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I'm never gonna make it big in this life so I figured I'd ask. I'm guessing there's not very many rich goons, but I'm sure there's some. What's it like to be wealthy? Were you born into it or did you hit the jackpot somehow? Is there really a discernible difference in the quality of life or are you just as miserable as those of us stuck in the rat race? Do you have friends and family who aren't rich? Or who are astonishingly much more well off than yourself? Are these uncomfortable questions in times like these when major presidential candidates keep saying they're going to make the billionaires pay? I don't want this to become a confrontational thread. I'd like for people to just be able to have a frank discussion about this phenomenon that exists in real life. A few people are rich, some people are comfortable, a whole lot of us are living paycheck to paycheck, and the vast majority of humanity are, technically, peasants. This is a real thing and I think goons are one of the few web communities, if not perhaps the only web community, that can have an amicable discussion about it. I hope, anyway. Also PS feel free to tell me how to get rich, thanks in advance.
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Nov 8, 2019 00:44
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Good luck finding a rich person who actually admits to being rich. All the millionaires are comparing themselves to billionaires and going "well, I don't have a private jet and I can't just quit my job and live like a king for the rest of my life, so I'm not actually rich."
Tiggum fucked around with this message at 02:53 on Nov 9, 2019 |
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Nov 8, 2019 05:14
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Animal-Mother posted:I'm never gonna make it big in this life so I figured I'd ask. I'm guessing there's not very many rich goons, but I'm sure there's some. What's it like to be wealthy? Were you born into it or did you hit the jackpot somehow? Is there really a discernible difference in the quality of life or are you just as miserable as those of us stuck in the rat race? Do you have friends and family who aren't rich? Or who are astonishingly much more well off than yourself? Are these uncomfortable questions in times like these when major presidential candidates keep saying they're going to make the billionaires pay? What's your definition of rich? I guess I'm fairly well off by Swedish standards not so much by US standards, would definitely have called myself rich if I asked myself a decade back but it doesn't affect my daily life much. I've never told anyone about how much money I have and honestly I just invested whatever was left of my salary into random funds, I didn't even try to actually save and definitely not doing the fire thing, I hope I won't offend anyone with this but it was very easy.
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Nov 9, 2019 01:39
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Tiggum posted:Good like finding a rich person who actually admits to being rich. All the millionaires are comparing themselves to billionaires and going "well, I don't have a private jet and I can't just quit my job and live like a king for the rest of my life, so I'm not actually rich." On the other hand there is a small group of goons in BFC who never miss a chance to humblebrag about their moderate wealth, so you can expect a visit from them and their "yeah I know what it's like to struggle, I had to turn down the fourth bottle of Dom at the club last night so I could afford my BMW payment" posts any time now.
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Nov 9, 2019 02:17
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You can tell a rich because they just sort of assume you’ll have plenty of salary left over to invest
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Nov 9, 2019 13:56
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What's rich? I grew up in a family that had millions, but <$10 million anyway. This is many surgeons' families though I assume so nothing you haven't heard before.
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Nov 9, 2019 15:02
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My lifestyle is very similar to being middle class, except there's exceptionally low pressure by comparison. I don't have to worry about missing loan payments or credit card interest or dealing with unexpected expenses (though it still requires cutbacks in other areas, obviously -- you don't stay rich for long if you don't have some sort of budget), but I can't just spend money on anything that attracts my fancy. I've seen people richer than me blow through all their money on stupid poo poo and I don't want that to be me, so I keep my expenses reasonably low and I still hold down one normal job and do some freelancing on the side. What it would be like to have orders of magnitude more money/assets than that, I have no idea. I've known plenty of people who do, and they seem to be the same mix of happy/unhappy as everyone else.
