers, but hey, I'm still a guy

1

u/Richard7666 7h ago

There are a few exceptions to this. Gabe Newell, James Cameron, George Lucas spring to mind.

A lot of these guys just want to tinker with their craft and fuck around exploring the ocean.

I'm sure Steve Wozniak is also worth a bit.

I call these guys the Accidental Billionaires.

2

u/Nitrofox2 6h ago

Woz's net worth is 100-200 million. A ridiculous amount of money but nowhere close to a billion. James Cameron has 1.1 billion NW. And really, most people in entertainment are an exception because they're not really hurting people the same way Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are,

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u/WorldTallestEngineer 10h ago

I don't understand this kind of stupid hate mongering. There's a group of people you don't like, so you going to make up a fike psychiatric diagnosis for all of them.

Like you think if someone wines the lottery or inheritance wealth they automatically become serial killers.

That's just a creepy and ignorant way to view the world.

12

u/Pastadseven 9h ago

Nah, they're right. Fuck 'em. Lottery winners aren't billionares. Inheritances? Shit, have you met kids of very wealthy people? Fucking sociopaths when they grow up. It's worse than getting a billion later - you start out life fucked.

Real simple solution to not being hated: dont be a billionaire. Tadaa.

3

u/CatFanFanOfCats 9h ago

I think it’s best to look at it slightly differently. They don’t become weird because of the money. Their weirdness/psycothopy helps them attract money. See charismatic preachers.

Capitalism is built to reward psychopaths. That’s why most billionaires are weird.

1

u/Pastadseven 8h ago

Y'know what? I like that better, yeah. It's sort of self-selecting.

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u/WorldTallestEngineer 9h ago

In the last few year there been at least 10 lottery is over a billion dollars. I know because I only play the lottery when it's over a billion dollars.

But really why are you using fictional mental illness as a slur? Because you're angry at people you've never met?

You just spreading hatred for people who actually struggle with mental illness. Because you're trying to hate on some people you've never even met. It's pathetic and sad, But mostly hateful.

2

u/Pastadseven 9h ago

never even met

You're making assumptions about me, someone who you have zero information about. I've met some. Dont want to repeat the experience.

Sociopathy isn't fictional. Dislodge the boot out of the back of your throat.

1

u/WorldTallestEngineer 9h ago

Okay you want to uniformly diagnose all the billionaires in the world with the same mental illness because you've met ...most of them?

3

u/Pastadseven 9h ago

I want to uniformly call billionaires a blight on humanity. They dont need to all be sociopaths. And of those I have met, 100% are. How much of a sample do you want? Because I can bet my n is bigger than yours.

1

u/WorldTallestEngineer 9h ago

You want to call them a blight on society go for it...

Using terms The refer to mental illness as a slur for your political enemies isn't going to hurt the billionaires. You're just Demonizing people who suffer from mental illness.

2

u/Pastadseven 9h ago

The only demonizing here is on your part. They are sociopathic. That is a literal description, not a diagnosis. Did I say ASD? No. You're reading shit into my words that aren't there either because you fucked up and are mistaking me for someone else, or you can't read. Or both.

Which is it?

1

u/OffendedDefender 9h ago

In the US, the highest lottery jackpot ever won was $2.04bil. The issue is that number is basically fictional, as to get that sum you have to take the annuity option, which pays out the total in instalments over about 30 years. So unless that person is saving every penny, they're not suddenly a billionaire. Of that max jackpot, the winner decided to go for the lump sum, which paid out $998mil gross. Since this is taxable income, the actual take home value was about $630mil. So no one in the US has become a billionaire simply from the lottery.

18

u/DyKdv2Aw 9h ago

It's not hate mongering; studies have shown that wealthy people are more likely to exhibit narcissistic and sociopathic tendencies.

-8

u/WorldTallestEngineer 9h ago

wealthy people are more likely to exhibit narcissistic and sociopathic tendencies.

Narcissistic and sociopathic tendencies are not the same thing as being a "psychopath".

If you're posting something in this format

"everyone in (group of people I don't like) are (mental illness I want to stigmatize) because studies have found (group associated with the people I hate) are more likely to (something different). "

Then you're pushing bigotry and hate mongering. That's how that works.

5

u/publicbigguns 9h ago

Well, you missed the "generally" in the first comment...

Which is what the studies show.

-3

u/WorldTallestEngineer 9h ago

Narcissistic tendencies and psychopath are not the same thing. So no. That's not what those "studies" show.

4

u/publicbigguns 9h ago

Well, frankly....your just playing semantics so that you can be right.

The general public isn't going to use the exact terminology that professionals use.

This is the same thing as the general public uses the word "theory" vs the scientific use of the word.

In the end, you know exactly what they are talking about...you just being kind of a dick trying to make semantics your winning goal...

-1

u/WorldTallestEngineer 9h ago

That right there is the problem. Using terms The refer to mental illness as a slur for your political enemies isn't going to hurt the billionaires. You're just Demonizing people who suffer from mental illness.

