How People Get Rich Now • Hacker News Board

Re: How People Get Rich Now

#261

Post by monktastic1 » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 5:42 PM UTC

dudeman13 wrote: post #111

internetslave wrote: post #23

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…

Just how bad at finances are you and people around you if 150k just really isn't that much? That literally places you amongst the richest 1%. Not metaphorically, literally. A couple of years worth of saving is enough to give you passive income to never need to work again for food or shelter.

Richest 1% of what? Globally, the richest 1% is something like $35k IIRC. In the US, I think it's closer to $450k.

Re: How People Get Rich Now

#262

Post by whimsicalism » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 5:42 PM UTC

dudeman13 wrote: post #188

DC1350 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$150k is not even enough to buy a small home near your workplace in a lot of cities. Janitors had better living conditions 50 years ago than $150k earners do today

>Janitors had better living conditions 50 years ago than $150k earners do today Utter bullshit. >$150k is not even enough to buy a small home near your workplace in a lot of cities Live within your means for 5 years, invest the 70k/y excess money into index funds. You can live of dividends anywhere in the world that isn't a capital in a first world country. Without even losing money. Literally the 1% pretending to be…

It's utterly amazing to me how far up the wealth pyramid you can go and find people saying "Me? No, no, no, I'm not wealthy - it's the people above me who are the wealthy ones."

Perhaps it stops at like $500k/yr?

Re: How People Get Rich Now

#263

Post by bradlys » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 5:42 PM UTC

jkubicek wrote: post #200

giantg2 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"...because they’re actually getting paid what they produced." Do they really though? That's really the owners getting paid that, not all the workers. And a lot of that is really valued on the potential rather than what was actually produced to that point. "10x the median income just isn’t that much. If you have three kids, money is still tight." That's about $400k, right? That seems like an insane amount of money (I…

It is an insane amount of money even in the Bay Area. It's more than enough to support a large family living a very comfortable lifestyle while also saving significantly for retirement. I'm not sure what the grandparent poster is on about.

Everyone argues about this but for most people in tech - $400k/yr does not give you a "very comfortable" lifestyle. You cannot afford a $2m home. A $2m home isn't even that comfortable in the peninsula. (Varies on location but it'll probably be under 2000sqft, still 3-4 bedroom, 4000-8000sqft lot, 2-car garage if you're fortunate, will likely require $200k+ in renovation/repairs on move in, nothing lavish) Good luck trying to get one anyway - you're going to be beat by cash offers anyway.

If you extend your reach to very far out areas - you can get a better home and your dollar goes further but you're sacrificing on commute and then you don't have a very comfortable lifestyle because you're commuting really far.

A very comfortable lifestyle for most people in tech would be: two luxury cars (bmw/mercedes/porsche/modelsx), good public schools, safe and pleasant to look at neighborhood to purchase a home in, short commute distance (People I know who are at $400k/yr (household) are not buying homes in the peninsula or - just generally - close to work.

Re: How People Get Rich Now

#264

Post by StavrosK » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 5:42 PM UTC

Two things bother me about this article: One is the message that "'the richest people got rich by winning the lottery, therefore buying lottery tickets is good' says rich lottery ticket seller".

The other is the unspoken (and thus unchallenged) assumption that getting rich is what you should strive for in life, which I personally disagree with.

Re: How People Get Rich Now

#265

Post by Moodles » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 5:43 PM UTC

Der_Einzige wrote: post #215

Moodles wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You sound more out of touch than an alien from outer space. No way is 150k worse quality of life than a janitor 50 years ago.

Many janitors are unionized and paid quite well. I think you're the out of touch one here.

Data or gtfo

Re: How People Get Rich Now

#266

Post by caminante » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 5:43 PM UTC

nindalf wrote: post #71

It's a classic PG article. Many true facts in there, lots of good analysis with just a few questionable claims thrown in here and there. At the end, there's a massive claim that isn't fully stated but implied. "Of course the Gini coefficient is increasing" translated means "income inequality is not a problem". Firstly, Gini coefficient is based on income, not wealth. That isn't stated clearly. Secondly, there's absol…

>Secondly, there's absolutely no data on what proportion of income flows to which decile.

Is this true?

If I simply look at the Gini wiki, there are clearly tables showing this data with percentages of population by income brackets[0].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient#Limitations

See [Table C. Household money income distributions and Gini Index, US]

Re: How People Get Rich Now

#267

Post by AnimalMuppet » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 5:43 PM UTC

iur12 wrote: post #195

cryptoz wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PG's recent articles have changed from what they used to be. Recently (last few years) there is a dramatic change towards defending riches, logical fallacies to explain why being rich is okay, a lot of focus on wealth and how to get it and why it's okay. A lot less technically interesting than he used to post. I used to send Startup=Growth to everyone I knew. I think people are used to high-quality content from PG an…

This isn’t a surprise. The religion that formed here hanging off his every word subscribed to it to get rich, just like he started YC to get rich. Now he’s happily rich, barely even looks in the mirror at these adherents that he left behind, and is writing for his new friends who are also rich. It was always pointless snake oil but the Sand Hill Greed here made everyone overlook that because maybe, just maybe, the ke…

Downvoted not because you're right, but because you're mostly wrong.

I mean, you're maybe 10% right. You take that 10% and inflate it to the point that it's almost completely wrong, though.

Re: How People Get Rich Now

#268

Post by idlewords » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 5:43 PM UTC

sushisource wrote: post #179

WhompingWindows wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paul Graham's articles always shoot immediately up to the top of HN, but I agree with you, they're generally cursory and pithy thoughts which don't convince my skeptical mind. I don't know, can someone explain why his work is so popular? Think of all the amazing writers across our civilization whose work is linkable, and we're worshipping these decent but not amazing blog posts?

OTOH, the top comment is a criticism. So, probably not all is lost :)

The front page giveth and the comments taketh away

Re: How People Get Rich Now

#269

Post by taurath » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 5:43 PM UTC

So in the 1960s the rest of the world was rebuilding their bombed out cities. The US had no competition to speak of and provided “mature” at the time manufacturing to the rest of the world. There’s a lot of cracks and hand waving in this article, it’s a very roundabout way to say that income inequality isn’t a problem. It is a problem, and PG is so far removed from it he’s just thinking about how to justify keeping his and his friends’ money.

Re: How People Get Rich Now

#270

Post by jxidjhdhdhdhfhf » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 5:44 PM UTC

SavantIdiot wrote: post #28

jxidjhdhdhdhfhf wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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/Jav…

I mean I'm not sure what it would even mean for becoming rich to be accessible to 90% of the population since the definition of rich is having above average means. It seems like only the lottery would fit there. On the other hand it seems much more accessible to go to school and get a degree in CS than to be born into wealth. For example, plenty of foreign students come here from poor countries and find there way into the startup world.