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Ask HN: It seems like everyone is getting rich?

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Re: Ask HN: It seems like everyone is getting rich?

#101

Post by nicbou »

DigitallyFidget wrote: post #89
hdjjhhvvhga wrote: post #20

It is not true, you see it because people like to brag. But they prefer to hide their problems, sometimes very deep. The society discourages talking about these things unless you are close friends. Whereas positive aspects are amplified. I give you an example. I have a couple of friends with two kids. They have an amazing FB/Instagram feed. You immediately see a wonderful model family living in a beautiful house, tra…

This is an exact example of why I don't waste any moment of my life with social media. It's just loaded with fake trash like that. People trying to show off how they're successful and have an amazing life, but reality is they're barely scraping by, and often miserable. Social media is about as accurate of a representation of life as reality TV is an accurate representation of people.

Even if you're doing fine, it's probably better not to submit your life for review. It incentivises you to turn moments into content, to check in instead of being there. You know your happy. You don't have to prove it.

Re: Ask HN: It seems like everyone is getting rich?

#102

Post by lucas_membrane »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #4

No, everybody is not getting rich. The median income in the US is about $36K.

Last I saw, median annual income is $41,000 and median annual income required afford to rent a 1-bedroom apartment is only $40,000. Thus, the median single worker is getting by with $20/week left over to finance education, romance, charities, other unnecessary spending, blunders, swindles, alimony, retirement and other accidents. YMMV.

Re: Ask HN: It seems like everyone is getting rich?

#103

Post by raydalio0705 »

jfengel wrote: post #87
raydalio0705 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can the Fed raise interest rates significantly without bankrupting the Federal government? The Federal debt needs to be rolled over every now and then. At certain interest rates, the costs of servicing the debt become unacceptably high. Where is that 'breaking point'? If you see some serious analysis of this, please let me know. But there is a higher bound to which the Fed can feasibly raise interest rates. So it is…

The Fed doesn't set bond interest rates. Rates on bonds are set by an auction. If bond interest rates are low, it's because bond investors want bonds. Which is to say, they think the US government will have no trouble paying them back. So the government borrows cheaply, and investors believe they will be able to continue to. The Fed sets a different rate, one that banks use to lend money to each other. It forms kind…

But the Fed is doing QE, which is buying longer maturity treasuries, creating artificial demand, which lowers interest rates.

Short-term treasuries and the fed rate are also directly related. Increase the fed fund rate, and short-term treasury interest rates will have to go up as well to remain competitive.

Re: Ask HN: It seems like everyone is getting rich?

#105

Post by nickd2001 »

Bear in mind the avg westerner is super-rich compared to most of global pop'n and most of history. You're just observing people that are even more obscenely rich. Are they happy? Would you be happier if you had what they had? ;). There's the well-known graph where happiness rises steeply as one's wealth raises to cover the basics of life, then flatlines after that. In my experience , people with more money are often less happy, more stressed, and ironically seem to have more money worries.

Re: Ask HN: It seems like everyone is getting rich?

#106

Post by lostmsu »

techdragon wrote: post #84
codegeek wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone in my family lost over 20K in bitcoin when he sold for lower than what he bought them for during recent ups and downs. So yea, this is nothing but selection bias. Not to mention that outside of HN echo chamber, there are plenty of people who have no idea how to do crypto, index funds, startups and what not. They go to work, get a paycheck, do may be a 401K and live paycheck to paycheck.

I mined more than a few thousand Bitcoin back in the pre-“Bitcoin pizza” days when it was a complete curiosity. Difficulty so low you could chuck a couple dozen desktops at it for a weekend and come back with dozens and dozens of Bitcoin on Monday morning. I basically used it as a benchmark and never even saved a single wallet file, it was worthless junk data at the time since no one was even sure it was going to be…

> few thousand Bitcoin

If I had that, I would dig my old hardware and tried all the tools I could find to scan drives for remnants of the wallet file(s). Maybe even wrote my own.

Re: Ask HN: It seems like everyone is getting rich?

#107

Post by lostmsu »

lucas_membrane wrote: post #102
tonyedgecombe wrote: post #4

No, everybody is not getting rich. The median income in the US is about $36K.

Last I saw, median annual income is $41,000 and median annual income required afford to rent a 1-bedroom apartment is only $40,000. Thus, the median single worker is getting by with $20/week left over to finance education, romance, charities, other unnecessary spending, blunders, swindles, alimony, retirement and other accidents. YMMV.

Why would a single worker need a 1-bedroom?

Re: Ask HN: It seems like everyone is getting rich?

#108

Post by randomopining »

techdragon wrote: post #84
codegeek wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone in my family lost over 20K in bitcoin when he sold for lower than what he bought them for during recent ups and downs. So yea, this is nothing but selection bias. Not to mention that outside of HN echo chamber, there are plenty of people who have no idea how to do crypto, index funds, startups and what not. They go to work, get a paycheck, do may be a 401K and live paycheck to paycheck.

I mined more than a few thousand Bitcoin back in the pre-“Bitcoin pizza” days when it was a complete curiosity. Difficulty so low you could chuck a couple dozen desktops at it for a weekend and come back with dozens and dozens of Bitcoin on Monday morning. I basically used it as a benchmark and never even saved a single wallet file, it was worthless junk data at the time since no one was even sure it was going to be…

100% the only way this would've paid out is if you stored them and truly forgot them.

If I did this back then, I would've sold in 2012/2013 for like $10 and made a couple hundred/thousand in college and thought I was rich.

Then now I'd prob be neurotically depressed thinking about how I could've had hundreds of mil lol.

It's a blessing dude.

Re: Ask HN: It seems like everyone is getting rich?

#109

Post by mattm »

ceilingcorner wrote: post #3

If it is any consolation, we will probably experience massive inflation in the next 20-30 years. Those with primarily financial (and not physical) assets will be hardest hit. At some point the economic wizardry will hit the fan. But on a less depressing note, I suggest paying less attention to the areas where people are “getting rich.” Money isn’t the measure of true value and you will rarely find a correlation betwe…

> we will probably experience massive inflation in the next 20-30 years

Go back 40-50 years and you can find people that said the same thing then. Things looked a lot bleaker than today. Gas shortages in the 70s, interest rates of more than 15% in the 80s, cold war, etc.

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