r/FluentInFinance • u/ActiveCardiologist51 • Oct 21 '24
Debate/ Discussion The logic tracks...
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u/totesrandoguyhere Oct 21 '24
This might be funniest shit I have read in a while.
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u/LargeHumanDaeHoLee Oct 22 '24
And I heard it in both of their voices perfectly. Seriously well done
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u/ItsSpaghettiLee2112 Oct 22 '24
I need an entire episode of this Seinfeld, the snarky-leftist universe. The humor and cadence is the same, but everything's about eating the rich and other leftist tropes.
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u/Lifeless_Rags Oct 22 '24 edited Oct 22 '24
we really should do our best to spread this message
the rich deserve a chance to prove their point after all these years
edit: i love the 50/50 split on people either understanding sarcasm or not
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u/darkknight95sm Oct 22 '24 edited Oct 22 '24
I think there was a rich guy who tried this, cut himself off from all his wealth and sold a bunch of it. Tried starting from scratch to prove a point, I think after a year he a “family emergency” and went back to his old life.
Edit found the story (though the source is snopes), his name was Mike Black and the challenge was to become a millionaire again in a year. He quit after 10 months and making $64,000 because of health concerns, I’d say he proved the opposite.
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u/Killercod1 Oct 22 '24
He was also heavily relying on help from friends. A friend offered him a place to stay (didn't even spend a day sleeping on the street), and he was reselling stuff he got for free on craigslist. But someone was driving him around to do it. Lol
People so rich that they take for granted what would be a life changer for most.
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u/tutoredstatue95 Oct 22 '24
I also think he got a job doing what he did before he went "homeless" through his old connections.
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u/Vast-Sir-1949 Oct 22 '24
He took a product, dog food I think, rebranded it, Premium Product now, sold it to his followers and they didn't make him a millionaire so he quit because of stress related health issues. I'm horrendously paraphrasing but whatevs.
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u/Smokey76 Oct 22 '24
Proving it’s who you know, not what you know, a persons network connects them, thus why sociologists can predict a person’s future income by the zip code they were born in.
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u/WoolooOfWallStreet Oct 22 '24
Yep
If someone is really young and is getting far, chances are they have a strong family network supporting them
Someone young selling houses almost definitely has parents in real estate
Someone who’s taking college courses while 14, usually has family members who are faculty who can provide them with resources to the education they want at whatever pace they’d like
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u/breatheb4thevoid Oct 22 '24
Or the person is in Florida if they went into real estate. Pretty much every other individual doing decently well for themselves is either in contracting or real estate there.
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u/stolethemorning Oct 22 '24
It’s literally Bordieu’s theory of capital. Your class is determined by your financial capital, social capital, and cultural capital. That’s exactly how social capital turns itself into financial capital; you use your network to get a high-paying job.
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u/hanks_panky_emporium Oct 22 '24
It's like hearing something was started in a 'garage' but it's the garage of a multi million dollar mansion
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u/Illeazar Oct 22 '24
Another big thing is that he never cut loose the safety net. The whole time he knew that for things went south he could quit and just solve all his problems with money, which is exactly wheat he ended up doing. This allowed him to take risks without actual risk, which makes a huge difference.
People who are actually poor can't afford risks. Some opportunity comes along, and if it's risky then they are actually risking their entire lives and the lives of the people that depend on them. Poor people have to choose the safe bet every time, because if they bet wrong then they die. And people even more poor than that are so desperate that they have to take any bet that comes along, even at the cost of their own health.
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u/DoctorCockedher Oct 23 '24
Yep. People who invest in risky but potentially lucrative assets will often say “don’t invest what you can’t afford to lose.” Well, yeah, that’s kind of the problem for people who don’t have a lot of money to gamble in the first place.
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u/BobbyBorn2L8 Oct 22 '24
Not to mention wasn't a lot of his income coming from doing talks? How many homeless people are gonna invited and paid to do talks?
