[thomasedwards]

The same way non-billionaires do: there isn’t anything that money can do about it. While ‘only’ worth $150m, Katherine Brosnahan (you may know as Kate Spade) tragically hanged herself last week after suffering for a few years. If $150m can’t buy you out of it, I’m not sure another $850m would.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Spade#Death

[asdfman123]

They can quit stressful jobs, or immediately get appointments with great healthcare providers, or go travel in Europe for a year.

Let's be fair: money can't solve all your problems, but it can solve some of them.

The only problem is that serious mental illness is one of those things that money can't magically fix.

[Cakez0r]

Unlimited wealth can also cause its own set of problems and anxieties that run deeper than "which bank should I use" or "which whim should I indulge next".

E.G. Does someone like me or do they just like my money? What should I do with my life now that I'm unfulfilled by indulging my whims?

[vfulco2]

As a student in Japan, I was introduced to businessmen, to teach English, during their real estate boom. They just so happened to be the children of fathers who had buildings near the Imperial Palace, so became rich (on paper, 100MM+ USD) through no effort. Their lives were about as devoid of happiness that I have ever seen. After partying, hookers, golf, eating at every gourmet place in town, and foreign trips, life became uninspiring and they were a morose bunch to hang out with for dinner and drinks after our language classes. No thanks. A person needs purpose to enjoy life.

[hood_syntax]

> unfulfilled by indulging my whims

You see, that's what I don't get. There are _so_ many things to do that interest me. I will never have enough time to do them.

[insulanus]

Yes, but you might still have enough time to morph into a person who finds doing all that stuff unfulfilling. Humans are amazing at adaptation.

[ehnto]

It's an extension of graduation depression in a way. You have essentially succeeded at the most advertised metric of life, money. If you view life as a linear progression of growing success, then that's the logical conclusion. Good job, you win.

[Cakez0r]

And I'd guess this is also why midlife crises are a thing. Once you've got your beautiful family, house, car and stable job, what's next?

[maroonblazer]

Apologies if this is pedantic but, just the opposite, mid-life crises arise because of the realization that the gap between your accomplishments and your ideals is larger than you thought it would be by the time you reached middle age.

[tuesdayrain]

Seems strange trying to define precisely why people might have a crisis in the middle of their life, as if there would be a single reason.

[solarkraft]

this is not pedantic if it's the definition of a mid life crisis (I don't know), but just wrong if people worry about different things :-)

[undefined1]

Yeah, though one can imagine that being a billionaire also introduces some problems. For one thing it changes family and friend dynamics and that's really a key source of happiness.

[s-shellfish]

It's the same problem that comes from excelling at anything valued, or having any intensely desired quality. You don't know why people want to be around you, and you don't know whether they will still be there if (or when) you no longer have those qualities deemed so desirable.

[farone]

Not the same, not even close.

Capital is abstracted value that everybody needs. The differences this makes in such a situation is drastically more disorienting.

>and you don't know whether they will still be there if (or when) you no longer have those qualities deemed so desirable

This phenomenon is heartbreaking and surely happens with things like talents and innate characteristics, personality, etc., but it would be very rare with those compared to with capital. When it concerns capital, the issue becomes exponentially more common with exponentially less potential to be understood. When it's happening with more people in a society, it's instances collide and fracture relationships at a far greater rate.

[s-shellfish]

Abstraction and everybody...

That really depends on how you look at what a 'self' and what 'everybody' is, and how 'abstraction' interrelates the two.

Consider an artist in relation to their culture.

[farone]

Not disagreeing at all, but "being a billionaire" is a poor articulation of the culprit.

The havoc capitalism plays on social relationships has been documented, researched for centuries. This is the very core of Marxist thought, and to my knowledge has never been contested.

Since you're probably an American and I just referenced Karl Marx, let's please remember Karl Marx was in fact insistent on the importance of democracy (far more than most Americans) and that anyone familiar with his work would have no question of the vast differences between and his well-known disapproval of the Soviet Union defending their project with his work.

[ttonkytonk]

Another problem I see with capitalism is that since competition is the prevailing theme, there is a sort of "fog of war" about.

[rajacombinator]

Karl Marx died decades before the Soviet Union was formed. Where do you people come up with this stuff?

-t. Someone who has actually read Marx’s drivel.

