What Do ____ Want?

No, this is not another installment of my series, Rattle of the Sexes.  It might better be billed under Prattle of the Nexus - or some other contrived creation of an ethereal heading.  That's because the query I am posing is not one for which I can clearly produce an answer.  Unfortunately, there may never be a clear answer forthcoming from any quarter.

We all can actually answer the age-old question of what do women want; we merely have to re-answer it hour-by-hour or perhaps with some, minute-by-minute.  One minute it's merely a hug, next minute it is a new house. 

But today's question is to another "W" group: What Do the Wealthy Want?  The unlikelihood of a cohesive answer ever coming from them is due to the fact I am asking the question of a group that is not itself cohesive.  There is no annual Convention of the Wealthy or Symposium to Satisfy the Desires of the Rich.  Or at least not to my knowledge.  But naturally, they would not contact me for any reason, so I am perhaps just completely in the dark.

But really, the question is an important one, and the subject is gaining in impact each day as the wealth of our society continues to be siphoned upward to that small point at the top of the societal pyramid while the foundation crumbles under deprivation.  Yet again, any meaningful answer may never be attainable because the wealthy do not form a monolithic entity.

Ask Bill Gates and Warren Buffet what they want and even though they may be thought of as similar (they rank #2 and #3 in the world in individual wealth), they will not likely answer in the same way.  Yes, they both are, fortunately for the planet, truly interested in a better world and are giving away massive amounts of their wealth to help others.  Still, each will have a very individual slant on what he might really want.  Ask Mitt Romney and perhaps he will honestly say he wants the power and recognition the presidency could bring.  He might say he wants a more impressive mansion in San Diego for his future California White House.  Rumor is, he is quadrupling the size of his existing shack there even now.

Ask Eike Batista and he may simply want to return to his higher position in the rankings; he slipped up recently and is now worth only around twenty billion bucks!  Never heard of the guy?  I hadn't either, but an article points out that he has recently lost over three billions in net worth and the measly $20.5 billions now listed as his personal wealth situates him at #23 in the world.  I imagine he wants to climb higher.

Actually, if Batista's answer really is that he merely wants more wealth, then perhaps we have a general answer that could clarify the motives of most of the 1-percenters.  It just does not make sense to me that as a class, these folks want more.  It is vaguely understandable that each individual tycoon might be competitive with the others and want to ascend to the rarefied atmosphere of richest in the world.  But competition over-all cannot be a factor in the general wanting more by the whole class of the very wealthy.  They long-since departed the known universe of the rest of us; they have no actual competition.

So what could be the motivation for the most wealthy of the world to want power over governments and influence over elected officials of our - or any - government?  Yes, the power to guide policies that allow for the rich to get richer, we know that has to be part of the motive.  But why?  More is simply more!  What can a person do with forty billions that he could not have done with twenty billions?

Or is the internal competition for the very top of the Forbes list actually the main motivator after all and it isn't the whole group of the 1% that is causing the buying votes furor?  Maybe the Koch brothers want to influence policies that allow unlimited gains in oil and other areas of business they conduct but are also working quietly to not allow policies that might assist computer software's future successes, thereby making the #2 spot vulnerable.  The brothers might think they could one day overtake Bill Gates.  Maybe similar political shenanigans are working against Carlos Slim in the vast telecommunications and associated businesses that put him in the #1 richest spot.  Perhaps even he could be unseated somewhere down the line.  If this is the motive of Charles & David Koch, welcome to the face(s) of pure greed.

As an actor, living in Hollywood twenty years ago and working in film or video wherever I could land a gig, I had a general plan, a dream really, well in mind.  If I could only make it over that seemingly insurmountable hurdle of getting into a weekly TV series and hang in there for a few seasons, I would then parlay my good fortune and fame into the start of a business.  My thought (probably an illogical one considering success/failure ratios) was to open a classy restaurant near enough to the entertainment industry to attract lots of celebrities.  Then while letting a great chef and an honest and capable manager take over the day-to-day responsibilities of the business, I would travel the world, see the sights, play golf in beautiful venues - enjoy the bounty of my success.  Fact is, I still harbor that last part of the dream today, the money coming from the big lotto jackpot I plan to win!

So, if I should hit that jackpot, maybe even a huge one that puts more than a hundred million dollars in my account, what would I do with it?  Well, besides traveling the world with my wife and securing homes and futures for my family, I would likely follow the good examples of Gates & Buffet and become a philanthropist - just on a very minor scale comparatively.  But would I even consider trying to buy influence in order to get new governmental policies enacted that would result in my becoming richer?  Right!  Why don't you watch when I land the big bucks and then hold your breath until I show myself to be one of the typical greedy bastards.  I know myself better.  And I'm observing far too many of them nowadays!