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How To Make Trillions Of Dollars

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Re: How To Make Trillions Of Dollars

#111

Post by andyjsong »

michaelochurch wrote: post #54
rayiner wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure that's the whole story. There are lots of reasons to live in Manhattan. Being able to walk or take a quick bus to work is one. Wanting to live in a modern building is another (although there are finally some coming up in Brooklyn). By far the overriding thing keeping Manhattan real estate prices high is housing regulation. Given the density of Manhattan, it should look like Hong Kong in terms of high ris…

You're absolutely correct in your analysis of the housing situation. I was only citing the prestige factor as one of the contributing causes. It's a mixture of regulatory corruption and price inelasticity. Prestige is just one of many Manhattan's demand drivers that, due to the inelastic nature of the price curve, drives it up. Regarding school, I think it's both. The question is why these rich people don't want thei…

>If college admissions gave as much of an advantage to white, middle-class students of NYC public schools as they do to Andover and Dalton grads, these people would quickly change their strategy.

That's the kicker, the average white, middle class student in NYC can't compete with the public school kids @ Stuyvesant and Bronx Science where minority enrollment is 70%+, they are getting their asses handed to them by Asian students. Hence the flight to private schools where tuition is the same as private universities to keep the immigrant kids at bay. I should know, I was one of those immigrant kids in prep school and would've been eaten alive if I attended public HS.

Re: How To Make Trillions Of Dollars

#112

Post by philbarr »

jacques_chester wrote: post #39

This is a classic example of the animism fallacy. Lightning flash, terrifying thundercrack. The Invisible Skygod is mad! All bunkum, of course. But it fits how humans usually think about the world: that every event has agency , has some directing cause which involves intelligence. The idea that the world we see emerged from a massive, incomprehensible complex system? Bah. Can't be. I see the lightning and hear the th…

Whilst the author pushes his point too far by declaring that there are "invisible millionaires" as you say, I think the general point is sound. We are continually pushed to consume, and the consumption is not necessary for us to be happy within society. It is the job of marketers and business to make us believe we need this stuff. By recognising this we are less likely to try and satisfy ourselves by buying the latest "whatever".

Personally, I think that people should be taught about capitalism and the actual workings of society in school fairly early on. Like, "you know when you see an advert? That may not necessarily be the whole truth. They're trying to sell you something so they can make a profit. This is not a bad thing. You should learn to do it too. This is how things work."

Re: How To Make Trillions Of Dollars

#113

Post by andy_boot »

rndmize wrote: post #40

Happiness, health and stability are not core objectives of our society. The production of wealth, as measured by GDP, or by the stock markets, or consumer spending, is our yardstick of success. I hope that in the remainder of the century we can can transition to better forms of society where the health and happiness of the general population is more important than the efficiency of our economic structures.

I always used to believe happiness was the most important thing for a society.

Then I read Brave new world. Happiness taken to extremes.

Now I'm not so sure.

Re: How To Make Trillions Of Dollars

#114

Post by davidw »

rndmize wrote: post #40

Happiness, health and stability are not core objectives of our society. The production of wealth, as measured by GDP, or by the stock markets, or consumer spending, is our yardstick of success. I hope that in the remainder of the century we can can transition to better forms of society where the health and happiness of the general population is more important than the efficiency of our economic structures.

You know what, though? Roughly, people are happier in countries where they are wealthy enough to buy things they want. A lot of "alternative" measuring sticks are far more susceptible to political fiddling, or are meaningless. That doesn't make GDP the be-all and end-all of measuring how a country is doing, but it's not as bad as all that, either.

Re: How To Make Trillions Of Dollars

#116

Post by sp4rki »

jacques_chester wrote: post #52
rndmize wrote: post #40

Happiness, health and stability are not core objectives of our society. The production of wealth, as measured by GDP, or by the stock markets, or consumer spending, is our yardstick of success. I hope that in the remainder of the century we can can transition to better forms of society where the health and happiness of the general population is more important than the efficiency of our economic structures.

