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Just Be Rich

keenen.xyz

101–110 of 1001 posts

Re: Just Be Rich

#101
post #93
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Economy is closer to a zero-sum game, after all theres limited resources in a period of time. We cannot be all rich because we cannot all own the capital, if we did, who does the work? To invest you need workers, to produce you need consumers, to rent you need renter, etc. Then the rich class exist because theres a poor class, a zero-sum game.

You can be rich, invest, and still work. You don’t magically putter around all day once you make money. Or at least all the self-made wealthy I know are still actively productive.

That completly misses the point, first, rich people earnings come mostly from their investments, not their work. Second, the money earned through investment necesarily comes from the work produced by other people and thats completly independent if the rich person works or not.

The person who "earns by investing and working in both nearly equal proportion" doesnt really exist beyond outliers, this is empirical, the 1% owns as much wealth as the entire middle class, this is where their yearly income comes from,they get money because they own stuff, not by being superworkers, otherwise the inequality wouldnt be growing.

Re: Just Be Rich

#102
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate that quote. Personally I’m not envious of the rich, I despise them. I hate the fact that there are rich people, not because I want to be one some day, but because they ruin the party for the rest of us. The climate disaster is disproportionately the fault of the rich, yet it is the poor who are disproportionately affected by it. I don’t envy the rich. When I see the rich, I see pitiful humans that work too muc…

Why the bitterness? You could blame the politicians just as well for the climate disaster, or the corporations, why the wealthy?[1] What do you know of their family life or love of dogs? I think the rich are not who you think - if you put less energy into hating them you may have more time to improve your own life, e.g. by studying personal finance or investing: https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontop…

[deleted]

Re: Just Be Rich

#103

I'm just gonna quote what I think is a very important part from the Graham piece itself >" People who don't look any deeper than the Gini coefficient look back on the world of 1982 as the good old days, because those who got rich then didn't get as rich. But if you dig into how they got rich, the old days don't look so good. In 1982, 84% of the richest 100 people got rich by inheritance, extracting natural resources,…

The problem is all down to the basic human need of a home. In the 70s and 80s even 90s someone on a teacher's salary could own their own home in a major world city - say London. Now, literally zero chance. Because homes have become an asset class and the rich can outbid regular people so they are pushed out. That's the problem. I couldn't care less how many billionaires there are if regular people can afford a decent…

Pretty much every mainstream economist put the blame for this squarely on the massively increased regulation of the housing market since the 70s causing a massive decrease in the amount of new construction, not wealth itself.

Re: Just Be Rich

#104
"Give me control of a nation's currency print/supply, and I care not who makes its laws" --Rothschild (b. 1744)

Re: Just Be Rich

#105
post #4

A 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.…

Wealth stored as money is already taxed in a way in the form of inflation. I would much rather have a tax system based on consumption of non renewable and finite resources. Primarily that means tax on materials, fossil fuels and land.

Own a lot of land or a big house = pay a lot. Use a lot of fissile fuels = pay a lot. Leave your wealth in the bank and living like a hermit = pay very little. Basically align the tax system with your (or your company's) environmental footprint.

Re: Just Be Rich

#106
> Paul paints a rosy picture but doesn't mention that incomes for lower and middle-class families have fallen since the 80s.

As per the chart literally included in this piece, middle-income median wealth rose over 10% since 1983 (inflation adjusted).

High-income wealth rose much, much more. But the argument PG et. al. seem to make is that the economic order that drives inequality also drives economic growth overall and for the median person. Granted, China might be a more convincing example of this. Median quality of life in the US has declined in some key areas.

Re: Just Be Rich

#107

    the survival of the fittest is a means by which creatures may evolve from one species to a superior species. The challenge before us now is not how we could evolve further but:

        to live together in a society and achieve the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest proportion of the worlds population

            this could never be achieved by imitating the survival of the fittest

    it happens in nature, it's just the way of the world

        your child failed the SAT, so natural selection has taken place and we're feeding her to a pack of hyenas

    we are human beings, with consciousness and a unique ability to see things from another person's point of view

        the survival of the fittest created species

        but what makes a decent society is the responsibility of the fittest

Re: Just Be Rich

#108
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Homes in the US today are much larger than they were in the 1970s. About 2x as large! Per square foot, the average home is actually cheaper today than it was then, inflation adjusted, and this isn't even factoring in the modern 2.2% mortgage rates vs the 13% mortgage rates of those days.

Housing built small in the 1960's is still going for unaffordable for most rates in my area ...

Not to mention illegal to build.

Re: Just Be Rich

#109
post #94
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US at least, it is definitely decreasing. Income inequality is growing, as the original essay noted.

Increasing income inequality does not necessarily imply that. In fact, the US poverty rate has been more or less stable for the past 50 years[1]. And the worldwide poverty rate is dropping like a stone. [1] To be clear, I very much view this as a failure given how much richer the US has become in the same period. Nevertheless, it is not true (or at least not clear) that the portion of people who are able to actualize…

This statistic is misleading. The U.S. government defines the poverty line based on a 1955 model of spending patterns. It's completely inadequate for modern needs.

The poverty line for a family of four is defined as a household income of $26,200. Any reasonable person knows it's impossible to pay rent and feed and clothe two adults and two kids on less than $2200 a month. Nevermind owning a home, having a car, saving for emergencies or retiring. Yet the U.S. government does not consider that to be poverty. From Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_threshold#Cutoff_issue...

> Most experts and the public agree that the official poverty line in the United States is substantially lower than the actual cost of basic needs. In particular, a 2017 Urban Institute study found that 61% of non-elderly adults earning between 100–200% of the poverty line reported at least one material hardship, not significantly different from those below the poverty line. The cause of the discrepancy is believed to be an outdated model of spending patterns based on actual spending in the year 1955; the number and proportion of material needs has risen substantially since then.

The reality is that poverty in the U.S. is increasing. It has been for decades.

Re: Just Be Rich

#110
post #7

A 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…

> Because they have family obligations that take priority.

Is that "I have kids!" I hear now?

> Because they live outside high-income countries.

Well then move to high-income country.

> Because they have no access to support network, so when they fail, they fall all the way to bottom.

That's unfortunate, but that's life. A lot of people don't have that safety. And not all of them are poor.

> Because they may have made a crippling mistake in their pasts that now prevents them from reaching their full potential.

That's also part of a "potential". I "potentially" could've been next Ali, Tyson or Lomachenko, I'm not. Is that because if my mistake, or mistake of my parents or who else?

> And so on and on. While I would still recommend everyone to pursue the dreams over never trying to do so - being poor is the single most powerful force that prevents people from doing that.

What you're describing is not poor, it is unfortunate.

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