C’est la question qui était posée dans un thread sur Quora. Or, une des réponse a particulièrement retenu mon attention. Je vous la donne ci-dessous.

La réponse la plus importante, de Paul Buchheit, qui est… le créateur de Gmail.

Sur le fait que la richesse permet d’aller au delà des contraintes :

Wealth removes constraints. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing depends on the extent to which you needed those constraints.

… ce qui amène à accentuer les traits de chacun :

If you have a serious alcohol or other drug addiction, wealth could be fatal for you. In general, it makes people more of whatever they already were. If you’re an asshole, getting more money will probably make you more of an asshole. However, if you have purpose and meaning in your life that goes beyond chasing the golden carrot, money can give you the freedom to focus on the things that truly matter to you.

Et une seconde réponse, qui accentue l’aspect « drogue » de l’argent.

But it’s impossible to give up the money. Being wealthy is probably not worth it. But once you get there, you want to stay there forever.