Wealth-Brain.

Why are the wealthy so greedy? Why can’t they simply pay more taxes? It seems paradoxical, but it’s quite simple. Given they have most of their worries eliminated by their wealth, their central worry becomes about maintaining that buffer from even the most-remote threats.

We see the same in the cold-war and superpower desires for buffers. The Russian Federation, scared of NATO, has been sacrificing thousands of its people in Ukraine. It wants a gap between itself and Europe, to protect against spillover of values that might threaten the dictator. But of course if it had that buffer, it would soon find itself wanting a buffer for the buffer. And so on.

The mind likes its worries. If it isn’t in crisis, it worries crisis is getting nearer, and so it must prepare or defend. If the mind happens to find itself in a strange situation of minimal real-worry, it cannot accept that. It must seek out the worry!

Wealthy people are still mortal, of course. Many a rich person has tried to buy their way back from disease with wealth only to find it couldn’t be done at a point, and off to the grave they went. Or if not the rich person, their child or loved one. There’s a major university in California named for the son of a particularly wealthy family, in order to commemorate the lost life. Wealthy people believe they would rather not be mortal, in the same way that dictators are particularly vexed by outside challenges to their authority when they lack internal ones.

They can do amazing tricks with their money and power. Things get fixed for them, the tiniest inconveniences are erased from their day-to-day. But whatever rough spots still arise only rub them the worse, being used to comforts not challenges.

The politicians are sympathetic. Many are rich themselves, and those who aren’t are typically patronized by wealthy donors who helped them get into office. They don’t want to lose their power, so they have to at least be seen propping up the desires of wealth. That song-and-dance reinforces the belief of the wealthy that their money can do amazing things.

Of course, you can step back and say the same applies to wealthy nations used to getting their way. You can say they lash out when denied what they see as interference in their privileges to 800-pound gorilla as they like.

Not a small part of the behavior is tied in with identity: if I’m not super-rich, who the hell am I? If I don’t run this company, who the hell am I? If I’m not a Republican, who the hell am I? People don’t define themselves very well, preferring to let some limited term stand-in for their definition. If the Metropolis Mumblers don’t win the World Series, who the hell am I? Yeah, it applies to sports-identity too.

Of course, the underlying issue is insecurity. The worry, sometimes justified, sometimes not, that lacking power, status, or money, one will face terrible challenges, pains, humiliations, and deprivations. To guard against those cases, lacking the proper assurances (and unwilling to give them to those who are in poverty or otherwise lacking the same protections of wealth and power), people will overreact and lash out, seeking to maintain the status quo despite its huge costs.