4 ms·

This was already posted earlier this week, wasn't it?

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
KGIII 9y ago
Yup. The highest voted comment is even nearly verbatim. What I will say is that it has become trivially easy to increase my wealth since selling my company. I've been retired for ten years and make more than I ever did, largely by doing nothing. I don't even manage most of my own finances. It's kind of rigged. On a whim, I bought $20k worth of Tesla at $24 - because I could afford to risk the money. It was an impulse buy with my only research being reading a bunch of forum posts. Most people can't risk that, even if they could technically spend that. The list goes on. It's not 'fair' and very different than what I was used to.
- Diederich 9y ago
  > What I will say is that it has become trivially easy to increase my wealth since selling my company. ... largely by doing nothing. If you have a moment, I wonder if you could expand on that.
  - KGIII 9y ago
    I now have most of my money invested. I don't actually do anything, I don't even make many of my investment choices. Some things I am involved physically in, for example, I bought a bunch of acres with an in-place commercial wild blueberry harvest. I like to be active with that, but I don't really have to. I just enjoy the work. When I sold, I spent like a drunken sailor, after taxes. However, I've since recouped all of that spending and then some. It's much easier to make money when you have money to start with. Or so it appears. Most of it, I leave alone and have managed for me.
- googletazer 9y ago
  Why is it not "fair"? You earned that money, its yours to spend or invest how you see fit. If your company would have failed, you would have lost not only money, but also time, and the opportunity cost of doing something else (aka being an employee).
  - KGIII 9y ago
    Yeah, that's why I put it in quotes. From an effort point of view, both mental and physical, I don't really do a whole lot but I make significantly more than people who do much more. From a sort-of-physics view, I get more work out of less energy than most. It's not equal. It's okay, it's just not well balanced from an objective viewpoint. I am not sure if 'fair' is the right word.
    - holograham 9y ago
      you are confusing "work" with "value" it is possible to do hard "work" and produce zero value. Example: digging a large hole in the middle of the desert. Conversely it is easy to do little "work" and produce tremendous value Example: writing a script in 15 mins that automates hours of tedious CSV combinations and data grooming (I used this example bc I once did this and saved about 15 weekly hours of a highly paid financial analyst's time) So now we are clear on work != value in the real world I'll quickly tackle your investment income -- that was a risk buying 20k worth of Telsa. That easily could have gone to zero as an early stage tech growth stock. When buying a stock you are putting your money on a bet that the company will provide more value to the economy. When your bet pays off it is because the company is doing better and presumably, if following all relevant laws, providing enhanced value to the economy. There is no law of physics in economics. In fact this thinking is practically dangerous and at the least fosters the wrong attitude towards success. Your success is not someone else's loss. In fact in a market economy, your success will ALWAYS be another's gain since they voluntarily gave you money for a good/service they couldnt do as efficiently as you could. Economics is NOT a zero sum game. You can quite literally create value from nothing and grow the proverbial pie of value in the world. If you work in programming you realize this quickly. The downside to a market economy is that work and value will never be a fair ratio. While in some ways unfortunate the more unfortunate alternative is everyone produces equal value from doing equal work. But take a minute to think critically about how that would be possible. I'll give you a hint -- innovation and ingenuity would plummet to zero.
uoaei 9y ago
Not everyone reads HN obsessively. If you've already seen this article and a healthy discussion, you're free to move along.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

Yup. The highest voted comment is even nearly verbatim. What I will say is that it has become trivially easy to increase my wealth since selling my company. I've been retired for ten years and make more than I ever did, largely by doing nothing. I don't even manage most of my own finances. It's kind of rigged. On a whim, I bought $20k worth of Tesla at $24 - because I could afford to risk the money. It was an impulse buy with my only research being reading a bunch of forum posts. Most people can't risk that, even if they could technically spend that. The list goes on. It's not 'fair' and very different than what I was used to.

Diederich 9y ago
> What I will say is that it has become trivially easy to increase my wealth since selling my company. ... largely by doing nothing. If you have a moment, I wonder if you could expand on that.
- KGIII 9y ago
  I now have most of my money invested. I don't actually do anything, I don't even make many of my investment choices. Some things I am involved physically in, for example, I bought a bunch of acres with an in-place commercial wild blueberry harvest. I like to be active with that, but I don't really have to. I just enjoy the work. When I sold, I spent like a drunken sailor, after taxes. However, I've since recouped all of that spending and then some. It's much easier to make money when you have money to start with. Or so it appears. Most of it, I leave alone and have managed for me.
googletazer 9y ago
Why is it not "fair"? You earned that money, its yours to spend or invest how you see fit. If your company would have failed, you would have lost not only money, but also time, and the opportunity cost of doing something else (aka being an employee).
- KGIII 9y ago
  Yeah, that's why I put it in quotes. From an effort point of view, both mental and physical, I don't really do a whole lot but I make significantly more than people who do much more. From a sort-of-physics view, I get more work out of less energy than most. It's not equal. It's okay, it's just not well balanced from an objective viewpoint. I am not sure if 'fair' is the right word.
  - holograham 9y ago
    you are confusing "work" with "value" it is possible to do hard "work" and produce zero value. Example: digging a large hole in the middle of the desert. Conversely it is easy to do little "work" and produce tremendous value Example: writing a script in 15 mins that automates hours of tedious CSV combinations and data grooming (I used this example bc I once did this and saved about 15 weekly hours of a highly paid financial analyst's time) So now we are clear on work != value in the real world I'll quickly tackle your investment income -- that was a risk buying 20k worth of Telsa. That easily could have gone to zero as an early stage tech growth stock. When buying a stock you are putting your money on a bet that the company will provide more value to the economy. When your bet pays off it is because the company is doing better and presumably, if following all relevant laws, providing enhanced value to the economy. There is no law of physics in economics. In fact this thinking is practically dangerous and at the least fosters the wrong attitude towards success. Your success is not someone else's loss. In fact in a market economy, your success will ALWAYS be another's gain since they voluntarily gave you money for a good/service they couldnt do as efficiently as you could. Economics is NOT a zero sum game. You can quite literally create value from nothing and grow the proverbial pie of value in the world. If you work in programming you realize this quickly. The downside to a market economy is that work and value will never be a fair ratio. While in some ways unfortunate the more unfortunate alternative is everyone produces equal value from doing equal work. But take a minute to think critically about how that would be possible. I'll give you a hint -- innovation and ingenuity would plummet to zero.

uoaei 9y ago

Not everyone reads HN obsessively. If you've already seen this article and a healthy discussion, you're free to move along.