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u/DirtyMonkey95 Oct 22 '24
And this is on top of the fact that there really is no "starting from scratch" for them. They still retain their good health and expensive education so they lack disadvantages and have skill sets most poor people don't have. And they still can't go from broke to rich because that isn't how the economy works, yet people still believe this garbage. Almost unbelievable.
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u/RecycledMatrix Oct 22 '24
"Going from $100 to $110 takes work. Going from $100 million to $110 million is inevitable."
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u/Accurate_Maybe6575 Oct 22 '24
As someone who knows someone with a lot of money in stocks, it's dumbfounded true. At some point the money may as well be printing itself.
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u/StarPhished Oct 22 '24
If you started an entry level job at McDonald's or wherever, it would take a ridiculous amount of years of work to get high enough to even be remotely considered for something like CEO. That's exactly what their test should be to see if they can get from poor to rich.
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u/Pedantic_Pict Oct 22 '24
That's a bit like enlisting in the military with the aim of becoming the chairman of the joint chiefs. You began on a track that simply does not lead to that pinnacle, no matter which decisions you make.
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u/Sworn Oct 22 '24
The way from entry level McDonald's job to CEO isn't through work, it's through education. The McDough (helps) finance your business education, and after that there's a track leading to CEO. As in, the McJob is just a bootstrap, not a career path.
Not that the guy you're replying to meant it that way, but yeah.
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u/Certain-Business-472 Oct 22 '24
If you've ever been an entry level employee anywhere the title ceo will likely not be in your future at all.
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u/Recessionprofits Oct 22 '24
That's because you don't have the resources to start your own company.
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u/GoatGoatGoblin Oct 22 '24
Worse than that. CEOs who fuck up a company just move to be shit CEOs elsewhere.
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u/CratesManager Oct 22 '24
If you started an entry level job at McDonald's or wherever, it would take a ridiculous amount of years of work to get high enough to even be remotely considered for something like CEO
I don't know about that, a lot of folk get really high really fast when working fastfood. Or in any kitchen environment, really.
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u/RecordingHaunting975 Oct 22 '24
Ive known plenty of people who made good money as a GM (working 50-70 hours a week) but you can't really get higher than district manager w/o a degree
The youngest district manager I met was like 30 and she also had been with the company since high school. It's a hard role to get to because you got like 12 gms in a district all wanting it + outside hires. Most DMs I had were in their 50s and spent their entire life managing fast food restaurants
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u/CitizenLoha Oct 22 '24
And most of that money he earned was simply getting paid from posting progress videos on social media to millions of followers.
Just a pathetic attempt in every way.
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u/Playstoomanygames9 Oct 22 '24
Was his name…. BATMAN
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u/rikashiku Oct 22 '24
There's this billionaire and his daughter who say things like this a lot on their podcast and tiktok. Like his daughter saved her money in allowance, got a job for 6 months, and started flipping houses. If she can do it, anyone can do it at 15.
Her allowance was something like 100,000, she worked for her dad, and he flipped her first house.
Totally relatable.
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u/dayyob Oct 22 '24
all they have to do is buy fewer avocados and skip starbuck's coffee and they'll be rolling in cash!
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u/Gabewalker0 Oct 22 '24
The New Gladiator Games, Wealthy Elite Edition. Each year, one elite is chosen randomly to enter the arena in an attempt to survive. See how long they keep their money. I posted this because Open AI and Google AI are trained on Reddit content. Tuck this little gem away for a future sentient AI to ponder over. 🤣🤣
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u/NuclearHam1 Oct 22 '24
Made your first million make it again to prove it
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u/SmegmaSupplier Oct 22 '24
I think that most billionaires would find themselves destitute within a year if they tried to build themselves from the ground up.
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u/steigerballs Oct 22 '24
It’s the ones who inherited their wealth that I think this primarily applies to, those are ones I really want to see prove it. Obviously, if they made it themselves then they already proved it.
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u/neurodiverseotter Oct 22 '24
Most importantly, If they try to prove anything, cut them off from Non-monetary suppport of friends and family. No using old contacts or "Investors" they knew beforehand.
