Is it cognitive dissonance to want to be a bilionare and at the same time knock them down for being greedy?

Examples, please; otherwise you are proposing a contradiction.

It depends on both your reasons for wanting to be a billionaire and your reasons for criticizing existing billionaires. If you think that being a billionaire and being greedy are inexorably linked together, then there would have to be some amount of cognitive dissonance there.

But if you think that only the specific billionaires you have criticized are greedy and that it is possible to be both a good person and a billionaire (and perhaps want to be a billionaire specifically to do things that you think are good uses of all that money), then there need not be any cognitive dissonance involved.

And of course, not everyone thinks that being greedy is a bad thing. But the premise of the question suggests that you are not asking about such people.

People will go to great lengths to avoid cognitive dissonance. The would-be billionaire might say: I would be different from all those greedy billionaires. I would devote my life to helping those in need.

I don’t think most billionaires are actually driven by pure greed. Many are driven by achievement, just look at Elon Musk, Steve Jobs and many others. People also have this view that rich people are by nature evil which is ridiculous. The cognitive dissonance comes to play readily whenever people blame ephemeral, disconnected people for their personal situation.

As others have said, what would you devote your life to?

First of all, I can think of a lot of philanthropic causes. We need more, better, cleaner, homeless shelters—and programs that help the homeless get housing and financial assistance and jobs, if they are capable of work. There are even sober people who are victims of abuse and may find themselves alone and terrified and left with nothing. Or, proplr who have lost their job and have little prospects.

Some communities need parks, community centers, health centers, and even schools.

Don’t discount our need for humane, no-kill animal shelters and animal sanctuaries. Animals suffer, too, at the abuse and neglect of humans.

And—just to be able to give people in need A LOT of help, whenever you find them. To go around, perhaps anonymously, helping people in need.

Of course, if all this still seems effortless because of your wealth, think of all the good you could do as a volunteer, a missionary, or even an artist or writer (if you could discipline yourself) if you did not have to work tiring hours just to pay bills and meet your own basic expenses.