What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? (2015) • Hacker News Board

Re: What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? (2015)

#691

Post by _rpxpx » Mon, May 19, 2025, 6:09 PM UTC

sokoloff wrote: post #311

_rpxpx wrote: post #249

A very good explanation of why millionaires should be taxed out of existence. What an utter waste. I can't believe people still parrot the line about markets being "efficienct".

Does anyone seriously argue that mere millionaires shouldn’t exist? That’s a level of wealth that permits only around $50K/yr in retirement, assuming it's 100% liquid/investable. If a retiree had a paid-off house at the median price level, they'd have less than $30K/yr in retirement if they had to remain "not a millionaire". Nearly 10% of Americans are millionaires (at least at the household level, not necessarily pe…

But those numbers aren't meaningful in a scenario in which that revenue were redistributed in social housing, public healthcare, and national insurance. I don't think the world needs, or can carry, any millionaires. Public affluence--public luxuries--like housing, libraries, schools, universities, trains, parks, museums etc, do far more for human welfare, and far less ecological damage.

Re: What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? (2015)

#692

Post by throwanem » Mon, May 19, 2025, 6:18 PM UTC

saltcured wrote: post #668

throwanem wrote: post #507

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't say that it wasn't grotesquely flagrant consumption, only that I can follow the reasoning behind it. And I have made no admission of which I am aware.

Hmm, could this whole side-thread be summarized as: a meta thing rich people can do is wield larger sums of money without hitting the same "qualitative boundary exceeded" circuit trips that regular people might hit? It feels like a bit of a tautology, but I think has some reality to it as well. When you're steeped in a more frugal mindset, it can be hard to remain rational or detached when analyzing consumption patte…

No, I don't believe so. That just reduces to "you learn to spend what's in your pocket" again. That sentence turns on the verb "learn" for a reason.

If I had to guess, I would say I've been braced by someone whose morning was complicated by treating "take with food" as a little too much more of a suggestion than an instruction. No judgment. Nothing I haven't run into before.

Re: What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? (2015)

#693

Post by sgt101 » Mon, May 19, 2025, 6:18 PM UTC

al_borland wrote: post #671

atwrk wrote: post #559

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tax systems create wealthy people in two ways: a) by disproportionally tax the poor vs. the rich. In the United States, "42 states tax the top 1 percent at a lower rate than the bottom 20 percent, while 46 states tax the top 1 percent less than the middle 60 percent of earners." https://media.itep.org/ITEP-Who-Pays-7th-edition.pdf b) by using the taxes to disproportionately benefit the upper income brackets, e.g. by…

I guess I was just thinking about federal taxes. As long as I can remember, even when I wasn’t making much, I remembered state being less and I didn’t may much attention to it. Looking into it more, I was ignoring sales tax and some of those other, as they are more indirect, but consumption taxes will hit harder for those with less… it’s just not as easy to quantify. Looking at big more it seems like the split betwee…

In the spirit of engaging in open conversation to try and broaden my mind and understanding, may I say that I feel your statement "The tax systems doesn’t create wealthy people, it just doesn’t cut their legs out from under them" begs a question: What is it that creates wealthy people?

I think that there are a few things that are needed for lots people to become wealthy (of course, the ability to exact physical violence on others can enable a few to become very very wealthy as well).

1) Property rights that are equally enforced. That you have important friends shouldn't give you the ability to take my business.

2) Liquidity. There needs to be mechanisms that enable investment.

3) Civil infrastructure & some sort of safety net. People who are frightened of what awaits their children, or them in their old age, or of sickness, are reluctant to invest. They will be happy to work themselves half to death, but even if they have enough money, they will be very very risk averse.

Is this what you think, or are there other mechanisms that you have in your mind?

Re: What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? (2015)

#694

Post by throwanem » Mon, May 19, 2025, 6:32 PM UTC

geodel wrote: post #688

nonameiguess wrote: post #680

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just wanna say I do a few things like this, too. Examples being duplicate toiletries and clothing I keep permanently packed so I don't need to actually pack when traveling. I have duplicates of the same vacuum cleaner and broom/dustpan combos on every floor of my house so I don't need to go down or up stairs to get one. If I was wealthy enough to have a vacation home, I could see owning a duplicate car to keep there,…

Exactly right. Indulgences become necessity when one moves up the affluence ladder. I love your go-to bag example which I wished to have but never did. In a weird way because I have more time to pack but not much resources or time to travel anyway.

Why maintain a grip you never expect to need?

