8 ms·

> Ingvar Kamprad "is said to fly economy and drive an old Volvo. This frugality may help to explain why he is the world's eighth-richest man - although the four

by huac 10y ago

> Ingvar Kamprad "is said to fly economy and drive an old Volvo. This frugality may help to explain why he is the world's eighth-richest man - although the four decades he spent living in Switzerland to avoid Swedish taxes may also have something to do with it."

hackuser 10y ago
That struck me too: Are there leading modern entrepreneurs who are as non-materialistic? I recall hearing of several in prior generations. (Also, sometimes those stories are merely marketing, and they have a personal chef and private jet too.)
- mc32 10y ago
  It's not like was the only car he owned. I mean, one could say Jay Leno drives some very old cars, and someone not knowing he's a car enthusiast collector could think he's frugal.
  - hackuser 10y ago
    > It's not like was the only car he owned Is that known?
    - mc32 10y ago
      At one point in his life he drove a Porsche[1]. In fairness, he did drive the Volvo nearly 20 years --before he was advised to replace it because it was "dangerous" as he put it. [1]http://blog.trejdify.com/2012/08/lessons-learned-ikea-startup.html http://blog.trejdify.com/2012/08/lessons-learned-ikea-startu...
- headmelted 10y ago
  It's fairly well known that Warren Buffet still lives in the house he bought in the fifties before he got ultra wealthy, but I was watching a documentary a couple of weeks back where he was explaining that his choice of breakfast at the McDonald's drive-thru window is dictated by the market closing price the day before. That's hardcore... and a little eccentric probably. Found it: http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/becoming-warren-buffett http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/becoming-warren-buffett
  - dingdongding 10y ago
    It was not dictated by the market closing price the day before. His breakfast was dictated by how market opened in the morning.
    - headmelted 10y ago
      Eh.. OK? I guess I must have remembered it wrong but the point was a billionaire orders his mcmuffin based on the day-to-day of the indexes.
  - tekklloneer 10y ago
    That's not really that eccentric. If I lost a few million dollars on opening, I'd probably want hashbrowns with my mcmuffin.
    - headmelted 10y ago
      Your logic is faultless. Good point!
    - paublyrne 10y ago
      I'd probably skip McDonalds and find an early house.
      - jacobush 10y ago
        what's an early house?
        simonswords82 10y ago
        It's a pub
        ajayh 10y ago
        It's a pub with a special alcohol serving licence that allows it to open earlier than normal pubs.
  - 10y ago
- tyre 10y ago
  The founder of Patagonia is a great example http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/09/19/patagonias-philosopher-king http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/09/19/patagonias-phil...
  - js2 10y ago
    Recommended: http://www.patagonia.com/product/let-my-people-go-surfing-paperback-book/BK501.html http://www.patagonia.com/product/let-my-people-go-surfing-pa...
- henrikschroder 10y ago
  In the case of Kamprad, it is definitely merely marketing. He hates paying taxes, and used the same passion for optimizing furniture to optimize his company structure. IKEA is one of the most complicated legal tax-evasion structures around. It is believed that a few percent of the worldwide revenue - not profits! - are going straight into Ingvar's pockets, tax-free. That's quite a feat.
