Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have? • Hacker News Board

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

#241

Post by EADGBE » Mon, Dec 10, 2018, 2:37 PM UTC

jensv wrote: post #82

rmspower wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not that this makes their messaging strategy any more coherent, but 200k is on the very low end of Google compensation; new grads have offers with total compensation north of that. But they're just new grads, so obviously they can't know much, right?

I've noticed this on multiple occasions but why do people often create new accounts just to spread propaganda regarding compensation at Google? Is this a recruiting strategy executed by paid schills?

Google doesn't want you to know that you can program websites in the middle of nowhere with very relaxed hours and have a content life that doesn't require you selling your soul to FAANG.

I haven't looked deep into it because I just don't care at this point, but 200k in Mountain View isn't the same 200k in other places.

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

#242

Post by bsenftner » Mon, Dec 10, 2018, 2:37 PM UTC

rv-de wrote: post #132

charlesdm wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's plenty of creativity in tax avoidance and financial engineering. Now, I'm not saying that is the kind of creativity you want to promote, but it certainly is there. There are many people who have fun doing this kind of work.

Then again few rich people will engage in this creative task on their own - most will probably just hire an accountant.

Actually, for the wealthy I know, finding accounting and tax loop holes is better than the Superbowl for them. They treat the activity like a Sherlock Holmes adventure.

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

#243

Post by charlesdm » Mon, Dec 10, 2018, 2:38 PM UTC

bsenftner wrote: post #242

rv-de wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then again few rich people will engage in this creative task on their own - most will probably just hire an accountant.

Actually, for the wealthy I know, finding accounting and tax loop holes is better than the Superbowl for them. They treat the activity like a Sherlock Holmes adventure.

Indeed. Plenty of wealthy people love this.

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

#244

Post by EADGBE » Mon, Dec 10, 2018, 2:39 PM UTC

eklavya wrote: post #39

eigenvector wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. We have been conditioned to use wealth - which is neatly expressed as a 1-dimensional value - as a proxy for merit. If we are asked to do something that in abstract we would consider stupid or pointless, but is now accompanied by a large amount of money, we accept with the presumption that no one would offer so much money if it weren't very important. Money provides a very simple, neat way of valuing every i…

> neat way of valuing every item or service on Earth Isn't that the very concept of money? :) Edit: newlines

Yes, the problem is that people associate what you have with what you are. Which are not the same thing. And therefor, make money the root of all evil today.

If we traded in goats, it'd be how many goats you have. It doesn't matter at all the medium, as long as the value is tenable.

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

#245

Post by tromp » Mon, Dec 10, 2018, 2:42 PM UTC

lisper wrote: post #17

A while back I noticed that my HN karma was rising at a rate that would put me on the leaderboard, so I decided to make an effort to submit content and post quality comments just to see if I could crack the top 100. After a few months I did it, and kept rising up to a high of 85 (today I'm #88). Then I realized I was spending way too much time on HN, and how easy it was to fall into this trap of thinking I was doing…

I spent years and years playing a MUD (Multi User Dungeon) trying to top the leaderboard. Once there, I couldn't stop. I kept going and going, until one day I overflowed the signed 32 bit int experience, and then promptly disappeared from the rankings.

That turned out to be a good thing. I lost most interest in advancing the counter...

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

#246

Post by gooslol » Mon, Dec 10, 2018, 2:45 PM UTC

roenxi wrote: post #194

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Money is an insanely toxic mental, political, and social poison, for exactly these kinds of reasons. It's also a social reward function that privileges egotism and narcissism over empathy; exploitation, scamming, and rent-seeking over creativity, curiosity and invention; and short-term gain over long-term damage. Like the hardest of hard addictive drugs, it's an almost irresistible modifier of behaviour and attitude.

'Trying to do the right thing' is a quirky human heuristic that works well in the small but scales terribly. It is evidenced in things like the legal system where 'intent to commit a crime' is often a consideration in the sentencing in addition to the actual outcomes of a criminal act. With that in mind, it makes a lot of sense why money (and the economy generally) rubs people the wrong way. We have here a powerful s…

That sounds very much like the trickle-down argument, which has been proven false – if not directly harmful – many times over. Selfish behaviour run amok more often leads to rent-seeking and a stockpiling of resources at the top, with little benefit to the rest of society.

