[svantana]

Presumably the guy is distinctively not rich, or he wouldn't have gotten involved in such risky business to make money. Most of the hit songs he's been involved with are based one or more older songs, so he may not make much from royalties.

[klez]

FTA:

> Adding to his woes, the government seized roughly $80 million from him.

That to me means that he was distinctively rich

[svantana]

I assumed that was money he earned from this spy business, but it's not really clear.

[JKCalhoun]

> Presumably the guy is distinctively not rich, or he wouldn't have gotten involved in such risky business to make money.

The more I watch the behavior of the wealthy the more I see that either 1) there is never enough to satisfy them or 2) (more likely) getting it is the thing they enjoy — so why would they stop at some arbitrary point?

I think his wealth or lack of is orthogonal. The article in fact mentions his motivations being more along the lines of enjoying living on the edge, living dangerously (see his documentary work).

[derbOac]

What I got from the article is that there's levels of rich, and always someone richer. Also, that a lot of stuff he felt in hindsight he should have paid attention to he dismissed as normal at the time because weird is normal in those circles, and stuff gets weirder as you get into richer circles, at least certain types of them. In other words, he didn't see it as risky business because risky means weird, and it's always weird business.

[UltraSane]

He was a member of the band The Fugees. Their album The Score sold 22,000,000 copies.

[portaouflop]

I consider having a seven figure ($ or €) sum in the bank as rich.

[rsynnott]

> We meet in his sparsely furnished 4,500-square-foot SoHo apartment with floor-to-ceiling views of lower Manhattan

I mean, can't be doing all _that_ badly.

[ANewFormation]

People don't get involved in criminality, in general, out of desperation, but because they enjoy the lifestyle. Hence the hundreds of successful e.g. rappers who end up in prison (or dead) even long after they had far more than enough money that any sense of wanting was far behind them.

[dinkblam]

> People don't get involved in criminality, in general, out of desperation, but because they enjoy the lifestyle.

ugh. why do you suppose there is a two degrees of magnitude difference in crime between poor and rich nations? there is no connection to theft not sounding that bad when you are starving?

also, are you supposing all the gangs breaking into&robbing homes are actually bored millionaires?

[ANewFormation]

There isn't any such causation between rich and poor countries. Most of Asia is dirt poor, even more so a couple of decades ago, yet crime is extremely scarce.

Even in America alone there are a vast number of people living in extreme poverty. And the overwhelming majority will live perfectly normal lives, even if it means on occasion living off iceberg and ramen, as was the case for myself when growing up.

If poverty/desperation drove crime then there would be vastly more criminals, especially in rural areas, yet criminality remains relatively rare.

You'll find far less tolerance for criminal behavior among those who grew up in poverty, because they are the ones who have lived through it all and seen with their own eyes the sort of people who go down the wrong road. And the fault for going down that road lies with nobody besides those people.