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What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? (2015)

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Re: What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? (2015)

#371
post #353

I'm not from the US so I'm just curious why would anyone prefer to spend their time with a senator or president?

The rich and powerful businessmen in your country are doing it too with the politicians in your country to have favourable laws for them.

Re: What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? (2015)

#372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdata. I've had Miele washer, dryer and cooktop. No parts changed, no maintenance done on them since 1992. Works absolutely fine.

1992 and todays Miele might be the same. You know, 3 decades have passed.

Miele oven, hob (cook top?) and extractor fan all still work fine since they were installed around 2004 in my flat. The flat was even rented before i bought it.

Re: What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? (2015)

#373
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes it's fun to realize that if we all just decided dollars were worthless, they would be. There'd be nothing the government could do about it. Crypto ain't it, though. Even the better-scaling blockchains still don't scale very well. I've heard of a few different mesh-network currency projects, and I wonder if any of them could scale by essentially giving each user their own blockchain. However, in a mesh-netwo…

To the point about dollars, there very much is something the government can do about it: taxes. If the government requires taxes to be paid in dollars, that sets a "floor" on the value of a dollar as a medium of exchange - for most people in the US living a "normal" life, you have to acquire some amount of dollars throughout the year, under penalty of jail/loss of property (property tax). Then, since you already have…

Doing this in an environment where nobody is using dollars will lead to guillotines. The dollar has to be useful for exchange first, and then they can demand tax to be paid in it.

Re: What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? (2015)

#374
post #353

I'm not from the US so I'm just curious why would anyone prefer to spend their time with a senator or president?

Most likely for lobbying purposes. You might want to support or block a bill, resolve an issue that affects you, or push for legal changes or permits that benefit your business. It's about influencing decisions that have a direct impact on your interests. And it doesn't even need to be business related; sometimes it's just like calling the building manager when something is annoying you and you're bored.

Re: What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? (2015)

#376
post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

lol, lmao even... Most devs aren't even making 100k a year, even in the US the median is at like 120k. Let's say you make 100k a year in Berlin, you're already in the top 1% so "accessibility" is out of the equation at that point, that's 4.8k net. Let's say you manage to invest ~60% of your salary, that's about 3k a month, 36k a year. Now let's say you get 8% return per year (which you won't), you're barely above 500…

[flagged]

> £100k/year

Well first off £100 != $100 != €100

Sorry but you're completely delusional if you think literally "anyone on a programmer's salary" can make 1 million in 10 years. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, I'm not saying you didn't do it, I'm just saying it's not "accessible", nor the norm, nor representative of the vast majority of devs.

https://www.levels.fyi/heatmap/europe/

The median software engineer salary in Europe is under 60k euros, which is £50k. Show me how you make 1m on a 60k euros salary in 10 years, even if you paid 0 income tax and invested every single cent with an average 8% annual return you'd still be under 1m.

> Anyway, stay poor, I literally don't care.

Looks like you can't buy your way out of arrogance

Re: What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? (2015)

#378

The referenced reply is dull. It's very pretentious but just reiterates common knowledge, it doesn't convey any useful information. For example I wish someone told me about the existence of Miele kitchen equipment before I accidentally rented an apartment of a well-to-do woman. She renovated it for herself but then rented out when circumstances changed. Similarly it took me a long time to realize just how much better…

anybody can elaborate more about the miele? why miele?

I’ve had to repair my Miele dishwasher several times. (Faulty heater relay, common problem with the model.) also coincidentally the spring in the door broke yesterday. Otherwise it does clean the dishes very well and it’s quiet and attractive looking.

I bought it because they have a good rep. But I’ve owned this dishwasher for 15 years and it’s still going.

My Fisher and Paykel fridge I’ve had for 20+ years and it’s never needed any maintenance whatsoever. To me that’s pretty amazing.

Re: What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? (2015)

#379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best interiors feel lived in but not stuffy. A few old pieces of furniture can help achieve that. Part of the skill of interior design is making these pieces work together in new ways. You don’t want your home to feel like an ikea catalog surely!?

> You don’t want your home to feel like an ikea catalog surely!? Who wouldn't? The people that arranged the furniture in those renders have a much better idea of interior design than I do.

It’s your home. Nobody knows how it should be better than you.
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