Tech & VC 05 Aug 2007 06:33 am
Millionaires Chasing Billionaires
The NYTimes has a piece on multimillionaires dissatisfaction with their wealth in comparison to their peers in Silicon Valley. It’s both scary and funny for the same reasons.
But, I don’t believe this phenomenon is limited to the valley. For example, I have heard of east coast VCs saying that you can’t retire with anything less than $25mm. Similarly, I’ve heard that a family with two children in Manhattan can’t live in anything bigger than a one bedroom apt if the combined annual income of the family is less than $1mm.
These stories bring to mind the classic saying “you can’t take it with you.” But, I think for some people, particularly the Match.com founder listed in the NYT article, it has little to do with having money to save or spend. Money is really just a way to keep score in an ultra-competitive community (whether it be IT, Finance, or Poker). It’s all about one-upping each other.
Too bad we can’t keep score in some kind of socially beneficial fashion. For example, it would be great if people competed over what percentage of their income they donate to charity instead of how much they earn. In that case at least the exhaust of the competition would be of greater benefit to the whole society.
3 Responses to “Millionaires Chasing Billionaires”
on 06 Aug 2007 at 10:54 pm 1.Tony Stubblebine said …
I had the exact same reaction, scared and amused. I think “single-digit millionaire” just became a new silicon valley pejorative, along side “lifestyle business.”
on 07 Aug 2007 at 8:00 pm 2.Amit Gupta said …
It’s not limited to entrepreneurs or tech, either. I have tons of friends who started finance jobs thinking they’d do it for a few years, make some money, then backpack around the world or do whatever it is they wanted to do in the first place. Never happens.
on 14 Aug 2007 at 9:42 pm 3.Allan Benamer said …
“Too bad we can’t keep score in some kind of socially beneficial fashion. For example, it would be great if people competed over what percentage of their income they donate to charity instead of how much they earn. In that case at least the exhaust of the competition would be of greater benefit to the whole society.”
Hmm… that’s the point of socialmarkets.org. We’re going to have leaderboards devoted to who the best social investors are. Yeah, gaming philanthropy — that’s us.
I love to game to — liked GTA and Civ 4 and a host of other games with precisely the same notions of emergent systems. And what’s just as emergent? Markets are and we need that in the nonprofit sector so we can get out of the rut nonprofits are in…