What's Enough Wealth, Tom Brady?

This morning I read that Tom Brady is generously not costing the Tampa Bay Police Department whatever it takes to guard the waters around his 30,000 square foot mansion

Wow! I'm so impressed.

Which brings me to the subject of superfluous wealth. I'm betting there are a great number of Tom Brady's in the United States of America who are so rich, a 30,000 foot home seems, well, reasonable.
I'm thinking of a number of star athletes, and owners of teams. But rich athletes represent only a fraction of the uber rich in our country - all of whom, I dare say, live in comparable mansions.

I asked one astonishingly rich man once why he needed to live in a 40,000 square foot mansion. He had a wife and only two kids. His answer was, "I don't need to, I chose to." My incredulous silence prompted, "And because I earned my money and can do what I want with it."

Wow! I was so impressed.

This is the mindset of the Rex Rich, the 2% of the wealthy that control 98 % of our country's bucks.
It is sadly the mindset of most people who accumulate a great deal of money; they earned it, no one has a right to tell them how to spend it.

I'm not sure such a mindset will ever change, no matter what political party rules our country. Donald Trump and his greedy minions represents merely a more grotesque example of the superfluously wealthy.

But here's a hypothetical:  What would happen to Tom Brady and his  family if he had to live in a more modest dwelling, say around 5,000 square feet, in an ordinary gated (I can see the need for gated if you were a well known athlete) community, no lack of amenities, room in his backyard for a pool and patio. Perhaps not a tennis court. Would Tom Brady and family suffer greatly? And what if Tom Brady's mindset was a deep desire to use his wealth to help society? Over and above his tax write off foundation, all the wealth he really does not need for a happy, carefree life? And what if all uber wealthy professional athletes followed Tom Brady's lead?  And what would happen if all the other non-athletes of great wealth, follow the lead of the professional athletes? What if, for example, Bill Gates said, "I can live happily on four million dollars a year. And every bit of money I earn above that I'm going to spend on making our society a better more ethical place to live for all the people?

Wow! Then, I'd be really impressed.


Of what is truly important in a materialistic world, I offer to  all this small poem:

In the Mountains on a Summer Day

Gently I stir a white feather fan,
With open shirt sitting in a green wood.
I take off my cap and hang it on a jutting stone;
A wind from the pine-trees trickles on my bare head.

                        Li Po
                        Translated by Arthur Waley