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My Parents Give Me $28k a Year

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Re: My Parents Give Me $28k a Year

#301

Post by LitFan »

kazinator wrote: post #93
LitFan wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people think heroin isn't like candy. The physical dependence is the same, and there are 4 times as many deaths that can be linked to sugar as drugs per year in the US. The only difference is that heroin is illegal and costs a lot more than candy.

Firstly, "linked to sugar" is not "squarely caused by sugar". Secondly, sugar use is extremely widespread. Much more so than use of heroin. Few people avoid ingesting some sugar. Even if there were 4 times as many deaths confirmed to be squarely caused by sugar, that alone shows sugar to be far safer, since it has far more than 4 times the users. But never mind, let's look at, oh, the lethal dose (LD50) info. For sug…

> Firstly, "linked to sugar" is not "squarely caused by sugar".

Correct - the same goes for "Linked to drugs" and "squarely caused by drugs".

> that alone shows sugar to be far safer

Sugar is safer than cocaine, but that does not make it safe. I shouldn't have said the only difference - sorry.

> But never mind, let's look at, oh, the lethal dose (LD50) info

This is too narrowly focused - the LD50 only refers to the immediate effects of a substance, not the long lasting effects. I'd argue that long lasting effects are more dangerous as they're less apparent.

> Plus there is copious sugar in your bloodstream without which you'd be in hypoglycemic shock leading to death.

Yes, our bodies need sugar and create it from the food we eat. I was talking about the food we call sugar ("Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food.)

I should use "added sugar" or "refined sugar".

Re: My Parents Give Me $28k a Year

#302

Post by eatbitseveryday »

Kaveren wrote: post #113
eatbitseveryday wrote: post #43

> Still, when my parents told me they were going to give me about $2,000 a month, [...] I took it, spent part of it helping my then-boyfriend pay off his student loans and put the rest in the bank. > When my boyfriend suddenly left me (as men in New York are occasionally known to do), I had to pay $1,450 a month for rent on my own ($17,400 a year) on the lease we had just started, not including utilities. I quickly d…

Caring about a person can make you do nice things for them and support them even if that results in a financial loss. If one is of good character, and able to help someone they have a good relationship with, they will do so.

My concern was more about responsibility. I do and buy things for my friends, like dinner, or presents, but I'm not going to pay for their student loans because that's a significant burden that would place me in a financially unstable situation (as the author admits herself to).

Re: My Parents Give Me $28k a Year

#303

Post by astrodust »

maerF0x0 wrote: post #211
astrodust wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you have a profound misunderstanding of what someone with billions of dollars in inherited wealth does with their money. It's not investing in "profitable ventures" that "create benefits", it's tied up in businesses they inherited, it's squirreled away in tax havens, it's spent on lavish properties, club memberships, expensive cars, and tuition for their children. If you're lucky a tiny fraction of that trick…

> it's spent on lavish properties, club memberships, expensive cars, and tuition for their children. All of that is trickle down to workers for those jobs > it's tied up in businesses they inherited That means the sum benefit to humanity is still going! > Then that money generates enough of a return that their kids can inherit billions in turn and the cycle repeats. I cant imagine someone who more deserves to direct…

Working for less than minimum wage on a temporary worker permit is not in any way 'trickle down'.

These ultra-rich people can dictate terms, can sway policy, in ways you can't even fathom. The person earning almost nothing has no say, no vote, no power at all.

There's no benefit to humanity when all their money is being squirreled away in offshore accounts where it creates only a handful of jobs.

When you're talking about giving something to your kids you usually mean, at most, a million dollars. Estates under $4M aren't even taxed. It's only in cases beyond that where the taxes get stiffer, and they should.

You don't want what happened in Europe where for hundreds of years the same families control everything with almost zero change in the status-quo despite countries and empires coming and going, long, vicious wars, famines, disease and conquest. Money doesn't move down the chain unless you make it move.

Trickle down is what the ultra-rich tell people is going to happen so they can hoover up more money.

In a perfectly ideal society every child born has the same opportunity as any other, they're all free to make it or blow it. That's obviously never going to happen, but letting the ultra-rich maintain their wealth indefinitely creates a permanent and insurmountable advantage for that class to the detriment of everyone else.

Re: My Parents Give Me $28k a Year

#304

Post by paulddraper »

mmcconnell1618 wrote: post #90
paulddraper wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> like giving your kid ten billion dollars, you're making it impractical or impossible for others to advance economically. Zero-sum is one perspective, but not one that I subscribe to. Does your neighbor having $10b of stuff make you better or worse off than if than if there's $10b of stuff at the bottom of the ocean?

I don't believe the economy is zero-sum either but handing $10B in capital to your child gives them a significantly unfair advantage compared to most others. Image that the economy is a field of wheat. It grows bigger every year as workers become more productive and learn how to fertilize and water more efficiently. At the end of the season, everyone gets a chance to head into the field and collect some wheat. Some p…

Image the economy is a field of wheat.

