4 ms·
It’s funny to me how we focus on the rich and wealthy whereas the vast majority of the HN visitors - even those with 6/7 figure salaries are closer to the homel
by louwrentius 4y ago
It’s funny to me how we focus on the rich and wealthy whereas the vast majority of the HN visitors - even those with 6/7 figure salaries are closer to the homeless than to those billionaires.
You can’t have that much money and be ethical anyway. With the wage stagnation of the last few decades, we know a lot of that wealth is basically wage theft. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 4y agoWe live in a society that worships wealth because it uses wealth as its sole metric for basically everything. Intelligence, success, worthiness, importance, etc. Those on HN are, if anything, more prone to this than elsewhere because of the original startup culture orientation. I will not be surprised if a significant portion of HNer's start cargo-culting by learning French.
- louwrentius 4y agoWell put. In the same vein, I hate the focus on GDP as some kind of single unified metric that defines how well a country is doing. nous devrions manger les riches
- neogodless 4y ago> closer to the homeless than to those billionaires To have a net worth closer to $1 billion USD than $0, you need at least $500 million USD. Pedantry aside, do you have knowledge about the median net worth of an HN visitor, or is this a complete guess that most live in such a way that they have a very low net worth? (Or were you really just making a point that most of us have less than $500 million?)
- louwrentius 4y agoThe latter is my point. And since housing is so expensive, a 6/7 figure salary means less if you live in the Bay Area or similar locations.
- runamok 4y agoI think it's more useful to think in terms of ratios. A Millionaire ($1,000,000) is to a Thousandaire ($1000) as a Billionaire is to a Millionaire. E.g. they have as much wealth as a thousand of the former "tier".
- ch4s3 4y agoThis is just warmed over labor theory of value which even contemporary Marxist economists(such that they still exist) reject.
- louwrentius 4y ago[flagged]
- shagmin 4y agoWhat's an example of a society that's more human-oriented, that doesn't have capitalism? I feel like when people push to end capitalism, what they really mean is they want a large social safety net, higher pay for low end workers or higher taxes for the wealthy, more or better enforced regulations, etc., which doesn't necessarily negate capitalism as the fundamental driving force of the economy. Just my take.
- bryanlarsen 4y agoCapitalism is awful. The alternatives are worse. The Nordics do capitalism better than we do, but that's still capitalism.
- ch4s3 4y agoWhy is capitalism awful? It has literally lifted billions of people out of poverty. Capitalists were the original abolitionists. Capitalism and the associated innovation have given us everything that’s good about modern life.
- version_five 4y agoI think the point is that it's not perfect, and nobody really argues it is. But it's imperfections aren't an argument for a better system. Inequality is the easiest example. There's tons of inequality under capitalism, and you can point to it and say it's bad. Problem is that every other system has orders of magnitude more inequality, plus a worse overall average.
- Georgelemental 4y agoCloser in terms of numbers, perhaps. Not closer in terms of happiness or quality of life!