I vote for “mental illness” as the cause. Buffet and Sam Walton were quirky in that they liked their old cars, but neither was immune from enjoying their money a little. Both gave heavily to charity and realized they had more than they could ever spend. Their homes were not in disrepair, they were not pissing off the neighbors, getting sued by the county, living with a mold problem because they were too cheap to fix it and they were not using duct tape to fix carpeting. They were a little eccentric, the ultra rich sometimes get that way, they don’t need to impress anyone and sometimes they don’t even bother, it does nothing for them.
This guy is 78, still working, worth over 150 million and still being scrooge, his employees fear him and his neighbors hate him. He’s a nutjob that had a talent for making money, but he’s still a nutjob. Did any of the people that work for him say anything positive, say that he was a great leader, a wonderful man? No, they fired off insults and some didn’t want their name used for fear of reprisal. He’s going to die one day, probably not too far off, and very few peope will miss him, regardless of how much money he had. That is not a “rich” man. I believe Mark Twain summed up it up best “Live your life in such a way that when you die, even the undertaker will be sorry.”
“Frugal” and “cheap” are not the same things. A frugal person orders the blue plate special, a cheap person doesn’t tip.
