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I don't have anything against the wealthy, but it kind of irks me when people with inherited wealth try to maintain some illusion that they're financial geniuse

I don't have anything against the wealthy, but it kind of irks me when people with inherited wealth try to maintain some illusion that they're financial geniuses. Personally, I grew up thinking my grandfather was a great businessman but eventually realized he inherited everything from my grandmother's family.

conanbatt 9y ago
Its generally the case that those people made more harm to their capital than good, and in that case, anyone with spite to the "wealthy class" should be pretty happy. I once read that if Trump had invested his entire inheritance in an index fund, he would be much richer today.
- chrismcb 9y ago
  Only if he had invested everything at left it in there... Our course he would have to find another source of income and most likely live "poor" since then.
andrepd 9y ago
And even if you did, how much of that is luck? Is an "investor" thousands of times more valuable to society than a janitor?
- Swizec 9y ago
  One could argue that an investor’s job is distributing capital. Capital that provides the resources to employ tens, hundreds, or even thousands of people. All a janitor does is keep a few offices clean. A task generally done by janitors because the people working in those offices implicitly consider cleaning to not be worth their time. So ... yeah? I for one would not have a day job and most of my sidehustle market without investors.
  - SubiculumCode 9y ago
    But those that inherited the wealth from their daddy, who have their investor spread that wealth around, what do they do? They don't even clean for themselves.
    - Swizec 9y ago
      They spread said wealth. Do you not want it? They don’t have to, you know.
      - BadCookie 9y ago
        Ha! It's not like they do it out of altruism. If the wealthy are trying to spread their wealth around, they are failing miserably.
        Swizec 9y ago
        > If the wealthy are trying to spread their wealth around, they are failing miserably. Are they? Most of the tech industry would stop existing without wealthy people investing in VC funds which in turn invest in the services we use all day. I wouldn't be surprised if most of every industry would up and vanish without investors. The wealthy used to hoard their wealth and not spread it around. You know what that was called? Feudalism and/or mercantilism, depending on which part of the system you look at. It has largely been agreed that this was a bad system because people generally do not enjoy being peasants.
        SubiculumCode 9y ago
        Investors don't actually have to own the wealth to invest the wealth. Hence investment firms. So if Jack built a company from the ground up, and Jill inherits money from Jack, who then has Sam invest that money in the markets, Jill is suddenly being a productive member of society? Except for the ownership bit, it was Jack and Sam actually doing the value adding. Jill is just a rentier
psyc 9y ago
I have an uncle who inherited everything, and is best known for pontificating about what sort of character you have to have, to have what he has.
koolba 9y ago
> Personally, I grew up thinking my grandfather was a great businessman but eventually realized he inherited everything from my grandmother's family. Don't sell your grandpa so short. I'm sure it took at least some genius to charm your grandma.

conanbatt 9y ago

Its generally the case that those people made more harm to their capital than good, and in that case, anyone with spite to the "wealthy class" should be pretty happy. I once read that if Trump had invested his entire inheritance in an index fund, he would be much richer today.

chrismcb 9y ago
Only if he had invested everything at left it in there... Our course he would have to find another source of income and most likely live "poor" since then.

andrepd 9y ago

And even if you did, how much of that is luck? Is an "investor" thousands of times more valuable to society than a janitor?

Swizec 9y ago
One could argue that an investor’s job is distributing capital. Capital that provides the resources to employ tens, hundreds, or even thousands of people. All a janitor does is keep a few offices clean. A task generally done by janitors because the people working in those offices implicitly consider cleaning to not be worth their time. So ... yeah? I for one would not have a day job and most of my sidehustle market without investors.
- SubiculumCode 9y ago
  But those that inherited the wealth from their daddy, who have their investor spread that wealth around, what do they do? They don't even clean for themselves.
  - Swizec 9y ago
    They spread said wealth. Do you not want it? They don’t have to, you know.
    - BadCookie 9y ago
      Ha! It's not like they do it out of altruism. If the wealthy are trying to spread their wealth around, they are failing miserably.
      - Swizec 9y ago
        > If the wealthy are trying to spread their wealth around, they are failing miserably. Are they? Most of the tech industry would stop existing without wealthy people investing in VC funds which in turn invest in the services we use all day. I wouldn't be surprised if most of every industry would up and vanish without investors. The wealthy used to hoard their wealth and not spread it around. You know what that was called? Feudalism and/or mercantilism, depending on which part of the system you look at. It has largely been agreed that this was a bad system because people generally do not enjoy being peasants.
        SubiculumCode 9y ago
        Investors don't actually have to own the wealth to invest the wealth. Hence investment firms. So if Jack built a company from the ground up, and Jill inherits money from Jack, who then has Sam invest that money in the markets, Jill is suddenly being a productive member of society? Except for the ownership bit, it was Jack and Sam actually doing the value adding. Jill is just a rentier

psyc 9y ago

I have an uncle who inherited everything, and is best known for pontificating about what sort of character you have to have, to have what he has.

koolba 9y ago

> Personally, I grew up thinking my grandfather was a great businessman but eventually realized he inherited everything from my grandmother's family. Don't sell your grandpa so short. I'm sure it took at least some genius to charm your grandma.