After all, money is never a burden (status goods and spending are, of course, but not liquid wealth), and can be used to acquire the help of others on whatever projects you want.
If you have a lot of money, people will ask you for money and you have to say no. When getting to know new people you have to think about whether the other person just wants to associate with you for your money. Having money is worth it but it doesn’t come without burdens.
This is the burden of literally anything worth having in the world though.
You’re a famous person, you’re afraid people want to befriend you just because you’re kinda famous, you have to refuse to come to your friend’s parties just because they want you there to attract people.
You’re a politician, you’re afraid people want to befriend you just to influence policy, you have to refuse your friend’s requests for having an unethical word with x or y to help them.
Fill in for professor, doctor, and so on.
Money is actually very anonymous compared to almost all other “things worth having”. Maybe past a point it does “get out” but you’re talking billionaire, and that’s a very niche state that’s not worth concerning ourselves with.
In the “small and medium time millionaire” club I expect hiding wealth to be both very easy and very “profitable”, it just involves not buying status goods, and maybe one or two white lies around inheriting this or that or this or that costing less than they did.
Heck, even if word “got out” that you were rich -- you can go for 2 months to Bali—coming back with a story about falling in love, getting married to <this girl>, and having it all taken away—or some such. You can’t white lie your way out of being seen as a dentist if you are a dentist, your cabinet is a physical thing people can see, so good luck explaining to your friends that you won’t do their expensive procedures for free.
Yeah, status and fame are non-anonymous almost by definition.
Perhaps we should redesign the society to protect prestigious professions by giving them a second identity. After passing the exams, you get your Dentist Name and a mask you need to wear all the time at your job. No one would suspect that Joe, officially working at the local hospital as a janitor / IT guy / administrative worker, is secretly the famous dentist Paracelsus. ;)
Money is useful even when spent invisibly. Unless people observe you 24⁄7, they do not really know how much total money you spend. You could have a private palace full of servants, and then another ordinary appartment in an ordinary part of town, to invite your middle-class friends. You could pretend to have a job; whenever you leave your town, you are on a “business trip”; whenever someone sees you having some kind of fun in the middle of a workday, you are having a “vacation”. You pretend to call a cab, but actually call your private driver. If Batman can fight crime in his spare time, certainly you can pretend to live a middle-class lifestyle.
If you have a lot of money, people will ask you for money and you have to say no. When getting to know new people you have to think about whether the other person just wants to associate with you for your money. Having money is worth it but it doesn’t come without burdens.
This is the burden of literally anything worth having in the world though.
You’re a famous person, you’re afraid people want to befriend you just because you’re kinda famous, you have to refuse to come to your friend’s parties just because they want you there to attract people.
You’re a politician, you’re afraid people want to befriend you just to influence policy, you have to refuse your friend’s requests for having an unethical word with x or y to help them.
Fill in for professor, doctor, and so on.
Money is actually very anonymous compared to almost all other “things worth having”. Maybe past a point it does “get out” but you’re talking billionaire, and that’s a very niche state that’s not worth concerning ourselves with.
In the “small and medium time millionaire” club I expect hiding wealth to be both very easy and very “profitable”, it just involves not buying status goods, and maybe one or two white lies around inheriting this or that or this or that costing less than they did.
Heck, even if word “got out” that you were rich -- you can go for 2 months to Bali—coming back with a story about falling in love, getting married to <this girl>, and having it all taken away—or some such. You can’t white lie your way out of being seen as a dentist if you are a dentist, your cabinet is a physical thing people can see, so good luck explaining to your friends that you won’t do their expensive procedures for free.
Yeah, status and fame are non-anonymous almost by definition.
Perhaps we should redesign the society to protect prestigious professions by giving them a second identity. After passing the exams, you get your Dentist Name and a mask you need to wear all the time at your job. No one would suspect that Joe, officially working at the local hospital as a janitor / IT guy / administrative worker, is secretly the famous dentist Paracelsus. ;)
Money is useful even when spent invisibly. Unless people observe you 24⁄7, they do not really know how much total money you spend. You could have a private palace full of servants, and then another ordinary appartment in an ordinary part of town, to invite your middle-class friends. You could pretend to have a job; whenever you leave your town, you are on a “business trip”; whenever someone sees you having some kind of fun in the middle of a workday, you are having a “vacation”. You pretend to call a cab, but actually call your private driver. If Batman can fight crime in his spare time, certainly you can pretend to live a middle-class lifestyle.