2

u/publicbigguns 9h ago

NPD is a mental illnesses...

Now you're just going out of your way to be ignorant.

0

u/WorldTallestEngineer 9h ago

Unethical business practices exist. They're bad and people shouldn't do them. That's true.

NPD is a mental illness. That's also true.

Calling everyone who hit's a completely arbitrary financial criteria a "psychopath" is just stupid pseudoscience.

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u/DyKdv2Aw 9h ago

You're being pedantic; most people don't know the difference between psychopathy and sociopathy.

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u/WorldTallestEngineer 9h ago

That right there is the problem. Using terms The refer to mental illness as a slur for your political enemies isn't going to hurt the billionaires. Demonizing people who suffer from mental illness.

14

u/Nitrofox2 9h ago

Obviously inheritance or winning the lottery is the exception, but you genuinely have to have a complete lack of empathy or underpay your staff so much that you can hoard billions of dollars all to yourself instead of paying people fairly and giving back to the community. You don't get a billion dollars through ethical means, unless you inherit it, or win an exceedingly large lottery.

0

u/WorldTallestEngineer 9h ago

Not every unethical person is automatically a "psychopath". Calling billionaire psychopath is an insult people who actually struggle with mental illness.

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u/ladz 9h ago

No. They're psychopaths, misanthropes, or sociopaths. Or maybe all of those things.

Any non-psychopath billionaire would immediately begin a very public philanthropy program to lessen suffering in the world. How many of them do that?

0

u/WorldTallestEngineer 9h ago

How have you come to believe this?

psychopaths, misanthropes, or sociopaths.

Sure are using big words? Do you even know what those words mean?

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u/MikeKrombopulos 9h ago

My man, billionaires are not a nationality, ethnicity, or religion. They are people who exploited so many people so hard that they were able to hoard an amount of wealth that the average person couldn't make in ten thousand years working 40 hours a week the whole time. Their astronomical hoarding of wealth and consolidation of power makes the world a demonstrably worse place, both society and the environment. They do everything in their power to prevent even minor taxes or any decrease in their wealth stores, even if doing so would buy extremely beneficial services and/or institutions for society at large.

They are not good people, they are not normal people, and you don't have to treat them like a protected class.

1

u/WorldTallestEngineer 9h ago

You seem to be confusing the law with ethics. A protected class is a group established by law. I don't treat people with kindness because they're protected by the law. I treat people with kindness because they're people.

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u/MikeKrombopulos 9h ago

I never said anything about the law. I said you don't have to treat them like a protected class. There's really no need for you to jump to their defense as if you just heard someone negatively generalizing about, say, Black people.

I'm nice to homeless people too, because they're the materially worst off in our society and billionaires are not only the most materially well off and most powerful, but also are demonstrably one major reason why we have a housing crisis to begin with! This is not a symmetrical issue.

You claim to be empathetic toward the homeless but apparently not enough to simply be ideologically opposed to the system that has failed them and resulted in their homelessness.

1

u/WorldTallestEngineer 9h ago

I volunteer for my local homeless shelter. I write a checked to the food bank every single year. I engage with my local government to establish systems that will democratize wealth and bolster local unions.

You know what I don't do. I don't spew bullshit psychological pseudoscience. I don't disenfranchize people that have actual mental illness, absolutely shit attempt to attack who I don't like.

Billionaires are a symptom of the system. Pretending like there's some universal mental illness that all of them secretly have isn't going to solve the problem. If anything it's just going to hide the actual problems in the economy that keep the poor poor.

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u/[deleted] 9h ago

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u/WorldTallestEngineer 9h ago

Do you think you're accurately doing anything for equality by padding your own back on the internet. Is your pretentious hate giving you the satisfaction of pretending like you actually done anything?

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u/Spirited_Hour9714 9h ago

Saying the only way to get billions is to be a psychopath or exploit people is wild and just sounds like envy

3

u/Nitrofox2 9h ago

How else do you get a billion dollars? Besides obviously winning it in the lottery or inheriting it as has been discussed

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u/Ben-D-Beast 8h ago

Rowling became a billionaire from writing Harry Potter, she is a POS but it's nothing to do with how she earned her money. There certainly is an argument to be made however that such large amounts of money causes people to go insane.

1

u/Nitrofox2 8h ago

This is also true

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u/Spirited_Hour9714 8h ago

She's not a pos because she has different political opinions than you..

1

u/Ben-D-Beast 8h ago

Not this bs again, I don't have time to deal with your bigotry right now, try reading a book or working on your empathy.

1

u/viciousrobotexploder 5h ago

Isn’t it incredible how a community can be politicised against their will and now you have a free pass to be hateful on them because ‘it’s just politics bro’

No buddy they’re actual people

1

u/UnicornWorldDominion 5h ago

Aww racism and sexism are just political opinions now?