There are a lot of people believing their grotesque wealth is a consequence of having created superior value, when in fact it is just an elevator car they’re in with their own farts. You can see it in the fiat monstrosities they build, leering over the sand dunes like vultures in the charnel yard.

It also creates a sense of depression and anxiety among people at the other end, working hard 8 days a week and creating the value, making the actual things, and then not being able to even take a vacation traveling coach because it requires two “middle class” incomes to keep food on the table.

I am often advising my friends and clients, “look, money has become divorced from value so stop thinking about your value in terms of your money. Focus on money, at the moment, as the equivalent of hunting and gathering, and leave the envy, comparison, and self-reproach at the door. Otherwise you let the bastards get you down. They don’t deserve it, but they can’t take it with them, either.”