Emergent phenomena don't have "objectives", mate. GDP is a derived statistic. > I hope that in the remainder of the century we can can transition to better forms of society where the health and happiness of the general population is more important than the efficiency of our economic structures. And your proposal is? A lot of alternatives have been tried in the past several thousand years and almost all of them suck.…

Radicalized revolutionary socialism? If greed and self preservation wasn't such an important factor in the common peoples agenda perhaps. The reality is that history has taught us that the usual alternatives to the capitalist-imperialist driven society we live in today is radicalization of a substancial mass of people which invariably ends up with a non-insignificant number of causalities of the human, pedagogical, religious, and/or cultural types.

And then you have people using those ideals to strike with unnecessary violence at what they define as their enemies... and then you get the PFLP saying they're fighting for the same ideals you're fighting. And then you get a bunch of people speaking about nationalism, antisemitism, racism, and then politics, politics, politics.

I'm probably reading too much into what this discussion is actually about (it's a bit early for me), but I just wanted to contribute that I think that our current regimes are probably unsustainable if we as a world population keep growing at such expeditious rates as we are right now. That being said, I have no proposal. Bigger people than me have tried to come up with such propositions, and I'm not planning on organizing another french revolution.

Re: How To Make Trillions Of Dollars

#117

Post by sp4rki »

ruswick wrote: post #73
jhuni wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One feature of such a better society is that it should be classless. As long as there is there are segments of society whose happiness, health, and stability are dependent upon the whims of the ruling class rather then in their own hands then these problems will persist.

People don't want a classless society because it removes the ability to attain the one thing that all people want: distinguishment. People usually want money not for its utility, but as an arbitrary measure of merit and a way to distinguish oneself. This is why the American Dream is so pervasive: the concept of economic mobility appeals to people. If anything, we've seen a regression from equality and an exacerbation…

I agree completely. Sadly this is an extension of the democratic capitalist way of life. Once upon a time a group of people we're lead by the strongest, the most intelligent, and the most experienced. It was natural selection at it's finest. Now the concept of power is based on money, distinguishment, and popularity, and not on strength, smarts, and age.

Re: How To Make Trillions Of Dollars

#118

Post by nasalgoat »

rayiner wrote: post #47
001sky wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By far the overriding thing keeping Manhattan real estate prices high is housing regulation. I'd argue it's actualy the proximity to wealth. Hamptons is not regulated, and look at their prices. Finance, Law, medicine, and Media are all either pyramid pay or actual legal monopoly businesses. The rest is made on inside information, that stems from access that wealth brings to political, academic, and philanthropic circ…

That's a plausible explanation, but I'm not sure I totally buy it. Chicago is the #2 financial center in the country, arguably the #2 legal center, home to major pharma companies, and just chock full of old industrial money. Yet, real estate in the Northside is a lot cheaper than many cities that are far less dominated by finance/law/medicine money. Houston is full of oil and CEO money and is also quite cheap. What's…

There's only so much Manhattan land, whereas Chicago is enormous and spreads out for hundreds of miles. Same goes for Houston and Seattle, but more importantly is the distance from New York or Los Angeles.

Re: How To Make Trillions Of Dollars

#119

Post by moconnor »

davidw wrote: post #114
rndmize wrote: post #40

Happiness, health and stability are not core objectives of our society. The production of wealth, as measured by GDP, or by the stock markets, or consumer spending, is our yardstick of success. I hope that in the remainder of the century we can can transition to better forms of society where the health and happiness of the general population is more important than the efficiency of our economic structures.

You know what, though? Roughly, people are happier in countries where they are wealthy enough to buy things they want. A lot of "alternative" measuring sticks are far more susceptible to political fiddling, or are meaningless. That doesn't make GDP the be-all and end-all of measuring how a country is doing, but it's not as bad as all that, either.

Wealth correlates with a lot of things, such as health and buying power. It's too large a stretch to say being able to buy things increases happiness. Perhaps just being wealthy enough to have good healthcare does it. Could be many things.

Re: How To Make Trillions Of Dollars

#120

Post by Ntrails »

moconnor wrote: post #119
davidw wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know what, though? Roughly, people are happier in countries where they are wealthy enough to buy things they want. A lot of "alternative" measuring sticks are far more susceptible to political fiddling, or are meaningless. That doesn't make GDP the be-all and end-all of measuring how a country is doing, but it's not as bad as all that, either.

Wealth correlates with a lot of things, such as health and buying power. It's too large a stretch to say being able to buy things increases happiness. Perhaps just being wealthy enough to have good healthcare does it. Could be many things.

Wealth and good healthcare are not always correlated.
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