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When this nanny starts a nanny management company and sends nannies to people who need them, she will probably earn enough to afford the six dollar bread. Why

When this nanny starts a nanny management company and sends nannies to people who need them, she will probably earn enough to afford the six dollar bread. Why is there so much hate towards the rich on HN? A few years ago HN was all about sharing your projects and talking about technology, completely different than what it is now.

mwambua 9y ago
There's nothing wrong with being rich, or buying $6 bread. I think most of the hate is towards people who feel guilty about being rich. It's hard to empathise with people in situations that have simple solutions.
davesque 9y ago
It's really not that simple. The plans that people are likely to come up with and the amount of motivation they'll feel to follow through with them have a lot to do with their personal background. There are a lot of reasons that it might be easy for you to imagine starting a business and making a success out of it. But you shouldn't be confident that those same reasons will come into play in the life of this nanny.
- googletazer 9y ago
  Seems like you're striving for equality of outcome, instead of equality of opportunity. And I'm the first person to concede that there is no real equality of opportunity per say, a lot of individual factors come into play. At the same time, say if your parents had the foresight to save money for you to go get a good education/etc (personally I had to take loans), does that mean that those people should be taxed and their money redistributed to those who did not save for their children? Think about this as a software developer, what kind of incentives would that provide, what kind of behaviors would that encourage?
  - foldr 9y ago
    What does any of that have to do with the nanny? Anyone who feels guilty about how little their nanny earns is free to either (i) pay the nanny more or (ii) do without a nanny.
grasshopperpurp 9y ago
. . . and inherited wealth of several million dollars. I think you missed this part.
- googletazer 9y ago
  What are your arguments against inheritance?
  - grasshopperpurp 9y ago
    I don't have a problem with someone inheriting a few mil. Once you get beyond 10M, I think the money should be redistributed to society, but you said, When this nanny starts a nanny management company and sends nannies to people who need them, she will probably earn enough to afford the six dollar bread. So, I find it ironic that you're telling the nanny to pull herself up by her bootstraps, while failing to acknowledge that her employer inherited her wealth.
    - googletazer 9y ago
      Thats because I don't see anything wrong with inheritance, in an utopia everybody might work for the benefit of the community as a whole, but that will never happen. Ask your plumber when he is digging in shit whether he is doing it out of the goodness of his heart, and get back to me with the answer. I'd rather incentives would be such as to let people amass as much benefit for themselves as possible, and then if they want to voluntarily give back - all the power to them. Forced redistributions give wrong signals to people. If anything there should only be a flat tax, say 10% all types of economic activity (work/investment/etc...), and the government should provide as many services as that 10% can afford, not perpetually expand the list.
      - grasshopperpurp 9y ago
        Forced redistributions give wrong signals to people. What signal does does it send to people when you allow a privileged few to inherit (for practical purposes) anything they want without having had to put any work in to get it? What signal does it send when those same people can use what they've inherited to buy policies that only increase the discrepancy between them and their plumbers - who are doing hard work that few of us would enjoy?

mwambua 9y ago

There's nothing wrong with being rich, or buying $6 bread. I think most of the hate is towards people who feel guilty about being rich. It's hard to empathise with people in situations that have simple solutions.

davesque 9y ago

It's really not that simple. The plans that people are likely to come up with and the amount of motivation they'll feel to follow through with them have a lot to do with their personal background. There are a lot of reasons that it might be easy for you to imagine starting a business and making a success out of it. But you shouldn't be confident that those same reasons will come into play in the life of this nanny.

googletazer 9y ago
Seems like you're striving for equality of outcome, instead of equality of opportunity. And I'm the first person to concede that there is no real equality of opportunity per say, a lot of individual factors come into play. At the same time, say if your parents had the foresight to save money for you to go get a good education/etc (personally I had to take loans), does that mean that those people should be taxed and their money redistributed to those who did not save for their children? Think about this as a software developer, what kind of incentives would that provide, what kind of behaviors would that encourage?
- foldr 9y ago
  What does any of that have to do with the nanny? Anyone who feels guilty about how little their nanny earns is free to either (i) pay the nanny more or (ii) do without a nanny.

grasshopperpurp 9y ago

. . . and inherited wealth of several million dollars. I think you missed this part.

googletazer 9y ago
What are your arguments against inheritance?
- grasshopperpurp 9y ago
  I don't have a problem with someone inheriting a few mil. Once you get beyond 10M, I think the money should be redistributed to society, but you said, When this nanny starts a nanny management company and sends nannies to people who need them, she will probably earn enough to afford the six dollar bread. So, I find it ironic that you're telling the nanny to pull herself up by her bootstraps, while failing to acknowledge that her employer inherited her wealth.
  - googletazer 9y ago
    Thats because I don't see anything wrong with inheritance, in an utopia everybody might work for the benefit of the community as a whole, but that will never happen. Ask your plumber when he is digging in shit whether he is doing it out of the goodness of his heart, and get back to me with the answer. I'd rather incentives would be such as to let people amass as much benefit for themselves as possible, and then if they want to voluntarily give back - all the power to them. Forced redistributions give wrong signals to people. If anything there should only be a flat tax, say 10% all types of economic activity (work/investment/etc...), and the government should provide as many services as that 10% can afford, not perpetually expand the list.
    - grasshopperpurp 9y ago
      Forced redistributions give wrong signals to people. What signal does does it send to people when you allow a privileged few to inherit (for practical purposes) anything they want without having had to put any work in to get it? What signal does it send when those same people can use what they've inherited to buy policies that only increase the discrepancy between them and their plumbers - who are doing hard work that few of us would enjoy?