4 ms·

The guy runs a $60 million a year empire and won't spring for a new iMac? come on Gary, that thing is an antique now!

petercooper 16y ago
Heh. Your point reminds me of something I noticed earlier while reading profiles at http://usesthis.com/ http://usesthis.com/ - these people are all pretty high achievers yet, in the main, their hardware setups aren't cutting edge. But I suspect Gary just has the mentality not to spend money unnecessarily - not a bad way to help get and stay wealthy and reasonably common. See Bill Gates' wardrobe and Warren Buffett's house and car for further examples ;-)
rbreve 16y ago
Thats why he is rich
- DuncanIdaho 16y ago
  This is probably one of most important lessons taught by my mother: "A person making a million dollars a month but spending million and one dollar is not a wealthy person". This is why "unfair" wealth distribution is actually good (please note that context for this statement is "developed world" not missmatch in wealth between regions). Since poor people (or poor families) are obviously lousy at managing their resources. Thus the acumulated wealth is actually protected by hoarders - since everybody else would have just spent it anyway.
  - samd 16y ago
    Why do you think poor people are lousy at managing their resources? Do you really think that people are only poor because they can't manage their otherwise bountiful resources? How exactly would you manage the finances of a family of four making less than 30 or 20 thousand dollars a year that would raise them up out of poverty? Also, unless these hoarders are stuffing their money under the mattress it is getting spent somewhere by somebody. The transfer of wealth by spending is the entire basis of an economy, certainly not something to be avoided. The only argument you could make it favor of giving more money to rich people is that they tend to spend it on development which furthers the economy as a whole. This is called trickle-down economics, and it doesn't work.
    - DuncanIdaho 16y ago
      Because I see it everyday. Hell I've got a sister that couldn't save a dime if she made a billion dollars a day. I know it's a circular argument - but because if they (or their parents) could manage resources better they wouldn't be poor - don't look at what signle person does - look at their bloodline. My parents (mother mostly) managed to save enough money to buy her first property by age 18 (she started working age 15). She managed to save incredible amounts of money - while mostly working minimum wage type jobs - for her entire life and we always had cash when necessary. It did take a lot of sacrifices. I mostly wore second hand clothing until I could afford to buy my own. I was never to McDonalds until age 15. We never went to theatres. We spent most of our vacations working, She did a lot of stuff that is nowadays considered ecological/organic/fancy - but 30 years ago made you look like a lunatic in eyes of general community (recycling/reusing everything - like taking zippers off clothing and using it on other clothing). I was raised entirely on organic food - thinking that I'm deprived because of it. But I was always encouraged to study - hell I was probably second kid in class to get access to a computer and certainly first kid in class to have their OWN computer. Hell I might go and write a "How to survive on 100 dollars a month." guides only on stuff I learned from her. I was certain that we are piss poor until I realized that we are actually pretty wealthy - just poor on liquid assets. Bootstrapping yourself from poverty is certainly possible - but most people are just too ignorant (yes it might be cruel but thats the way I see it) to pull it off. Have you ever noticed how many poor people smoke/drink - have you ever considered what a % of their income goes towards these habbits?
      - chegra 16y ago
        Of course you can bootstrap yourself from poverty. But what is the probability of you doing that 1%. Count yourself lucky. Here is a different perspective on poverty: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/03/30/the_sting_of_poverty/ http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/03/30/... "Poverty and wealth, by this logic, don't just fall along a continuum the way hot and cold or short and tall do. They are instead fundamentally different experiences, each working on the human psyche in its own way."
      - kd0amg 16y ago
  - yardie 16y ago
    I've known poor families that are the absolute masters at resources management. Your argument is invalid because we have the "hoarders" holding most of the money and doing jack shit economically except putting it in savings. And we have the poor who aren't even paid enough to buy the things they need much less have the ability to save. You want to see an extreme case of hoarding look no further than Japan. Where the people were so good at saving they never bought a thing which only caused the economy to stall further, ie., "the lost decade". The accumulation of wealth is never a good thing and we have a long history of booms and busts to prove it.
    - DuncanIdaho 16y ago
      Why is economy stalling considered so bad? Would it be so much better if they just spent everything? Why is more production, consumption and pollution considered good? Can't you see that taking wealth of Warren Buffet and distributing it amongst the poorest would cause mostly problems. These people wouldn't use the resources to empower themseves or improve their position - they would mostly blow it for hedonistic pleasures.
      - samd 16y ago
        There is nothing inherently wrong with consumption. Any strong economy must have a balance of consumption and savings (investment). Without consumption there is no income for businesses, and without investment there is no growth of businesses. Depending on the economic situation it can be beneficial for the government/Fed to either encourage increased consumption or investment. Giving poor people money is an excellent way to increase consumption because poor people tend to spend most of their income rather than save. In our current economic situation, with consumers cutting spending and thus causing businesses to cut production and jobs, giving away money to poor people would help to increase consumption and thus put people back to work. This is why government's around the world passed stimulus packages in the wake of the financial crisis. So don't demonize people for spending money, it's an essential part of our economy.
    - paulgb 16y ago
      > doing jack shit economically except putting it in savings I'm not an economist so maybe I'm missing the bigger picture, but by putting the money in a savings account, aren't they increasing the amount of capital available and thus helping to lower interest rates? If nobody hoarded, there would be nobody to borrow from.
chrisboesing 16y ago
Check the date, november 10, 2008.
kaisdavisOR 16y ago
The video was posted in 2008.
mgrouchy 16y ago
The video is from 2008? Probably wasn't so antiquated then.

