Why rich people are greedy psychology. The richest and greediest people on the planet
Research in the United States shows that every fourth American millionaire wears shoes that cost no more than $100, and every tenth person paid a maximum of $200 for his suit. Only 50 percent of millionaires are willing to buy a watch that costs more than $240, and only a third of rich people drive a car that is not yet 3 years old. Here are real stories of millionaires and billionaires that will make your hair stand on end.
1. The mother spared money for her son’s leg.
One of the world's biggest misers was Henrietta Howland Green, a brilliant American financier of the 20th century. The woman, who left more than 100 million dollars after her death in 1916 (about 20 billion today), heated oatmeal on the radiator because she believed that using the stove was expensive. She spent almost her entire life in the cheapest rental apartments, owning entire blocks in Chicago. And once I spent the whole night looking for a 2-cent postage stamp.
But the apotheosis of “thrift” was another case: her son’s leg was amputated because Henrietta spent three days looking for a free hospital. At the age of 82, the millionaire suffered a blow when she learned that the cook had “overpaid” for a bottle of milk.
2. ... and the grandfather - for the life of his grandson.
Oil king John Paul Getty, who 30 years ago was considered the richest man in the world with his $4 billion, saved on everything. For example, in his villa he installed payphones for guests so as not to pay for their calls.
When his grandson John was kidnapped in 1973, his grandfather refused to pay the 17 million ransom. He took pity only when they sent him an envelope with a cut piece of John’s ear. But even here Getty saved money. He gave only $2.7 million.
3. The financier lives in Khrushchev.
The second rich man on the Forbes list - American financier Warren Buffett (net worth - $44 billion) - drives around Wall Street in a Lincoln Towncar, which is not prestigious in his circle and is far from new, with the license plate THRIFTY, which means “thrifty”. And he is in no hurry to change the small apartment, bought 40 years ago for only 30 thousand dollars.
Buffett is unpretentious in life, avoiding luxury items, with the exception of a private jet. For example, he eats at a fast food chain that he likes so much that he bought it.
4. Modest "Niva".
The old Morris Minor was driven for a long time by a wealthy Scandinavian, the founder of the Tetra Pak packaging materials company, Hans Rausing. However, a couple of years ago, the billionaire (net worth over $8 billion) decided to change his car. And he bought... a 12-year-old Russian Niva. By the way, Rausing also became famous for the fact that he always bargains hard in stores
5. Business on classmates.
The founder of IKEA and the richest Swede, Ingvar Kamprad (his fortune is estimated at $28 billion), started earning his first crown in elementary school. Buying pencils and erasers in bulk, the future furniture magnate sold them at exorbitant prices to his classmates. And I saved money. He is known for eating in cheap restaurants, flying economy class, riding buses and staying in three-star hotels even now. And he spends his vacation with a fishing rod on the bank of some river in his native Sweden.
Ingvar requires his subordinates to use both sides of a sheet of paper. All the furniture in his house is from IKEA, with the exception of “an old chair and a beautiful standing clock.” Moreover, Ingvar has been using the same chair for 32 years: “I’ve been using it for 32 years. My wife thinks I need a new one because the material is dirty. But otherwise it’s no worse than new.”
6. Everything is virtual.
The founder of one of the most popular Internet search engines, Google, our former compatriot and now US citizen, 33-year-old Sergey Brin, earned about 11 billion dollars. But he lives in a small three-room apartment and drives an inexpensive Toyota. And this despite the fact that Google receives money for each visit to an advertising link. The “wrong billionaire” has neither yachts nor villas. He doesn't even have a super sports car. According to rumors, Sergei drives a Prius, a discreet but environmentally advanced Toyota that runs not only on gasoline, but also on electricity. Like many other Google directors, he often rides on roller skates to work, and during breaks he plays roller hockey in the parking lot. They say that he still often visits numerous Russian restaurants in San Francisco, in particular, Katina Tea Room.
