alt Hacker NewsThe work of Vermeer was largely brought to the world by the van Ruijven family.
Henry Wriothesley gave us Shakespeare.
Archduke Rudolph allowed Beethoven to echo down the ages.
Bezos has a really big boat that requires bridges to be dismantled to move it.
The wealthy of the past were a different caliber of people. Maybe the simplicity of life kept them more grounded?
Yeah that was my point upthread - I think there are just more businesses selling goods to every level of billionaire now .. like the consumer culture goes all the way up to the $100B level. Kind of a weird flattening of American culture.
So they can buy bigger boats/homes/jets/etc rather than found a university or fund the arts...