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Nov 9, 2019 17:03
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Tiggum posted:Good luck finding a rich person who actually admits to being rich. All the millionaires are comparing themselves to billionaires and going "well, I don't have a private jet and I can't just quit my job and live like a king for the rest of my life, so I'm not actually rich." There's this as well as the feeling that talking about money is tacky. Like I'm a multimillionare (low 2s presently) but am still thinking hmmm is he talking about me or does he want someone with even more money to post? Animal-Mother posted:I'm never gonna make it big in this life so I figured I'd ask. I'm guessing there's not very many rich goons, but I'm sure there's some. What's it like to be wealthy? Were you born into it or did you hit the jackpot somehow? Is there really a discernible difference in the quality of life or are you just as miserable as those of us stuck in the rat race? Do you have friends and family who aren't rich? Or who are astonishingly much more well off than yourself? Are these uncomfortable questions in times like these when major presidential candidates keep saying they're going to make the billionaires pay? Born into it. My college was paid for, and we had 1 to 2 vacation homes growing up. I do have family who aren't rich but my brothers all have similar wealth to me at least including trusts that haven't paid out yet. As far as friends go, growing up I did but as I didn't/don't really live in a mansion I never really considered it. (although I do recall they picked up on it) Uncles have more wealth. I think my aunt thinks we'd vote republican she's nuts (well maybe not technically but she's really uncomfortable to be around because of the way she acts). Why shouldn't I be taxed more? Of course I should be. I'd hope we'd go after military spending as well, (which may cost me money depending on what I'm presently invested in). I'm a lazy person who watches TV/plays video games/surfs the internet all day and it will remain that way until I die. Duck and Cover fucked around with this message at 22:25 on Nov 9, 2019 |
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Nov 9, 2019 19:26
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Fredrik1 posted:What's your definition of rich? Lassitude posted:What's rich? To me, you're rich when you have enough wealth that you don't have to work for a living. I recognize that plenty of people with a shitload of money continue to work their balls off, though I have no idea why. Passion or responsibility, I suppose. If I hit the lottery, I'm not doing a goddamn thing ever again. I'll be George Costanza. What would I like to do? Nothing. Duck and Cover posted:There's this as well as the feeling that talking about money is tacky. Like I'm a multimillionare (low 2s presently) but am still thinking hmmm is he talking about me or does he want someone with even more money to post? Depending on where you live, you're either set for life or you're renting a closet in Manhattan.
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Nov 10, 2019 00:32
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I'm not rich by any means but my income has tripled in the last 5 years. Simultaneously, the reality that money doesn't make you happy is becoming extremely apparent to me. Your health and happiness is completely unrelated to wealth after you surpass the threshold of being able to live "comfortably". I still rent and have bills, a job to do, traffic to sit in, personal stress. Money doesn't change any of that. This further reinforces my belief that billionaires are inherently sociopathic monsters who need to be guillotined ASAP.
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Nov 10, 2019 04:25
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Animal-Mother posted:To me, you're rich when you have enough wealth that you don't have to work for a living. I recognize that plenty of people with a shitload of money continue to work their balls off, though I have no idea why. Passion or responsibility, I suppose. If I hit the lottery, I'm not doing a goddamn thing ever again. I'll be George Costanza. What would I like to do? Nothing. lol he'd be fine in Manhattan
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Nov 10, 2019 04:25
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I spent years around the ultra-wealthy (and am very definitely not personally) and the main thing I saw was that their kids all learn to talk from their nannies. Lots of them literally speak spanish before they speak English. People making 7-8 figures a year treat their kids like a resume item and to some extent they literally are as being married and having kids is a requirement for advancing at the top levels of some more traditional fields. As to the adults, they're either loving weird and snowflakey and clearly no one ever tells them no or they're extremely personable. Might've just been the context I was meeting them in, but it seemed like an unusually consistent binary between those two. People like .01% and up really just don't exist in the same world as everyone else in any practical sense and there's definitely a point where people become rich enough to literally never have to interact with regular folks. As to the statistically rich (as opposed to the ultra-rich), so like the top 1% to .1%, it's a lot of what pt6a says above: their budgets work out, some money gets put into savings, their vacations are nice and are regular, a lot of them live mostly modestly and have only really splurged around a couple core interests or a nicer car, though driving completely regular, unremarkable cars is statistically probably more common as rich and high income are separate things and high income only turns into rich if expenses are kept within limits. In a lot of ways that's probably one of the definitional differences between the ultra rich and just the comfortably rich: there's a point where people are absolutely earning more money than they can regularly spend without adopting a completely and insanely lavish lifestyle. Their kids almost guaranteed had tutors for school, music lessons, private coaching for whatever sports they got into, and later consultants to help package them for college applications at best (or worst case just assemble the application with nearly zero input from the kid Herstory Begins Now fucked around with this message at 13:16 on Nov 10, 2019 |