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

#247

Post by Firadeoclus » Mon, Dec 10, 2018, 2:46 PM UTC

eklavya wrote: post #39

eigenvector wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. We have been conditioned to use wealth - which is neatly expressed as a 1-dimensional value - as a proxy for merit. If we are asked to do something that in abstract we would consider stupid or pointless, but is now accompanied by a large amount of money, we accept with the presumption that no one would offer so much money if it weren't very important. Money provides a very simple, neat way of valuing every i…

> neat way of valuing every item or service on Earth Isn't that the very concept of money? :) Edit: newlines

To be pedantic it's pricing not valuing. Price and value (and cost) are related but different concepts.

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

#248

Post by camelNotation » Mon, Dec 10, 2018, 2:48 PM UTC

lisper wrote: post #17

A while back I noticed that my HN karma was rising at a rate that would put me on the leaderboard, so I decided to make an effort to submit content and post quality comments just to see if I could crack the top 100. After a few months I did it, and kept rising up to a high of 85 (today I'm #88). Then I realized I was spending way too much time on HN, and how easy it was to fall into this trap of thinking I was doing…

I believe it's possible to achieve the same level of life satisfaction by translating your experience of the world through a lens of gratitude and purpose. I've had opportunities to meet and get to know people with high net worth (mostly successful entrepreneurs) and people that willingly chose to live below the poverty line (religious devotees, teachers in poor communities, public advocates in poorly-funded non-profits, etc). I can't say one is happier than the other. Both require you to sacrifice things you might otherwise want. For the rich, that sacrifice usually takes the form of unstable family life (if any family at all) and alienated relationships with children because they work too much. For the poor, that takes the form of more immediate, material sacrifices like worrying about food, healthcare, and housing. But something both share in common is that they can be happy if they are grateful for what they have. Gratitude is a powerful thing.

Curiously enough, the least happy people I've met are the ones that fall into neither category. Enough money to feel safe, fed, and warm, but no direction or meaning in their life. They aren't sure what to do with themselves. Should they try for more money? Should they choose a less vapid career path? They can't give up the middle-class salary or the middle-class experience. It's very sad.

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

#249

Post by EADGBE » Mon, Dec 10, 2018, 2:50 PM UTC

scarface74 wrote: post #228

antognini wrote: post #32

There was a well written comment on Reddit a few years back about how your life changes at different levels of wealth: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/2s9u0s/what_do_i... The main gist was that in the $10-30 million range you can live a comfortable life without having to worry about finances again. In the $30-100 million range you can start doing "rich people" things like have a private jet (though this m…

And this yet another example of the HN bubble. My parents retired at 55 and 57 in a small town and have never worried about money. My dad had maybe a million in retirement as a factory worker and my mom retired with a pension as a school teacher. My mom did low pay volunteer work as a consultant for a few years after she retired, but now they are in their mid 70s and not “worried” about money between social security,…

This is a good example; no one has to worry about finances for the rest of their life if what they've already saved up can sustain them for the rest of their life. Just as a squirrel doesn't need be concerned with finding food again if its nestegg is properly stocked.

So many people are so concerned with The Jone's and new cars and high-expense lifestyles that it requires a very different kind of number.

It's a formula, and you just need to put in the numbers to find what works. For some maybe that's $200k. For others, maybe $200M.

- Unfortunately, this whole thread is yet another example of the HN bubble.

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

#250

Post by simonh » Mon, Dec 10, 2018, 2:53 PM UTC

andrepd wrote: post #222

simonh wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

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Was capitalism responsible for the wars waged in that region by the Aztecs? Was it responsible for the massive losses of life in the USSR and Mao's China? You can't just say that because X country is capitalist, everything that happens in it is because of capitalism. It's just an economic system, that's all. Projecting it's effects beyond the realm of economics requires some justification.

Capitalism didn't originate the concept of resources, or politics, or even money. How can you justify blaming Capitalism for things that happen just as much, if not many, many orders of magnitude more in non-capitalist societies?

Conversely I think it is justifiable to attribute the enormous economic gains of that billion people to capitalism directly. It's an economic system and we're measuring economic gains directly attributable to investment, often replacing decidedly un-capitalist systems.