I'm a bit of a latecomer to this thread as a first poster on page one hundred whatever, but I can relate a mindblowing story from my fish boat days.
In the mid-90s I worked on trawlers off the West Coast of Canada. Year round, very dangerous but very high income potential (more or less exactly the same as the guys on 'the Deadliest Catch'). It only took me a couple of years to know that it was not a future for me, in part because of the constant danger, but also I could never find a happy man working on any of the boats.
So towards the end of my life on fish boats (I left after ~3 years) I ended up on a 'freezer trip' on one of the biggest boats on the coast. What that means is a 4-8 week trip offshore, basically the boat has freezers so you stay at sea until the boat is full. This boat was huge and co-owned by 8 fellows, all of whom were on it at the time.
Here's the thing. The boat and license were worth a combined $10 Million, maybe as much as $15 Million. These guys spent >300 days/year offshore on the thing, with each other, for decades. On average I think they all made about $200K/year, with good and bad years. All of them were divorced (of course - who would stay married to a chronic absentee?). Every one of them was a millionaire just in the value of their share of boat and license, not to mention what they may or may not have saved over the years (when would they spend money?).
So these guys all hated their jobs, hated each other, and hated their lives. At that time there was a big shakeup going on in the offshore fleet, and they could have sold out for >$1.5 Million each easily. But the very notion of giving up being fishermen and living on shore was not even in the equation. Every one of them was miserable and rich, and could see no way out of that situation.
A month after I got off that boat I went back to college. As far as I know they are still out there.