All rich people care about is one-upping their friends.

H.L. Mencken once defined wealth as "any income that is at least $100 more a year than the income of one's wife's sister's husband."

We call this positional concerns. 

The need to belong to the tribe is an anthropological imperative.  To put it simply, those that belonged to a tribe stood a better chance of surviving.  Even more so if they had a particular talent that pushed them to the top of the tribal hierarchy.

This hasn't changed.

So when rich people tell you that if you raise taxes for the rich they won't work as hard, they are lying.  Because taxes are irrelevant to their motivation.  They will still want to one up their friends to prove how superior they are.

And they won't be moving from NYC to Newark anytime soon.

#MakeBillionairesPay

Competitive or perfectionist - which one are you?

H.L. Mencken defined wealth as "any income that is at least $100 more a year than the income of one's wife's sister's husband." (1949)

We call that positional concerns.  

From an anthropological standpoint survival depends upon belonging to the tribe.  Ideally we have enough in common with the tribe to accepted as a member, but bring enough value-added that we are prized within the tribe. 

And since status is relative, people compete to be seen as the most valuable players.  Sometimes they want to be the richest, other times they want to brag about the colleges their kids attend.  Whatever they think will give them an edge.

Myers-Briggs tells us that ~60% of us value relationships over task - so the majority of us probably compete for elevated status within the tribe.

Perfectionists on the other hand march to a different drummer.  If all you care about is being perfect then you don't care about your performance relative to others.  You just want to be perfect.

So while most people would be content with a 98 out of 100 on a test, as long as it was the best grade given, perfectionists will focus on those other two points regardless.

Knowing which type of person you are dealing with is the key to motivating them.  So, which one are you?

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/H._L._Mencken