7. Greedy stars.
Million-dollar incomes do not prevent some show business stars from being very careful in everything related to everyday expenses. Thus, the beautiful half of the Beckham star couple, former lead singer of the pop group Spice Girls Victoria Beckham, was seen more than once on a tram heading towards the stadium in Manchester, where her husband was then playing. It is known that Mrs. Beckham, whose personal fortune is $18 million, has a weakness for cheap German Blue Nun wine, which she regularly buys at the local supermarket, and buys everyday clothes not from Christian Dior or Versace, but from the discount store Matalan and considers it hers. My favorite clothing store is far from being the most fashionable Top Shop.
Famous film director Michael Winner, whose successful commercial activities brought him $72 million, sometimes allows himself a bottle of wine for $6 thousand, which does not stop him from reusing old mailing envelopes and cutting tubes of toothpaste in half so that not a drop of the valuable product is wasted.
Pop star Madonna, who earned $150 million during her brilliant career, is also used to counting every penny. She regularly checked the telephone bills coming into her Kensington mansion and deducted telephone charges from the servants' salaries.
8. Image is nothing - thirst is everything!
A few years ago, British millionaire Nicholas von Hoogstraten (net worth about $800 million) was sentenced to ten years for the murder of his companion. And the police who searched Hoogstraten’s house told newspapermen about the unusual find. A cache of used tea bags was found in the rich man's kitchen. He dried them and then brewed the tea again. A year later, however, the millionaire was released. However, if the opinion of him as a terrible stingy person changes, it will not change soon.
9. Marry at least a dog.
23-year-old American actress Wendy Dorcas married millionaire film director Roger Dorcas. He was almost three times older than Wendy, and the actress expected that over time her husband’s millions would transfer to her account. After a year of family life, Roger died suddenly. But when the lawyers read out his will, Wendy was not furious: she inherited... 1 cent. The director bequeathed everything else (and this is 64 million dollars) ... to his dog Maximilian.
The court sided with the dog, but the actress found a way to keep millions for herself - she... married Maximilian. It turned out that when Dorcas opened an account for the dog, he had to register the dog as a US citizen in order to pay the necessary taxes. The actress's marriage to the dog was even registered - the dog's papers were in order. And when Maximilian died, the “widow” inherited all his wealth.
Usually rich people are considered greedy, while in reality poor people are much more greedy. A rich person is not greedy, he is prudent and economical, in most cases, while a poor person is wasteful and imprudent in his spending; poor people, as a rule, spend more than they earn, often ending up in debt. According to my observations, I have often noticed the difference between the rich and the poor, and I can tell you with confidence that among the poor people there are much more greedy, monstrously greedy people. The reason for this is primarily the social suppression of such people; they feel inferior, deprived, inferior beings compared to others. As a rule, rich people cause them hatred and irritation, and strong envy. Therefore, as soon as such a person has the opportunity to get a little more, he considers this a chance for himself and tries to grab everything he can.
This behavior of a person has always been played and played on in order to use it in one’s own interests. The bait method works ideally for such people; without the material wealth that others have, the poor person is ready to do anything to get them. And it is completely useless to explain to him that much of what he does not have is completely unnecessary to him. A poor person always thinks that he needs something because he doesn't have it. No one has yet succeeded in creating an equal society; in my opinion, this is a utopia, at least until a person’s upbringing takes place in more equal conditions. There are not yet the necessary prerequisites for people to have an equally balanced psyche, and without it there will always be morally depressed people. Materialism has become for them the only goal in life that they strive for, and this materialism is nothing more than an idea.
Such an idea can be anything, for example, belief in God, or the idea of building a special society with equal rights. Materialism prevails in our world only because it goes next to need, and although most needs are imposed on people, money and material goods are closest to them than anything else. Although the point, as I already said, is not about money, it’s only about people who either accept you or not, and if society has a negative attitude towards poor people, oppressing them in every possible way, then the poor person has a desire to be the same as everyone else and even better will manifest itself in greed.
