Global Rich List • Hacker News Board

Re: Global Rich List

#21

Post by leeoniya » Wed, Jul 17, 2013, 11:54 PM UTC

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #12

leeoniya wrote: post #6

things like this rub me the wrong way. you cannot compare income levels between countries with vastly different costs of living. sure, first world countries will have a higher standard of living overall, but putting $25/hr in US up against $0.08/hr in Ghana is a misleading comparison of purchasing power. case in point: in Ghana you can probably buy a castle full of servants on 80 acres for $25/hr.

"For currency conversion we use Purchasing Power Parity Dollars (PPP$) in order to take into account the difference in cost of living between countries; PPP$ are also less susceptible to short term fluctuations."

im no economist, but i cant help but feel thereis a huge flaw with PPP comparisons between first and third world countries.

if someone made $0.08/hr in the US, they would starve. homeless people make a lot more than this in the states. but somehow, people manage to raise whole families on those wages in third world countries. what am i missing?

Re: Global Rich List

#22

Post by petersalka » Thu, Jul 18, 2013, 12:01 AM UTC

tokenizer wrote: post #5

Great app. Too bad a 1 percenters like me can't calculate my apparent wealth however. Income works fine, but when I put in the data for wealth (no house, minimalistic materials, and meagre bank accounts) it gives me the error code: "Are you sure about that?"... Apparently, you cannot hold less than $1,500CAD of wealth, nor can you be classed within the bottom 22%. The income bottom limit is $400CAD, which is much bet…

Yep, same here. I live in Sydney AU and the app also put me in the top 1% richest people in the world by income.

When I did it by wealth, the result was: "Your personal wealth is equal to the combined wealth of 0 people in Myanmar." and "1% of your wealth could feed a family of four in Ethiopia for 0 months."

There's no doubt that we live way more comfortably than most people in Myanmar do but it's clear that being born with wealth to start with helps no matter where you live.

Re: Global Rich List

#23

Post by leeoniya » Thu, Jul 18, 2013, 12:02 AM UTC

andrewcooke wrote: post #19

leeoniya wrote: post #6

things like this rub me the wrong way. you cannot compare income levels between countries with vastly different costs of living. sure, first world countries will have a higher standard of living overall, but putting $25/hr in US up against $0.08/hr in Ghana is a misleading comparison of purchasing power. case in point: in Ghana you can probably buy a castle full of servants on 80 acres for $25/hr.

this isn't really that true (and i say this as a brit living in chile, so have some experience). sure, some things are cheap. but if you're talking about the kind of wealth many people here have, you exhaust those pretty quickly. it's basically local produce and labour that's cheap. anything "interesting" - media, electronics, car, brand name clothes, travel, etc - is the same (or more expensive, since it's imported)…

yes, thats almost certainly the case. but it's inappropriate to boil it down to $/hr. because you're not cognitively comparing living in the US for 0.08 vs 25 an hour.

Re: Global Rich List

#24

Post by dice » Thu, Jul 18, 2013, 12:03 AM UTC

ryandrake wrote: post #16

It doesn't seem to recognize negative numbers. So if you're like the 1 in 4 Americans who have zero or negative net worth, the "wealth" part of the app won't work. * http://www.epi.org/press/news_from_epi_th_great_recession_ex...

I also noticed that. I'm hoping to get up to zero net worth in the next couple of years, though...

Re: Global Rich List

#25

Post by matchu » Thu, Jul 18, 2013, 12:04 AM UTC

leeoniya wrote: post #21

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"For currency conversion we use Purchasing Power Parity Dollars (PPP$) in order to take into account the difference in cost of living between countries; PPP$ are also less susceptible to short term fluctuations."

im no economist, but i cant help but feel thereis a huge flaw with PPP comparisons between first and third world countries. if someone made $0.08/hr in the US, they would starve. homeless people make a lot more than this in the states. but somehow, people manage to raise whole families on those wages in third world countries. what am i missing?

I think that's exactly what PPP is about, though: income is converted to how much you have the power to purchase, so it's designed specifically to equalize that comparison. Or maybe I'm misreading.

Re: Global Rich List

#26

Post by nick2021 » Thu, Jul 18, 2013, 12:04 AM UTC

I feel like these sites aren't accurate. It's not fair to say the guy in Zimbabwe only earns $.53/hour compared to my $40+, because everything in Zimbabwe is much cheaper. For instance a nice apartment in San Diego is $1,600+/month.

I'd really like to see how I compare to other 1st world countries. In other words don't compare California to some super poor country in Africa. If the cost of living and goods were the same in both countries then fine, compare otherwise don't.

Re: Global Rich List

#27

Post by andrewcooke » Thu, Jul 18, 2013, 12:05 AM UTC

leeoniya wrote: post #23

andrewcooke wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this isn't really that true (and i say this as a brit living in chile, so have some experience). sure, some things are cheap. but if you're talking about the kind of wealth many people here have, you exhaust those pretty quickly. it's basically local produce and labour that's cheap. anything "interesting" - media, electronics, car, brand name clothes, travel, etc - is the same (or more expensive, since it's imported)…

yes, thats almost certainly the case. but it's inappropriate to boil it down to $/hr. because you're not cognitively comparing living in the US for 0.08 vs 25 an hour.

but only for people poorer than you.

for rich people like us, the comparison works. for poorer people, they're poorer anyway. it doesn't change anything. you can't avoid the conclusion that you're still horrendously privileged (which i suspect is what you want to do, but maybe i am just a cynic).

Re: Global Rich List

#28

Post by speeder » Thu, Jul 18, 2013, 12:08 AM UTC

Too bad this is broken...

It does not accept negative wealth (well... I own about 2000 USD in personal objects, have no investments, and still owe about 10k USD in student loans...)

If you input a negative number, it assumes it is positive, you can even try stripping the minus (or adding a minus) and clicking the button again, it won't even calculate again and will assume it is the same number.

Re: Global Rich List

#29

Post by leeoniya » Thu, Jul 18, 2013, 12:32 AM UTC

andrewcooke wrote: post #27

leeoniya wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yes, thats almost certainly the case. but it's inappropriate to boil it down to $/hr. because you're not cognitively comparing living in the US for 0.08 vs 25 an hour.

but only for people poorer than you. for rich people like us, the comparison works. for poorer people, they're poorer anyway. it doesn't change anything. you can't avoid the conclusion that you're still horrendously privileged (which i suspect is what you want to do, but maybe i am just a cynic).

i disagree. you cannot survive in the US on 0.08/hr. i think it would be most appropriate to establish a relative baseline at the lowest survivable wage in each country. and that includes raising kids.

i feel privilaged to have access to good health care, healthy food, clean water, relative freedom and an environment where i dont have to worry about surviving on a daily basis. having only these things, i could be just as happy without everything a high hourly wage affords me beyond this.

Re: Global Rich List

#30

Post by aroman » Thu, Jul 18, 2013, 12:51 AM UTC

Interestingly, the "Maximum income" (USD/year) is 2,200,000,000 (2.2 billion). Specifying a yearly income of 2B/year, however, puts you at #1 according to this. Why 2.2B? Seems rather arbitrary.