The super rich, it would seem, are different from you and me. It’s not just the yachts, or the private planes, or the villas in Monaco. It’s just that, well, there’s something different in their makeup and their demeanor and their way of thinking. Not better, mind you, but different.
Of course, this begets a chicken-and-egg discussion that could turn into a Ph.D. thesis. Are the super rich different because they have more money than a Third World country, or do they attain such status because they are different? We all like to think that money wouldn’t change us but, frankly, most of us will never find out if that’s the case. And, frankly, it would change us. Having the means to purchase your own island nation would tend to alter your perspective on the world.
Anyway, I thought about this last week as I watched Paul Allen hoist the Lombardi Trophy after his Seattle Seahawks won the Super Bowl. I thought about this as a mercurial, megawealthy, somewhat socially awkward 61-year-old metaphorically stood on top of the world.
You see, Allen long has fascinated me. Over years of covering, at least on a peripheral basis, his Portland Trail Blazers and his Seahawks, I have come into slight contact with Allen several times, typically on the infrequent occasions when he would hold a press conference.