How People Get Rich Now • Hacker News Board

Re: How People Get Rich Now

#641

Post by JohnWhigham » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 9:31 PM UTC

anonu wrote: post #451

This reminds me of a graph of breweries in America over the last 100+ years. I think the line started around 3k or 4k breweries across America around 1900, reached an all-time low in the 1970-1990s and now were back up to where we started. Of course, the story here is refrigeration. When refrigeration was not common place, you needed a lot of breweries near consumption. I'm also thankful for the variety of beer optio…

But the industry has slowly been going the way the tech industry has for some time now. AB InBev and friends have been buying up the big breweries left and right.

Re: How People Get Rich Now

#642

Post by sgt101 » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 9:31 PM UTC

The way that the Gini coeffient could be reduced in the face of start-up wealth is via the introduction of progressive taxation. That, Mr. Graham is how it could be.

Re: How People Get Rich Now

#643

Post by WalterBright » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 9:32 PM UTC

harimau777 wrote: post #609

WalterBright wrote: post #557

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> winner-take-all You can buy stock in winning companies and get your share of the winnings.

That's only the case if you can afford to buy the stock (and more specifically afford to buy enough of the stock to make a difference).

Anyone can buy stock. You can invest for as little as $10 and buy fractional shares for zero commission.

> afford to buy enough of the stock to make a difference

Having that mentality will guarantee one never gets ahead. CEOs don't start at the top, either.

Re: How People Get Rich Now

#644

Post by backtoyoujim » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 9:32 PM UTC

Also about about money managers: in 1982 pensions existed. Now there is only the 401k. Now money managers get to invest other people's pensions.

If I was a money manager for a 401k I would prolly start investing other people's money into money management and it accouterment.

Re: How People Get Rich Now

#645

Post by ivan888 » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 9:35 PM UTC

WinstonSmith84 wrote: post #623

lanstin wrote: post #600

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Usually somehow the execs have sold out just before the bad news, while the regular employees haven't liquidated their 401s/stock plans.

Usually? Please ... That's called insider trading and those who do that ends up in jail or at best have to hide in the sun for the rest of their life.

Is "hide in the sun" an idiom I'm unfamiliar with? Genuinely curious about what this means

Re: How People Get Rich Now

#646

Post by WalterBright » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 9:35 PM UTC

dlp211 wrote: post #639

harimau777 wrote: post #609

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's only the case if you can afford to buy the stock (and more specifically afford to buy enough of the stock to make a difference).

Not to mention that you miss out on one of the bigger wealth building opportunities, the IPO. While not true for every company, tech IPOs have been gangbusters as of late. I would have loved to invest in AirBnb at their last evaluation before IPO. But that is only available to the truly wealthy.

Take a look at what you'd have today if you bought AMZN the day after it started trading (it doubled on the first day).

Didn't buy it because you couldn't afford to buy enough to make a difference? You lost big time!

Unhappy about Bezos' compensation? He was there on Day 1. He bet the farm on AMZN. You didn't.

Re: How People Get Rich Now

#647

Post by missedthecue » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 9:36 PM UTC

lanstin wrote: post #615

missedthecue wrote: post #586

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The guardian article and the commenter I replied to are pointing out the difference between 1965 and 2020 as if it's a problem. A problem is defined as something that has a negative impact on people. My analysis points out that the only people that modern CEO pay has a negative impact on is the shareholders. I illustrated that it makes literally no difference to your average floor worker whether the CEO gets $0 or $2…

If that worker has a pension or 401k, then it does matter. The fleecing isn't directly from him, but aggregate it by "managerial class" and "middle class" and you see the high $ managerial cash flows are directly at the expense of the middle class and retirement of the middle class. Thru in some tax policy, and you can see it is also taking money away from education of young middle class folks, and investment in comm…

Yes, it hurts shareholders. That's what I wrote in my first comment. You agree with me then?

Re: How People Get Rich Now

#648

Post by WalterBright » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 9:38 PM UTC

gip wrote: post #584

WalterBright wrote: post #554

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're creating the value, not taking it from others.

What you are missing is that the resources in the world that matter are bounded. So if a minority is creating most of the value at scale, they will be able to redirect most of the resources to themselves. This drives the increase in inequality. That is why thinking purely in financial terms is misleading. It's not because everyone has more $$$ in the bank that everyone is better off.

The resources are bounded. The value you can create from those resources is not bounded.

Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Netflix, etc., are enormously valued and none of it is based on bounded resources.

Re: How People Get Rich Now

#649

Post by missedthecue » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 9:38 PM UTC

wavefunction wrote: post #618

missedthecue wrote: post #588

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the question is whether that's a problem or not, and if so, who is it a problem for. My comment illustrates that modern CEO pay does not hurt the average employee in any way, only the shareholders. Either you don't think modern CEO pay is a problem, or you think it's a problem because it makes shareholders poorer. It doesn't impact the rest of the employees or reduce their incomes.

I find the notion that paying a CEO 321 times the salary of a worker in cash to be problematic for society while paying the CEO 321 the salary of a worker in stock options/grants is not not problematic to society to be completely unconvincing. Both illustrate to me the historic and increasing inequality in distribution of income and wealth. Asking me to ignore that divide and instead sympathize with someone like Carl…

Why is it a problem then? Your personal intuitions about how much any human should earn in a given year sounds less like a convincing argument to me and more like envy.

Re: How People Get Rich Now

#650

Post by jedberg » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 9:38 PM UTC

areyousure wrote: post #633

jedberg wrote: post #628

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok so Bezos was born in a low quintile, but then jumped when his mom married a wealthy person when he was 4. He effectively had the same advantages of a rich person through his adopted father's success.

His father was a Cuban refugee who came to the US alone as a 16-year old.

Ok but he was wealthy when Bezos was a child. The point is, for all intents and purposes, Bezos grew up wealthy and had the support of a wealthy family when he went out on his own. He famously got a "small" $250,000 investment from his parents to start Amazon.