Modern wealth is a parlour game played by the well fed • Hacker News Board

Re: Modern wealth is a parlour game played by the well fed

#21

Post by mrsvanwinkle » Thu, Mar 12, 2026, 9:20 AM UTC

readthenotes1 wrote: post #19

"The difference between ten million and a hundred million doesn’t change your material reality." The person writing the article clearly has no idea what they're talking about if they believe this is true.

Agreed, but I'm mainly informed by the r/personalfinance article that I don't have on hand right now, which lays out the exact details of the evidently tangible difference in material reality jumping from a low ten million net worth to 100 million and beyond (low 8 figs to low 9 figs), the most significant being material wealth translating into political/social clout, where the author worked as a director for such estate and was responsible for these big name correspondences. Even something as casual as a dinner invitation will get an audience with someone in the 10 figures. The common ideas of "ultra rich" perks are attainable and peak at 8 figures, such as having your personal pilot (this surprised me) above the usual payrolled estate of assistant + personal chef/nutritionist.

Re: Modern wealth is a parlour game played by the well fed

#22

Post by lostmsu » Thu, Mar 12, 2026, 8:18 PM UTC

VonTum wrote: post #5

gruez wrote: post #3

So let me get this straight: Market goes down: "grr... this is just a dastardly ploy to further wealth inequality because the rich can buy stuff on the cheap!" Market goes up: "grr... this is just a dastardly ploy to further wealth inequality because stocks are overwhelmingly held by the rich!"

Well both can be true, money is only made (or lost) on market swings. It is precisely the rich who can capitalize on such swings Whereas for regular people, an upswing means nothing, whereas a downswing means job loss, mortgage rate hikes, etc.

The rich can also lose on such swings.

And poor can also capitalize on the up swings.

The difference is not so much in access to markets, but in who plays them better.

There are also major omissions like the fact that mortgage rates are often fixed (poor are protected), but margin rates are generally not (rich get hurt).

Re: Modern wealth is a parlour game played by the well fed

#23

Post by ponkpanda » Sat, Mar 14, 2026, 4:33 PM UTC

lostmsu wrote: post #22

VonTum wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well both can be true, money is only made (or lost) on market swings. It is precisely the rich who can capitalize on such swings Whereas for regular people, an upswing means nothing, whereas a downswing means job loss, mortgage rate hikes, etc.

The rich can also lose on such swings. And poor can also capitalize on the up swings. The difference is not so much in access to markets, but in who plays them better. There are also major omissions like the fact that mortgage rates are often fixed (poor are protected), but margin rates are generally not (rich get hurt).

fixed rates embed best current (market) estimate of path of future floating rates.

The fixed rate payer/receiver is protected but they typically pay for that protection.