In the song Eazy, Kanye West states:
Noncustodial dad, I bought the house next door
What you think the point of really bein' rich for?
This was in reference to Kanye West buying a $4.5 million home next to his ex-wife Kim Kardashian so he could be close to his kids. I can respect that. What the hell is the point of money anyway?
Mental issues aside, Kanye West seems to use his wealth for what he wants to do. He’s was always interested in fashion so naturally he started a fashion line, working hard to break into high end fashion and forgoing the traditional “hip-hop” fashion line (e.g. Rocaware, Sean John, Wu Wear). He also bought a lot of land and started a church.
Which begs the question, why don’t more rich people do anything meaningful with their wealth? Many wealthy people are content holding index funds or equity in the companies they started and promising to give away all their money when they die. And when they do make investments, they’re boring. Does Miami really need another fusion restaurant?
That’s fine if you’re running your company how you want and doing things that you wouldn’t be allowed to do in public markets, but if you’re just coasting on your wealth, then what the hell is point?
Crypto bros and f you money
F you money is best summed up by John Goodman in the movie The Gambler:
“Somebody wants you to do something, fuck you. Boss pisses you off, fuck you! Own your house. Have a couple bucks in the bank. Don’t drink. That’s all I have to say to anybody on any social level. Did your grandfather take risks? I guarantee he did it from a position of fuck you. A wise man’s life is based around fuck you.”
The idea is you have enough money to never have to compromise your beliefs or do anything you really don’t want to do.
A lot of people stumbled into crypto and fell into wealth just by holding. These people pose as furus on Twitter, flexing their lifestyle and trying to get their next score through pumping and dumping shitcoins.
Congrats dude, you made it. You spotted something early and jumped on. Good for you. But is this really how you’re gonna spend it? Flexing to strangers and pumping shitcoins? Is there nothing else you want to change about the world?
Eric Weinstein talked about this in and episode of the What is Money podcast (~38:00):
If you guys are as rich as you say you are, and I pray to God you are and I hope Satoshi is listening, for God sake spend money on immunizing things that you love. If you love something in this world, if you see something that used to be great that now sucks, and you’ve got so much money that you’re taking stupid photos and posting them on Instagram saying “look Bitcoin reall matters”, consider taking some of that money and letting someone else other than you the ability to say “f you”.
Eric laments the fall of great institutions such as media and academia. He suggests that those with wealth that came from outside the institutions and may not be happy with the current system try and do something to try to change them.
If you’re sold on Austrian economics and think money printer go brr, why not fund some economists to promote an alternative monetary policy? Why not try to get an Austrian economists appointed board on a major university? Why not try to start your own university? How about a particle accelerator?
One idea he had for crypto bros is a different version of the Bureau of Labor Statistics that can calculate inflation. Most people I talked to (myself included) are skeptical of the official inflation numbers. I know how much money I’m paying at the grocery store, for gas, for vacations and it’s not just 7.5% more. Especially considering the inflation numbers are tied to trillions of dollars of government spending and under-reporting inflation could save hundreds of billions.
It’s fine to floss and enjoy your wealth. Get the Lambdo first, but after that do something meaningful to you. Try to leave an impact on the things you value.
The wealthy are overall generous with their wealth, but most don’t have great ambitions. They’ll lecture us how we should eat less meat or vote the right way, and they’ll occasionally cut a check to some high profile organization with lofty goals. But that’s about as far as it goes. With few exceptions, they’re not working to build anything.
There’s a lot of money out there (a lot of it has been created in the last 2 years), so money isn’t the problem. You actually have to be personally invested and oversee the efforts because unfortunately many of these things don’t yet exist. People aren’t building alternative institutions because they don’t think its possible. They’re just happy sitting on their ETFs earning “market return” and promising to donate their wealth, and that’s a shame.