  - joelrunyon 10y ago
    "tax evasion" = illegal. I think you mean tax avoidance.
    - jacobush 10y ago
      True technically but he is in dark grays - only a handful "national treasure" Swedish companies can make the Swedish state sometimes, not exactly look the other way, but not look very HARD. (This was a long time ago of course, nowadays, IKEA is not very Swedish at all. It's not very particular anything. It's only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multi-national.)
  - kalleboo 10y ago
    Part of the reason the IKEA structure is so complicated is that it's engineered in a way to keep the both the tax benefits that everyone else also has (see Apple, Google, etc), and also keep the company in strict private Kamprad family control. Public companies like Apple don't need that extra complexity and get away with your standard Dutch-Irish sandwich
- megablast 10y ago
  This is a bad thing. He is keeping some other family out of a house, when he can afford a much pricier place.
  - seppin 10y ago
    that's not how that works
pinewurst 10y ago
For a significant part of that interval, Swedish taxes were in excess of 100% for very high earners. Can one blame him?
- giarc 10y ago
  How is that possible? EDIT - This site shows that it peaked at 61%. http://www.tradingeconomics.com/sweden/personal-income-tax-rate http://www.tradingeconomics.com/sweden/personal-income-tax-r...
  - jasonlingx 10y ago
    http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/15235/did-swedish-tax-rate-ever-exceed-100 http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/15235/did-swedis...
  - olasaustralia 10y ago
    H
  - olasaustralia 10y ago
    H
  - Kiro 10y ago
    The marginal tax rate was over 100 for some, e.g. Astrid Lindgren which inspired https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomperipossa_in_Monismania https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomperipossa_in_Monismania
  - porx 10y ago
    It's possible if the government plays around with the tax system too much while being composed of idiots who don't understand basic math or don't understand why tax rates over 100% are bad. As an example, former Croatian prime minister Jadranka Kosor introduced a new tax according to which if your after-tax income was above a certain limit, you had to pay an additional 4% of that income as tax. Of course this resulted in >100% marginal tax rates. I assume Sweden had a similar situation, where it wasn't actually a 102% tax rate, but a combination of multiple different taxes that resulted in an effective tax rate over 100%. The people who created those taxes either didn't care or were simply too stupid to notice the problem.
WillyOnWheels 10y ago
Kamprad structures his business as a charity. https://www.fastcodesign.com/3035734/infographic-of-the-day/ikea-is-a-nonprofit-and-yes-thats-every-bit-as-fishy-as-it-sounds https://www.fastcodesign.com/3035734/infographic-of-the-day/...
- jacobush 10y ago
  A charity for his family
dionidium 10y ago
This is a popular thing to say, but it's nonsense. People get rich by making money, not by saving on secondhand Volvos. This is true even when we're talking about your regular-grade rich folks, but it's even more obviously true when talking about the richest people in the world.

