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How People Get Rich Now

paulgraham.com

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Re: How People Get Rich Now

#21

Post by justwalt »

yan wrote: post #14
tpmx wrote: post #4

What this post looks like on a 40" 4k screen (which btw is an awesome investment for productivity): https://i.imgur.com/gPHT5hI.png

To solve the wide-screen, narrow text problem, I once threw together a demo with a hacked up Chromium/WebKit to create a flowing, multi column view mode that created a long virtual scroll surface and scrolled it like newspaper columns: https://vimeo.com/59463521 . It wasn't super intuitive, but wish a modern browser had this.

This is a nice feature that I often wish every text editor supported natively.

Re: How People Get Rich Now

#22

Post by api »

aqme28 wrote: post #11

I don't think that the top 100 richest people is a good dataset. You can be extremely rich without making it anywhere near that list. While a lot of those top 100 people made it to that list by starting companies, I'm curious how many of them did so by leveraging family or inherited wealth.

I'd be more interested in a study of how people move from lower classes to at least upper middle class.

Re: How People Get Rich Now

#23

Post by internetslave »

I think there’s a different reason, companies just aren’t paying enough. Wages, even at 150-200k just really aren’t that much. 200k now is a lot less than 200k in 2010. The younger generation intuitively knows this. I don’t know anyone jockeying to climb the corporate ladder, and my social circle spans Stanford grads to no college degree at all. People are starting businesses because working for a corporation day in and out is slavery, you never make enough money to escape the debt of your mortgage. Sure, some FAANG employees do, but the number is small, and with a family, 300k compensation still doesn’t cut it, you will be working forever.

People are getting “rich” from startups because they’re actually capturing the value of their labor, which I argue, used to happen at corporations.

Re: How People Get Rich Now

#25

Post by mempko »

labatyd wrote: post #19
mempko wrote: post #10

Mr Graham writes "You would think, after having been on the side of labor in its fight with capital for almost two centuries, that the far left would be happy that labor has finally prevailed. " Unfortunately Mr. Graham has an outdated view about the "far left". I recommend anyone interested in what a modern "far left" looks like learn about Richard Wolff and the Democracy at Work movement. A startup in a garage wher…

Wouldn’t that just be “the left” with “the far left” reserved for MAP (minor attracted persons gag), ANTIFA, weather underground, etc type organizations that have their hopes invested in the left but see no support from the actual party.

That's why I put "far left" in quotes. What is "just left" to many might seem to be the "far left" to Mr. Graham. But I'm just speculating what he meant by "far left" and could be wrong. He doesn't elaborate on the term.

Re: How People Get Rich Now

#27

Post by codegeek »

eptcyka wrote: post #12

I wonder if it really is easier than ever for the bottom 95% of US citizens (or bottom 95% of the developed western countries) to become rich by starting a business these days.

The barrier to entry is very low these days so technically Yes. At least in theory, someone can start a "tech" business with a couple hundred bucks and shit tons of sweat equity. Back in the 70s-80s, I am sure you needed a lot more capital to start a traditional business. Granted, the 1 person bootstrapped tech biz won't hit the same 1B revenue scale in 10 years but you can become "rich" if your definition of rich is not necessarily the Top 1%.

Re: How People Get Rich Now

#28

Post by SavantIdiot »

jxidjhdhdhdhfhf wrote: post #16
eptcyka wrote: post #12

I wonder if it really is easier than ever for the bottom 95% of US citizens (or bottom 95% of the developed western countries) to become rich by starting a business these days.

Seems like it, for the simple reason that the infrastructure and process for an average person becoming rich is in place now in a way it wasn't in the 80s. For example there are startup incubators, VCs and general startup culture.

Hardly.

Or rather, only if you fall into a small sliver of society.

You are describing startup a "website/app company". There is an entire industry for trying to find the next TikTok. Unfortunately that is the ultimate unicorn. That immediately winnows the crowd down to maybe 10% that have degrees / knowledge of computer science?

There isn't really any other "startup" culture right now except hoodie-wearning Rust/JavaScript/Python programmers interested in machine learning.

It is a monoculture, and if you don't program, you ain't in it. Becoming "rich" isn't even accessible to 90% of the US population.

Re: How People Get Rich Now

#29

Post by [deleted] »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #15

It's hard to take this article seriously. People get rich now from companies because multiples have been artificially pushed higher by low interest rates. If that weren't the case, the top 100 would still likely be dominated by heirs. All that's changed is the Fed is manipulating the market more now than before, and that's benefiting growth stocks and fund managers of growth stocks... among other things.

[deleted]

Re: How People Get Rich Now

#30

Post by SavantIdiot »

codegeek wrote: post #27
eptcyka wrote: post #12

I wonder if it really is easier than ever for the bottom 95% of US citizens (or bottom 95% of the developed western countries) to become rich by starting a business these days.

The barrier to entry is very low these days so technically Yes. At least in theory, someone can start a "tech" business with a couple hundred bucks and shit tons of sweat equity. Back in the 70s-80s, I am sure you needed a lot more capital to start a traditional business. Granted, the 1 person bootstrapped tech biz won't hit the same 1B revenue scale in 10 years but you can become "rich" if your definition of rich is…

You are not talking about the bottom 95%, you are talking about 5% of the bottom 95%: tech-educated programmers & engineers. Now look at how many have the skills to be a CEO and that's about another 5% of that. So in reality you are describing 2.5% of the population.
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