Heh. Your point reminds me of something I noticed earlier while reading profiles at http://usesthis.com/ http://usesthis.com/ - these people are all pretty high achievers yet, in the main, their hardware setups aren't cutting edge. But I suspect Gary just has the mentality not to spend money unnecessarily - not a bad way to help get and stay wealthy and reasonably common. See Bill Gates' wardrobe and Warren Buffett's house and car for further examples ;-)

rbreve 16y ago

Thats why he is rich

DuncanIdaho 16y ago
This is probably one of most important lessons taught by my mother: "A person making a million dollars a month but spending million and one dollar is not a wealthy person". This is why "unfair" wealth distribution is actually good (please note that context for this statement is "developed world" not missmatch in wealth between regions). Since poor people (or poor families) are obviously lousy at managing their resources. Thus the acumulated wealth is actually protected by hoarders - since everybody else would have just spent it anyway.
- samd 16y ago
  Why do you think poor people are lousy at managing their resources? Do you really think that people are only poor because they can't manage their otherwise bountiful resources? How exactly would you manage the finances of a family of four making less than 30 or 20 thousand dollars a year that would raise them up out of poverty? Also, unless these hoarders are stuffing their money under the mattress it is getting spent somewhere by somebody. The transfer of wealth by spending is the entire basis of an economy, certainly not something to be avoided. The only argument you could make it favor of giving more money to rich people is that they tend to spend it on development which furthers the economy as a whole. This is called trickle-down economics, and it doesn't work.
  - DuncanIdaho 16y ago
    Because I see it everyday. Hell I've got a sister that couldn't save a dime if she made a billion dollars a day. I know it's a circular argument - but because if they (or their parents) could manage resources better they wouldn't be poor - don't look at what signle person does - look at their bloodline. My parents (mother mostly) managed to save enough money to buy her first property by age 18 (she started working age 15). She managed to save incredible amounts of money - while mostly working minimum wage type jobs - for her entire life and we always had cash when necessary. It did take a lot of sacrifices. I mostly wore second hand clothing until I could afford to buy my own. I was never to McDonalds until age 15. We never went to theatres. We spent most of our vacations working, She did a lot of stuff that is nowadays considered ecological/organic/fancy - but 30 years ago made you look like a lunatic in eyes of general community (recycling/reusing everything - like taking zippers off clothing and using it on other clothing). I was raised entirely on organic food - thinking that I'm deprived because of it. But I was always encouraged to study - hell I was probably second kid in class to get access to a computer and certainly first kid in class to have their OWN computer. Hell I might go and write a "How to survive on 100 dollars a month." guides only on stuff I learned from her. I was certain that we are piss poor until I realized that we are actually pretty wealthy - just poor on liquid assets. Bootstrapping yourself from poverty is certainly possible - but most people are just too ignorant (yes it might be cruel but thats the way I see it) to pull it off. Have you ever noticed how many poor people smoke/drink - have you ever considered what a % of their income goes towards these habbits?
    - chegra 16y ago
      Of course you can bootstrap yourself from poverty. But what is the probability of you doing that 1%. Count yourself lucky. Here is a different perspective on poverty: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/03/30/the_sting_of_poverty/ http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/03/30/... "Poverty and wealth, by this logic, don't just fall along a continuum the way hot and cold or short and tall do. They are instead fundamentally different experiences, each working on the human psyche in its own way."
    - kd0amg 16y ago
- yardie 16y ago
  I've known poor families that are the absolute masters at resources management. Your argument is invalid because we have the "hoarders" holding most of the money and doing jack shit economically except putting it in savings. And we have the poor who aren't even paid enough to buy the things they need much less have the ability to save. You want to see an extreme case of hoarding look no further than Japan. Where the people were so good at saving they never bought a thing which only caused the economy to stall further, ie., "the lost decade". The accumulation of wealth is never a good thing and we have a long history of booms and busts to prove it.
  - DuncanIdaho 16y ago
    Why is economy stalling considered so bad? Would it be so much better if they just spent everything? Why is more production, consumption and pollution considered good? Can't you see that taking wealth of Warren Buffet and distributing it amongst the poorest would cause mostly problems. These people wouldn't use the resources to empower themseves or improve their position - they would mostly blow it for hedonistic pleasures.
    - samd 16y ago
      There is nothing inherently wrong with consumption. Any strong economy must have a balance of consumption and savings (investment). Without consumption there is no income for businesses, and without investment there is no growth of businesses. Depending on the economic situation it can be beneficial for the government/Fed to either encourage increased consumption or investment. Giving poor people money is an excellent way to increase consumption because poor people tend to spend most of their income rather than save. In our current economic situation, with consumers cutting spending and thus causing businesses to cut production and jobs, giving away money to poor people would help to increase consumption and thus put people back to work. This is why government's around the world passed stimulus packages in the wake of the financial crisis. So don't demonize people for spending money, it's an essential part of our economy.
  - paulgb 16y ago
    > doing jack shit economically except putting it in savings I'm not an economist so maybe I'm missing the bigger picture, but by putting the money in a savings account, aren't they increasing the amount of capital available and thus helping to lower interest rates? If nobody hoarded, there would be nobody to borrow from.

chrisboesing 16y ago

Check the date, november 10, 2008.

kaisdavisOR 16y ago

The video was posted in 2008.

mgrouchy 16y ago

The video is from 2008? Probably wasn't so antiquated then.