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How People Get Rich Now

paulgraham.com

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Re: How People Get Rich Now

#691

Post by bumby »

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.

There's of course legal ways to do similarly. I thought this was a good example of John Krafcik's resignation which to a certain extent meets the same aim:

Official resignation letter:

https://blog.waymo.com/2021/04/capstone-of-my-career-email-f...

"Interpreted" letter:

https://gist.github.com/ChuckM/ff5fc8c800c7fe9160483b68ec45a...

Re: How People Get Rich Now

#692

Post by foobiekr »

missedthecue wrote: post #433
greatgib wrote: post #411

Strangely, an explanation for the increased number of wealths coming from new, tech companies and investments that is ignored in his post is the disturbing fact it was taken from the average employee cut of the profits. See this: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/aug/16/ceo-versus-... I quote: "The 2017 CEO-to-worker compensation ratio of 312-to-1 was far greater than the 20-to-1 ratio in 1965, and more than…

I hate this comparison. Stock based compensation didn't exist in 1965. It's an oranges to apples comparison. CEO salaries today are still about 20-1, depending on the business. For instance: - Doug McMillon of Walmart makes $1.2 million in salary. - James Quincy of Coca-Cola makes $1.5 million in salary. - JPMorgan's CEO Jamie Dimon has a $1.5 million salary. - Sundar Pichai of Google makes $2 million in salary. You…

I'm not going to name companies, but I think this is actually not quite right. While I agree with your broader point, in a lot of larger legacy companies the heavy use of buybacks to buoy the stock price, which in turn benefits executing compensation, directly plays into whether that cash is available to use for employee compensation.

Re: How People Get Rich Now

#693

Post by bumby »

idiotsecant wrote: post #687
bumby wrote: post #677

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To a certain extent, I think the worker is at least in part to blame. According to the BLS, union membership has declined from over 20% in the early 1980s to 6.3% today in the private workforce. I personally don't think it's by chance that this coincides with wage stagnation or even decline. Union membership is much higher in public institutions (I personally have some issues with that but it's a digression) which pr…

Interesting that you phrase this as the worker being to blame and not anti-union lobbying and legislation, coupled with an intense psyops campaign from the landed gentry to convince the serfs that voting for their own interests is un-american.

Yes, because I give the individual's agency and try not to infantilize them. They have a right to collective bargaining protected by the right of association (within the US at least). They choose not to wield it.

Re: How People Get Rich Now

#694

Post by extra88 »

ikeboy wrote: post #632
greatgib wrote: post #411

Strangely, an explanation for the increased number of wealths coming from new, tech companies and investments that is ignored in his post is the disturbing fact it was taken from the average employee cut of the profits. See this: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/aug/16/ceo-versus-... I quote: "The 2017 CEO-to-worker compensation ratio of 312-to-1 was far greater than the 20-to-1 ratio in 1965, and more than…

The companies are much bigger today. If you run a company that's 10 times as big, why is it surprising that you're getting 10 times the compensation? You'd need to compare to similarly sized companies today. Instead, they look at the top 350 companies now and then.

The workers that produce 10 times as much today (because of newer technologies, techniques, etc.) don't get paid 10 times as much. Worker productivity has continued to climb, decade after decade, but inflation-adjusted worker pay is basically flat over the same time period.

Re: How People Get Rich Now

#695

Post by giantg2 »

joshuamorton wrote: post #689
bradlys wrote: post #673

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. They literally were talking about 15% of $100k being sufficient. Re-read it.

15% of "that number" is 60K, since "that number" is 400K. They're talking about 60K being good enough on the east coast, and 100K being very nice on the east coast.

I pretty much agree, but I think they're actually talking about the area between the coasts for the 15% number ($60k).

