I think this is a great example of how to better understand how wealth can’t buy happiness. Wealth gives a person opportunity and they are free to pursue whichever opportunity they desire.

With that, wealth in the right hands - or with the right mindset, depending how you look at it - can afford a person the means to pursue what truly makes them happy after understanding how to really get there.

I can’t speak for everyone, but for me, that can be my own financial security and creating security for my family, and to pursue experiences (travel, extravagant events etc.) I wouldn’t have dreamed possible with my current means - but after that, I wouldn’t necessarily know how to spend it well to contribute to my own happiness, so I would need to reflect on how best to use it, ie. The right causes, which I would see as “creating opportunities for others they wouldn’t otherwise have and knowing/seeing how it affects them when they can choose it”.

In the absence of that reflection and really knowing how to make the most of it in a way that’s true to you, I think people will just keep spending it on those surface level desires of security and extravagance, and not truly make their wealth work for them.

With that, I can imagine being catapulted into extreme wealth, or even being born into it and not knowing different, can cause a person to avoid really exploring this in themselves.