Or do you think he did to try and stay afloat after the ship started to sink?

Of course I live a very frugal lifestyle compared to my income, have no debt other then primary residence, also drive a 12 year old SUV that I paid cash for 4 years ago, and don't really buy "stuff", and if I do its on sale, I use coupons, negotiate the price, take advantage of CC cashback, free shipping offers, etc. 

Now, even poor people are fat, waste food, have the internet, have a car, have Air Conditioning, live in bigger houses, everybody has access to electricity, gas is relatively cheap, we have an Over Supply of Oil, roads are relatively well kept, tires last longer, instead of a car going 100,000 miles they go 300,000 miles, clothing is almost free at 2nd hand stores, bundles of clothes are shipped over seas because they can't be sold here, everybody has a gadget that fits in their pocket that gives them instant access to anybody in the world by entering a phone number or email address or URL, can play 1,000s of songs, and has far more compute power than what it took to put men on the moon. 

Oceans don't sit still and wind blows and there are storms and ships and other disturbances.That’s 2.6 inches in 21 years.

I do like home cooked food... we all have our dreams of what I would do when I have enough cash to do whatever.. one thing I would like to do is buy a condo on the cruise ship the world.. you can get a nice one for about 2 million. and the monthly dues are not sure but probably only 2500 to 5k.. then just cruise the world in your own cruise ship in your own neato apartment.. 

This coupled with determinations and a plan (a ship without a said goes nowhere), is habitual in the lives of wealthy.

In that case, you have to have something of an aggressive approach, but it also has to be smart because you won't have time to right the ship if you take a torpedo. 

I have even seen articles on the homeless being housed by social service organizations  in units that would not be acceptable if you were a builder or a landlord (shipping containers and such). 

The closest thing I have found is retail arbitrage, or online flipping / drop shipping / amazon sales.

There will be many swarms going outwards, but the battle ship persists (never missing the swarmers) while forwardly moving... unabated!