5 ms·

Most of the time, real wealth is generated when something new is created that did not exist before.

sologoub 5y ago
Sure and that’s how you get major independent wealth quickly. The little by little approach also works but takes discipline and commitment to the future that’s hard to keep when you are poor and don’t know where the next piece of bread is coming from. When I first started making (by my then measure) good money, pretty much all of them were flushed down the drain one way or the other. It took me years to snap out of that. The examples are pretty weak, but substitute index funds and REITs and you are in a better place. Does it fluctuate? Sure does. Does it also accumulate? Yup it does that too and that’s the key.
john_moscow 5y ago
Except due to globalization this process has moved out to cheaper countries. Where the wealth is created and then parked in more politically stable West. And we keep wondering why our Average Joe can't afford a house anymore.
- adventured 5y ago
  Since when can Average Joe not afford a house? That's a combination of pop myth and extrapolating isolated local phenomenon to the national housing & income context. The home ownership rate in the US is currently on par with where it was in 1995-1996, higher than it was throughout nearly all of the 1980s, and higher than it was throughout all of the 1950s, 1960s and almost all of the 1970s. If you chop off the particularly artificial five to six years of the housing bubble, the US is presently only about 1 to 1.5 points off from all-time highs on home ownership. Now, having pointed this fact out, the obvious next response is to claim that today's home ownership is somehow a lesser form. Houses are quite larger today than they were in the 1950s-1970s however, and superior in most every possible way. And home owners have been building equity pretty consistently since the great recession, with US household balance sheets in good condition overall, including with debt service costs at historically low levels (which includes mortgage payments). Realistically the primary people suffering versus the past re home ownership, are in select few locations like San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, Seattle and similar.
  - john_moscow 5y ago
    Home ownership rate measures the percentage of the homes occupied by their owners (i.e. how many % are not rented out). It would not show the number of young adults who never had a chance to move out. It will also not show a difference between a single family renting a detached house vs. 5 adults sharing a rented apartment. A much more interesting metric would be the number of shared households, that appears to be rising (although I couldn't easily google up a concrete graph). >Realistically the primary people suffering versus the past re home ownership, are in select few locations like San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, Seattle and similar. Well, that's where the jobs are. Sure you can afford a home in Salty Creek with a median Seattle salary, but that's not what most people would want to do. These days, unless you are in STEM (big cities) or trades (rural areas), you are pretty outpriced.
rhizome 5y ago
What did the founder(s) of Little Caesar's Pizza create?
- scarmig 5y ago
  Little Caesar's. Particularly, they discovered an underserved market niche and found a way to satisfy people's desires in a cost efficient way.
  - rhizome 5y ago
    That doesn't make sense as far as the point goes. There has to be something more than a tautology.
    - insert_coin 5y ago
      Well, if what you ask is a tautology the answer is almost obvious. Almost.
    - chiph 5y ago
      No, that's pretty much it. In comparison, Pizza Hut and Domino's have slightly better pizza, at a higher cost. Little Caesar's discovered that enough people (college students, in my experience) were willing to eat slightly worse quality pizza - that was larger, but at a slightly cheaper price. From memory, Domino's was $12 for a 14" pie, but Little Caesar's was $10 for two 10" pies, that weren't as tasty, but were "good value for the money" They originally saved money by using a cardboard tray not a box, that had a paper sleeve over it to keep the pizza sanitary. They could get two pies in there for what it cost the bigger chains to deliver one.
      - ztjio 5y ago
        Also their original breadsticks were amazingly good.
        kevin_thibedeau 5y ago

Sure and that’s how you get major independent wealth quickly. The little by little approach also works but takes discipline and commitment to the future that’s hard to keep when you are poor and don’t know where the next piece of bread is coming from. When I first started making (by my then measure) good money, pretty much all of them were flushed down the drain one way or the other. It took me years to snap out of that. The examples are pretty weak, but substitute index funds and REITs and you are in a better place. Does it fluctuate? Sure does. Does it also accumulate? Yup it does that too and that’s the key.

john_moscow 5y ago

Except due to globalization this process has moved out to cheaper countries. Where the wealth is created and then parked in more politically stable West. And we keep wondering why our Average Joe can't afford a house anymore.

adventured 5y ago
Since when can Average Joe not afford a house? That's a combination of pop myth and extrapolating isolated local phenomenon to the national housing & income context. The home ownership rate in the US is currently on par with where it was in 1995-1996, higher than it was throughout nearly all of the 1980s, and higher than it was throughout all of the 1950s, 1960s and almost all of the 1970s. If you chop off the particularly artificial five to six years of the housing bubble, the US is presently only about 1 to 1.5 points off from all-time highs on home ownership. Now, having pointed this fact out, the obvious next response is to claim that today's home ownership is somehow a lesser form. Houses are quite larger today than they were in the 1950s-1970s however, and superior in most every possible way. And home owners have been building equity pretty consistently since the great recession, with US household balance sheets in good condition overall, including with debt service costs at historically low levels (which includes mortgage payments). Realistically the primary people suffering versus the past re home ownership, are in select few locations like San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, Seattle and similar.
- john_moscow 5y ago
  Home ownership rate measures the percentage of the homes occupied by their owners (i.e. how many % are not rented out). It would not show the number of young adults who never had a chance to move out. It will also not show a difference between a single family renting a detached house vs. 5 adults sharing a rented apartment. A much more interesting metric would be the number of shared households, that appears to be rising (although I couldn't easily google up a concrete graph). >Realistically the primary people suffering versus the past re home ownership, are in select few locations like San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, Seattle and similar. Well, that's where the jobs are. Sure you can afford a home in Salty Creek with a median Seattle salary, but that's not what most people would want to do. These days, unless you are in STEM (big cities) or trades (rural areas), you are pretty outpriced.

rhizome 5y ago

What did the founder(s) of Little Caesar's Pizza create?

scarmig 5y ago
Little Caesar's. Particularly, they discovered an underserved market niche and found a way to satisfy people's desires in a cost efficient way.
- rhizome 5y ago
  That doesn't make sense as far as the point goes. There has to be something more than a tautology.
  - insert_coin 5y ago
    Well, if what you ask is a tautology the answer is almost obvious. Almost.
  - chiph 5y ago
    No, that's pretty much it. In comparison, Pizza Hut and Domino's have slightly better pizza, at a higher cost. Little Caesar's discovered that enough people (college students, in my experience) were willing to eat slightly worse quality pizza - that was larger, but at a slightly cheaper price. From memory, Domino's was $12 for a 14" pie, but Little Caesar's was $10 for two 10" pies, that weren't as tasty, but were "good value for the money" They originally saved money by using a cardboard tray not a box, that had a paper sleeve over it to keep the pizza sanitary. They could get two pies in there for what it cost the bigger chains to deliver one.
    - ztjio 5y ago
      Also their original breadsticks were amazingly good.
      - kevin_thibedeau 5y ago