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Gates to students: Don’t try to be a billionaire, it’s overrated

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Re: Gates to students: Don’t try to be a billionaire, it’s overrated

#101

Post by alexro »

forensic wrote: post #79
learc83 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow I can't find anything at all supporting anywhere near that. The total net worth of all the worlds billionaires is only $4.5 trillion according to forbes.

Forbes only knows about public wealth. The Rothschilds in the mid 19th century owned half the wealth of the world, and the contemporary argument is that they have not lost money since then, rather it has grown steadily, and is hidden off the books in countless family controlled foundations as well as secret reserves stashed away before there was the type of public accounting we have today. Heads of state and CEOs hav…

And the other half was owned by Russians (Czar) ?

Re: Gates to students: Don’t try to be a billionaire, it’s overrated

#102

Post by tmh88j »

khafra wrote: post #96
forensic wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Forbes only knows about public wealth. The Rothschilds in the mid 19th century owned half the wealth of the world, and the contemporary argument is that they have not lost money since then, rather it has grown steadily, and is hidden off the books in countless family controlled foundations as well as secret reserves stashed away before there was the type of public accounting we have today. Heads of state and CEOs hav…

How does the total value of privately traded companies compare to publically traded companies, and how many privately traded companies can the Rothschilds plausibly own without it being public knowledge?

Is it possible to find the total market cap of all privately traded companies? Considering that a private company's wealth isn't public knowledge the only thing we can do is estimate using a tool like bizstats.com.

Re: Gates to students: Don’t try to be a billionaire, it’s overrated

#103

Post by heelhook »

bfe wrote: post #51
heelhook wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that were the case, thousands of people with bill gates's wealth, either you would have an accumulation of capital at the top that would be unsustainable, or more likely such a devaluation of the currency that having a hundred billion dollars wouldn't make you rich, think Zimbabwe.

That just assumes that accumulation of wealth is necessarily due to extracting it from the general economy rather than by generating wealth for the economy at large. Without debating the relative merits of Microsoft's contributions in particular, and assuming you accept the capitalist premise that someone can deserve to become wealthy by generating more wealth for society than they take home for their own benefit, wh…

The problem is simply that we can't all be rich. We can all be billionaires, but we can't all be rich. The intrinsic limit comes from the fact that wealth itself is relative.

Using your example, Microsoft's creation of value to such a large consumer base couldn't have happened if there had been thousands of Microsofts equally successful (e.g. not thousands of companies can have a 90% market share in the same market at the same time, for company A to have 90% of market share of a market it means company B doesn't have it. Opportunity cost).

When you have thousands of people at the very very very top (.0001% cf 1%) that thousand of people would have to either extract wealth (not value, that's different) from the rest of the economy. There is only so much wealth to go around, regardless of how you represent it, whether its US Dollars or Friedman's island's stone money. Accumulation of wealth is relative.

Re: Gates to students: Don’t try to be a billionaire, it’s overrated

#104

Post by simonsarris »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #82
nitrogen wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the risk of overextending the idea (and definitely tongue in cheek), most everyone has two eyes and four limbs -- more money buys better-looking TVs and interior design for those eyes, and lots of fun activities for all those limbs, like really big yachts and private lakes.

I bought a new TV a couple of years ago and was most disapointed to see the same old garbage spewing out of it.

Really? The world of film is vast and wonderful. Perhaps you needed new (different) content more than a new TV:

www.criterion.com

Re: Gates to students: Don’t try to be a billionaire, it’s overrated

#106

Post by technogeek00 »

basugasubaku wrote: post #93
technogeek00 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was there and although the transcription does take some paraphrasing at points, this is a direct quote. It leaves out that before this the student said something like: "Before I ask my question I want to tell a little story: When I was growing up my parents and friends always asked me what I wanted to be and I would tell them I wanted to be the richest person in the world. Now you are here speaking to me so if A=B…

I think she is saying if I want to be B, and B is Bill Gates, then I want to be Bill Gates, therefore the question "how can I become like you, Mr. Gates?"

That makes a lot of sense, now that I think about it. Thanks

Re: Gates to students: Don’t try to be a billionaire, it’s overrated

#107

Post by mattgreenrocks »

slowpoke wrote: post #83
cynest wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But would they even be in the startup scene if it weren't for the profits? The chance at being the next x or y and making enough money to retire in luxury before the age of 30 is a nontrivial motivator when considering creating a startup. Looking at certain startups it's patently obvious that helping humanity was not a primary concern.

> it's patently obvious that helping humanity was not a primary concern. But that's exactly what your parent is criticizing. There are genius people in the startup scene whose talents would be better applied to solve problems that actually matter, and not "optimize coupons".

The problem is the inanity of the culture is glorified. Techcrunch is often just entrepeneurial porn.

The community could do so much more if it first asked, "what does this do for people?" rather than "does it make us a billion dollars?" There's plenty of opportunity out there -- especially if you focus on delighting your customers.

Re: Gates to students: Don’t try to be a billionaire, it’s overrated

#108

Post by scottkduncan »

rythie wrote: post #105

Do people really try to become billionaires? they start companies intending to become (multi-)millionaires and they do better than expected and become billionaires.

I think some people do set out with the goal in mind of becoming a billionaire and I don't think these people succeed. Like you said, I think people who do become billionaires are fixated on a more proximate goal (like starting a company that serves an important need) and end up exceeding their initial expectations.

Re: Gates to students: Don’t try to be a billionaire, it’s overrated

#109

Post by cobrausn »

heelhook wrote: post #103
bfe wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That just assumes that accumulation of wealth is necessarily due to extracting it from the general economy rather than by generating wealth for the economy at large. Without debating the relative merits of Microsoft's contributions in particular, and assuming you accept the capitalist premise that someone can deserve to become wealthy by generating more wealth for society than they take home for their own benefit, wh…

The problem is simply that we can't all be rich. We can all be billionaires, but we can't all be rich. The intrinsic limit comes from the fact that wealth itself is relative. Using your example, Microsoft's creation of value to such a large consumer base couldn't have happened if there had been thousands of Microsofts equally successful (e.g. not thousands of companies can have a 90% market share in the same market a…

When quality of life is taken into consideration, especially against most of human history and large portions of the world today, then I'd say most of the first world is already 'rich', we just aren't billionaires.

Re: Gates to students: Don’t try to be a billionaire, it’s overrated

#110

Post by cobrausn »

mistermann wrote: post #64
cma wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>There's something about the way that money is discussed on HN that I find odd, but I haven't quite put my finger on it yet. I haven't frequented Slashdot in years, but this is definitely the most striking difference between it (as I remember it) an HN.

That's right, I haven't been there for years either, but money was never discussed there. Simpler times I guess. Maybe a person should go bac to see what it's like?

Having been there a bit recently, I can't really say things have changed for the better. A lot of discussion and sigs are focusing on money these days. Politics surrounding money is a more common topic than tech.
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