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Nov 10, 2019 13:09
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oh yeah the kids face zero legal consequences for basically anything ever, you just hire whatever lawyer plays the most golf with the pertinent judges and/or prosecutors and pay them 5-15 grand depending on what the idiot kid did and voila
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Nov 10, 2019 13:18
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Animal-Mother posted:To me, you're rich when you have enough wealth that you don't have to work for a living. I recognize that plenty of people with a shitload of money continue to work their balls off, though I have no idea why. Passion or responsibility, I suppose. If I hit the lottery, I'm not doing a goddamn thing ever again. I'll be George Costanza. What would I like to do? Nothing. Well, what do you mean by not having to work for a living? I might have enough money that I don’t have to work ever, if I cut back expenses and standard of living even further, but I have jobs I enjoy doing well enough and I’d rather have that extra money coming in and be able to spend more money as a result. I’d have to have a lot more money to live the lifestyle I want, comfortably and indefinitely, while never working again. And at that point, would I rather have a similar job as I have now but also fly business class instead of economy whenever I want, instead of not working? Yeah, probably. I’d probably cut expenses rather than go back to working fast food like I did in high school, though. One of the perks of being rich is that you can afford the education/credentials to do whatever job you want, and go through unpaid or underpaid apprenticeships or internships comfortably, though, so ultimately people with more money absolutely have a different experience with employment than other people, even if they continue to work despite not having to.
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Nov 10, 2019 14:47
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e: nevermind, my experience is very well inline with what History Begins Now explained
BlackMK4 fucked around with this message at 15:08 on Nov 10, 2019 |
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Nov 10, 2019 15:04
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Wrong thread.
Calypso fucked around with this message at 05:18 on Nov 13, 2019 |
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Nov 10, 2019 15:16
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As far as cars goes all new. Subaru Impreza Outback Sport (gift), Mini Cooper S , Chevrolet Bolt. I do pay cash, while having that money invested is probably wiser I like to own things outright. In all honesty I don't drive enough to really justify having a car but whatever. Money can enable happiness. Do you not want to work? There you go. Do you want that flip dot display? Bought. Do you like expensive food? Eat up. You can still have money and not be happy, as well as not have money and be happy. What money does do is give someone options. Duck and Cover fucked around with this message at 04:35 on Nov 12, 2019 |
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Nov 10, 2019 19:32
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I have zero 401k, no retirement planning, maybe 8k in savings at most and make barely 25-30k/yr doing misc software freelancing and support my family of 3. My wife whom works part time at min wage barely covers our food costs. But we own our own property, home that we built (and improving upon) and our 2010 truck is nearly paid off and we live in a beautiful area in Hawaii. Thankfully we;re doing well enough we don't need food stamps or other welfare support aside from the state health insurance which is like bare minimum. I frequently buy new gaming PC parts, I got a brand new ATV last year and a nice go-kart for my son and we're always improving our home. I used to make 70k in the corporate side in my line of work, but the expenses for living and working doing that took over 60-70% of my salary (rent, gas, commute, insurance, etc etc) leaving very little to squeak by on and far less free time or family time. I've got ~25yrs before "retirement", I do think about it, but honestly I think things will work out in the end because ill be earning a living up until the day I can't at which point its likely time to take a dirt nap anyway. I live near retirees that blow their retirement savings on houses too big and too costly that they can't maintain themselves especially on limited income because they dont/cant work and it just boggles my mind to wait until im too old and my body is broken to enjoy poo poo in my "golden years". Its really not about how much wealth you have, but how you spend it to make you feel rich. We're definitely below the poverty line and i am self-employed, but we live like middle class, buy name-brand poo poo, have gaming PCs and other toys and goodies like anyone making 3x what we are now. Like, what's the point of having money if you can't or won't spend it? At least try to spend it smartly.
