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Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have?

theatlantic.com

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Re: Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have?

#181

Post by Tomte »

gammateam wrote: post #115
jacquesm wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> HN will shadowban your account if you dont conform to popular opinion enough Bollocks.

Sometimes unaccepted observations can come across as wildly outlandish or insensitive depending on the topic, and initialize the fallible moderators as well While other things conform to the prevalent opinion and masquarade as insightful high quality comments there is a reason we can still see the now-laughable criticisms of dropbox

> the now-laughable criticisms of dropbox

But was it really?

It certainly wasn't a high-quality comment, it was too negative and arguably mean.

But the "failure" of the comment was merely a failure in correctly evaluating the business value. Something most of us have done many times in our "forum careers". Just think about all those comments that amount to not much more than "if you don't use the command line, you're not worthy of using a computer".

On a technical level it was fine. And remember, Dropbox in this very first stage was a very different beast from today's Dropbox.

Re: Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have?

#182

Post by 10122018 »

hueving wrote: post #99
10122018 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> in the $10-30 million range you can live a comfortable life without having to worry about finances again This statement strikes me as very disconnected from the reality that the vast majority of people on this planet live in, and honestly, a little bit irritating. I'm well aware that many here on HN would be millionaires, but as somebody who grew up in poverty and is now a full-time uni student with no savings in t…

I don't think you are fully grokking "not worrying about finances". Your scenario requires consistent outsized market returns to give you less money than the poverty level. You will be wiped out by inflation, a recession, a newborn child, or a myriad of other unexpected expenses that will quickly blow through your poverty-level allowance. That's nowhere near "not worrying about finances". "Not worrying about finances…

> Seriously, read the thread again. This has nothing to do with comfort, it's about FU money.

I was responding to the HN comment, not the Reddit thread. If you're talking about having "FU money" and I'm talking about being "comfortable" then I think we are talking about different things.

> You're thinking that people who don't constantly have to worry about finances is what the poster is talking about, but that's worlds away from never worrying about finances again.

I agree, I think we have a different understanding of what it is to "worry" about finances. I am talking about the sort of worry that comes from not knowing where the next meal will come from, or not being able to pay rent. That, to me, is what worry is. I appreciate your explanation that others mean something different.

Re: Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have?

#183

Post by ForHackernews »

lordnacho wrote: post #112
10122018 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> in the $10-30 million range you can live a comfortable life without having to worry about finances again This statement strikes me as very disconnected from the reality that the vast majority of people on this planet live in, and honestly, a little bit irritating. I'm well aware that many here on HN would be millionaires, but as somebody who grew up in poverty and is now a full-time uni student with no savings in t…

This is a fairly interesting comment for me. I was exactly in your situation. I had no money in Uni. My parents were boat people with no money either. Not long after Uni, I had 100K in my account. Comfy, no mansion, no car. The first thing I spent more than a couple of grand on ever was dental work. Felt great to fix the crossbite. But here's the thing. You could just be alone your whole life, no wife, no kids. I've…

Just imagine if you lived in a society that had good public schools, health and dental care.

Re: Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have?

#184

Post by lordnacho »

hycaria wrote: post #169
lordnacho wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a fairly interesting comment for me. I was exactly in your situation. I had no money in Uni. My parents were boat people with no money either. Not long after Uni, I had 100K in my account. Comfy, no mansion, no car. The first thing I spent more than a couple of grand on ever was dental work. Felt great to fix the crossbite. But here's the thing. You could just be alone your whole life, no wife, no kids. I've…

>You'll need a bigger place to live. You'll want to send the kids to private school. You'll need a bigger car. Maybe it would be more correct to say You'll want a bigger place and a bigger car too, because there's no real need there.

Depends a lot on the particular place you're in. And that in turn may depend a lot on where your existing network is.

Re: Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have?

#185

Post by wastedhours »

osrec wrote: post #89
belorn wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This might sound odd, but there is some real health benefits in perceiving oneself as having high social status. A few of those are better immune system, successful aging, lower stress hormones, lower risk for illness and depression, faster recovery, and just general higher energy and confidence. It can have a very strong positive effect on ones social network. It is a very powerful and deeply biological aspect of li…

I think it's generally assumed that more money equals better physical health, but the psychological aspects are very underrated. Money equals certainty for a lot of people. It lets them count on certain things always being there. Having your own home, respect, clout totally builds your confidence and lets you face life with positivity. You can afford to be wrong more often, so you don't mind sticking your neck out -…

> A poor person simply doesn't have these luxuries, and the anxiety of poverty is a killer in its own right.

