> MHSA regulates him like he's running a pit mine, it's a huge f-ing farce

Not as much of a farce as getting silicosis and dying at 50 because your idiot gravel pit boss refuses to maintain a sprinkler system.

He could probably sell that business to the right buyer for a few million dollars and walk away. Just go sit on a beach somewhere, drinking Mai Tai s for a year, and then get bored of not working and then go back to working.

That you don't envy his current lifestyle doesn't mean he's not rich.

> How so? I know a guy who has literally millions of dollars tied up in shit that moves dirt and rocks and another mil tied up in some gravel pits

Having literally millions of dollars in productive assets is rich by any reasonable standard.

> The free cash he has, the house he lives in, the lifestyle he can afford is on par with "normal" white collar professionals

And he has decades of support at that level of wealth in and realizable from the assets. Choosing to use it to generate a a “normal white collar professional” (i.e., reasonably well off to start with) income doesn't change that it is an enormous store of value that he owns.

A few million bucks is all you need to immediately retire with the expectation of being able to draw a us median income from your investments in perpetuity.

> another mil tied up in some gravel pits

> MHSA regulates him like he's running a pit mine

Sounds like he does? As per your own comment.