Re: What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? (2015)

#695

Post by em500 » Mon, May 19, 2025, 6:33 PM UTC

rcbdev wrote: post #667

The one thing I have learned here is that Americans seem very obsessed with Miele-branded appliances for no apparent reason. Did they somehow strike marketing gold an entire ocean away? Why not Bosch, Siemens or Elektra Bregenz?

Maybe there's a bit of a Steve Jobs effect, who was publicly known as a Miele fan. (https://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-washer-dryer-2011...)

Re: What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? (2015)

#696

Post by ackfoobar » Mon, May 19, 2025, 6:38 PM UTC

rfrey wrote: post #536

fragmede wrote: post #454

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IoT, and in the near future, arms for self loading and unloading. Who knows what advancement in UI will happen? If we knew what they were beforehand, we'd be doing then already. For example, the microwave. Older microwaves have a cumbersome enter time, hit start procedure. Newer microwaves also have a "quick start" button for 30 seconds which you can just press four times to get it to go for two minutes, or enter the…

>Older microwaves have a cumbersome enter time, hit start procedure. Newer microwaves also have a "quick start" button for 30 seconds which you can just press four times to get it to go for two minutes QS-QS-QS-QS-Start 2-0-0-Start "Cumbersome"?

Mine is "time cook"-2-0-0-start. Pressing "2" to start is some dumb preset program.

But that's not the point, it's usually not pleasant to find and press the buttons on the microwaves machine. Mashing the corner button a bunch of times is a nicer experience.

If it weren't the start button doing double duty as "+30 seconds", I would put my microwave in a more accessible location - space I rather put other stuff in.

Re: What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? (2015)

#697

Post by [deleted] » Mon, May 19, 2025, 6:47 PM UTC

moneywoes wrote: post #684

madaxe_again wrote: post #424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

8% is an awful return in today’s markets. 30% is eminently achievable with foresight and an appetite for risk. I started investing a decade ago with about £100k, as that was all I could afford to risk, and have a return of between 20% and 200% year to year. Shit, you’ll get 15-20% cash-on-cash just running an Airbnb, which is what provides our day-to-day living income.

please advise how do I get started

[deleted]

Re: What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? (2015)

#698

Post by madaxe_again » Mon, May 19, 2025, 6:47 PM UTC

em500 wrote: post #690

madaxe_again wrote: post #596

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I understand statistics and survivorship bias - I’m a mathematical physicist by training. I’m also a pretty average schlub. Most people aren’t wealthy because they don’t even try, and instead run on a treadmill until they drop dead. I have no interest in going to work on Wall Street or anything similar. My entire investing philosophy is basically based on this site. There is constant signal here on what will be…

Ok, I'll bite. What's going to be big 5-10 years from now?

For one, humanoids. Buy the shovel vendors, not the miners.

Also, edited nitrogen fixers. Haber-Bosch is going to be hard to sustain with environmental targets.

Oh, and DRI, same kind of reason, as coking coal is likewise going to fall foul.

I could be totally wrong, but that’s seemingly the drift of things, and where I have lately been placing my chips.

Went long on nuclear power as soon as AI started to take off, and there’s still ample headroom there too.

Re: What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? (2015)

#699

Post by madaxe_again » Mon, May 19, 2025, 6:49 PM UTC

moneywoes wrote: post #684

madaxe_again wrote: post #424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

8% is an awful return in today’s markets. 30% is eminently achievable with foresight and an appetite for risk. I started investing a decade ago with about £100k, as that was all I could afford to risk, and have a return of between 20% and 200% year to year. Shit, you’ll get 15-20% cash-on-cash just running an Airbnb, which is what provides our day-to-day living income.

please advise how do I get started

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44030496

As ever, only invest that which you can afford to lose.

Re: What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? (2015)

#700

Post by ryandrake » Mon, May 19, 2025, 6:57 PM UTC

JohnBooty wrote: post #128

drewcoo wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And it would be heartless not to. Those housekeepers need jobs and incomes.

Yeah I think this is something that people in countries like the US don't instinctively understand, or at least I didn't. My Filipino friend explained to me that back home, if you have more than a certain amount of money, it's seen as incredibly selfish not to employ people as housekeepers, etc. I'd imagine that's true in a lot of places with income disparity and/or high unemployment numbers. It made a lot of sense t…

> Yeah I think this is something that people in countries like the US don't instinctively understand, or at least I didn't.

Guilty as charged. I have the American mentality due to being raised here, and I would be horrified to hire a housekeeper or servant. The "well, it's better than nothing" argument, while true, feels icky and exploitative. "Better than nothing" is a terrible bar and a sign of a broken society, and I personally just don't want to be part of continuing that brokenness. Totally understand if someone grew up in a different culture, they likely have a totally different view on it.