Monday, February 24, 2020

Single Billionaire or Married on a Moderate Income?

YouGov asked Brits if they would rather be a single billionaire or married on a "moderate income." The results:

Single Married on a
Billionaire Moderate Income
Men 30% 55%
Women 16% 65%
Total 23% 60%

Interesting.

3 comments:

Shadow said...

Is one of those things where I'll believe it when I see it.

David said...

I absolutely believe it. Not surprisingly, it agrees with my own feelings.

G. Verloren said...

@David

Yeah, this ss utterly believeable to me. Money can't buy happiness, and having too much of it frequently makes people crazy or makes their lives hell.

For example, take the creator of Minecraft - he was an ordinary guy who created a small development studio and an independent video game, and was suddenly elevated to the position of a global celebrity with more money than he knew what to do with.

By his own admission, he predictably enjoyed it all at first, but then rapidly became utterly miserable because he simply couldn't live a normal life anymore. He's on record saying that it became effectively impossible for him to date, because his wealth and celebrity distorted every relationship irrevocably.

Hardly anyone treated him like an ordinary person anymore. He was frequently hounded by stalkers, scam artists, paparazzi, and worse - and even when dealing with people who didn't act that way, the constant threat that they might just be hiding their true intentions made him paranoid and neurotic. He understandably couldn't handle dealing with that kind of pressure, so he sold his company and immediately went into hiding, and lives like a recluse, trying to remain anonymous and private.

If I suddenly became a billionaire, I would have to immediately work to get rid of the wealth as quickly as possible and leave myself with a moderate income instead. And that would inevitably mean a ton of hassle - legal hurdles, choosing where to donate the excess money, keeping all the opportunists and vultures away, etc.

Since my end goal is simply to have -enough- money rather than far too much, all the first option gets me is extra grief, on top of losing a relationship. No contest.