The Garrulous Jay – The Wolf House

Publish date

24/01/25

The day after President Trump’s inauguration Sky News ran an article online titled, Net worth of Trump inauguration attendees tops $1 trillion with world’s richest in the crowd. Trump was no doubt delighted that these Titans of Wealth wished to attend, but I was left asking what was in it for them…

The list of those present was quite something:
•    Elon Musk (net worth $425.1 billion)
•    Jeff Bezos ($246.3 billion)
•    Mark Zuckerberg ($217.7 billion)
•    Bernard Arnault ($191.2 billion)
•    Miriam Adelson ($31.9 billion).

One had to feel for the poor kids in the room like Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook ($2.2 billion), and Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai ($1.3 billion).

I think the easy answer to my rhetorical question above would be to cite the importance of cosying up to the new President as part of the attendees’ fiduciary obligations to secure the future success of the businesses they represent.

As a fan of Hilary Mantel’s brilliant Wolf Hall trilogy, the footage of the inauguration in the Rotunda of the US Capitol Building brought to mind the Court of Henry VIII. Arch-rivals Thomas Cromwell and the Duke of Norfolk vied for power whilst both knowing that ultimately they owed everything to the King’s favour.

It would therefore make complete sense for those in positions of business leadership to kowtow to a President who shares a striking number of characteristics with perhaps the most flamboyant and capricious member of the Tudor Dynasty.

But I wonder whether there’s more to this than just good business sense.

One would have to imagine that anyone who appears in the top 100 wealthiest people on the planet, or the top 1000 for that matter, could afford to incur the short-term irritation of a one-term President.

It could even be argued that Trump needs these business leaders more than they need him, so perhaps I was wrong to sense an atmosphere of sycophancy in the short clips I watched of the ceremony.

If I’m right, though, it suggests at least some of the attendees were seeking something else… Happiness perhaps?

When you’ve got all the wealth you could possibly need to fly through the top of Abraham Maslow’s famous hierarchy of needs, what happens next? Do you reach a point, as many would argue, where the incremental growth in one’s wealth fails to lead to an equivalent increase in happiness.

If so, does that perhaps lead to a need to seek an alternative source of happiness or, to use Maslow’s term, self-actualisation? And might power, or the proximity to it, be one place to seek that elusive elixir.

And even if not, might that proximity still secure you the support you need to launch the rockets to Mars that would help you build your legacy. And might that quest for legacy be the ultimate goal?

I don’t have the answers to these questions, but seeing those people in the Rotunda on Monday simply reminded me that more money alone doesn’t buy you more happiness.