The New York Times reports  multi-millionaries in Silicon Valley don’t “feel rich” so they keep their noses to the grindstone, creating a new class known as “working-class millionaires.” The Times profiled several families who have made millions in the tech industry.  All of their stories boil down to the attitude of Tony Barbagallo “who over the last two decades has collected around $3.6 million in stock and options from companies he has worked for,” and Umberto Milletti who has “fantasized about downsizing his life to ease the financial pressures he feels despite a net worth around $5 million.”

“You look around,” Mr. Barbagallo said, “and the pressures to spend more are everywhere.” Children want the latest fashions their peers are wearing and the most popular high-ticket toys. Furniture does not seem up to snuff once you move into a multimillion-dollar home. Spouses talk, and now that resort in Mexico the family enjoyed so much last winter is not good enough when looking ahead to next year. Summer camp, a full-time housekeeper, vintage wines, country clubs: the cost of living bloats.

To Mr. Milletti, it all looks like a marathon with no finish line.

“Here, the top 1 percent chases the top one-tenth of 1 percent, and the top one-tenth of 1 percent chases the top one-one-hundredth of 1 percent,” he said.

“You try not to get caught up in it,” he added, “but it’s hard not to.”

Solomon warned them: “I have seen all things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind” and “When I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:14 and 2:11).