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Nov 11, 2019 00:05
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Slayerjerman posted:I have zero 401k, no retirement planning, maybe 8k in savings at most and make barely 25-30k/yr doing misc software freelancing and support my family of 3. My wife whom works part time at min wage barely covers our food costs. But we own our own property, home that we built (and improving upon) and our 2010 truck is nearly paid off and we live in a beautiful area in Hawaii. Thankfully we;re doing well enough we don't need food stamps or other welfare support aside from the state health insurance which is like bare minimum. I frequently buy new gaming PC parts, I got a brand new ATV last year and a nice go-kart for my son and we're always improving our home. This sounds like an idyllic existence. Did you make enough to buy your property? What made you decide to leave your 9-5?
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Nov 11, 2019 11:16
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i'm rich and every night with my dinner i drink a shot of siberian tiger semen hand-milked by a professional siberian tiger semen milker
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Nov 11, 2019 11:30
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And are you abiding by the fair employment practices? This is not an easy job.
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Nov 11, 2019 11:56
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A documentary this thread might find interesting: Born Rich. Jamie Johnson, an heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune, was turning 25 (and formally coming into his inheritance) and trying to figure out what to do with his life, and decided to be a documentarian and interview some members of his social circle who were in the same weird situation.PT6A posted:Well, what do you mean by not having to work for a living? I might have enough money that I don’t have to work ever, if I cut back expenses and standard of living even further, but I have jobs I enjoy doing well enough and I’d rather have that extra money coming in and be able to spend more money as a result. I’d have to have a lot more money to live the lifestyle I want, comfortably and indefinitely, while never working again. And at that point, would I rather have a similar job as I have now but also fly business class instead of economy whenever I want, instead of not working? Yeah, probably.
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Nov 13, 2019 13:56
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I am by no means rich, but I did grow up middle class, while my partner grew up pretty poor. One of the things that has stuck out to me is that as our parents get older, our parents roles in our lives are essentially reversed. My folks saved up money for retirement, etc, they’ve spoken to a lawyer and set everything up with regards to wills and everything. They’re in good health and (I hope!) not going away anytime soon, but when they do everything with the estate and such has been handled and I won’t inherit a fortune or anything but probably an ok chunk of money that will hopefully become the basis of my own nest egg. Meanwhile, her parents are a continual source of stress for her, she has to help them out with bills occasionally as they become unable to work sometimes, has to coordinate with her siblings to make plans for their evenntual care, etc. When they do pass away it’s going to be a huge headache to her and siblings to sort everything out with funeral expenses and such. I image being truly wealthy relieves or lessens the impact on your life that being middle class for me with my parents, but for everything else. Retirement, medical expenses, etc. are just not things that you have to worry about, and your time horizon expands, as do your options. You can obviously still be unhappy and stuff, but your problems become more abstract and existential, “what am I going to do with my life?”, “what will make me fulfilled?”, rather than just worrying about your health insurance like the rest of us. Fill Baptismal fucked around with this message at 04:59 on Nov 14, 2019 |
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Nov 14, 2019 04:54
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Herstory Begins Now posted:I spent years around the ultra-wealthy (and am very definitely not personally) and the main thing I saw was that their kids all learn to talk from their nannies. Lots of them literally speak spanish before they speak English. People making 7-8 figures a year treat their kids like a resume item and to some extent they literally are as being married and having kids is a requirement for advancing at the top levels of some more traditional fields. As to the adults, they're either loving weird and snowflakey and clearly no one ever tells them no or they're extremely personable. Might've just been the context I was meeting them in, but it seemed like an unusually consistent binary between those two. People like .01% and up really just don't exist in the same world as everyone else in any practical sense and there's definitely a point where people become rich enough to literally never have to interact with regular folks. This is very spot on. I worked as a private chef for two different families, which I fell into by accident. First one was a couple, one of which was a tech CEO with a publicly documented worth in the high hundreds of millions, the second was a family with multiple children and a net worth of something (I'm estimating) at least around 100 