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Accelerating inequality has led to a conundrum for the rich in addition to the obvious consequences for the poor: what do you actually do with that obscene weal

Accelerating inequality has led to a conundrum for the rich in addition to the obvious consequences for the poor: what do you actually do with that obscene wealth? [0] You can only consume so much luxury, and sitting on dollars results in tax liability and/or gradual depreciation. Gambling it on speculative assets and bragging-rights positional goods (whynotboth.gif) is pretty much the only game in town, especially when everyone else is doing it, and you can tell yourself a Greater Sucker story (which may or may not resemble a game of Chicken / "Push Your Luck"). NFTs and crypto are obviously realms for this to play out, but this same force is at work for speculative investing in startups as well. For every startup with a value prop, a market, and a revenue model, there are a dozen who are flush with cash solely for the purpose of attracting Greater Suckers, fueled by the same motive to park and/or gamble an asset portfolio. [0] https://hiddenforces.io/podcasts/karen-petrou-wealth-inequality-fed/ https://hiddenforces.io/podcasts/karen-petrou-wealth-inequal...

mdoms 6y ago
If I knew anything about Roman history I'm almost certain I could draw a parallel to the fall of Rome here.
- hellothrow4418 6y ago
  Just FYI. There's 'The History of Rome' podcast by Mike Duncan [1]. 'AntennaPod' is a great FLOSS podcast app. Available on Fdroid too [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_History_of_Rome_(podcast) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_History_of_Rome_(podcast) [2] https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.danoeh.antennapod/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.danoeh.antennapod/
jb1991 6y ago
I find this quite a beautiful analysis.
meowface 6y ago
Yeah. Cryptocurrency and "Web 3.0" is absolutely not all zero-sum, and I'm overall optimistic in the long-term, but much like the existing finance industry, a high percentage is definitely zero-sum or close enough on net. People compare NFTs to trading cards. But if you already think those things are basically useless zero-sum speculative Greater Fool insert-other-overused-but-apt-buzzwords bullshit, your opinion of NFTs won't be improved much. NFTs, in their current state and hype wave, are probably a little like the dotcom bubble. It definitely doesn't imply the internet and the world wide web are bubbles, but it implies a major disconnect of some kind. I'm more interested in the future of semi-fungible tokens and novel, creative uses of NFT/SFT smart contracts. Plus just smart contracts in general.
- valuearb 6y ago
  DeFi is actual DeSpec, tools for decentralized speculation on things with no intrinsic value.
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dehrmann 6y ago
> what do you actually do with that obscene wealth? [0] You can only consume so much luxury, and sitting on dollars results in tax liability and/or gradual depreciation. I'm not so sure. Owning $10-$50M homes in major world cities, flying in a private jet, summer homes, winter homes, no car cheaper than $200k, no car older then 5 years, private school for your kids, private tutors, etc. adds up fast. Not to mention the effort that goes into make sure you never have to fly business class again. The obscenely wealthy seem to either be content (Buffet), focused on charity (Gates), or all over the place (Musk). Anything less than $100M is less interesting thank you'd think.

mdoms 6y ago

If I knew anything about Roman history I'm almost certain I could draw a parallel to the fall of Rome here.

hellothrow4418 6y ago
Just FYI. There's 'The History of Rome' podcast by Mike Duncan [1]. 'AntennaPod' is a great FLOSS podcast app. Available on Fdroid too [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_History_of_Rome_(podcast) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_History_of_Rome_(podcast) [2] https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.danoeh.antennapod/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.danoeh.antennapod/

jb1991 6y ago

I find this quite a beautiful analysis.

meowface 6y ago

Yeah. Cryptocurrency and "Web 3.0" is absolutely not all zero-sum, and I'm overall optimistic in the long-term, but much like the existing finance industry, a high percentage is definitely zero-sum or close enough on net. People compare NFTs to trading cards. But if you already think those things are basically useless zero-sum speculative Greater Fool insert-other-overused-but-apt-buzzwords bullshit, your opinion of NFTs won't be improved much. NFTs, in their current state and hype wave, are probably a little like the dotcom bubble. It definitely doesn't imply the internet and the world wide web are bubbles, but it implies a major disconnect of some kind. I'm more interested in the future of semi-fungible tokens and novel, creative uses of NFT/SFT smart contracts. Plus just smart contracts in general.

valuearb 6y ago
DeFi is actual DeSpec, tools for decentralized speculation on things with no intrinsic value.
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dehrmann 6y ago

> what do you actually do with that obscene wealth? [0] You can only consume so much luxury, and sitting on dollars results in tax liability and/or gradual depreciation. I'm not so sure. Owning $10-$50M homes in major world cities, flying in a private jet, summer homes, winter homes, no car cheaper than $200k, no car older then 5 years, private school for your kids, private tutors, etc. adds up fast. Not to mention the effort that goes into make sure you never have to fly business class again. The obscenely wealthy seem to either be content (Buffet), focused on charity (Gates), or all over the place (Musk). Anything less than $100M is less interesting thank you'd think.