I'm not speaking from experience, but based on what I've read, this makes perfect sense.
Happiness/life satisfaction doesn't improve with more money. You need enough money to be comfortable (i.e., a roof over your head and food on the table), but after that it has no effect.
With $5M you buy an excellent house anywhere, send your kids to the best schools, drive a very nice car and have plenty of money left over for traveling the world. $5B will get you more houses, cars and a massive yacht, but why do you want those things? If you want it to beat your neigbours, then you'll always be unsatisfied since there'll always be people with more (except when you get to the level of Gates), but more importantly, people get used to good things. I have seriously impressive camera equipment. A few years ago I would have loved to own such high quality gear and would be using it all the time. But now, most of the time it sits on a shelf in my bedroom. And I imagine it would be exactly the same if I owned a Ferrari. Or a fleet of them.
And then you have the super-rich people problems, foremost is worrying about their children. A well-meaning relation telling them that they'll never have to work a day in their life isn't going to do much for their drive to do something with their life. And finally, most rich people, whether they're worth tens or hundreds of millions, don't consider themselves financially secure, but they think they would be if they increased their wealth by 25%...
What $5B gives you isn't more cars, it's the ability to finance anything that you find meaningful to you (public health for Bill Gates, movies with a message for Jeff Skoll, other startups for Reid Hoffman).
Happiness/life satisfaction doesn't improve with more money. You need enough money to be comfortable (i.e., a roof over your head and food on the table), but after that it has no effect.
With $5M you buy an excellent house anywhere, send your kids to the best schools, drive a very nice car and have plenty of money left over for traveling the world. $5B will get you more houses, cars and a massive yacht, but why do you want those things? If you want it to beat your neigbours, then you'll always be unsatisfied since there'll always be people with more (except when you get to the level of Gates), but more importantly, people get used to good things. I have seriously impressive camera equipment. A few years ago I would have loved to own such high quality gear and would be using it all the time. But now, most of the time it sits on a shelf in my bedroom. And I imagine it would be exactly the same if I owned a Ferrari. Or a fleet of them.
And then you have the super-rich people problems, foremost is worrying about their children. A well-meaning relation telling them that they'll never have to work a day in their life isn't going to do much for their drive to do something with their life. And finally, most rich people, whether they're worth tens or hundreds of millions, don't consider themselves financially secure, but they think they would be if they increased their wealth by 25%...