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Just Be Rich

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Re: Just Be Rich

#111

Post by rypskar »

d_silin wrote: 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…

And a lot of people who are as smart and motivated will start their own company but will not get rich because they are not as lucky. Luck play a big part in success

Re: Just Be Rich

#112

Post by reader_mode »

rob74 wrote: post #89
reader_mode wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up in a family of 7 (4 younger siblings), during civil war, father was into gamling and drinking, mother was unemployed and constantly on the verge of a mental breakdown (understandable given the conditions she was living in). To paint the picture, I have vivid memories of vomiting a boiled onion I ate after not eating for days (I think I was arround 5 years old). And we were poor well into my early 20s untill…

That's the classic "you shouldn't give money to poor people, they are just going to spend it on alcohol, drugs etc." argument. This ignores that there are a lot of people who are unable to make ends meet despite having not one but sometimes several jobs. Maybe people would be less stressed if they knew they wouldn't lose their job if their car (>20 years old, which they can't afford to repair) breaks down...

Where am I saying that ?

Re: Just Be Rich

#113

Post by teraku »

saddlerustle wrote: post #103
donnythecroc wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

What? Seriously?

Re: Just Be Rich

#114

Post by o_p »

ac29 wrote: post #81
ElSif wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Thats not what the graphs show, though. It shows the rich getting quite a bit richer, the middle getting a little bit richer, and the poor remaining approximately as poor.

If two sub groups of a distribution get a net positive in % that necessarily means the other part went net negative in the same proportion, seems a bit too far to argue against math just to defend the rich.

Re: Just Be Rich

#115

Post by aiioquip »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #23

My 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: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22028732

Not in my many years of lurking have I ever once seen someone point out that the metrics created by the world bank et al. are themselves terribly flawed. People just spout them out like they're magic. Thank you for being a voice of reason.

Re: Just Be Rich

#116

Post by drdeca »

missedthecue wrote: post #85
peteretep wrote: post #9

> Of course the Gini coefficient is increasing. With more people starting more valuable companies, how could it not be? By taxing people properly?

Impossible. The Gini Coefficient is calculated on a pre-tax basis.

what do you call the thing which is like the gini coefficient except for net worth instead of income?

Re: Just Be Rich

#117

Post by jokoon »

Such a timeless debate. The pandemic should rather teach everyone to adopt more left wing politics instead.

I've tried countless times to analyze the philosophical belief of those people, and it often is about social darwinism, a refusal to help the weak, individualism, and extending the concept of the survival of the fittest to society.

People at the top refuse to admit they are dominating others through opinions that favors them.

You would think civilization would let humans get out of their state of nature, but instead you end with people who prefer to imitate nature and dismiss the mutualistic aspect of society.

If that trend continues it's expected to witness social unrest and a diminishing trust towards capitalism.

Re: Just Be Rich

#118

Post by dmitriid »

rypskar wrote: post #111
d_silin wrote: 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…

And a lot of people who are as smart and motivated will start their own company but will not get rich because they are not as lucky. Luck play a big part in success

The more money you have the luckier you are.

Re: Just Be Rich

#119

Post by raspasov »

reader_mode wrote: post #82
ironman1478 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. Poverty doesn't just cause immediate issues it can also cause long term issues that can effect not only adults, but the children who grew up in that environment. This is largely because families in poverty tend to also abuse their kids at higher rates (this includes mental abuse) or at least foster an extremely unhealthy environment due to the stress it causes. So even a generation later it can be difficult for…

I grew up in a family of 7 (4 younger siblings), during civil war, father was into gamling and drinking, mother was unemployed and constantly on the verge of a mental breakdown (understandable given the conditions she was living in). To paint the picture, I have vivid memories of vomiting a boiled onion I ate after not eating for days (I think I was arround 5 years old). And we were poor well into my early 20s untill…

You are a hero to have realized all of this on your own and not have become bitter in the process. Way to go, man!

Re: Just Be Rich

#120

Post by feoren »

Barrin92 wrote: post #49

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,…

It's so weird that you seem to be kinda agreeing with the article while at the same time quoting some Ayn-Randian, hyper-libertarian, "I'm from the Government and I'm here to help" scare-tactic nonsense. Can we kill this idea that the spooky government helping a poor person is some sort of tyrannical insult to them? The government helps rich people all day long -- even the most bootstrapped businessman still uses government roads to ship his goods and government-backed police to prevent his offices from being raided by bandits. Yet it's an "intolerable insult" that government should ever try to help a starving, homeless drug addict.

Okay, I'm attacking the C.S. Lewis quote and not your main point, which is interesting, although I'm not exactly sure who is trying to remake me in their image and what that would even mean.

Not to mention that "curing the ills of society" in the worst way imaginable (eugenics) was pretty in-vogue with early 20th century "old money".

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