44 replies to this topic

[ᗅᗺᗷᗅ]

Would you like to be rich?  Most people would say yes.  What about famous?  I think a lot of people would jump at that too, but it might not be all it's cracked up to be.  Would you be willing to give up your privacy?

[PrinceVegeta]

I'd use my fame and fortune to take over the world!

[Arikus]

Being famous would suck.

I like my time alone.

 

Rich on the other hand i can deal wiht.

[Chancellor Gunn]

I'd just like to be rich

[ᗅᗺᗷᗅ]

Yeah, I was bummed I didn't win the big Powerball.  Oh well.  Next time for sure!

[Ellis]

Yeah, rich, I get the feeling that being famous might not be all it's cracked up to be

[Haflinger]

Yah, I'd rather be rich overall. I've been famous in a minor way and I didn't like it all that much. Rich is better.

[Redezra]

Rule from the back. With lots of money :3

[Haflinger]

Frankly, I'm not that interested in ruling. If I was I would prefer being famous. All truly powerful people are famous.

[Redezra]

No, famous people are but useful pawns in a puppetmaster's plan.

[Haflinger]

You've been reading too much Gordon Dickson or the equivalent I think.

[Redezra]

I'm sorry, the grey eminence is always more powerful than the king. And everyone looks at the king.

[Haflinger]

The grey eminence only has power because the king listens to him. If the king gets tired of him, that's when you get Thomas Becket kinds of situations.

 

Henry II won that battle of course.

[ᗅᗺᗷᗅ]

Yah, I'd rather be rich overall. I've been famous in a minor way and I didn't like it all that much. Rich is better.

 

When were you ever famous in a minor way?

[Haflinger]

Once upon a time, I ran the most popular BBS in Halifax, Nova Scotia. OK I was famous within a specific, rather small group of people, but it ... was sorta creepy.

 

It's weird being the kind of person where people who've never met you just high-five you because they recognize you.

 

I didn't like it.

 

The parties were awesome though

[Redezra]

The grey eminence only has power because the king listens to him. If the king gets tired of him, that's when you get Thomas Becket kinds of situations.

 

Henry II won that battle of course.

And that problem is solved by Capitalism!

[KiWi]

The poll was quite adequet.

Honestly I'm going to go with everyone else, rich. But famous gets you a certain degree of rich (depending), and it can get quite muddled. Bill gates is famous from being rich/important.

I guess it would depend on some specifics, but as a general rule rich.

Although I wouldn't mind trying famous. As long as my bare essentials were maintained (so going by some peoples definition, rich), it would be fun being a personality, and helping this cause or making that statement on something in the news, and people would actually care. You can get pretty creative.

I mean our privacy is going away anyway right? I understand being in the spotlight is quite different, but if you have a strong connection with family, some close friends, you can weather it. Not to mention, if you're famous, and stay famous, what's there really to worry about. It's only when you're like Lindsy lohan, and people stop caring about you (about your projects or you as a person), and they just want to see you crash and burn (or some people do. I know I don't care about her in the news at all).

[Haflinger]

The grey eminence only has power because the king listens to him. If the king gets tired of him, that's when you get Thomas Becket kinds of situations.

 

Henry II won that battle of course.

And that problem is solved by Capitalism!

No, not really. With capitalism, the truly rich are powerful because they're famous. Ross Perot wouldn't have been able to do anything to Bush if it hadn't been for his fame.

[ᗅᗺᗷᗅ]

Ehh...  Actually, Haf, most of the truly powerful rich people are not famous.  Take the Koch brothers, for example.  People only know their name now because their political opponents have made a point of getting it into the public consciousness, but five years ago no one had heard of them.  And even now they're not really "famous."  If they walked into a restaurant no one would know who they were.  There are a few charismatic exceptions who are public figures, like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, but the vast majority of the über-rich prefer to keep a low profile.

 

Here's the list of the fifty wealthiest people in America, with a combined net worth of over $800 billion dollars.  These are the most powerful people in the country, who could buy and sell people like us hundreds of times over.  Even someone like Mitt Romney is a gnat compared to them.  How many have you heard of?  How many do you know what they look like without Googling them?  Probably not many.

1. Bill Gates
2. Warren Buffet
3. Larry Ellison
4. Charles Koch
5. David Koch
6. Christy Walton
7. Jim Walton
8. Alice Walton
9. S. Robson walton
10. Michael Bloomberg
11. Jeff Bezos
12. Sheldon Adelson
13. Sergey Brin
14. Larry Page
15. George Soros
16. Forrest Mars, Jr.
17. Jacqueline Mars
18. John Mars
19. Steve Ballmer
20. Paul Allen
21. Carl Icahn
22. Michael Dell
23. Phil Knight
24. Donald Bren
25. Len Blavatnik
26. Ronald Perelman
27. Abigail Johnson
28. John Paulson
29. Laurene Powell Jobs
30. James Simons
31. Jack Taylor
32. Anne Cox Chambers
33. Ray Dalio
34. George Kaiser
35. Harold Hamm
36. Richard Kinder
37. Rupert Murdoch
38. Mark Zuckerberg
39. Charles Ergen
40. Steve Cohen
41. Andrew Beal
42. Pierre Omidyar
43. Leonard Lauder
44. Philip Anschutz
45. Eric Schmidt
46. Samuel Newhouse, Jr.
47. James Goodnight
48. Patrick Soon-Shiong
49. Harold Simmons
50. Charles Butt

Bill Murray once talked about people wanting to be rich and famous.  His advice?  See if rich doesn't do it for you all by itself, because famous ain't all it's cracked up to be.

 

I'd still take it, though.  

[Haflinger]

I think you are stretching the truth quite a bit there. I'm positive that when the Koches wander into their usual restaurant in Wichita, their private room is made ready for them.

 

#12 is the first name on that list I don't recognize. And I'm not American.

 

Still, my point was that when, say, Mr. Koch disagrees with Mr. Obama, Mr. Obama's opinion rules the day.