History Main / TheRichWantToBeRicher

** In "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS14E12ScammedYankees Scammed Yankees]]", he read a con e-mail asking for 10,000 dollars, with the false promise of a $1,000,000 payback, and eagerly goes along with it.

'''Mr. Burns:''' Oh yes. But I'd trade it all for a little more.

** Austrian tycoon Auric Film/{{Goldfinger}} already has wealth from his many industries and his sizable hoard of gold. Yet, his EvilPlan involves setting off a nuclear device inside the vault of Fort Knox, which would make the United States' trove useless. In turn, the value of Goldfinger's stash would increase exponentially. By villain standards, totally worth it.
*** Further highlighting the stupidity of this mindset in Goldfinger's case is that he primarily traded in gold and had a massive amount of it stockpiled already that would have skyrocketed in value had his plan been successful. But his greed was so insatiable he couldn't resist trying to get as much as he possibly could, so he used criminal connections to smuggle gold out of the United Kingdom and several major American cities. This is what led to Bond being assigned to investigate Goldfinger, and thus to his eventual defeat.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire''. Lampshaded by Jaime Lannister's aunt Genna, in a discussion of how a rival House might try to assert their claim to Riverrun despite already owning profitable lands. "Why does a man with one pot of gold need another? Men are greedy."

* ''Series/{{Fargo}}'' Season 3: V.M. Varga is a walking, talking embodiment of this trope. The head of an international corporation called Narwhal, wealthy enough to afford several jets, sophisticated computer equipment, and a private army of thugs, Varga's only goal in life is to stockpile money for himself by any means necessary (including blackmail, fraud, and murder). He reasons that a human's only true value in life is proportionate to the amount of money they make.

* ''VideoGame/Uncharted4'': The antagonist, Rafe Adler, is already pretty wealthy but is disgruntled because he's IdleRich i.e. the wealth was inherited to him rather than earned. And so he wishes to find the treasure of Henry Avery so he can have a part of his wealth that he gained himself despite having to rely on the Drake siblings to point him where he needs to go to find it.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': In "I Can't Stan You", Steve and Roger pull a real estate scam to gain $100,000, which they split between themselves. Steve (who had been the ButtMonkey of their previous jobs), manages to take Roger's half by distracting him with a single dollar bill, which Roger leaps to catch, despite his already considerable earnings. The note Steve leaves in its place sums Roger up well:
-->"[[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech You taught me that everyone's either a sucker, a crook, or just plain greedy. You're all three.]]"

-->'''Kimberly:''' ''(Sighs)'' Okay, my mom totally needs therapy. I get it.

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': Peter's father-in-law Carter owns a multi-million dollar company but is always eager to earn a little more money. In Carter's case, it's for the challenge running his business gives him rather than just the money itself, as shown when Lois convinced him to retire to Florida in one episode. With nothing to strive for, Carter turned into a near-catatonic shell of himself within a few days.
** In "Scammed Yankees", he read a con e-mail asking for 10,000 dollars, with the false promise of a $1,000,000 payback, and eagerly went along with it.
** In "Carter and Tricia", he bought the Pawtucket Patriot brewery and ordered them to start making beer cans out of a cheap yet toxic metal, all so he could save a few dollars. Ironically, the metal he wanted to replace the cans with was "the one they make prison toilets out of" because he assumed they're cheaply made, while in reality they're made of stainless steel.
* In the [[WesternAnimation/ColorClassics Fleshier Studio short]] "Greedy Humpty Dumpty", Humpty Dumpty is rich, but he's greedy and wants even more money. Believing there is gold in the sun, he builds his wall into a TowerOfBabel until it reaches space, upon which he breaks open the sun and is essentially punished by the heavens and, as in the nursery rhyme, falls off his wall and is broken to pieces.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': In "A Head in the Polls", Bender becomes rich after ''literally'' selling his body (he's a robot so he can survive with just a head), and manages to get even richer by cheating at a casino.
* ''WesternAnimation/GeorgeOfTheJungle'': When Super Chicken learns one of his former classmates literally stole Rhode Island, he wonders why someone who's already rich would steal and an old school picture of said classmate says it's to become richer.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': In the season six episode "Viva las Pegasus", ConArtist brothers Flim and Flam gain ownership of a popular resort, the profits of which will in all likelihood have them set for life. But in all their later appearances, they still pull scams, planning to use the profits to have the resort expanded, all so they can make ''even more money''.

** In "Old Money", Grampa is left $106,000 in his girlfriend's will. Not knowing what to do with it himself, he requests that anyone who wants it should come and make their case for him to give it to them. One of the people who sees him is Mr. Burns, who literally ''[[AintTooProudToBeg begs]]'' Grampa to give the money to him. When Grampa points out that he's already rich, Burns responds with this:
--->"Mr. Simpson, I dread the day when $100,000 isn't worth groveling for."
** In "Monty Can't Buy Me Love", [[UnclePennybags loveable billionaire]] Arthur Fortune gives out free dollar bills to those attending the opening of his latest megastore. Mr. Burns zaps Ned Flanders with a cattleprod so he can take the dollar Flanders picked up.
** After being fined $3 million for illegal dumping in "Marge Vs. The Monorail", Burns shows up in a PaperThinDisguise, wearing a fake moustache and calling himself [[SdrawkcabAlias "Mr Snrub"]], at the town meeting to try and convince the town to give the money back to the plant, even though it's such a paltry sum for him he was ''literally'' carrying it around in his wallet.
** In "Who Shot Mr Burns?", Mr. Burns resorts to disguising himself as the teenaged Jimbo to try and trick Principal Skinner into signing over the school's new oil well to him. When this fails, he outright steals the well using a slanted oil rig. This episode in particular is notable, as Mr Burns' behavior escalates into supervillain-level of greed, culminating in him ''blocking off the sun'' so he can gain a complete energy monopoly over Springfield. He earns so many enemies from his actions that when someone shoots him, [[WhoMurderedTheAsshole virtually everyone in town is a suspect]]. [[spoiler:Ironically, what got him shot was [[EvilIsPetty even pettier]] than all of the above -- he tried to steal Maggie's candy. [[EpicFail And failed]], with his gun accidentally going off in the struggle. [[JaywalkingWillRuinYourLife Over a lollipop]].]]

** In "The Tooth Fairy's Tats! 2000", the boys get involved in a "tooth fairy racket" (tricking the parents of rich kids into thinking they put a tooth under their pillow, then taking the money they put there before anyone realizes), and are soon rich enough to afford a number of luxuries. But when they see a news report (actually a lure for a dentist's sting operation) proclaiming that an [[DelicateAndSickly ill child]] will be given $600 for an operation he needs by the tooth fairy, they leap to get the money.
** In "Red Man's Greed" the townspeople, needing to save the town from being bulldozed and replaced by a new road, pool what funds they can together and bet it all on a game of roulette. Miraculously, they win enough to save the town... but decide to play again so they can win even more money, despite the kids urging them to take the money and leave. As a result, they end up losing everything.

* ''WesternAnimation/TalkingTomAndFriends'': The [[{{Trumplica}} CEO]] is a multi-millionaire businessman, but he is intent on gaining even more riches (usually by trying to steal and [[StealingTheCredit take credit]] for Tom and Ben's latest creations).