I have one friend in the world who is, from my perspective, filthy rich (net worth in the tens of millions - I know him from a prior business I was in). We talked about the ego of those who are super wealthy, and to some extent he recognizes this in himself. In their mind their great wealth proves that their judgement (on essentially everything) is superb, and they expect for that to be obvious to everyone and in some way recognized. My friend owns up to the fact that he would like to achieve the goal of having a net worth of 100 million. In my mind I go WTF?, why does a number matter? But he sees it as an achievement. He also cares whether he is ranked among the 500 richest people in America, and so forth.
Those who did not inherit their great wealth (my friend didn't) think it is their special skill set, often as an executive, that explains their financial fortune. They see themselves as great leaders. And successful CEO types like having the freedom to execute, to be able to make the big calls without having to win anyone else's approval to do so. That's how they think they earn obscene amounts of money.
So put it together; big ego's with a very high sense of self worth, wanting recognition for being the best, wanting a free hand to make bold decisions of great consequence, wanting exalted status. I mentioned to my friend that it wouldn't be much of a leap for a person like that to trade off dropping a couple of notches on the running list of who was the most wealthy in the world by spending a billion to become, let's say, the 46th or 47th President of the United States. And if spending one billion isn't enough, they could double it, or triple it, of they came to believe that with enough money they can buy any office they want for themselves. My friend told me absolutely, the presidency could easily become the ultimate vanity project if it seems like money alone can buy it.
We were at a turning point this year. Politics potentially was becoming an arena where normal people could no longer afford to compete, even with excellent grass roots funding support. Bloomberg was spending ten to one, but he could just as easily have spent twenty or thirty or forty to one competing against non self financed electoral adversary for a nominations. King makers have a lot of power, but Kings have even more. King makers have heavy influence over decisions, but Kings can make them, and if they are not beholden to any donors, and if they believe they can buy favorable public opinion whenever they want, there is no check on them. Right now King makers believe they have to back a horse with a chance of winning in order to get any return on their money, which means the candidate still has some power, because the king maker needs them as much as they do the king maker. As soon as Billionaires internalize that they can just cut out the middle men I think we are really fucked.
Congratulations to our presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden!
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If I were to vote in a presidential