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The Nordic countries, at least. In general you're not supposed to show your wealth, though wealth in any case isn't very common as the societies are very equali
by distances 10y ago
The Nordic countries, at least. In general you're not supposed to show your wealth, though wealth in any case isn't very common as the societies are very equalizing due to low income differences and progressive taxation.
Read about the "Law of Jante" for the extreme of this mentality (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Jante https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Jante). I think the first rule pretty well sums up the thought behind this:
You're not to think *you* are anything special.
- cpach 10y agoI think this point of view is a bit exaggerated. For example, 1% of the world's USD billionaires live in Sweden. (More billionaires per capita than e.g. the US.) If you walk around in Swedish cities (at least the major cities) it’s not really hard to tell that some citizens are a lot more wealthy than others. I’m not sure about the other Nordic countries but I would guess the situation is similar in at least Norway and Denmark. [Edited to add more ”meat” to the comment.]
- vostok 10y agoAs a casual observer, it seems to me that these countries have little income inequality. Wealth inequality certainly exists. I would argue that the latter is actually a bigger problem.
- lintiness 10y agoso you don't believe wealth begets income? strange view.
- distances 10y agoYes, I suppose I was exaggerating. But the equalizing mentality does exist, even if it probably grows weaker with every new generation.
- binaryabyss 10y agoIngvar Kamprad, the founder of IKEA, is one of these fabulously rich Swedish people. He drives around in an old Volvo; and lives in a modest house. This is how he wishes to be seen. The fact that he also owns several sports cars and a villa on the French Riviera, is not something he wants publicized.
- ocschwar 10y agoWarren Buffet drives a plain sedan to work in Omaha. Steve Jobs never swanked up his house either. Bill Gates's mansion was built primarily to try to showcase Microsoft development efforts (don't laugh! okay, laugh).
- Grishnakh 10y ago>Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of IKEA, is one of these fabulously rich Swedish people. He drives around in an old Volvo; That seems like a bad idea to me. Old Volvos were indeed very safe by the standards of the time, but compared to a modern car, they're simply not. Here in the US, 30,000 people die in auto accidents every year (it's somewhere around 250k/year worldwide). If you have a ton of money, you might as well get a new car and protect yourself. A brand-new bottom-of-the-line Volvo will let you walk away from crashes that some old Volvo would kill you in. And surely a new V60 or S60 (their lowest-end models IIRC, unless they still have S40s there) wouldn't look too out-of-place in Sweden of all places (where the cars come from).
- frogpelt 10y agoDisingenuous I think. I would rather someone who has legitimately made a billion dollars just go buy a yacht and a Ferrari and drive them around. Kamprad has a pretty solid tax-avoidance scheme going on too. Completely legal but frowned upon by those who think he should "pay his fair share".
- rdtsc 10y agoYes we have Warren Buffet worth over $60B, but lives in a relatively small house, has a $100k salary and so on. But he is the exception not the rule when it comes to how the wealthy live typically.
- mcv 10y agoI guess it's no problem to be rich, as long as you don't pretend it makes you in any way superior to others. Enjoy it, but don't flaunt it. Don't make others jealous of what you've got and they don't.