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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)

#741

Post by m463 »

never_inline wrote: post #32
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…

If I were rich, I would have a personal data center, an aeronautics lab, a tropical farm, mediaeval fort, things like that. Not this yatches and crap.

when the 3D printing stack gets a little further, we'll all get "a utopian, post-scarcity space society of humanoid aliens and advanced superintelligent artificial intelligences living in artificial habitats spread across the Milky Way galaxy."

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

#742

Post by kiney »

mixmastamyk wrote: post #649
kiney wrote: post #478

Earlier quoted context omitted.

actually most of my furniture is either inheritend (mostly from my grandpa and an aunt) or just "was there" in the old house (1835) I bought... Couldn't imagine living with modern Ikea junk.

Ikea has a range. If you choose the junk aimed at dorm rooms you got what you paid for. The rest sells easily at moving time, being a known commodity.

even the highest and ikea stuff is still complete junk.

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

#743

Post by analog31 »

alex43578 wrote: post #231
immibis wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes it's fun to realize that if we all just decided dollars were worthless, they would be. There'd be nothing the government could do about it. Crypto ain't it, though. Even the better-scaling blockchains still don't scale very well. I've heard of a few different mesh-network currency projects, and I wonder if any of them could scale by essentially giving each user their own blockchain. However, in a mesh-netwo…

To the point about dollars, there very much is something the government can do about it: taxes. If the government requires taxes to be paid in dollars, that sets a "floor" on the value of a dollar as a medium of exchange - for most people in the US living a "normal" life, you have to acquire some amount of dollars throughout the year, under penalty of jail/loss of property (property tax). Then, since you already have…

Any idea of an instantaneous, sweeping change, is utopian. But more gradual actions are possible. For instance the government could decide to let the dollar serve as a medium of exchange while discouraging its use as a long term store of value. They could do this by triggering a mild inflation, such as 2% per year, that would encourage people to move their wealth out of dollars and into things like land, goods, factories, etc.

The dollar wouldn't become worthless, but it would become worth 2% less per year.

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

#744

Post by rglullis »

ryandrake wrote: post #727
rglullis wrote: post #712

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it feel "icky and exploitative" to you to use Über/DoorDash/TaskRabbit?

Kind of. I don't do food delivery at all, and only hire uber/lyft when all other options are exhausted, and when I do, I at least I feel sufficiently bad about it. I would definitely feel "icky" hiring a personal shopper or hiring a chauffer to drive me everywhere. And yea, I know there are other less visible areas in every product and service value chain where people are exploited and yet I am part of society. I don…

> I would definitely feel "icky" hiring a personal shopper or hiring a chauffer to drive me everywhere.

Do you feel "icky" by going to a supermarket and having a cashier scanning your products? Do you feel "icky" by taking a taxi? How about by taking a public bus, train or plane?

Do you go to restaurants or bars? Do you feel "icky" about someone taking your order, cleaning up your table, pouring out drinks for you?

Do you have kids? Have you ever hired a babysitter? Do you feel "icky" about someone else being temporarily responsible for the well-being of your child?

> I know there are other less visible areas (...) where people are exploited and yet I am part of society. I don't have an answer or solution to this that is politically feasible.

I'm honestly more concerned about people who think that they should have "an answer to this" than all the exploitation that exists.

I can tell you what it's *not* the solution. Eliminating all sort of manual labor is *not* a solution. Eliminating manual labor will lead to even more isolation and atomized individuals. It will put us all in different bubbles and make us completely unable to relate to other people and it will make us even more susceptible to be defined by what we consume.

If you are part of a society, it will be better for everyone if you start participating in it. Instead of looking down on people whose work is not as valuable as yours (because that's what honestly your "feeling icky about it" seems to boil down to), look at these interactions as opportunities for mutual, voluntary help. If you think their work is worth more than what they are getting, tell them so and back it up with your generosity. There is no point in "feeling bad" about it.

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

#745

Post by jfil »

DoingIsLearning wrote: post #267
dctoedt wrote: post #96

Brings to mind the famous Joseph Heller quote: "At a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island, Kurt Vonnegut informs his pal, Joseph Heller, that their host, a hedge fund manager, had made more money in a single day than Heller had earned from his wildly popular novel Catch-22 over its whole history. Heller responds, 'Yes, but I have something he will never have … enough.'" https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1065…

This is arguably not very scientific but if we didn't have the media fascination around the power and influence that billionaires carry, we would like come to accept that rationally it is a mental disease no different from Plyushkin's syndrome. You won, you can provide for you and for your whole bloodline if you so choose. You can choose your adventure, go fully epicurean or fund Humanity impacting projects. Yet they…

Survivorship bias... Maybe we never hear about the people who made their fortune and quietly exited the scene?