million based on their multiple houses, cars, trips, lifestyle, etc. The either super socially awkward or extremely personable dynamic was my experience as well. The tech CEO was a really interesting guy that'd occasionally chat me up and ask what was for breakfast/lunch/dinner, make the kind of casual conversation you'd make at a dinner party or something. If he didn't like something I made, he was real chill about it and sometimes would offer suggestions "If you think you can work it in". His wife was a lot more demanding, constantly demanded all kinds of specific stuff and changed her mind all the time. If she didn't like something, she was very rude and vocal about it. She also wasn't shy about asking for stuff that was clearly not my job and just expecting me to drop everything and do it. He never came right out and called her out when he saw it, but made a few jokes to me back in the kitchen about what a pain in the rear end she was during the time I worked there, and apologized for her behavior. Almost like he was kinda resigned to it. They had a TEAM of house keepers, and a 9 bedroom mansion, drivers, a team of private security, personal trainers, a nutritionist, multiple assistants (personal, executive, travel, event planner, estate manager) that I worked in conjunction with depending on the couples' schedule. They had their own private jet, houses in SF, NYC, Hawaii, Japan, London, and one somewhere in Italy. One of the other chefs I worked with traveled with them when they traveled, and I know from their estate manager that they had a full time private chef that lived in Hawaii since they were there so often. Only personal glimpse I saw of their politics was discussing Ben Shapiro as an "intellectual"  The second job with the family with kids was exactly as you described in regards to their children. They were being raised with any and every advantage money could buy (11 year old spoke English and Spanish fluently, was being taught Japanese). They had a specific tutor for every school subject. Music teachers for multiple instruments, played sports, etc. etc. The husband was super chill but actively avoided interacting with us (service staff). The wife basically ran the household as they didn't have an estate manager, so I interacted a lot with her. She was actually very gracious, smart, funny, etc. but extremely demanding. Expected a lot. They both grew up in rich (<10 million) but definitely had made a new level of wealth between them. I got to know a lot of their social circle because they were very open, liked to hang out and drink in the kitchen while I was cooking, would let me take their insane cars (Ferarri, Tesla, Aston Martin) to Whole Foods if I needed to grab something. I actually respected both of them a lot, but yeah, they definitely live completely differently than the rest of us. I mean there's the obvious material things, but it's really just the built in advantages that being able to throw cash at problems solves. Nutrition/healthy lifestyle? Want to learn a new skill? Hire the expert in whatever it is to privately train you, in the comfort of your own home. Major life event that needs your attention? You can afford to drop whatever you're doing for months on end to handle it, in comfort and style. Got a depressed family member? Spontaneous 3 week trip to Europe together might cheer them up. They openly acknowledged that too. They were both centrist neoliberals vocally, and I imagine probably voted a little more conservatively in private. Both Clinton voters in 2016. Outside of this, I've done a lot of one-off private chef work for dozens of rich people of varying degrees. Most moderately nice, but just very socially awkward. Definitely a lot of pearl clutching at being inconvenienced by something the average person deals with everyday (service staff mess up, unexpectedly having to wait for anything, store was out of their favorite beverage so I got them a similar but different brand, spotify/sonos wasn't working, etc.) Which is crazy, because god forbid you expect to get paid on time or have to directly ask them a question pertaining to your job responsibilities. Head one guy casually joking with his friend over dinner, trying to figure out the last time he'd actually bought groceries himself. He figured it was probably a year or so after he graduated from grad school, and someone else has bought his groceries/"managed" his refrigerator ever since. Also weird stuff like them not understanding why I didn't have a huge rotating variety of nice clothes, like it was just assumed everyone has tons of expensive clothes. Or for awhile when I had some moderate acne, not understanding why I didn't just "get that taken care of", with no regard that I didn't have the time (working) or was strapped for cash. I only lasted a few years doing it, as it gave me a lot of personal anxiety always having to walk on eggshells and never being able to be 100% if your job performance was pleasing them. I'm also pretty extroverted, and it was really awkward for me to "not speak unless spoken too". This was also around the time Trump and MAGA came along, and coming from a pretty CHUDdy family myself and being the hard left black sheep, just made me really uncomfortable with all of it. My wife also hated that I was working for people like that and pretty vocal to me about it. Now I make about 40% of what I made. For me, the novelty wore off pretty fast once it becomes very clear that while you may work around that kind of money and interact with it, you are not the source of it or entitled to the freedoms it provides to they, themselves.