[dkersten]

Even the problems money can’t solve, it can often help (eg, money can’t vuy happiness but a year long trip might be the change you needed to find happiness) or at least remove other worries.

But of course as others have said, it brings another set of worries.

Still, money is an enabler that creates options.

[theandrewbailey]

In other words, money is a tool. People get happiness not from tools, but what can be done with them.

[dkersten]

That is a great summary, thanks!

[ASipos]

And unfortunately programming is a tool.

[rhizome]

I'm guessing you aren't aware that Kate Spade had sold her company years ago.

[waisbrot]

I'm not aware of Kate Spade, but I feel like the prior poster's

> The only problem is that serious mental illness is one of those things that money can't magically fix.

covers it pretty well, no?

[busterarm]

She had a new company, so she still had a stressful job: https://francesvalentine.com/

[loeg]

(One anecdote does not contradict the general point.)

[pricees]

"They can quit stressful jobs, or immediately get appointments with great healthcare providers, or go travel in Europe for a year."

I believe I know what you mean. I disagree. I have no experience being a billionaire, or a millionaire for that matter, however here are my casual observations and thoughts:

A billionaire cannot just quit a job. There must be a transition period. A billionaire can't just no call no show. It's possible, but it never happens.

A billionaire cannot travel to Europe like I can, going from Airbnb to airbnb, hopping in an Uber, surfing with the locals, enjoying fish tacos. A billionaire ends up being an ambassador with little privacy.

Immediately get appointments with great healthcare providers. Maybe. But so can I.

[n0us]

> A billionaire cannot travel to Europe like I can, going from Airbnb to airbnb, hopping in an Uber, surfing with the locals, enjoying fish tacos. A billionaire ends up being an ambassador with little privacy.

Thats what the founder of MySpace does now.

https://theoutline.com/post/4137/myspace-tom-mark-zuckerberg...

[loeg]

> A billionaire cannot just quit a job. There must be a transition period. A billionaire can't just no call no show. It's possible, but it never happens.

They absolutely can. A board may not want to publicize the sudden leave, which might contribute to not hearing about it. The whatsapp founders left Facebook pretty quickly, although not for mental health reasons.

It also takes a certain kind of workaholic to reach billionaire levels of wealth. If you've already made it to that kind of egg, you may just have a good handle on anxiety.

> A billionaire cannot travel to Europe like I can, going from Airbnb to airbnb, hopping in an Uber, surfing with the locals, enjoying fish tacos.

They absolutely can. Maybe not someone who has intentionally made their image part of their personal brand, but could you pick Jim Walton or Micheal Bloomberg out of a lineup? And they're two of the very richest billionaires — not the mere single-digit billionaires.

> A billionaire ends up being an ambassador with little privacy.

I don't think that's true at all. Money buys privacy.

> Immediately get appointments with great healthcare providers. Maybe. But so can I.

The silent follow-up clause to that sentence is "... and not have to think about the cost." (Assuming our billionaire is from the US.)

[giarc]

I think you are lumping all billionaires into the "celebratory billionaire" category. Sure Mark Zuckerberg can no longer zoom around Europe without being recognized, but how many would recognize Len Blavatnik, #46 on Forbes billionare list worth $21B (for example).

[loeg]

> how many would recognize Len Blavatnik, #46 on Forbes billionare list worth $21B (for example)?

Exactly. Or even the Waltons, two of the Forbes top-15. If their image isn't part of their public brand, you probably wouldn't recognize them.

[waisbrot]

> A billionaire cannot just quit a job. There must be a transition period. A billionaire can't just no call no show. It's possible, but it never happens.

It's not called "quitting". It's usually "taking a sabbatical" or "a leave of absence". It's only "quitting" if you don't make very much.

> A billionaire ends up being an ambassador with little privacy.

Would you recognize any billionaire (besides maybe Bill Gates) on sight? Ask the hotel to be discreet and don't pay for things by saying "hi I'm pricees, the world-renowned billionaire."

> Immediately get appointments with great healthcare providers. Maybe. But so can I.

Good for you? In America, that's not the norm. Excellent healthcare is available for high cost here, but getting a expert doctor to make a house-call requires some degree of cachet.

[jonas21]

> A billionaire cannot just quit a job. There must be a transition period. A billionaire can't just no call no show.

