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The myth of big salaries (it's all marketing)

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Re: The myth of big salaries (it's all marketing)

#221

Post by jedberg »

lex-lightning wrote: post #218
jedberg wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't my time be better spent inventing more widget making machines to improve the lives of everyone around me? Why is both of us turning the crank for four hours the ideal and fair outcome?

Are you better at inventing than the worker is? Are your subsequent inventions better than the art they create? Do we really need double the widgets? I mean, the top post on this site yesterday was a self-balancing cube someone invented. This is precisely the community that should understand that inventions for inventions’ sake aren’t necessarily improving anything.

> Are you better at inventing than the worker is?

It would seem so, since I made one and they didn't.

> Are your subsequent inventions better than the art they create?

Not sure what art has to do with it. If they want to make art they can get a job making art instead of turning the crank.

> Do we really need double the widgets?

The market will decide that. If we don't then no one would buy them and it would no longer make sense to produce so many.

> I mean, the top post on this site yesterday was a self-balancing cube someone invented. This is precisely the community that should understand that inventions for inventions’ sake aren’t necessarily improving anything.

Interesting you should bring that up. That cube improved our understanding of self balancing machines and how to build them. That understanding can lead to better self balancing things, like maybe walkers for the disabled. You never know what it might lead to until you make it. Even machines that "have no purpose" have a purpose, of showing us what does not work or what does not make sense.

Re: The myth of big salaries (it's all marketing)

#222

Post by jjcm »

eurleif wrote: post #183
jjcm wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If anyone wants an extremely simplified "when can I retire given x expenses and y income" calculator, I threw together one here: https://html.non.io/simple-retirement-calculator/ Screenshot with op's scenario: https://image.non.io/7865a80e-d1e7-4437-b983-9101ed023024.we... (assumes a 4% safe withdrawal rate, I suspect op is using 3%).

See also: https://www.firecalc.com/

This one is immensely more powerful and should be used if you want anything more than a "neat, that's a nice ballpark to have" estimate like what you'd get from mine.

Re: The myth of big salaries (it's all marketing)

#223

Post by jjcm »

lostmsu wrote: post #211
jjcm wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If anyone wants an extremely simplified "when can I retire given x expenses and y income" calculator, I threw together one here: https://html.non.io/simple-retirement-calculator/ Screenshot with op's scenario: https://image.non.io/7865a80e-d1e7-4437-b983-9101ed023024.we... (assumes a 4% safe withdrawal rate, I suspect op is using 3%).

> 1,830 monthly HOA fee

Good catch - missed that!

Re: The myth of big salaries (it's all marketing)

#224

Post by andrewjl »

asadotzler wrote: post #149
srackey wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A salary cap doesn’t change the market rate! It just obfuscates it. Salaries for public companies locked at 10M/yr? Ok, now firms have to compete on amenities. (Your current firm gives you a free car? Ours gives a jet, a personal Michelin star cook, and complimentary beverages)

Caps work. If they didn't, they wouldn't be in massively expensive fields like sports.

Sports teams don't typically pay players in equity.

Re: The myth of big salaries (it's all marketing)

#225

Post by lex-lightning »

jedberg wrote: post #221
lex-lightning wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you better at inventing than the worker is? Are your subsequent inventions better than the art they create? Do we really need double the widgets? I mean, the top post on this site yesterday was a self-balancing cube someone invented. This is precisely the community that should understand that inventions for inventions’ sake aren’t necessarily improving anything.

> Are you better at inventing than the worker is? It would seem so, since I made one and they didn't. > Are your subsequent inventions better than the art they create? Not sure what art has to do with it. If they want to make art they can get a job making art instead of turning the crank. > Do we really need double the widgets? The market will decide that. If we don't then no one would buy them and it would no longer…

[flagged]

Re: The myth of big salaries (it's all marketing)

#226

Post by thwarted »

danbruc wrote: post #91
ZoomerCretin wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are reasons for higher salaries. You just disagree that they justify those salaries.

Yes, there are reasons for differing salaries and they have important functions. But at some point those justifications stop to make sense and it is really just about exploiting your position to grab as much as you can for yourself.

Has there ever been a union that pushed for lower compensation for it's members? A union advocating/negotiating for as much as it can for its members is exploiting its position in the same way.

Re: The myth of big salaries (it's all marketing)

#227

Post by johnnyanmac »

lazide wrote: post #191
lumost wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Likely this is a summer at sleep away camp. Although tbh I've usually seen something closer to ~10k for a summer away. Presumably you could pay more for spending a summer in an immersive camp experience or do multiple high end camps spread over the summer.

The private chefs and specialized tutors for niche subjects add up (I wish I was joking, not that I ever sent any of my kids to one).

I went to the Johns Hopkins one way back in the day. It's more like a lite-college experience for 8 weeks (but much more supervised ofc).

Still, I think it cost in the realm of 3k, not 50k. Honestly, not bad for a 2 month stay at a college campus in California.

Re: The myth of big salaries (it's all marketing)

#228

Post by johnnyanmac »

lex-lightning wrote: post #118
karolist wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This, I can't believe all these "money doesn't bring you happiness after a certain level" tropes keep ignoring saving and investing angle, just lazy. Or accumulating wealth for your kids.

My personal pet peeve is how every retirement calculator bakes in an assumption like “you’ll NEED 75% of your current income as living expenses when you retire.” Like your salary won’t change over your career. Like you’re just an impulse buyer. Like there’s anything but a distant correlation between these numbers. I think there’s a conspiracy or a (USA) cultural aversion to not working.

Sadly I can see a lot of workers never truly getting pay raises as they go around jobs, not careers. The progression feels obvious if you have something highly technical, but many don't get to that point.

>I think there’s a conspiracy or a (USA) cultural aversion to not working.

maybe. "American Dream" hasn't died in many's minds.

Re: The myth of big salaries (it's all marketing)

#229

Post by [deleted] »

bidandanswer wrote: post #187
nasmorn wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is unfortunately true. You cannot invite your social peers and pay for their lodging. It is only socially acceptable if you literally spend 3x as much for a rarely used guest room.

Not true. It's sad that you all quantify and gamify relationships.

[deleted]

Re: The myth of big salaries (it's all marketing)

#230

Post by lazide »

Gormo wrote: post #151
mullingitover wrote: post #37

Beyond a few million a year, the rest of the comp is really providing something that's more difficult to purchase with money: power. So, while there's a diminishing return on the benefits of additional money in a person's life, a certain subset of people have an insatiable desire for more power. It's problematic in what's supposed to be a democratic society with a fairly flat amount of power distributed among citizen…

Money only equals political power to the extent that the political power itself is up for sale. Attempting to suppress the acquisition of money via political power will ultimately just create an alternate elite that denominates power via something other than money. The only solution is to reduce the reach of formal political power such that even if it is easier to manipulate it with money, it still can't be used to c…

So you’re saying the guys like Stalin in the USSR (who only had a couple dachas and nothing too fancy) were better than folks like Putin, because they weren’t greedy?

Or something else?

If you’re arguing having centralized political power is just a huge attractive nuisance, I certainly agree.

But It’s not like HOA’s aren’t a consistent top 10 complaint for people though either.

At least everyone knows what the greedy asshole is after, and it’s ‘only’ money. Usually. At first.

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