by huac 10y ago

hackuser 10y ago

That struck me too: Are there leading modern entrepreneurs who are as non-materialistic? I recall hearing of several in prior generations. (Also, sometimes those stories are merely marketing, and they have a personal chef and private jet too.)

mc32 10y ago
It's not like was the only car he owned. I mean, one could say Jay Leno drives some very old cars, and someone not knowing he's a car enthusiast collector could think he's frugal.
- hackuser 10y ago
  > It's not like was the only car he owned Is that known?
  - mc32 10y ago
    At one point in his life he drove a Porsche[1]. In fairness, he did drive the Volvo nearly 20 years --before he was advised to replace it because it was "dangerous" as he put it. [1]http://blog.trejdify.com/2012/08/lessons-learned-ikea-startup.html http://blog.trejdify.com/2012/08/lessons-learned-ikea-startu...
headmelted 10y ago
It's fairly well known that Warren Buffet still lives in the house he bought in the fifties before he got ultra wealthy, but I was watching a documentary a couple of weeks back where he was explaining that his choice of breakfast at the McDonald's drive-thru window is dictated by the market closing price the day before. That's hardcore... and a little eccentric probably. Found it: http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/becoming-warren-buffett http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/becoming-warren-buffett
- dingdongding 10y ago
  It was not dictated by the market closing price the day before. His breakfast was dictated by how market opened in the morning.
  - headmelted 10y ago
    Eh.. OK? I guess I must have remembered it wrong but the point was a billionaire orders his mcmuffin based on the day-to-day of the indexes.
- tekklloneer 10y ago
  That's not really that eccentric. If I lost a few million dollars on opening, I'd probably want hashbrowns with my mcmuffin.
  - headmelted 10y ago
    Your logic is faultless. Good point!
  - paublyrne 10y ago
    I'd probably skip McDonalds and find an early house.
    - jacobush 10y ago
      what's an early house?
      - simonswords82 10y ago
        It's a pub
      - ajayh 10y ago
        It's a pub with a special alcohol serving licence that allows it to open earlier than normal pubs.
- 10y ago
tyre 10y ago
The founder of Patagonia is a great example http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/09/19/patagonias-philosopher-king http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/09/19/patagonias-phil...
- js2 10y ago
  Recommended: http://www.patagonia.com/product/let-my-people-go-surfing-paperback-book/BK501.html http://www.patagonia.com/product/let-my-people-go-surfing-pa...
henrikschroder 10y ago
In the case of Kamprad, it is definitely merely marketing. He hates paying taxes, and used the same passion for optimizing furniture to optimize his company structure. IKEA is one of the most complicated legal tax-evasion structures around. It is believed that a few percent of the worldwide revenue - not profits! - are going straight into Ingvar's pockets, tax-free. That's quite a feat.
- joelrunyon 10y ago
  "tax evasion" = illegal. I think you mean tax avoidance.
  - jacobush 10y ago
    True technically but he is in dark grays - only a handful "national treasure" Swedish companies can make the Swedish state sometimes, not exactly look the other way, but not look very HARD. (This was a long time ago of course, nowadays, IKEA is not very Swedish at all. It's not very particular anything. It's only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multi-national.)
- kalleboo 10y ago
  Part of the reason the IKEA structure is so complicated is that it's engineered in a way to keep the both the tax benefits that everyone else also has (see Apple, Google, etc), and also keep the company in strict private Kamprad family control. Public companies like Apple don't need that extra complexity and get away with your standard Dutch-Irish sandwich
megablast 10y ago
This is a bad thing. He is keeping some other family out of a house, when he can afford a much pricier place.
- seppin 10y ago
  that's not how that works

pinewurst 10y ago

For a significant part of that interval, Swedish taxes were in excess of 100% for very high earners. Can one blame him?

giarc 10y ago
How is that possible? EDIT - This site shows that it peaked at 61%. http://www.tradingeconomics.com/sweden/personal-income-tax-rate http://www.tradingeconomics.com/sweden/personal-income-tax-r...
- jasonlingx 10y ago
  http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/15235/did-swedish-tax-rate-ever-exceed-100 http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/15235/did-swedis...
- olasaustralia 10y ago
  H
- olasaustralia 10y ago
  H
- Kiro 10y ago
  The marginal tax rate was over 100 for some, e.g. Astrid Lindgren which inspired https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomperipossa_in_Monismania https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomperipossa_in_Monismania
- porx 10y ago
  It's possible if the government plays around with the tax system too much while being composed of idiots who don't understand basic math or don't understand why tax rates over 100% are bad. As an example, former Croatian prime minister Jadranka Kosor introduced a new tax according to which if your after-tax income was above a certain limit, you had to pay an additional 4% of that income as tax. Of course this resulted in >100% marginal tax rates. I assume Sweden had a similar situation, where it wasn't actually a 102% tax rate, but a combination of multiple different taxes that resulted in an effective tax rate over 100%. The people who created those taxes either didn't care or were simply too stupid to notice the problem.

WillyOnWheels 10y ago

Kamprad structures his business as a charity. https://www.fastcodesign.com/3035734/infographic-of-the-day/ikea-is-a-nonprofit-and-yes-thats-every-bit-as-fishy-as-it-sounds https://www.fastcodesign.com/3035734/infographic-of-the-day/...

jacobush 10y ago
A charity for his family

dionidium 10y ago

This is a popular thing to say, but it's nonsense. People get rich by making money, not by saving on secondhand Volvos. This is true even when we're talking about your regular-grade rich folks, but it's even more obviously true when talking about the richest people in the world.