Joe Rogan and Tom Segura strayed into rich guy talk on JRE last week. While unpalatable, the discussion also presents an important lesson.

Around the 74 minute mark they started talking luxury cars. Cars that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. They looked up a tract of land for sale with a custom built racetrack, and Joe briefly entertained the idea of buying it so they had somewhere to drive their fast luxury cars, but they reasoned it was too far. Tom even said "hey you can helicopter there."

This is obviously outside the realm of possibility for most people. Both Joe and Tom are very wealthy, with Joe even qualifying as obscenely rich (with his Spotify deals). Their luxury car conversation illustrates they’re living in a different world. Joe is usually pretty good at staying away from this type of talk, but succumbs to it with guests who are friends.

My hot take: it's okay for them to talk about this, it's okay for them to be rich. I don't begrudge their wealth just because it dwarfs mine. I believe in capitalism. Our society attributes value to what these two men produce—comedy. There's nothing wrong with being rich. I think Joe just knows most listeners will only tolerate so much rich guy talk.

But their conversation illuminates something. It shows that despite any wealth divide, we cannot escape the universal human condition: our insatiable need for more. Joe Rogan and Tom Segura were causally talking about something tempting, but it was just a little too pricey. Even if Joe's net worth really is 9 digits, there are still things he cannot afford or is unwilling to pay for. We all experience this, no matter our wealth. Jeff Bezos, one of the richest human beings on the planet (and in the history of the world), famously had a $500 million superyacht built. This yacht has a “support vessel” which… has a helicopter pad. Talk about ostentatious spending. But Bezos couldn't get his superyacht out of the harbor. It was too big to exit underneath the bridge. Eventually the masts were stepped, but it proves even the 2nd richest person on the planet can't have everything he wants whenever he wants.

None of us can. It's a fundamental part of the human condition. Our brains are wired to adapt to current circumstances as a survival mechanism. Once we become accustomed to more ease, more time, more wealth, we continue to want more. It's inescapable; every human being faces this conundrum. So while the rich may live in a different world in many ways, that only extends so far. We each struggle through the same emotional capacity. While the physical, tangible items we desire or covet might look drastically different, the struggle is the same.

Wealth and beauty on display at Ponza, Italy - July 2024

This can be an encouraging thought. It can give some solace, that even if we never become as rich as Joe or Jeff, we can still enjoy a good life. I'd argue the 'richest' people in the world are those who experience the most joy within their current situation, within themselves. Those who can remain content and maximize their time are the wealthiest. Elon Musk said as much a previous Joe Rogan episode, quipping, "everyone thinks they want to be me. I don't think most people want to be me." Does Elon get to jet set around the world? Yes. Is he plagued internally with his incessant thinking patterns? It seems so.

All this provides an opportunity to eliminate envy. We can all strive to be our best, to provide as good a life as possible for our families. But competing for wealth with others is folly. We all adapt to our circumstances, we are all tempted with the allure of more. How we reject that, how we remain satisfied, is what determines our quality of life.

Many studies have shown that once an individual makes above a certain salary threshold, happiness doesn't increase. I intuit that's true. Once our basic needs are met, it's up to us to be happy. So maybe we take Joe's advice for society and make less losers. Maybe we set things up so we don't have really poor people living in communities with no opportunity. Maybe if we solve that, we can work to ensure all humans globally enjoy an acceptable standard of living. Maybe that's the easy part. Maybe the hard part is the battle we each must face, of resisting more, and remaining fulfilled.