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Richest? How? Maybe by total wealth. I think wealth should be measured by how many hours at the median wage do you need to achieve a socially acceptable standa

Richest? How? Maybe by total wealth. I think wealth should be measured by how many hours at the median wage do you need to achieve a socially acceptable standard of living. Unfortunately, our standards have gone up and there are things that are now necessities that weren't before.

gruez 2y ago
>Maybe by total wealth. >I think wealth should be measured by how many hours at the median wage do you need to achieve a socially acceptable standard of living. That's a weird definition of "wealth". Wealth is generally understood to mean how much assets you have accumulated, not your free cash flow. What you're describing is properly referred to as discretionary income. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable_income#Discretionary_income https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable_income#Discretionar...
- SirMaster 2y ago
  I don't think it's that weird. I think most people would naturally define wealth by the kind of life and lifestyle the wealth can afford. Who cares how much actual money it is if it can't actually afford a decent life.
  - yard2010 2y ago
    It's a real problem that you absolutely have to have money for living (food, housing, healthcare), but it's the same money you use to buy computer games or supercars.
- Pet_Ant 2y ago
  > Wealth is generally understood to mean how much assets you have accumulated ...by accountants. "Wealth" as used by most people is related to quality of life. It even shows up in the phrase "house poor" where maybe someone has great net assets but cannot live comfortable life due to the drain of the house. Wealth is not money.
  - Dalewyn 2y ago
    Wealth is composed of many factors of which one is money, but you need money to have wealth. Therefore, wealth is money.
    - Pet_Ant 2y ago
      Life is composed of many factors of which one is carbon, but you need carbon to have life. There, carbon is life. --- No, life is the combination of carbon and other things, so wealth is the combination of money and other things. It's the combination and interaction with other things that is important and focussing just on money is missing the forest for the trees.
    - sowbug 2y ago
      This is true, but the converse isn't: you don't need wealth to have money. Just use your credit card instead. A borrowed dollar spends just as well as a saved or earned one, which is why many confuse spending with wealth.
  - carlosjobim 2y ago
    "House poor" is an oxymoron. They have the option at any time to sell their house to get liquid. I can have ten gold bars and choose to live like a miser because I don't want to touch my gold, but everybody would call that ridiculous. Just as ridiculous are "house poor" who don't want to touch their real estate wealth. But we can't say that, because everybody reading this has relatives who are "house poor", and we all have to work together to keep up the lie.
- mystified5016 2y ago
  If that's the case, everyone in postwar Germany or modern Zimbabwe should be the wealthiest people to ever exist and therefore have the highest quality of life. There's a lot more to it than how many beans you have in the bank.
  - gruez 2y ago
    >If that's the case, everyone in postwar Germany or modern Zimbabwe should be the wealthiest people to ever exist and therefore have the highest quality of life. If you're trying to imply that wealth = number in your bank account and 10x inflation makes you 10x wealthier, that's a massive misunderstanding of what "how much assets you have accumulated". Even though it wasn't explicitly stated, it's generally understood that the assets are valued in some meaningful way (eg. CPI or GDP deflator), rather than just looking at the raw numbers in your bank account.
safety1st 2y ago
You introduced the word wealth to the discussion and then proceeded to complain about its definition. What's the point of this? Just use the definitions of words that are in the dictionary and widely agreed upon, so that conversations with other people can be meaningful. If you want to talk about how cost of living is high, or how it's not high but people think it's high because (insert your reason), just use the words we all use and let's talk about that.

gruez 2y ago

>Maybe by total wealth. >I think wealth should be measured by how many hours at the median wage do you need to achieve a socially acceptable standard of living. That's a weird definition of "wealth". Wealth is generally understood to mean how much assets you have accumulated, not your free cash flow. What you're describing is properly referred to as discretionary income. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable_income#Discretionary_income https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable_income#Discretionar...

SirMaster 2y ago
I don't think it's that weird. I think most people would naturally define wealth by the kind of life and lifestyle the wealth can afford. Who cares how much actual money it is if it can't actually afford a decent life.
- yard2010 2y ago
  It's a real problem that you absolutely have to have money for living (food, housing, healthcare), but it's the same money you use to buy computer games or supercars.
Pet_Ant 2y ago
> Wealth is generally understood to mean how much assets you have accumulated ...by accountants. "Wealth" as used by most people is related to quality of life. It even shows up in the phrase "house poor" where maybe someone has great net assets but cannot live comfortable life due to the drain of the house. Wealth is not money.
- Dalewyn 2y ago
  Wealth is composed of many factors of which one is money, but you need money to have wealth. Therefore, wealth is money.
  - Pet_Ant 2y ago
    Life is composed of many factors of which one is carbon, but you need carbon to have life. There, carbon is life. --- No, life is the combination of carbon and other things, so wealth is the combination of money and other things. It's the combination and interaction with other things that is important and focussing just on money is missing the forest for the trees.
  - sowbug 2y ago
    This is true, but the converse isn't: you don't need wealth to have money. Just use your credit card instead. A borrowed dollar spends just as well as a saved or earned one, which is why many confuse spending with wealth.
- carlosjobim 2y ago
  "House poor" is an oxymoron. They have the option at any time to sell their house to get liquid. I can have ten gold bars and choose to live like a miser because I don't want to touch my gold, but everybody would call that ridiculous. Just as ridiculous are "house poor" who don't want to touch their real estate wealth. But we can't say that, because everybody reading this has relatives who are "house poor", and we all have to work together to keep up the lie.
mystified5016 2y ago
If that's the case, everyone in postwar Germany or modern Zimbabwe should be the wealthiest people to ever exist and therefore have the highest quality of life. There's a lot more to it than how many beans you have in the bank.
- gruez 2y ago
  >If that's the case, everyone in postwar Germany or modern Zimbabwe should be the wealthiest people to ever exist and therefore have the highest quality of life. If you're trying to imply that wealth = number in your bank account and 10x inflation makes you 10x wealthier, that's a massive misunderstanding of what "how much assets you have accumulated". Even though it wasn't explicitly stated, it's generally understood that the assets are valued in some meaningful way (eg. CPI or GDP deflator), rather than just looking at the raw numbers in your bank account.

safety1st 2y ago

You introduced the word wealth to the discussion and then proceeded to complain about its definition. What's the point of this? Just use the definitions of words that are in the dictionary and widely agreed upon, so that conversations with other people can be meaningful. If you want to talk about how cost of living is high, or how it's not high but people think it's high because (insert your reason), just use the words we all use and let's talk about that.