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Basically, your spending behavior and the location of your house gives you away when you are that rich. People with disposable income live in nice places, drive

Basically, your spending behavior and the location of your house gives you away when you are that rich. People with disposable income live in nice places, drive nice cars, wear expensive clothes, and frequent expensive restaurants In the US figuring out who has money and who hasn't is not rocket science. Most ad companies are actually very good at profiling users and their incomes. Public tax information would just confirm the obvious. Personal security in countries with low crime and murder rates like Norway and Finland is pretty easy. They are very safe countries. E.g. kidnappings are very rare there and nobody carries cash anymore because they are also modern countries. So, the opportunities for robbers and thieves are limited to non cash items.

dheera 5y ago
> Basically, your spending behavior and the location of your house gives you away when you are that rich It doesn't have to though. That's a choice. Heck I know people with likely >10M net worth that are still living with roommates. > nobody carries cash anymore But if they know you have $10M, they could kidnap your spouse on the way to work, and children on their way to school, for a $1M ransom in bitcoin? Something that's more easily avoided if they don't have a price tag associated with your face in a publicly-viewable database.
- jillesvangurp 5y ago
  There are of course exceptions but mostly finding wealthy targets to rob or kidnap is not an issue for criminals. I'd argue that the opposite is a bigger issue for criminals in the US: plenty of people pretending to be rich that are deep in debt. Finland and Norway have plenty of rich people walking around without protection and completely unarmed. Kidnappings are not a regular thing in those countries nor are they getting robbed regularly. They might install burglar alarms on their properties though.
tagoregrtst 5y ago
There’s a huge observational bias there, though. Its easy to spot the ostentatious high income earners, and those living far beyond their means.

dheera 5y ago

> Basically, your spending behavior and the location of your house gives you away when you are that rich It doesn't have to though. That's a choice. Heck I know people with likely >10M net worth that are still living with roommates. > nobody carries cash anymore But if they know you have $10M, they could kidnap your spouse on the way to work, and children on their way to school, for a $1M ransom in bitcoin? Something that's more easily avoided if they don't have a price tag associated with your face in a publicly-viewable database.

jillesvangurp 5y ago
There are of course exceptions but mostly finding wealthy targets to rob or kidnap is not an issue for criminals. I'd argue that the opposite is a bigger issue for criminals in the US: plenty of people pretending to be rich that are deep in debt. Finland and Norway have plenty of rich people walking around without protection and completely unarmed. Kidnappings are not a regular thing in those countries nor are they getting robbed regularly. They might install burglar alarms on their properties though.

tagoregrtst 5y ago

There’s a huge observational bias there, though. Its easy to spot the ostentatious high income earners, and those living far beyond their means.