In fact, to satisfy all his needs, a person does not need so much, but only those who have this amount necessary for life know about this. Or rather, they don’t know, but they understand it; everyone else who doesn’t have it doesn’t even realize that it will always be enough for them, no matter how much they receive. If a person was hungry as a child, then with a high degree of probability he will suffer from obesity, or be too sensitive to food. If a person did not have clothes in childhood, and he was forced to wear old and shabby clothes for someone else, then he is more likely to become obsessed with buying clothes for himself.
All this is so banal that it has become an iron rule, but not for those who suffer from it. Although there are exceptions, I am familiar with them. Here you just need to pull out all your fears from the subconscious and transfer them to the conscious level. Then the person will understand that what was already gone, and before him is a completely different life, in which there is no need to stock up on everything that he did not have before. You can’t wear two pants, you can’t eat five lunches, you can’t drive three cars at once, so why is all this necessary? Greed, which originates precisely from the fear of losing everything and from the fear of not being able to do something. It’s only with such fear and the behavior that corresponds to it that a person loses the most important thing, his life.
Chasing something all your life, to the death, is not life, and if you happen to be born into a poor family, then use this as an incentive to strive to live with dignity, but do not be greedy for little things. Greed has never helped; it always keeps pace with stupidity and madness, poisoning life and sometimes ruining it.
Those who believe in the verisimilitude of film images have long had ideas about what rich people, billionaires, or at least multimillionaires look and behave like. Everyone knows that they drive Maybachs and Ferraris, casually glancing at their gold Pathé Philippe watches, live in huge palaces, and eat exclusively delicacies, a gram of which costs the monthly salary of an American programmer.
There is another opinion, polar opposite, and it is that all rich people are rare misers, saving on soap and cigarette butts. The most interesting thing is that both of these ideas are based on real examples. The world is multifaceted, and it all depends on which side you look at it from. The article is dedicated to the thrifty rich.
Thrift or greed?
Very often (though not always) people for whom the purpose of life is to make money become truly rich. This object of passion becomes a fetish, it is worshiped and elevated to the rank of absolute value. In this case, greed is a natural consequence of the main goal, and even sacrifices are made to it. Such rich people save their money and try not to spend it.
In other cases, we are talking about economy or lack of wastefulness. A person, having become rich, does not become a slave to the “golden calf”; he is not interested in the opinions of others about his lifestyle, and he does not want to impress anyone. For such a person, money gives freedom and opportunities for self-realization at a higher level. However, unfortunately, people often confuse these two types of wealthy people. Below are examples of both life approaches, and let the reader decide for himself which of them belongs to which category.
"The Witch of Wall Street"
Henrietta Howland Green nee Robinson (1834-1916) is still considered the world's greatest miser. She rightfully deserved this title. Her parents were rich people, they owned a whaling fleet, but her uncle allegedly influenced the upbringing of the future owner of entire New York neighborhoods, who invested millions of dollars in profitable projects. From the age of six, Henrietta was fond of reading economic textbooks, and at 13 she was already working as an accountant. After her father's death, she inherited $7.5 million, a colossal amount at that time, but continued to make efforts to increase her capital. The husband of this undoubtedly outstanding woman was multimillionaire from Vermont Edward Henry Green.
For all her wealth, the millionaire was pathologically thrifty. The “Witch of Wall Street” (another nickname) skimped on washing her only dress, did not use heating or hot water, ate fifteen-cent pies and bought crumbled biscuits in order to pay less. However, all this can be considered harmless eccentricities compared to the attitude towards one’s own son, who once broke his leg. The search for a free hospital continued for too long, and when they finally succeeded, the doctors were powerless - the limb had to be removed. Mrs. Green also died either funny or sinful, upset about the too expensive milk bought by the servants. But she was a brilliant financier...
