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Friends and Family Funding and Why I'm Dreading Thanksgiving

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Re: Friends and Family Funding and Why I'm Dreading Thanksgiving

#81

Post by [deleted] »

phamilton wrote: post #68
PhasmaFelis wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See, this is kind of what I'm talking about. There's a world out there in which people can say "20 grand isn't that much" with a straight face. I guess it's nice that that world exists, but it really doesn't represent the experiences of most Americans.

I should rephrase. 20 grand isn't much over the course of a few decades. It's a lot for a 20 something year old fresh out of school. For someone in their 40s, having 20 grand available for such an investment isn't always the result of good fortune. It's a low enough sum that can be attributed merely to frugal living and smart financial decisions. It's easily the difference between packing a lunch instead of eating ou…

[deleted]

Re: Friends and Family Funding and Why I'm Dreading Thanksgiving

#82

Post by brubaker »

Funding from friends and family will be always tricky, don't ask people that you will dread to see on family holidays. If they can't separate business and family time, don't ask in the first place. If you can't separate the two, don't ask. Figure something else out.

Re: Friends and Family Funding and Why I'm Dreading Thanksgiving

#83

Post by PhasmaFelis »

natrius wrote: post #74
Brakenshire wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to clarify, you're asking him to prove that the rich aren't genetically superior to the poor?

To quote myself: "If merit correlates with the ability to make money and merit is heritable, you'd expect those with merit to come from families with money." Is my logic incorrect? Does merit not correlate with the ability to make money? Is merit not heritable? None of those questions have been answered, but we did get to see some good ad hominem reasoning.

> Is my logic incorrect? Does merit not correlate with the ability to make money? Is merit not heritable?

You're using the word "merit" in an impossibly vague and poorly-defined way. You might as well say that having a sweet tattoo is a merit when picking up dudes/ladies, and merit is heritable, therefore sweet tattoos are heritable.

And, again, you're the one making extraordinary claims, so you're the one who needs to provide extraordinary evidence. I would genuinely love to see it.

Re: Friends and Family Funding and Why I'm Dreading Thanksgiving

#84

Post by PhasmaFelis »

clarky07 wrote: post #80
phamilton wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I should rephrase. 20 grand isn't much over the course of a few decades. It's a lot for a 20 something year old fresh out of school. For someone in their 40s, having 20 grand available for such an investment isn't always the result of good fortune. It's a low enough sum that can be attributed merely to frugal living and smart financial decisions. It's easily the difference between packing a lunch instead of eating ou…

This is exactly right. The parent is right that it doesn't represent the world of many Americans, but for most of them, it is their own fault. i'm sorry if that that offends anyone, but stop living beyond your means and you can save up 20k. It doesn't really matter how much you make. The key is to simply spend less than that number. FWIW, 20k is still a big number to me, but not that big and I'm a 20 something that q…

> ...it doesn't represent the world of many Americans, but for most of them, it is their own fault. i'm sorry if that that offends anyone, but stop living beyond your means and you can save up 20k. It doesn't really matter how much you make. The key is to simply spend less than that number.

Oh, God, this bullshit again.

When you've got two adults with no kids making 80K a year, "living frugally" and saving money is as easy as falling off a log. Now try doing that on 28K as a single parent, just for example. When you haven't eaten out in a year, clip coupons every day, get all your clothes from Goodwill, and are still only breaking even if everything goes right and the car doesn't break down and no one gets sick, "simply spend less than you make" is about as realistic as "simply grow wings and fly."

And don't try to tell me that that's a tiny minority of the population. In modern America, it's really not.

Re: Friends and Family Funding and Why I'm Dreading Thanksgiving

#85

Post by grey-area »

natrius wrote: post #69
rayiner wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Egalitarian meritocracy" is relative. It used to be that going to Harvard was largely a measure of whether you had enough money to go to Harvard. In 1950, the acceptance rate at Harvard from elite preparatory schools was almost 90%. Today, it's an "egalitarian meritocracy." The acceptance rate is around 5-6%. A quarter of students come from families that make below $80k, and 60% of students receive some financial ai…

If merit correlates with the ability to make money and merit is heritable, you'd expect those with merit to come from families with money. Top schools and our industry are probably far from pure meritocracies, but that data doesn't prove (or even strongly suggest) it.

The ability to make money is also strongly related to how much money (and the advantages that go with it) you start life with.

Re: Friends and Family Funding and Why I'm Dreading Thanksgiving

#86

Post by clarky07 »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #84
clarky07 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly right. The parent is right that it doesn't represent the world of many Americans, but for most of them, it is their own fault. i'm sorry if that that offends anyone, but stop living beyond your means and you can save up 20k. It doesn't really matter how much you make. The key is to simply spend less than that number. FWIW, 20k is still a big number to me, but not that big and I'm a 20 something that q…

> ...it doesn't represent the world of many Americans, but for most of them, it is their own fault. i'm sorry if that that offends anyone, but stop living beyond your means and you can save up 20k. It doesn't really matter how much you make. The key is to simply spend less than that number. Oh, God, this bullshit again. When you've got two adults with no kids making 80K a year, "living frugally" and saving money is a…

>When you've got two adults with no kids making 80K a year, "living frugally" and saving money is as easy as falling off a log.

Let's do some math. Saving 32k a year on 80 grand is not in fact as easy as falling off a log.

80k - (taxes + tithe) = 52k. we saved 32k per year, so that is 2 people living on 20k. Don't tell me it can't be done, I did it.

For single parents making 28k 20 grand is always going to be a lot of money. That's why I said most, not all. As it happens, single parents with 28k in income is not the median, not even close. There are a lot of people making a lot more than that. I was clearly not referring to the people living at the poverty line. FWIW, ~25% of America makes less than 30k[1]. The other 75% is who my comment was directed to. But hey, it's easier to be snarky than to let facts get in the way.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_...

Re: Friends and Family Funding and Why I'm Dreading Thanksgiving

#90

Post by keypusher »

phamilton wrote: post #68
PhasmaFelis wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See, this is kind of what I'm talking about. There's a world out there in which people can say "20 grand isn't that much" with a straight face. I guess it's nice that that world exists, but it really doesn't represent the experiences of most Americans.

I should rephrase. 20 grand isn't much over the course of a few decades. It's a lot for a 20 something year old fresh out of school. For someone in their 40s, having 20 grand available for such an investment isn't always the result of good fortune. It's a low enough sum that can be attributed merely to frugal living and smart financial decisions. It's easily the difference between packing a lunch instead of eating ou…

If I had squirreled away 20k over the last two decades by living frugally and packing bagged lunches to work, I don't think I would be throwing it at my nephew to spend on his startup.
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