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Ask HN: Does becoming rich make you a target for criminals?

12 points by hoodoof 11y ago

patio11 11y ago
Define rich and define criminal. In the United States, any fair reading of the stats indicates that being poor makes you a target for criminals. Kidnapping for ransom does not exist in the United States. (That statement sounds like an exaggeration, but look it up -- the FBI basically exists to solve kidnapping and it does it with extreme prejudice. [+]) If you e.g. sell a startup for $20 million and suddenly have a very large balance in your checking account, you may have the experience of having to suddenly become radically more sophisticated with regards to a number of white collar threat vectors, some of which are formally criminalized and many of which are not. One example of many: you will suddenly have many people attempt to involve you in real estate deals with high-above-market returns and no risk. This successfully transfers hundreds of millions a year from people who happen to have money (including those who might not ping HN's radar as rich -- retirees are at particular risk) to a combination of scammers and, well, real estate speculators who just happened to misunderestimate their chance of failure. Some friends/social acquaintances of mine can relate a number of not-very-fun experiences here, none of which involve consummated victimization but at least a few of which require costly ongoing defensive efforts. [+] Edit: I looked it up, and contrary to my expectations the nationwide incidence of kidnapping-for-ransom is a non-zero number (on the order of two dozen a year nationwide). My prior expectation was, literally, zero.
codeonfire 11y ago
Of course. That's why all billionaires have to spend lots of money for 24x7 personal security. Some people look at super yachts and private jets and think it's about decadence, but some of it is about not having your location known to most of the world for long periods of time.
Mz 11y ago
Presumably so. But I suspect a bigger problem is "I've got dozens of friends and the fun never ends -- that is as long as I'm buying." This is probably a huge root cause of classism. They don't want to be around people with less than them because everyone puts the pinch on them. Think about: with 7 billion people on the planet, a billionaire cannot even give a dollar to everyone on the planet before he is broke. I don't care how rich you are, there are limits to how much you can give. There is no limit to how much other people can try to demand.

12 points by hoodoof 11y ago

Define rich and define criminal. In the United States, any fair reading of the stats indicates that being poor makes you a target for criminals. Kidnapping for ransom does not exist in the United States. (That statement sounds like an exaggeration, but look it up -- the FBI basically exists to solve kidnapping and it does it with extreme prejudice. [+]) If you e.g. sell a startup for $20 million and suddenly have a very large balance in your checking account, you may have the experience of having to suddenly become radically more sophisticated with regards to a number of white collar threat vectors, some of which are formally criminalized and many of which are not. One example of many: you will suddenly have many people attempt to involve you in real estate deals with high-above-market returns and no risk. This successfully transfers hundreds of millions a year from people who happen to have money (including those who might not ping HN's radar as rich -- retirees are at particular risk) to a combination of scammers and, well, real estate speculators who just happened to misunderestimate their chance of failure. Some friends/social acquaintances of mine can relate a number of not-very-fun experiences here, none of which involve consummated victimization but at least a few of which require costly ongoing defensive efforts. [+] Edit: I looked it up, and contrary to my expectations the nationwide incidence of kidnapping-for-ransom is a non-zero number (on the order of two dozen a year nationwide). My prior expectation was, literally, zero.

codeonfire 11y ago

Of course. That's why all billionaires have to spend lots of money for 24x7 personal security. Some people look at super yachts and private jets and think it's about decadence, but some of it is about not having your location known to most of the world for long periods of time.

Mz 11y ago

Presumably so. But I suspect a bigger problem is "I've got dozens of friends and the fun never ends -- that is as long as I'm buying." This is probably a huge root cause of classism. They don't want to be around people with less than them because everyone puts the pinch on them. Think about: with 7 billion people on the planet, a billionaire cannot even give a dollar to everyone on the planet before he is broke. I don't care how rich you are, there are limits to how much you can give. There is no limit to how much other people can try to demand.