The world's richest Mr. Getty
The name of oil tycoon John Paul Getty (1892-1976) is famous not only because he was for a long time (until his death) the richest man in the world, but also because of the story surrounding the kidnapping of his grandson in 1973. Coming from an oil-industry family of Irish descent, he graduated from Oxford and continued the family business. Getty earned his first million at the age of 24. Then there were Saudi concessions and many other profitable transactions. The multibillionaire's thriftiness was legendary. Even in his villa, telephones were equipped with coin acceptors.
The story with his grandson became the apogee of his entire biography - when the boy was kidnapped, Getty did not even negotiate, but agreed to them only after receiving a fragment of the heir’s ear. The auction ended with a six-fold reduction in the ransom amount.
The grandson, Paul Getty III, received severe psychological trauma, which affected his entire life and brought him to an early grave.
Happy owner of Niva
When some comedian on duty once again scolds the products of the domestic automobile industry with the last words, it does no harm to remember that the favorite car of the owner of the Swedish concern Tetra Pak (the largest manufacturer of packaging materials and food equipment), billionaire and holder of many honorary titles, Hans Rausing, - our Niva.
And not some kind of custom-made one, but an ordinary serial one, moreover, not purchased new. At the same time, nothing is known about any other “symptoms” of excessive frugality of the seven-time billionaire. However, one Niva is enough for our car enthusiasts to classify Rausing as a miser. Well, what if he just likes this car? And in general everything is Russian...
IKEA owner
The creator and owner of the IKEA retail chain has the same reputation. Ingvar Kamprad is also considered eccentric and tight-fisted, although he simply follows the general philosophy of the business he founded, promoting modesty and rational spending of earned money.
Yes, he drives an old Volvo, and more often on a tram, and does not eat in expensive restaurants, sits in a thirty-year-old chair (it does not fall apart and serves correctly), insists on the economical use of stationery and punishes his employees for the desire for luxury, but these are not signs of stinginess. It’s just that someone who loves the “beautiful life” will never be able to successfully sell products with the IKEA brand. Let him go to work at Tiffany or De Beers - they need them there.
Lean director
The talented British director and film critic, author of the films “Night Aliens”, “Death Wish”, “Bullseye!”, “Dirty Weekend” and many other masterpieces, was reproached for excessive thriftiness, expressed in the reuse of postal envelopes and picking out the remains of toothpaste from tubes . Michael Winner (1935-2013) earned $72 million during his career, but that's not the point. He made great films. As for oddities, the named behavioral features are more likely to fall into the category of eccentricities than vices. Let someone do something like that, and then laugh. If he wants.
A tea drinker worth 800 million
Successful British real estate dealer Nicholas von Hoogstraten was prosecuted in 2001 for organizing the contract killing of Pakistani businessman Mohammed Sabir Raja. As the investigation seemed to find out, he hired two killers, but a year later, thanks to the efforts of lawyers, it turned out that the evidence did not so clearly indicate his guilt.
Von Hoogstraten was acquitted and released from custody, but all these criminal details were already forgotten. But citizens of the United Kingdom and many foreigners still remember about tea bags, already brewed once, and then dried for re-infusion. This detail of the multimillionaire’s life emerged by chance during the investigation, and newspapers wrote about it. Von Hoogstraten never explained to anyone why he was saving on tea leaves. This is his personal business.
Owner of an old house
Mexican entrepreneur Carlos Slim Helu began his career by saving on everything. His family ate traditional chili and beans, drank instant coffee from the cheapest brands, and all the money they earned was put into circulation. Now that Elu owns retail chains, insurance companies, construction, printing, mining and metallurgical firms, as well as chemical industry enterprises, cement factories and many other things worth a total of $59 billion, then, according to many “connoisseurs of luxury life”, he I would simply have to live like a real rich man. But he remained a simple man and spends his money not on luxury, but on medicine, culture and education in his native Mexico. In Mexico City, he created a museum in honor of his wife, and 66 thousand of its exhibits were purchased by Carlos Helu at his own expense. Would anyone dare call him greedy? And Elu’s car, by the way, is also old, and the house is kind of too modest.