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Nov 14, 2019 22:15
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/\ Yeah that all rings extremely true. The stuff about a lot of them not being able to handle even the smallest inconveniences really brought a lot back. I've seen grown adults throwing tantrums over the tiniest things, like their children giving them birthday presents wrapped incorrectly 'you know I like bows, why didn't it have a bow!'quote:Head one guy casually joking with his friend over dinner, trying to figure out the last time he'd actually bought groceries himself. He figured it was probably a year or so after he graduated from grad school, and someone else has bought his groceries/"managed" his refrigerator ever since. Also weird stuff like them not understanding why I didn't have a huge rotating variety of nice clothes, like it was just assumed everyone has tons of expensive clothes. Or for awhile when I had some moderate acne, not understanding why I didn't just "get that taken care of", with no regard that I didn't have the time (working) or was strapped for cash. There's something really disgusting about it, which while no one at that level of wealth will probably ever see, being aware of how the rest of the world lives just makes it really, idk, revolting. Like yeah they'll spend 3000 without even looking at price tags or a receipt, but everyone that I care to have in my life gets that 3000 and is mentally figuring out what bills to pay, what treat they're getting, a month of some lesson they can now get for their kid, what bit of debt they'll pay down etc. And it quickly becomes apparent that financial success has literally nothing to do whatsoever with character or any kind of moral quality or, in 90% of cases, actual competence, it's almost entirely 'were you born into enough wealth and then managed to not do anything so egregiously wrong that you derailed everything your family spent decades setting up for you.' Unless you desperately need the work, it's almost too soul sucking to be around. Easier to just keep living a normal person's existence and remain blissfully unaware of how insanely extreme the disparity really is because there is zero way anyone not born into it is ever making it into that lifestyle. A few other random thoughts: I think if most people actually saw how the ultra wealthy lived we'd have some a 95% upper tax bracket again overnight, at best. At worst, heads would roll. That amount of money actually ruins people to the extent that they pretty much either have to exist in that bubble forever or they leave it and family completely behind forever at a fairly young age. A lot of the families are insanely loving toxic and dysfunctional and I knew a few of their kids who turned down hundred plus million dollar inheritances because the sheer amount of bullshit just wasn't worth it to them. Those kids are probably the only people I ever met around that much money that I really respected. That in and of itself was completely insane to see, like everyone who had ever been around the kids was called in to try to talk them out of it, but they were just so done with their dipshit self-absorbed parents that you could tell they weren't even conflicted about it. The way it was framed was super weird, too, it was entirely about 'how can you leave this inheritance behind' and not even for a moment about how a 17/18 year old was trying to sever all contact with their family. Also saw quite a bit of physical abuse and created some massive shitstorms when I called it out because apparently it's entirely fine to hit your loved ones once you're worth a certain amount of money and almost everyone, including professionals with legal duty to report will gloss over it.