Someone comes in with a tractor plough and plants twice a much wheat as last year. There is now lots of food in the economy and bread and pies.

In fact, the tractor plough plants so much wheat year after year that a few of the farmers stop planting and start working on building and maintaining tractors.

Eventually the tractors do well enough and wheat is cheap enough that the some farmers can afford to raise wheat-fed cattle.

Re: My Parents Give Me $28k a Year

#305

Post by [deleted] »

likeclockwork wrote: post #271
mberning wrote: post #167

First off - I really dislike it when people deal with blocks of people as if they are a monolith. As if all white people have some innate starting advantage, all black people have some disadvantage, etc. It’s a brutally racist mentality that is very common. Secondly, poverty is not a lack of money or material wealth. That is part of it and is definitely a symptom. But actual poverty is a culture and a set of habits t…

"But actual poverty is a culture and a set of habits that easily pass from one generation to the next." Wow.

[deleted]

Re: My Parents Give Me $28k a Year

#306

Post by undersuit »

slimshady94 wrote: post #205
dumbfoundded wrote: post #72

Relevant John Adams quote: I could fill volumes with descriptions of temples and palaces, paintings, sculptures, tapestry, porcelain, etc., etc., etc.—if I could have time. But I could not do this without neglecting my duty. The science of government it is my duty to study, more than all other sciences: the art of legislation and administration and negotiation, ought to take place, indeed to exclude in a manner all o…

What do the children of poets and musicians study?

The Adam's quote only says that they are given the right to study, this isn't the pessimistic statement of Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum. Adams' great-grandchildren can focus on: politics, war, mathematics, philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, agriculture, painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, porcelain... and probably more.

Re: My Parents Give Me $28k a Year

#307

Post by roymurdock »

Inconel wrote: post #210
roymurdock wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If/when you have kids, assuming the economy looks roughly the same when they graduate college, would you consider providing them a similar $28k/year stipend if they decided to pursue their goal in the arts/a non-lucrative career? Maybe non-monetary support such as having a place to live with you at home? Or would you want them to learn lessons the hard way?

This is getting very hypothetical here, but I'll be glad to indulge your question. I'm unsure at this stage in my life whether I'll ever have the opportunity to have children of my own, but I would certainly like to. As I've spent some time in the foster care system, and seeing as it ended rather disastrously with me spending a good chunk of my HS years homeless, I'd very much like to get involved in being a foster p…

Thanks for responding.

I come from a more privileged background with a lot of family support, so I can see the good (stability and guidance allows you to learn, socialize, grow, stay out of the death spiral of the penal/judicial system) and bad (overdependence on parents, growing up in a bubble, not learning lessons in a visceral/hard way that will stick with you, mistaking luck and hard work) from where I've come from.

I appreciate you sharing your personal perspective, and I agree. I wouldn't want to provide any monetary support for my children post university (unless it is more of a business transaction with stipulations on what it can be spent on/payback period), but would want to provide stability and travel/educational experiences growing up, and be there when shit happens as it usually does

Per your privilege comment, travel has been the most helpful for me to get outside of my bubble, so I think you hit the nail on the head. It's like the fish swimming in water parable:

There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, "Morning, boys, how's the water?" And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, "What the hell is water?"

http://bulletin-archive.kenyon.edu/x4280.html

Re: My Parents Give Me $28k a Year

#308

Post by [deleted] »

underpand wrote: post #128
rtkwe wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree heavily with this. There's been a lot of improvement in the quality and variety of entertainment too over the years not just the technology used to deliver them. If restricted to media from say mid century America post TV most people would be bored stiff by the material available. It's REALLY easy to wind up with a dismissive attitude towards the arts growing up and working in tech but never forget how muc…

What improvement in quality? I'd argue that most improvment is due to increased efficiency of information retrieval, content creation and content delivery, all driven by technological advancement. I agree that diversity of entertainment options is important, but we're well past the saturation point even without subsidization.

[deleted]

Re: My Parents Give Me $28k a Year

#309

Post by [deleted] »

mrep wrote: post #79
intopieces wrote: post #11

My guess is this is of interest to us because it sounds an awful lot like UBI. But, I think the key difference is that the money is connected to parents, who presumably have a standard for how it's spent. If E.J. ended up spending it on drugs or other perceived vices, there's a chance the money might be cut off. The point of UBI is that it is 100% no-strings-attached, which has a different dynamic. That dynamic is on…

Yeah, my parents just started sending me $30,000 dollar checks this year and the first thing they said to me was "We aren't giving you this money so you can go off and buy a Maserati".

[deleted]

Re: My Parents Give Me $28k a Year

#310

Post by undersuit »

whoTube- wrote: post #23
Breadmaker wrote: post #3

> That’s a $22.4 million of unearned income for the children of the rich, whereas the working class get taxed on their first dollar earned. A person could at least argue that my parents earned the capital they live off of. But me? I didn’t actually earn it.

how are working class taxed on first dollar earned? most dont pay any federal income tax.

Even if it's a benefit you are still taxed SS and Medicare no matter how little you earn.
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