Hmm lets see. Walked away from a sale of a company with $10 million after tax. In 8 years, had over $5 million of it tied up in real estate, and at least another half million in luxury goods.
With $10 million, with a smartly designed trust and sensible investments, you should be able to realize a hair under 4% per annum easily without high risk. So figure a very low risk $380k a year income. They were not living a $380k a year lifestyle, and that's what they had a trust for.
If they wanted to live big, they needed to like a $190k per year life style for about a decade while using half their assets to grow and half their assets in conservative income investments. Effectively, he had a business to run and pissed it away on shiny things instead.
This story is about someone have lottery syndrome, not anything to do with the economy other that it wasn't rocking enough to protect the stupid form themselves.
Gramps
The gap between rich and poor is at historic levels. The 'spreading of the wealth' has been in the upward direction.
And people like you have nothing but contempt for those who's lives and careers have been interrupted or destroyed for the purpose of further enriching the already wealthy.
So why do you care about this particular family when millions of others have ended up just like them?