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

Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

wealthsimple.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 366 posts

Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

#21

Post by refurb »

vinhboy wrote: post #17

> Nobody likes paying high taxes, but I don’t mind. How refreshing. I agree with him. Paying my taxes is a point of pride for me. It's a repayment for all those years I was poor and the government paid for me to live and go to school.

Not sure if you're living in the US, but I do and I have the exact opposite viewpoint. The amount of waste, corruption and poor planning by the gov't makes me feel like I'm throwing money away. I'd rather give it a charity since then I'd know a majority of it had an impact.

I think if the gov't was a bit more efficient and could be shown to be good stewards of money I'd probably hate paying taxes a lot less.

Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

#22

Post by chjohasbrouck »

nkozyra wrote: post #12

Debt is a manifestation of risk. As general financial advice, "don't take on debt" is akin to "don't take risks." It depends. On a lot of things.

Risk is one of the things that debt can represent, sometimes, but there can be debt that doesn't involve any risk, and there are risks that don't involve debt.

What's risky about using a credit card to buy a kayak?

And how does investing money you already have in small cap equities represent a debt?

I think for the vast majority of individuals just trying to make good personal finance decisions, "don't take on debt" is (on average) great advice.

Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

#23

Post by ethbro »

refurb wrote: post #21
vinhboy wrote: post #17

> Nobody likes paying high taxes, but I don’t mind. How refreshing. I agree with him. Paying my taxes is a point of pride for me. It's a repayment for all those years I was poor and the government paid for me to live and go to school.

Not sure if you're living in the US, but I do and I have the exact opposite viewpoint. The amount of waste, corruption and poor planning by the gov't makes me feel like I'm throwing money away. I'd rather give it a charity since then I'd know a majority of it had an impact. I think if the gov't was a bit more efficient and could be shown to be good stewards of money I'd probably hate paying taxes a lot less.

Having worked for some charities, there's sausage being made there too. Just like the government has spots of greater than free market efficiency.

I don't think one or the other is strictly better. You point at corruption and waste wherever you find it, then you work to make it less.

Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

#24

Post by p_eter_p »

refurb wrote: post #21
vinhboy wrote: post #17

> Nobody likes paying high taxes, but I don’t mind. How refreshing. I agree with him. Paying my taxes is a point of pride for me. It's a repayment for all those years I was poor and the government paid for me to live and go to school.

Not sure if you're living in the US, but I do and I have the exact opposite viewpoint. The amount of waste, corruption and poor planning by the gov't makes me feel like I'm throwing money away. I'd rather give it a charity since then I'd know a majority of it had an impact. I think if the gov't was a bit more efficient and could be shown to be good stewards of money I'd probably hate paying taxes a lot less.

People always say this, but nobody can ever point to a solid example. Do you have hard numbers that government social programs are less efficient than charity?

Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

#25

Post by bgw »

refurb wrote: post #21
vinhboy wrote: post #17

> Nobody likes paying high taxes, but I don’t mind. How refreshing. I agree with him. Paying my taxes is a point of pride for me. It's a repayment for all those years I was poor and the government paid for me to live and go to school.

Not sure if you're living in the US, but I do and I have the exact opposite viewpoint. The amount of waste, corruption and poor planning by the gov't makes me feel like I'm throwing money away. I'd rather give it a charity since then I'd know a majority of it had an impact. I think if the gov't was a bit more efficient and could be shown to be good stewards of money I'd probably hate paying taxes a lot less.

Government spends money with more accountability and with more efficacy than charities do.

Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

#26

Post by soperj »

refurb wrote: post #21
vinhboy wrote: post #17

> Nobody likes paying high taxes, but I don’t mind. How refreshing. I agree with him. Paying my taxes is a point of pride for me. It's a repayment for all those years I was poor and the government paid for me to live and go to school.

Not sure if you're living in the US, but I do and I have the exact opposite viewpoint. The amount of waste, corruption and poor planning by the gov't makes me feel like I'm throwing money away. I'd rather give it a charity since then I'd know a majority of it had an impact. I think if the gov't was a bit more efficient and could be shown to be good stewards of money I'd probably hate paying taxes a lot less.

Tons of Charities pay their CEOs a shit ton of money. Boy Scouts CEO made 1.6 million as of 2010. I think it was Operation Smile that paid theirs over a million as well.

Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

#27

Post by dang »

vinceguidry wrote: post #9

You obviously didn't read the article. Bourdain did not reach the magical 'no-debt' world of wonder until after he got famous. If anything it's a fake-cautionary tale. "Don't do what I did kids, even though I'm rich and did more blow and had way more fun than you'll ever have in your whole life!" Ugh.

Please don't insinuate that someone hasn't read an article. "Did you even read the article? It mentions that" can be shortened to "The article mentions that."

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.

We detached this comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13882117 and marked it off-topic.

Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

#28

Post by ethbro »

vinceguidry wrote: post #9

You obviously didn't read the article. Bourdain did not reach the magical 'no-debt' world of wonder until after he got famous. If anything it's a fake-cautionary tale. "Don't do what I did kids, even though I'm rich and did more blow and had way more fun than you'll ever have in your whole life!" Ugh.

I didn't read anywhere in there where he says don't do what he did.

He lived his life the way he wanted to, there were some rough times. Now he has a family, different priorities and resources, so is taking those into account but still generally living the same way.

My tl;dr would be "I was always in debt when I was young. Now I have a bit of money and prioritize those I care about, but after that's funded I'd rather have great experiences than a larger bank account."

Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

#29

Post by coconut_crab »

refurb wrote: post #21
vinhboy wrote: post #17

> Nobody likes paying high taxes, but I don’t mind. How refreshing. I agree with him. Paying my taxes is a point of pride for me. It's a repayment for all those years I was poor and the government paid for me to live and go to school.

Not sure if you're living in the US, but I do and I have the exact opposite viewpoint. The amount of waste, corruption and poor planning by the gov't makes me feel like I'm throwing money away. I'd rather give it a charity since then I'd know a majority of it had an impact. I think if the gov't was a bit more efficient and could be shown to be good stewards of money I'd probably hate paying taxes a lot less.

I live in one of the most corrupted countries in the world. Yet our newborn immunisation rate is nearly 100%, with free healthcare and education for the people in poorer rural area and ethnics minorities. And my tax money contributed to that.

I guess it's fine to hate your government, but a better solution is to change it than avoid paying tax. Because if people pay less tax then then the poor and vulnerable will be affected first, not the corrupted interest group.

Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

#30

Post by cobookman »

nkozyra wrote: post #12

Debt is a manifestation of risk. As general financial advice, "don't take on debt" is akin to "don't take risks." It depends. On a lot of things.

I sometimes wonder if the attitude of take on risks is somewhat of a survivorship bias. I'd assume that the expected return of the safe choice is always higher than that of risky ones.

Now you could make a ton of money by taking risk, but its kind of like playing the lotto. Few winners lots of losers.

Post reply on HN