Not only that, I imagine that quitting before retirement age could add a lot of anxiety for a billionaire due to loss of status, loss of purpose, feelings of failure, etc.

[dkersten]

A billionaire has options though. They can often come back, or they can start a new company on a whim, but, as others have said, they often don’t “quit” but rather take extended time out that leaves them with the option of returning, when they choose to do so.

[olleromam91]

Some of the most advanced and effective mental health retreats are EXTREMELY expensive. Upwards of 2000 dollars a day.

[loeg]

You can use some of that money to buy Alprazolam / Clonazepam :-). They're available as relatively inexpensive generics at this point. Maybe not an option if you are totally broke / impoverished, but certainly something billionaires have access to.

[jimothywales]

You said this in at least 2 different places in this thread, but I hope you understand that 1) all drugs do not have the same effects on different patients and 2) Clonazepam is in the class of drugs known as benzodiapines, which are considered some of the most dangerous and addicting drugs given to patients. In fact, bad withdrawals from benzodiapines often result in worsened anxiety symptoms and at times hallucinations and even delusions.

Throwing around alprazolam/clonazepam as a solution for anxiety is trite and can be damaging. Take caution with them.

[loeg]

> You said this in at least 2 different places in this thread

Only one, as far as I know. Not sure where this other phantom comment is supposed to be.

> Clonazepam is in the class of drugs known as benzodiapines

I'm not sure why you picked that one in particular; Alprazolam is as well (and is perhaps the more well-known one). I'm sure you know this, but to clarify for other readers, most benzodiazepines (including these two) are in a category of drugs known as anxiolytics, as in, drugs which reduce anxiety.

> which are considered some of the most dangerous and addicting drugs given to patients

Wikipedia mostly disagrees with that claim.[0] Nevertheless, even taking the claim at face value, they are given to patients because they do have great therapeutic use, or at least little harm, for the vast majority.

And in general, Alprazolam's shorter duration of action probably lends itself more to abuse than Clonazepam — hence first-line preference for Clonazepam in treatment.

> Throwing around alprazolam/clonazepam as a solution for anxiety is trite and can be damaging.

I did not intend to suggest they're some kind of magic bullet. Re-reading my comment, maybe it suggests that. Sorry!

Sure, they don't necessarily solve the underlying problem. But they are a useful tool, and certainly may help.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_harmfulness

[jimothywales]

So I think hacker news either did some magic (?) to have it show up in two places at once or someone copied your comment word-for-word. Anyway:

> I'm not sure why you picked that one in particular

No particular reason. They use the same general mechanisms so I lazily chose to only include one.

> Wikipedia mostly disagrees with that claim.

I don't know what to believe on Wikipedia articles about drugs because of the high prevalence of biased medical research. All I know is 1) anecdotally I've experienced benzo withdrawal - it's not pretty and 2) statistically speaking, benzo withdrawal is a common enough phenomenon that much care goes into warning patients of the dangers of benzos and the appropriate usage approaches.

Anyway not tryna persecute you, I just saw this text twice in the thread and felt like it appeared dilletante in addressing benzo usage. Didn't want self-medicating types (like many people on hnews) to screw themselves up.

[skinnymuch]

There’s issues with benzos like the one you mentioned. Besides what the other commenter said about withdrawal and other issues, your tolerance will build very quickly with benzos. You can’t just take them daily and have the same or even remotely close to the same effect.

[loeg]

I certainly did not mean to suggest that they were some magic bullet, or that anyone should take them daily for extended periods of time. Your doctor should work with you to determine the correct dose and duration. Or if you self-medicate, you should thoroughly research anything you're thinking about taking before doing so. Benzos can be taken daily for something like a month.[0]

[0]: https://www.jpshealthnet.org/sites/default/files/prescribing...

[skinnymuch]

That’s just not true, taking it for a month daily will not work. I haven’t looked at studies recently but the few psychiatrists I know, none believe you can take a bento for a month daily with it still being effective. Same with people taking it. Placebo can be a powerful thing.

[loeg]

That contention does not match my understanding, but I would love to read more if you have some published studies to point to.

Taking the claim at face value: if the effect at one month is entirely placebo, isn't that still useful for treatment?

(You're not trying to claim that the entire effect on day 1 is placebo, right? I think that's pretty clearly false.)