When I was younger the lyrics of "Common People" by Pulp [0] really resonated with me on this point - that day to day background worry of making ends meet plagues communities.

Obviously once you reach a certain level of comfort, you get diminishing returns (and even negative returns once the money owns you), but we still need to work on getting more people up to comfort.

[0] https://genius.com/Pulp-common-people-lyrics

Re: Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have?

#186

Post by lordnacho »

ForHackernews wrote: post #183
lordnacho wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a fairly interesting comment for me. I was exactly in your situation. I had no money in Uni. My parents were boat people with no money either. Not long after Uni, I had 100K in my account. Comfy, no mansion, no car. The first thing I spent more than a couple of grand on ever was dental work. Felt great to fix the crossbite. But here's the thing. You could just be alone your whole life, no wife, no kids. I've…

Just imagine if you lived in a society that had good public schools, health and dental care.

The weird thing is I come from a place that's said to have all those things.

Not my opinion, but a lot of Americans hold up Scandinavia as such.

Re: Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have?

#187

Post by nf05papsjfVbc »

dang wrote: post #106
baroffoos wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

90% of the stuff I post is upvoted but I don't care if one opinion I stand behind is downvoted. I also create a new account every month so that probably wont affect me.

That's against the rules, so please don't: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Plenty of explanations about why: https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme...

I'm afraid I do not see this part of the rule explained enough. Why is the identity important there? Wouldn't the content of the messages suffice? Often I do not even look at the name of the poster.

Re: Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have?

#188

Post by 10122018 »

fabricexpert wrote: post #164
10122018 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This shows a pretty big disconnect. Yes it does. That was my point. For starters, you're assuming I'd want to live off the investment, instead of continuing to work. Regardless, I shouldn't have mentioned the arbitrary figure of $100K, which has made it so much easier for people to ignore my point, that many people are comfortable with much less than $10M.

You're presuming you can continue to work. $10M means you don't have to work, even when you can't.

I agree, that is an assumption built into my belief, and possibly a foolish one.

I would still maintain that it is possible to live on much less than $10M, although some may not enjoy the change in lifestyle.

Re: Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have?

#189

Post by bo1024 »

slededit wrote: post #65
hprotagonist wrote: post #3

I’m immediately reminded of the denouement of “This is Water”: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PhhC_N6Bm_s . It’s become/ perhaps always has been a little trite or on the nose, but it’s also not wrong. If you worship money and things-if they are where you tap real meaning in life-then you will never have enough. Never feel you have enough. It's the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will…

It’s a nice thought, and gives a sense the world is fair. But it doesn’t ring true to me. Some people are hot, and they know it. They do not feel ugly. Ditto for intelligence.

I think the key word is "worship". Not e.g. "value intellect" etc. but worship it.

I draw a parallel to sports. It's easy for young athletes to "worship" ability in their sport...to the point where, when you achieve success, you look down on those who are worse than you and look up to those who are better. Reality is that while athletic accomplishment is admirable it does not automatically make you a good person and vice versa.

My experience with "intelligence" has been a bit similar although I have found that smart people I encounter also tend to be wonderful human beings. But I know correlation is not causation.

Anyway, my point is that I think there's an unhealthy "worship" vs a healthy "value" of intelligence beauty etc, and DFW's quote makes sense to me from that perspective.

Re: Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have?

#190

Post by lelima »

rgbrenner wrote: post #73
cyberferret wrote: post #20

But isn't it the well oiled marketing and advertising industry that is keeping us constantly unhappy and forcing us to compare our own (projected) shortcomings against others? My hypothesis is that wealthier people are even deeper in this trap, as once you can afford nice clothes, accessories, cars, houses etc., you are immediately exposed to others in the same (or higher) wealth bracket, thus exacerbating these feel…

It isn't the marketing and advertising industry. Greed, Pride, Lust, Envy, Gluttony - 5 of the 7 deadly sins.. Aristotle might not have reduced it to such a short list, but he wrote plenty on similar ideas. So there's 2300 years on paper... It's really human nature.

that just remind me of the movie Seven, maybe the guy was right(?)
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