At some point money stops being about what you can buy and turns to a competition. You become addicted to the feeling of getting ahead of your rivals on the Forbes list, watching your companies stock price tick up after a good quarter, coming up with megalomaniac plans and then feeling happy when you can finally afford them even if you never actually wanted to pull them off.
Being a billionaire is a conscious decision. You can always choose to give away your shares to employees or sell them and donate the profit like Warren Buffett. If you decide you want to keep all of it for yourself that means you are a selfish person and probably a psychopath. And for these types making money is a goal by itself.
I buy that but it still leaves many questions. The goal is ultimately arbitrary, is it not?
Why not seek fame instead? Philanthropy? World records? Knowledge? Innovation? Adventure? Or many other things? Money makes all these things easier to achieve. These are less hated by the public. Using capital to seek these pursuits does not risk them losing their heads as the populous revolts. Power can still be had through many of these pursuits. To do the things they claim their companies do...
I don't think you're wrong, but it is far from a complete answer and that's why I ask
So I'm not just going to accept selection bias as the answer because while that explains why some people have an addition it doesn't explain why society is fixated on those chasing the arbitrary high score.
Being a billionaire is a conscious decision. You can always choose to give away your shares to employees or sell them and donate the profit like Warren Buffett. If you decide you want to keep all of it for yourself that means you are a selfish person and probably a psychopath. And for these types making money is a goal by itself.