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How to earn a billion dollars
761–770 of 1001 posts
Re: How to earn a billion dollars
#762The amount of negativity to this is depressing. No one seems to be contradicting anything he's saying here, instead it's just vacuous ideology "extraction" etc etc. Purposely narrow reading. I've got kids, I want people creating start ups they can work in, the alternative is too grim.
Ok
Re: How to earn a billion dollars
#763The amount of negativity to this is depressing. No one seems to be contradicting anything he's saying here, instead it's just vacuous ideology "extraction" etc etc. Purposely narrow reading. I've got kids, I want people creating start ups they can work in, the alternative is too grim.
I can't speak for his other essays but this article was not great. He basically does some maths to show exponential growth.
The definition of "earn" is not on the chopping block. Nor is what it means to "cheat" - which he introduces pretty early on.
And times change. With the announcement: "[Insert name] is a billionaire!"
It used to be: "Congrats to them for making the world better in some way and reaping the rewards."
Now it is: "What did they leverage to force another subscription on us?"
Re: How to earn a billion dollars
#764It's clear to me that in order to get a billion, you have to swidle a lot of people out of their fair share of the billion. As soon as the person that has "The Idea" keeps their 60% stake of the company while the army of minions are working their assess off to get that idea to a billion dollar valuations are given crumbs or no stake at all, you know who is swindling who.
If all you need is the idea, then the minions could easily start their own company and reach a similar order of magnitude outcome.
Re: How to earn a billion dollars
#765Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think we can clearly say that capital gains are not earned. Someone who lays bricks, "earns" their income; someone who's wealth increases as a bricklaying company's value increases, does not. In this sense, it is indeed impossible to "earn" a billion dollars...
Typical ownership heavy replies, which want to equate other people's effort to their own...
100%
A lot of comments seem to not assume that ownership is equivalent to 'earning'. Why does capital need to pretend their wealth growth is equivalent to the effort of labour.
Re: How to earn a billion dollars
#766PG makes little effort to identify what it means to earn something. Some people consider effort the measure of whether something is earned. Some believe luck should be subtracted from result to get what is earned. Some say you cannot earn the benefits you receive from your genetics. No idea of what it means to earn something is given except for making users happy while "not cheating" (who decides what counts as cheat…
Without making any value judgement, there’s a very clear distinction between earning wages as compensation for labor (even very high wages) and increasing your net worth through ownership of a company. That’s a valid distinction no matter how hard the second person works. I have no idea if this is what AOC meant, but it’s clearly not possible to earn $1B via wages in compensation for labor.
Depends on what you mean by wages. Floyd Mayweather Jr.‘s career earnings are over 1 billion. Celebrities can get extremely high compensation packages especially when you adjust for inflation without an ownership stake in anything. Finance can be similarly well compensated at the very top.
Often very high compensation packages happen to include shares, but that’s just the form of compensation not an inherent requirement. Of course all paths to a billion dollars are so unlikely it’s really not a reasonable target unless you have already passed most significant hurdles.
Re: How to earn a billion dollars
#767Earlier quoted context omitted.
The responses to PG were remarkably substantive and specific, in the direction you point out and others! The high-horse complaint about "negativity" was easily the laziest and least specific thing in this thread.
I don’t agree. You may agree with them but your agreement is not the same as substantive.
The allegations of PG ducking AOC's definition of "earn," the allegations of missing externalities, all the specific controversies -- you have made no post over 20 words, no explanation of why you find any of this criticism substance free. If you have something to say, say it.
Re: How to earn a billion dollars
#768Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I've got kids, I want people creating start ups they can work in, the alternative is too grim. I also have kids. I want them to live in a just society where billionaires, whom Mr. Graham proudly grooms, according to his telling of the matter, don’t actively undermine the ability of ordinary citizens to earn a living wage, to have a say in self-governance, and to enjoy universal healthcare.
I think you'll find its not billionaires stopping that, its elected officials.
You are soooo close!
Re: How to earn a billion dollars
#769Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I've got kids, I want people creating start ups they can work in, the alternative is too grim. I also have kids. I want them to live in a just society where billionaires, whom Mr. Graham proudly grooms, according to his telling of the matter, don’t actively undermine the ability of ordinary citizens to earn a living wage, to have a say in self-governance, and to enjoy universal healthcare.
I think you'll find its not billionaires stopping that, its elected officials.
Yes their are. Majority of elected officials are just their instrument. The amount of money billionaires spend shaping media, lobbying and campaigns to get power and push propaganda to determine who is elected makes the fight to get people like AOC who are working in the interest of society so much harder.
Re: How to earn a billion dollars
#770Earlier quoted context omitted.
Having been on HN for 15+ years I have found it fascinating to witness the fawning and adulation over pg blog posts completely reverse and everyone has turned on him now. It used to be if you criticized anything in his blogs you’d get downvoted to oblivion. Now criticism is the norm. As far as I can tell it’s less a change in pg’s viewpoints (though the topics have evolved, and he has gotten more transparent perhaps)…
One thing I noticed is on HN where PG no longer hangs out the comments have gone negative whereas on twitter/x where he posts people are positive ( https://x.com/paulg/status/2066124279448559907 on earn $1bn). I guess people who like him follow there.
"Reply guy" culture is notorious for breeding sycophancy.