It’s unfortunate that getting rich is limited to entrepreneurs or otherwise business owners. I’ve known a few successful entrepreneurs who more or less hated their lives because their work wasn’t “personally rewarding” but ultimately they made the sacrifice because the financial independence would allow them to be able to do whatever they wanted later in life. It’s something I learned too late in life but I’m trying to catch up now and I’ve given up coding to focus on moving money around efficiently for my customers (for a modest cut). Ultimately my family will benefit and I’ll code when I’m 60.
Just Be Rich
21–30 of 1001 posts
Re: Just Be Rich
#22In the United States, the measures we use for income inequality are outrageously flawed
In almost all measures of the Gini coefficient two significant flaws exist:
1. Incomes are counted on a pre-tax basis
2. Incomes are counted on a pre-government transfers basis
The consequence of this is that income inequality appears to be increasing _regardless_ of the level of social subsidies and redistribution.
When you correct for these measurement flaws, income inequality in the US has been decreasing over recent decades.
If you are in the “Tax the Rich” camp as a result of looking at the Gini coefficient, you may need to strongly update your priors.
Sources:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/incredible-shrinking-income-ine...
https://www.economist.com/briefing/2019/11/28/economists-are...
Re: Just Be Rich
#23My opinion about current wealth inequality, which I'm sure the entire world doesn't give a flying fuck about, so I started my own blog based on the comment so I can talk to myself like a loon in a dunce cap sitting alone in my little corner of the internet like the bad child most of the world seems hellbent on viewing me as:
Re: Just Be Rich
#24A very well thought out and articulated essay. Essential to get the billionaires of the pedestal that they have perched on. Put your money where your mouth is and fund the wealth tax. Personally, I vehemently disagree with the 10x programmer narrative in IT. It fuels " management provides more value than replaceable workers". If there were no workers, then management is just sitting there coming up with random ideas.…
Do you think anyone will expatriate rather than pay a wealth tax?
There is an expatriation tax for people leaving the US. It is one of the more clear cut wealth taxes that we have in the US.
Re: Just Be Rich
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
The graph shows middle class wealth at 102k in 1980s and 115k in the 2010s. EDIT - these numbers have already been adjusted for inflation.
Adjusted for inflation , 102k in 1980 was worth almost 270k in 2010. Using this calculator which seems to be using buying power instead of actual inflation. https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/
The graph is already adjusted for inflation, it’s in 2018 dollars. You can’t adjust it a second time.
Re: Just Be Rich
#26A lot of people who are just as smart and motived as Elon Musk or Steve Jobs will never be able to start their own companies and get rich. Because they have family obligations that take priority. Because they live outside high-income countries. Because they have no access to support network, so when they fail, they fall all the way to bottom. Because they may have made a crippling mistake in their pasts that now prev…
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Re: Just Be Rich
#27A very well thought out and articulated essay. Essential to get the billionaires of the pedestal that they have perched on. Put your money where your mouth is and fund the wealth tax. Personally, I vehemently disagree with the 10x programmer narrative in IT. It fuels " management provides more value than replaceable workers". If there were no workers, then management is just sitting there coming up with random ideas.…
Do you think anyone will expatriate rather than pay a wealth tax?
yes. look at France
Re: Just Be Rich
#28The author says that middle-class incomes have dropped since the 1980s, but the associated graph: (1) is pertaining to wealth, not income. (2) shows that middle-class wealth has increased since the 1980s, not "decreased"
Good attempt to use semantic confusion to distract from the point, but his main thesis that 'the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer' stands up to your points.
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Re: Just Be Rich
#29Absolute wealth has increased as the wealth gap increased. Standards of living for everyone have gotten better, but there is still an issue. Wealth is not just about your buying power it's also about your social status and power. A lot more status and power is concentrated with the few. This is a big problem if you care about individual freedoms. They tend to erode very quickly with a concentration of power.
Re: Just Be Rich
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
The graph shows middle class wealth at 102k in 1980s and 115k in the 2010s. EDIT - these numbers have already been adjusted for inflation.
Adjusted for inflation , 102k in 1980 was worth almost 270k in 2010. Using this calculator which seems to be using buying power instead of actual inflation. https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/
I am going to assume the original comment-or simply didn't think about inflation (common mistake...which is further understandable since the graphic doesn't make it obvious whether or not it is nominal dollars or adjusted dollars).
So in that spirit, here is another resource which talks about minimum wage and even included an adjusted minimum wage graph within:
https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/21/politics/minimum-wage-inflati...
The minimum wage is not the only measurement for this discussion, but it does seem like since the 1980's the purchasing power represented by minimum wage has been falling (but at the very least is less today than then).