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

#746

Post by johnisgood »

prawn wrote: post #737
johnisgood wrote: post #683

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why the down-vote? I do have a >40 years old spring bed, and these "modern" beds I can get from Jysk or Ikea (or wherever it was gotten from) are awful in comparison, in fact, one of them broke after a month of use (with my ex) (it cost ~222 USD) and most modern beds I have laid on, they were all too hard for me, unlike the spring bed. The mattresses might be good, however. I have not tried the memory foam ones, for…

It might be because you're making a judgement about preference when you haven't actually tried modern mattresses and (presumably) toppers?

I literally said I have not tried modern mattresses though. I am sure they are great, and I have always wanted to get one.

I have tried new beds (granted, not as expensive ones) and they were worse than the 40 years old spring bed I have.

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

#747

Post by BLKNSLVR »

kortilla wrote: post #200
BLKNSLVR wrote: post #161

This was the most demonstrative part for me: PERSPECTIVE. The wealthiest person I have spent time with makes about $400mm/year. i couldn't get my mind around that until I did this: OK--let's compare it with someone who makes $40,000/year. It is 10,000x more. Now let's look at prices the way he might. A new Lambo--$235,000 becaome $23.50. First class ticket internationally? $10,000 becomes $1. A full time executive le…

> since they're most obviously stealing a whole lot from the rest of the world. What definition of “stealing” are you using here? It seems like it somehow includes owning a large equity stake in a profitable or rapidly growing company since that’s how most people that “make $400mm/year” are actually gaining wealth. Claiming that is stealing is pretty dumb considering it’s how everyone that holds equity gains wealth.…

"Stealing" is the most polite, least offensive way I could put it.

"Crime against humanity" is closer to the description I would otherwise use. Am I being more clear? The effects of that level of accumulation of wealth and power on the individual, the community, country, and the world are grossly negative.

No one who has ever lived deserves that amount / percentage of wealth.

Where it gets blurry is "so, what is enough then?" and "what is to be done with anything over the "enough" amount?". I don't know the answer, I don't know when it turns from earnt to evil. I doubt there's a specific number, although specific numbers are required for laws and legislation and regulation, but it would defnitely be a variable amount depending on the individual at which they become irreparably morally bankrupt.

The correct answer, however, cannot possibly be: Just let them accumulate more forever. That's inarguably stupid, but that's where we're at.

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

#748

Post by [deleted] »

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #161

This was the most demonstrative part for me: PERSPECTIVE. The wealthiest person I have spent time with makes about $400mm/year. i couldn't get my mind around that until I did this: OK--let's compare it with someone who makes $40,000/year. It is 10,000x more. Now let's look at prices the way he might. A new Lambo--$235,000 becaome $23.50. First class ticket internationally? $10,000 becomes $1. A full time executive le…

[deleted]

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

#749

Post by Suppafly »

toyg wrote: post #438
TacticalCoder wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was invited for coffee at a friend's friend. He seemed a pretty regular guy, very friendly: kids playing in the pool. Nothing out of the ordinary except as many house employees as adult guests (and house employees where calling guests by their name). I happened to know the artist Jeff Koons: not a big fan of the "inflated balloon dogs" but I do like his ballerinas. Well... Turns out the dude had one house destroyed…

I would absolutely do that. Having to relearn instrumentation and optionals, how the car handles, dealing with its size, etc etc, is an absolute ballache. If you're not into cars, there is no novelty in having to drive two or three different cars just because you want to be near the sea this week and near the city next week.

>Having to relearn instrumentation and optionals, how the car handles, dealing with its size, etc etc, is an absolute ballache.

I would 100% buy my old car again in like new condition vs getting a new one if it was a feasible thing to do.

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

#750

Post by Suppafly »

safety1st wrote: post #248
alexey-salmin wrote: post #176

The referenced reply is dull. It's very pretentious but just reiterates common knowledge, it doesn't convey any useful information. For example I wish someone told me about the existence of Miele kitchen equipment before I accidentally rented an apartment of a well-to-do woman. She renovated it for herself but then rented out when circumstances changed. Similarly it took me a long time to realize just how much better…

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…

>I don't know anyone who hobnobs with celebrities nor wants to.

My wife has an uncle that uses his access to wealth and some connections to meet and develop friendships with sports players. It's not even that expensive but you do have to have the personality to be somewhat charming and have the ability to exploit connections. Once you have an in, you can extend that to others. If I had his money, I'd move out to the middle of the woods and never talk to anyone. I just depends on what you like to do.

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