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Nov 15, 2019 09:08
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Herstory Begins Now posted:/\ Yeah that all rings extremely true. The stuff about a lot of them not being able to handle even the smallest inconveniences really brought a lot back. I've seen grown adults throwing tantrums over the tiniest things, like their children giving them birthday presents wrapped incorrectly 'you know I like bows, why didn't it have a bow!' Here's the thing, how much do you think they already had? How much was already in a trust? In my experience (just me I don't have friends) inheritance isn't going to be the only source of money. I had money gifted to me over the years, money in *trusts, and an inheritance from my grandmother, tuition. I will get an inheritance from my parents, well unless things change. Giving up that first million is more impressive then giving up the second, the third, the fourth etc. It's just a calculation of what brings someone more happiness, dealing with dysfunctional family for money or cutting them from your life. Although at 18 (well people do this in general, it's not just an age thing) you might be thinking about your short term happiness without properly taking into account your long term happiness. I've hit a level of wealth where I don't really care if I lose out on more. It's tough to say how much I'd tolerate if it'd enable me to do what I want. It's probably pretty high though, I'm very lazy. gently caress I have investments in Lockheed, Amazon, Chevron, Facebook. (probably worse but I don't know them by name) *I wasn't sure if these could be revoked. Turns out it depends if it's a revocable trust or not go figure. Duck and Cover fucked around with this message at 00:11 on Nov 16, 2019 |
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Nov 15, 2019 20:32
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I got to briefly see what being rich is like when I went to a relative's beach house (at Long Beach Island, New Jersey) this summer. I knew that this relative (my mom's cousin specifically) was well off to some extent and had a husband who "worked in law," but what I did not realize is that her husband was the actual chairman of the law firm. The first night, before going to the beach house, we stayed at their penthouse condo in Philadelpha. It was the fanciest place I have ever stayed. It was 3 floors despite being a condo in a high rise and they had a doorman who drove the car out front for us. I looked it up on Zillow and apparently it's worth roughly $3M. The beach house was also really fancy and, according to Zillow, was worth like $1.5-2M. Apparently they also still own their old house. And I think maybe some other house somewhere? Basically the lives of the rest of the family (I can't speak much for the husband who is the chairman aside from knowing he works a lot) are a completely idyllic experience. The children are around college age, and they had some of their college-age friends there a couple days and pretty much all of these people just had this feeling of nothing but excitement and hope for the future, which is reasonable given they can pretty much do whatever they want and never have to worry about having their material needs met. It reminded me of some people I went to college with. Growing up with the absolute knowledge that things can't go wrong (or at least not in a way that will result in you being unable to provide for yourself materially) has a big impact on a person's mindset and attitude. They're good kids given the circumstances, though. Obviously being happy as a teen/young adult isn't always the result from growing up with wealth; it just ensures that any lack of happiness definitely won't come from any sort of material stress. One of the things that had the biggest impact on me was how loving weird it was interacting with the doorman at the building with the penthouse. It just feels wrong to have someone acting servile towards you like that, and I don't understand how really wealthy people (or at the least people wealthy enough to afford that sort of thing) ever feel comfortable with that. I think that part of why wealthy people are so broken is that they live lives where they feel like it's normal to have other people treat you that way. Ytlaya fucked around with this message at 00:48 on Nov 18, 2019 |
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Nov 18, 2019 00:46
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I haven't completely thought out this statement, but reading a few replies in this thread, I will say the following: If you daydream about being able to quit your job, or do nothing, or how easy things would become when/if you get rich, chances are you probably won't get rich. Not by your own accord anyways. You might inherit money or win the lottery or play the stock market right, but for most people who get rich, the money itself is secondary to the goal of being productive. And even when the money comes in, they the money as a tool. Like it's a piece of farm equipment or a pry bar. Financially successful self made people often live a life of imbalance. They likely aren't any happier than most, but they certainly follow a passion and get meaning from it.
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Nov 18, 2019 03:49
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Literally the only people I've met who really seem to conceive of being rich as 'doing nothing and quitting their job' are fuckup children of the very rich who just want to play videogames all day and give companies thousands of dollars in microtransactions. IDK who else the idea of doing nothing really, meaningfully exists for.
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Nov 18, 2019 05:37
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Also don't forget that depending on where you place your goalposts for country and timespan, the ability to even post in this thread makes you extraordinarily wealthy and at a huge advantage over most people in history.
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Nov 18, 2019 07:02
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I think it's like being German or Scandinavian. You never have to worry about education or health care.
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Nov 18, 2019 07:09
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jonathan posted:I haven't completely thought out this statement, but reading a few replies in this thread, I will say the following: While yeah, there probably are more driven and productive people among the ranks of the very rich than the general population, the idea that all one needs to do to become successful is #grind or whatever is just laughably untrue. If you gave me a 100,000 people and told me only things about them 100% out of their control (parents SES, health conditions, race, gender, ZIP code of birth, etc), and then I tried to guess what social class they would die in, based on that information alone, I’d be right a lot more often than I was wrong.
