Much like our modern food and environment has made it hard to eat healthly without effort, and our modern automated transportation and farming and manfacturing has made exercise an optional activity, extreme wealth and power make difficult thinking an optional activity for the super rich.

The billionaires can’t help it; they’re victims of their own success.

You see it over and over: A once rational business leader starts spouting crazy, non factual and self-contradictory nonsense. It’s important to distinguish behavior that’s self-preservation (preserving their power at any rate) from the real insanity. I’m talking about affirmative public statements, articles, books, speaking tours and that sort of thing; they’re putting it out there. They really believe. . Lots of money can insulate us from having to care what others think, but it doesn’t seem to exactly work out that way. You don’t have to interact with your neighbors while shoveling snow or fret you angered somebody in traffic. But some of the thinnest skinned people seem to be the rich old men too rich to have anyone tell them “no.” I think they just got out of practice; they don’t need to maintain a mental toughness, so they don’t, like once you don’t have to exercise to get anywhere, you don’t and you get out of shape.