Re: How People Get Rich Now

#696

Post by thegrimmest »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #622
thegrimmest wrote: post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> pretty much always judge their success by comparing themselves to others Yes but that doesn't mean this comparison has moral standing. Also this behaviour is pretty low-level, neurologically, and we can train our higher executive functions to override and disregard it. I would argue that should be the expectation. > can essentially buy laws that benefit themselves Again - so what? As long as everyone's lives are im…

For many people in the US, over the past couple of decades: 1. Housing has become much more unaffordable. 2. Higher education has become much more unaffordable. 3. Retirement income has become much less guaranteed. 4. Employment is much less stable than it used to be. Just look at the coming eviction tidal wave that will happen after the eviction moratoriums in the US end. Telling people "But look at all the other mo…

> Housing has become much more unaffordable.

That's hardly surprising though is it? The number of people in the US has almost doubled since 1960, and urban population density has increased much more than that. Any expecation that everyone will be able to afford a detached house in any proximity to a metropolis is clearly unreasonable.

> Higher education has become much more unaffordable.

Again, the admissions rate hasn't really kept up with the population has it? Also there's a labour shortage in lots of skilled trades, construction and agricultural labour; and a labour surplus in finance and law. Do you think it's reasonable that everyone expects to attend higher education?

> Retirement income has become much less guaranteed.

I'm not sure how you'd measure retirement income "guaranteedness". Also see "Pension Timebomb" for how actually guaranteed those pensions are.

> Employment is much less stable than it used to be

Do you have a source for this? Ideally one that controls for people changing employment to advance their careers? This is much more common these days for the reasons outlined in the article.

Yes, after being evicted from a place you cannot afford, or after any other trying circumstance, telling people to focus on what they can be grateful for instead of what to be angry about is exactly the right thing to do. What business is it of yours or anyone elses how much money someone else has? Who cares if they have more or less than last year? How is that related to you personally being unable to affort rent due to being unemployed during a pandemic?

Re: How People Get Rich Now

#697

Post by aerosmile »

asdffdsa wrote: post #678
samatman wrote: post #613

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The average employee doesn't get to benefit from the very real contributions they've made to the company, while the CEO does benefit. Why didn't employee profit-sharing increase at the same rate as non-salary compensation did for CEOs? That's still relevant. This is correct, but the post you're replying to has the answer: CEOs successfully claimed more of the portion of surplus value which was going to stockholders…

Give stock to employees. Easy

Instead of cash? Just like money, stocks don't grow on trees.

Re: How People Get Rich Now

#699

Post by centixel »

ivan888 wrote: post #645
WinstonSmith84 wrote: post #623

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Not OP, but I take it to mean that they flee to a tropical country with limited extradition laws.

Re: How People Get Rich Now

#700

Post by joshuamorton »

bradlys wrote: post #634
jkubicek wrote: post #582

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You're describing an inflated, luxury lifestyle. Exactly. I consider a "comfortable" lifestyle to be a 3BR house in a safe neighborhood, 2 reliable cars, 2 week+ domestic vacations/year, plus saving enough to give a nice cushion in case of emergencies / retirement. I'm terrible with budgeting / saving and I was doing this working for a startup on a $120k/year salary. Granted, this was 10 years ago and housing has a…

Sorry, $200k isn't enough. You won't get the house. I know because I've applied. No landlord is renting out homes to single income in the peninsula at $200k/yr. $400k at FAANG - yes (they're all afraid of people losing their jobs at startups and lots of FAANG out there to rent them homes up). But, again, we're talking about "very comfortable" - not comfortable. Not okay. Not "I managed". Very comfortable - something…

> Sorry, $200k isn't enough. You won't get the house. I know because I've applied. No landlord is renting out homes to single income in the peninsula at $200k/yr.

Yes they are. I know people who've gotten them. You can find a 3br/2bath single family home with a garage, for less than 5K/mo in SF, Redwood City, Palo Alto, and tons in Sunnyvale and Mountain View.

> I can literally go out tomorrow and buy a 911 but CANNOT afford to put it in a garage.

The 911 costs more than a year's rent on said 3/2 SFH with a garage. For many, it's more than 2 years rent. Yes, if you want to own a $100k car, you'll have to sacrifice in other parts of your life.

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