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

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

#701

Post by al_borland »

sgt101 wrote: post #693
al_borland wrote: post #671

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 viole…

Those things can create an environment to help create, grow, and maintain wealth. I'd say actually creating it requires producing something of value to society with enough scale and margin to make a profit. Typically it requires doing this consistently for decades. There are a few exceptions to this, but by and large, it seems to be how things work, at least under capitalism.

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

#702

Post by immibis »

imtringued wrote: post #605
immibis wrote: post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doing this in an environment where nobody is using dollars will lead to guillotines. The dollar has to be useful for exchange first, and then they can demand tax to be paid in it.

Uhm no? This is illogical. You just declared money worthless. Nobody is gonna bring out the guillotines if the government demands worthless paper. They'll happily give the worthless paper to the government.

How will they acquire the worthless paper?

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

#703

Post by marcuskane2 »

bane wrote: post #488

Grew up poor, made it a little in life - could maybe retire now. The things I and the people I grew up with don't know how to do at all can be shocking. People who grew up similarly and ended up in middle class seem to be similar unless they put real time into it: - how to buy stocks, what ETFs are, what a 401(k) is, etc. - hiring people to clean your house, do yard work, etc. - traveling out of the country, or in ma…

> how to buy stocks, what ETFs are, what a 401(k) is, etc.

I've seen this before, and I remain incredulous.

We learned about stocks in 4th grade and did a mock exercise picking stocks and tracking their performance over a few weeks. We did calculations on mortgage interest and investment returns in middle school math class. Every news source has a finance section and talks about stocks regularly. There are advertisements for brokerages on every TV commercial break and everywhere else ads are found. Every company I've ever worked for had a mandatory training about the 401k as part of employee onboarding and usually ongoing mentions at least once a year. There are a zillion personal finance websites, podcasts, blogs and youtube channels.

It seems like if an alien landed in the US or a time traveler arrived here, they'd learn about ETFs and 401ks within the first 24 hours whether they wanted to or not.

People have to be actively, intentionally avoiding learning these things or actively tuning it out or forgetting, because they're dead simple and information about them is incredibly easy to find.

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

#704

Post by efficax »

HardCodedBias wrote: post #5

I really like this post since it shows how very little there is for the wealthy to buy other than status goods. The life of the rich, other than status, is very much like the life of upper middle class. The same phones, the same digital entertainment, the same appliances in their homes. We have very few items for the rich to buy. Honestly, it is a problem it breaks incentives and it drives the rich more towards statu…

what the super-rich can buy that the middle class can't isn't really things (except for luxury goods, which are meh), it's people (through services). you can buy someone to do anything that you want to be done (that can be done!) so you don't have to do it. nannies, companions, builders, killers, bodyguards, drivers, pilots, cleaners, house managers, lawyers, secretaries, etc. That's what you do with the money. You buy farmers to grow macadamia nuts on your hawaii estate to feed cows raised by more farmers so you can call your property a farm, get a tax break, and brag about the quality and freshness of the steak when people come over for dinner. and so on.

you can even buy people to make more money for you, so you don't have to do it yourself, either through your "family office" investment firm, or through venture capital. You don't have to do anything but ask for what you want and there it is.

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

#705

Post by marcuskane2 »

ty6853 wrote: post #640
e40 wrote: post #579

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The given range was the assumed incorrect price, which made them not contract for the service.

2 people x the entire weekend = 32 hours labor, which was the quoted time for how much upkeep the household required. Including business overhead, licensing, insurance, etc you're at 35-50k for a year of 32 hours of labor a week with the upper end a w2 employee and the lower end an illegal. Original value looks correct.

32 hours per week is about 10-20x what the average American household uses for cleaning/lawncare.

Most people have a cleaner or lawncare crew come like once every couple weeks for a couple hours, they're not hiring a full-time employee for their 3 bedroom house on 0.1 acre lot.

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

#706

Post by oooyay »

moneywoes wrote: post #674
safety1st wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On a personal level I know several guys who are worth $10-30M, one who's worth probably $40M, and one who's worth around $700M, this is LNW. Not much in the Reddit reply checks out for me. It's true that the $700M guy socializes with "Senators/Congressmen/community leaders." He travels a lot, and comfortably, but has no ownership in a jet. He retired young-ish and no longer works so maybe that's why. He doesn't flash…

how did they create their networth, self made or inheritance

The way I think about it you can become a millionaire by yourself through decent strategy, a bit of luck, and a lot of (the right) knowledge. Over $10M you start to need other people who are probably giving you some of their labor at a discount or for free.

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

#707

Post by 1oooqooq »

wiether wrote: post #543
lazyasciiart wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Usain Bolt estimated net worth is $90million. Maybe as many as ten others have passed $4m? A few listed here https://athleticsweekly.com/aw-promotion/top-10-richest-trac...

And yet he needs to do a cringe ad for Skip? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KScnjzfK6f8

he only got that money doing cringe ads after cringe ads. you only happen to Haven seen one.

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

#708

Post by FireBeyond »

tough wrote: post #483
drfuchs wrote: post #482

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they always had legit California "temporary plates" for the allowable (at the time) 6 months. They were very ticketable; his motivation was to keep his car relatively anonymous when driving around. Source: Me, living near his house and walking by regularly.

oh ty ty that does make much more sense than my absurd simplification (note that they owned the parking, so its moot if they parked on a reserved spot on private property of theirs) I guess not being localizable by press/random people is a nice plus if you can afford. but didnt he buy always the same model?

> note that they owned the parking, so its moot if they parked on a reserved spot on private property of theirs

Eh, pedantry, but you'll find that building and occupation codes dictate a certain number of disabled parking spots. You could argue that a spot that is ostensibly this, but "everyone knows" is Steve Jobs' spot, is not a disabled parking spot.

(But yes, odds of the City of Cupertino taking any issue with this whatsoever are entirely zero.)

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

#709

Post by DamnInteresting »

elorant wrote: post #342

Wealthy people usually get concierge services. You go to a museum as a regular folk, it’s overcrowded and there’s like 20 other people looking at the same art piece you’re looking, trying to get a better shot from it. You visit as a wealthy individual, you get a private tour after hours with a dozen others when the museum is empty with a trained guide who can answer any questions you may have. You can view any art pi…

I have some married friends who worked at Disneyland for years, and they have stories about wealthy park visitors and the escorted, line-skipping, side-loaded experience they have at each attraction. They are often shuttled around through dedicated parts of the underground tunnel system, and enter rides through alternate entrances, often experiencing the attractions entirely out of view of the gross public.

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

#710

Post by bjourne »

0xDEAFBEAD wrote: post #266
bjourne wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gates giving away his money is good, but it would be better for the billionaire class not to exist. Money is power is a zero sum game.

>Money is power is a zero sum game. Just the opposite. By engaging in positive-sum transactions, society as a whole becomes wealthier. That's how economic growth occurs. Not everything is accurately seen through this nihilistic, conspiratorial power lens.

Nothing nihilistic or conspiratorial about it. Money gives you power over other people. You having more power over others means by definition that they have less power -> Zero sum.
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