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Nov 18, 2019 10:12
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Herstory Begins Now posted:Literally the only people I've met who really seem to conceive of being rich as 'doing nothing and quitting their job' are fuckup children of the very rich who just want to play videogames all day and give companies thousands of dollars in microtransactions. IDK who else the idea of doing nothing really, meaningfully exists for. I understand that the idea of "doing nothing" sounds attractive to someone who's only worked lovely jobs, and has had no choice but to work lovely jobs to survive, but I agree that doing nothing of any use to anyone, continuously, is really horrific and actually committing to it is probably a sign of mental illness. Even if you don't have to do any specific thing in order to survive, most people would want to do something at least moderately productive with their time.
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Nov 18, 2019 15:25
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Real rich people just collect rent on the one hand while on the other they run bullshit charities where they use the money they obtained by exploiting people to tell those people what to do. Neither of these is a real job that's more useful to other people or society than just sitting around playing xbox.
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Nov 18, 2019 16:05
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jonathan posted:Also don't forget that depending on where you place your goalposts for country and timespan, the ability to even post in this thread makes you extraordinarily wealthy and at a huge advantage over most people in history. 
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Nov 18, 2019 16:10
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mystes posted:Neither of these is a real job that's more useful to other people or society than just sitting around playing xbox. Realistically, though, how many people actually want to just sit around and play video games endlessly? Given infinite time and no pressure, 95% of people would at least add something to that, whether it's writing reviews, streaming, modding, making LPs, competing in tournaments, etc. These things might not be some necessary boon to society, but they are at least productive in the sense that something is being achieved. Being a passive consumer of media on semi-permanent basis sounds absolutely dreadful and I have to wonder about the mental state of anyone who sees that as an end goal. Even people who are obsessed with consuming specific media often end up doing things like writing fanfics or whatever. I mean, I love watching TV and movies when I'm not working, but if I get sick and can't go to work, I get bored if I just sit around watching poo poo on the TV all day, even if it's only just one day. So, for example, last time I got sick, I taught myself to knit. It doesn't help society in any way at all, but it is a minor accomplishment, a production of something no matter how trivial. PT6A fucked around with this message at 17:54 on Nov 18, 2019 |
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Nov 18, 2019 17:50
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I'd never thought about it too much, until I read a reddit discussion about a local proposal to raise taxes on the wealthy to help pay for lower income housing. Someone posted a comment relating that they've worked for some very-wealthy people and those people are seriously entitled when it comes to taxes. As in (according to the poster) they feel that their spending locally is "enough" and the concept of the government taxing them at all (not just at their taxable income rates or property value but anything) is completely outrageous. Furthermore, he claimed some went further, felt the governments should be paying them for being rich and "contributing" via their spending. For those have worked for the wealthy, does this attitude match what you've experienced?
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Nov 18, 2019 18:10
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PT6A posted:Realistically, though, how many people actually want to just sit around and play video games endlessly? Given infinite time and no pressure, 95% of people would at least add something to that, whether it's writing reviews, streaming, modding, making LPs, competing in tournaments, etc. True. I've read multiple accounts of lottery winners who've gone back to fairly menial jobs after a few months, despite being multi-millionaires. I remember a guy who went back to welding and another guy who went back to being a postman. Only difference was that he would commute in a Mercedes SL.
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Nov 18, 2019 23:59
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Cheesus posted:I'd never thought about it too much, until I read a reddit discussion about a local proposal to raise taxes on the wealthy to help pay for lower income housing. Yeah I wasn't kidding at all that if we could just expose the 99.9% of this country to the .1% that we'd have the tax code overhauled within a matter of hours. Shut up Meg posted:True. The search for meaning and connection are very nearly universal
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Nov 19, 2019 00:58
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Herstory Begins Now posted:IDK who else the idea of doing nothing really, meaningfully exists for. People who could afford to retire? Wasn't that the dream of the American middle class for a few decades there? Work hard for 40 years or so and then have the freedom to relax? Shut up Meg posted:I've read multiple accounts of lottery winners who've gone back to fairly menial jobs after a few months, despite being multi-millionaires. I've thought about this. If I won the lottery, I'd stay at my job for a while. I'm a cook. I wouldn't want to leave the kitchen shorthanded on short notice, plus I want to learn more and I learn best by doing. But I'd definitely consider walking out the instant somebody tries to give me some real weapons-grade bullshit, lol.
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Nov 19, 2019 01:01
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