Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The real use of money is to buy freedom

paraschopra.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–220 of 303 posts

Re: The real use of money is to buy freedom

#211

Post by dllthomas »

gress wrote: post #186
akgerber wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lower middle classes can't afford a house/apartment in places with laws that make it difficult to build new houses or apartments, including many places with lots of tech jobs. But in rural areas, or many Midwestern cities, or much of the Sunbelt, a house is still very much within reach. But many of the most productive regions of the country are zoned such that very little new housing is built, and rising incomes…

Of course houses are cheap in places with no jobs.

A basic income would help jobs follow people.

Re: The real use of money is to buy freedom

#212

Post by dharmach »

yummyfajitas wrote: post #72
hansy wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have grown up in a typical middle-class household where one is rightly nurtured into not being extravagant. I was taught to value money (which I thoroughly appreciate). Even though, in my childhood, I always got whatever I wanted, the truth is that I never wanted big, expensive toys. The author did not grow up in poverty.

Read the link I provided. India middle class < America poverty.

Poverty is not about who possesses more or less. It has more to do with how much you feel deprived, irrespective of how much you possess.

Re: The real use of money is to buy freedom

#213

Post by yetanotherphd »

I liked this article because unlike many on this topic the author's viewpoint was fairly nuanced. However I still think the author goes too far in his claims of how useless money is.

First, raising children is very expensive, and to put 2 or 3 kids through college requires a lot of money. And most single people would like to have a family at some point, so they need no excuse for saving money.

Second, money (and conspicuous consumption) is a social signal, and demonstrates your ability to earn that money, which not everyone can do.

Re: The real use of money is to buy freedom

#214

Post by bmelton »

gress wrote: post #153
trevorstrohman wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This Hans Rosling talk from a few years ago shows how most indicators are improving worldwide (e.g. reductions in child mortality, GDP per capita). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVimVzgtD6w

Depression is also rising to epidemic proportions, suggesting that improving economic indicators may simply not have anything to do with quality of life.

I would probably be inclined to agree with that. From a report I read recently (which I can't find again, sorry) pertaining to my home town of Memphis, TN, apparently the general conclusion was that Memphians were happier than Nashvillians, despite the latter having better access to health care, better access to higher paying jobs, better community features (arts, entertainment, etc.)

The report didn't postulate on what the actual cause might have been, or how happiness was measured (or, if it was, I've forgotten), but I found it interesting, and it does support your point here. It seems that, at least since I've been paying attention, America has been trying to optimize for wealth or income, though statistically, it seems that there is validity to the notion that money doesn't buy happiness. If we could better isolate the causes of happiness, we could start optimizing for those factors instead.

Re: The real use of money is to buy freedom

#215

Post by Killah911 »

onedev wrote: post #179
Killah911 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Therein precisely is a HUGE problem. I was nearly homeless, then made more money than I could have ever imagined. I turned into a monster. 9 cars (yes, all for me) and other stupid crap that I'm ashamed even to recall now. Come to think of it, some of my buddies who made it out of the ghetto did the same thing, at first. It does take a while of being "secure" that the money isn't going to be taken away, before you st…

I desperately want you to be Ghostface Killah. Fantastic story by the way. How did you acquire your wealth if you don't mind me asking?

Sorry to disappoint but I am another yet another programmer/techie who picked his handle based on early hip hop influences.

Most of the money was thanks to entrepreneurial endeavors and code. I love building things. I still build, focus is just a bit different now.

Re: The real use of money is to buy freedom

#217

Post by sliverstorm »

Casseres wrote: post #203
sliverstorm wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does financial independence have to do with that number? The article is about "happiness" and "enough". Fuck-you money is not required for either of those things.

The theme of this discussion is about freedom. That includes not having to rely on an external source of spending money, yearly income, "fuck-you" money, or whatever you want to call it. This is also known as financial independence. The $75k per year has to come from somewhere. If it's not interest from an investment or some other automatic payout, then you are not free because you have to work at making sure you alw…

Ah, you are right, I missed the part about life expectancy.

Of course, the $75k number is based on working individuals- I expect the number will be completely different for non-working individuals. People who are not working both do not enjoy the same life-satisfaction that can be had from rewarding employment, and do not suffer the stresses of that employment, so who knows where the balance of happiness lies. Perhaps if we are talking about someone who is not working for their money, there is no such thing as "enough", as they have no happiness "cost" to simply having more money (as they do not need to work for it)?

Re: The real use of money is to buy freedom

#218

Post by sliverstorm »

kazagistar wrote: post #204
sliverstorm wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course expensive hobbies require more money. However the point of that article is (vaguely and generally across the people they studied) your expensive hobbies and traveling do not increase your happiness as much as the pursuit of the extra money decreases it. In other words, you get some combination of diminishing returns on happiness per dollar, and increasing cost of happiness per dollar. $75k is the proposed s…

The study says no such thing. It only makes claims about averages, not about individuals, just like every other study.

Right, the study does not say exactly those things about individuals; I'm loosely extending those conclusions to the individual poster, to help my parent understand what the study means and why it suggests $75k is more happy than $200k. After all, it is not immediately obvious why $200k wouldn't be more happy than $75k- isn't $200k more money? Doesn't more money always make you happier?

Re: The real use of money is to buy freedom

#219

Post by sliverstorm »

sokoloff wrote: post #63
gchokov wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, just create a blank web page with black font saying "it's never going to be enough, give this thought up". Reminds me of another saying that software development time is never enough, except when you have hard borders and deadlines with the right priorities and vision - it will take exactly that time. Getting more money loosens the borders - you buy better houses, better cars, have bigger family, make bigger inve…

That's true to a point for everyone: that having more money from a low starting point primarily increases lifestyle. But as you add more and more money, I think that most people reach a turning point where "enough really is enough" and their worries about money truly diminish, but that lifestyle stops increasing. As I've grown in my own career, for sure my lifestyle increased. I literally subsisted on Ramen and $2 fr…

Airplanes must be cheaper than I thought, if a classic car and a city apartment comes after an airplane.

Re: The real use of money is to buy freedom

#220

Post by pmelendez »

I thought deeply about this when I read something that Bill Gates said answering a question a while ago. At some point he said that he could understand that people wants to be millionaire because the freedom that brings, but after a threshold the burger is the same for everybody.

Freedom in that context is a weird concept, specially when you see a lot of rich people that are slaves of money. I guess it depends on the personality.

Post reply on HN