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Nice article, but what do the title and text have to do with each other? Spending ~30+ years learning to write and sell books doesn't look like a Get-Rich-Quick scheme to me. His father also bought land so that his future generations could become rich. That's not quick either.
I expected discussion of his investment in a typesetting machine. They have one in the Mark Twain museum in Hartford. Its a big machine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paige_Compositor "The Paige Compositor typesetting machine that drove the family to the brink of bankruptcy, forcing them to leave their Hartford home." http://www.marktwainhouse.org/museum/our_collection.php
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Historically, the price of food was much higher than it is now. Thank our farmers for operating more efficient year after year. https://mjperry.blogspot.nl/2010/07/as-share-of-income-ameri...
You are right that modern technology has figured out how to turn energy into soil (way oversimplified!), and that probably 80% of the nitrogen in the bodies of any of us reading this came from the Haber process. However, it still sounds bizarre that about 90% of their expenses was food.
So it says $450k then is equivalent to about $11M now, a multiple of about 24. So scaling up.. the coal miner's daily pay was about $36 in today's money and monthly rent about $144. A 3 bed NYC apartment, on the other hand, was about $1920 in today's money. Seems the gap between poor and the 'typical' rich has come down a lot, even if it doesn't feel like it.
Not to mention the quality of life of the poor now, vs even the 1980s, let alone 1880s, has significantly improved. The poor didn't have smartphones, flat screen TVs, and broadband internet plus quality/variety of food. In the rush to close a largely abstract gap (as it is by nature entirely relative to some previous, also unique, point in history) I worry we risk losing touch with the practical day-to-day gains/cost…
Nice article, but what do the title and text have to do with each other? Spending ~30+ years learning to write and sell books doesn't look like a Get-Rich-Quick scheme to me. His father also bought land so that his future generations could become rich. That's not quick either.
A good title is accurate and neutral (which doesn't necessarily mean boring) and ideally uses representative language from the article.
So it says $450k then is equivalent to about $11M now, a multiple of about 24. So scaling up.. the coal miner's daily pay was about $36 in today's money and monthly rent about $144. A 3 bed NYC apartment, on the other hand, was about $1920 in today's money. Seems the gap between poor and the 'typical' rich has come down a lot, even if it doesn't feel like it.
Not to mention the quality of life of the poor now, vs even the 1980s, let alone 1880s, has significantly improved. The poor didn't have smartphones, flat screen TVs, and broadband internet plus quality/variety of food. In the rush to close a largely abstract gap (as it is by nature entirely relative to some previous, also unique, point in history) I worry we risk losing touch with the practical day-to-day gains/cost…
It's not about gadgets (because technology advancements made them cheaper over time), the difference between poverty and wealthy is about salary and opportunities.
Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15041758
> Being poor is always being under constant stress and worry. A worry those who are not poor will never understand.
So it says $450k then is equivalent to about $11M now, a multiple of about 24. So scaling up.. the coal miner's daily pay was about $36 in today's money and monthly rent about $144. A 3 bed NYC apartment, on the other hand, was about $1920 in today's money. Seems the gap between poor and the 'typical' rich has come down a lot, even if it doesn't feel like it.
Inflation is a funny beast. The measure of inflation is relative to a weighted index, the composition of which and weights thereof constantly changing over time. In fact, the relative price movements require changing weights, just like how index funds have to change stock allocations based on price movements. At any point in time, prices for some things are moving downwards and prices for other things are moving upwa…
I like the nuance you add but I don't think it applies well to the GP's comment.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not to mention the quality of life of the poor now, vs even the 1980s, let alone 1880s, has significantly improved. The poor didn't have smartphones, flat screen TVs, and broadband internet plus quality/variety of food. In the rush to close a largely abstract gap (as it is by nature entirely relative to some previous, also unique, point in history) I worry we risk losing touch with the practical day-to-day gains/cost…
Are iphones, TVs, and internet the measure of "quality of life" we want to settle on?
— Andy Warhol
I expected discussion of his investment in a typesetting machine. They have one in the Mark Twain museum in Hartford. Its a big machine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paige_Compositor "The Paige Compositor typesetting machine that drove the family to the brink of bankruptcy, forcing them to leave their Hartford home." http://www.marktwainhouse.org/museum/our_collection.php
Seriously, how could they not mention this? The headline really has nothing to do with the article...
Excerpted from How Not to Get Rich: The Financial Misadventures of Mark Twain by Alan Pell Crawford. Copyright © (2017) by Alan Pell Crawford. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
So it says $450k then is equivalent to about $11M now, a multiple of about 24. So scaling up.. the coal miner's daily pay was about $36 in today's money and monthly rent about $144. A 3 bed NYC apartment, on the other hand, was about $1920 in today's money. Seems the gap between poor and the 'typical' rich has come down a lot, even if it doesn't feel like it.
Not to mention the quality of life of the poor now, vs even the 1980s, let alone 1880s, has significantly improved. The poor didn't have smartphones, flat screen TVs, and broadband internet plus quality/variety of food. In the rush to close a largely abstract gap (as it is by nature entirely relative to some previous, also unique, point in history) I worry we risk losing touch with the practical day-to-day gains/cost…
Poor areas are often surrounded by convenience stores and gas marts as their "grocer options". Not to mention, the increase in salt, sugar, and preseratives (as well as decrease in soil quality!) going into food products.