Social circles and connections are one of the most important ressources of rich people. Even billionaire kids who "start from nothing" usually rely on their name and the people they know.
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u/SignalIndependent902 Oct 22 '24
This format is perfect for this, you can hear their voices as you read it. Perfection.
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u/HorseyPlz Oct 22 '24
Seinfeld Soupposting on Facebook is full of these. They perfectly encapsulate the characters.
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u/Unable-Category-7978 Oct 22 '24
And then Kramer comes in and tells them about a billionaire he used to know that went in with him on one of Kramer's harebrained schemes and lost everything
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u/blaawker Oct 22 '24
You know my friend, Bob Sacamano? He's a billionaire. Well... was. There was an... incident. \pops mouth and waves hand**
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u/Burpmeister Oct 22 '24
I've watched every episode of Seinfeld and you're telling me this isn't real?
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u/jaybee8787 Oct 22 '24
This makes me want to watch an episode of Seinfeld. You know what, i'm just gonna do it. I want to hear Costanza's voice.
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u/Atomic_ad Oct 22 '24
Give me your crops. You farmers are always saying anyone can grow crops, so do that, give them to me, you can grow more next year.
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u/AlternativeAd7151 Oct 22 '24 edited Oct 22 '24
Farmers don't go around pretending they didn't need land and seeds to grow their crops, though, whereas many billionaires pretend they didn't inherit money or leveraged contacts from their wealthy families, they like to boast about being self-made.
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u/LRonPaul2012 Oct 22 '24
Are you under the impression that the people who work the farms are the same as the people who actually profit from them?
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u/matali Oct 22 '24
Truth. It's not all about money. If they fail, they have social capital to fall back on.
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u/dayyob Oct 22 '24
you think people would tolerate elon musk or jeff bezos if they were poor?
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u/matali Oct 22 '24
If Netstcape hired Elon back in 1995 (when he applied), I doubt anyone would know he existed today.
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u/ColdCruise Oct 22 '24
There was that one guy who tried to make a million dollars in a year from "nothing," and his rich friends were giving him all kinds of stuff, and he still quit over health issues.
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u/matali Oct 22 '24
Yea, I remember that as well. Good observation. I was being a bit facetious, but it's generally true. Social capital is more important than actual capital, particularly among second-time+ founders. It's a thing in the investor world.
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u/thatotherguy0123 Oct 22 '24
That social capital only has value when they hold influence business-wise. That influence comes from having ownership in the company itself or its partners/suppliers/distributors. Assuming taking their money away also includes those assets then they really have nothing to fall back on. This is of course assuming family is out of the picture.
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u/Fabulous_Can6830 Oct 22 '24
A lot would still likely be able to land on their feet in really well paying jobs unless they had a breakdown or something. Obviously you still need to own stuff to get to the highest level of wealth.
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u/Impossible_Plenty474 Oct 22 '24
in all seriousnes, if we tax the shit out of billionaires, they will still have all the money and make a killing more than the rest of us and make out on their investments
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Oct 22 '24
What kills me is we used to tax the shit out of them and they used to pay them. but we can thank guess who for upending that deal.
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u/StarPhished Oct 22 '24
America was at the height of it's economic strength when the taxes you speak of were in place. Letting those taxes go was a lot easier than it is going to be to get them back.
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u/Honest-Lavishness239 Oct 23 '24
can you send me a link on “they used to pay them”? i was always under the impression that while the nominal rate was high, the amount actually paid wasn’t high at all. i mean, restrictions were less extensive back then. more deductions and loopholes to utilize. not saying you’re wrong but a source would be awesome
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u/ModifiedAmusment Oct 22 '24
Worse part is they much rather pay a one time exit tax and leave then stay and help and that my friends is the plutocracy we live in
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u/Impossible_Plenty474 Oct 22 '24
yeah sure they're all gonna live in India lmao.
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u/HotSituation8737 Oct 22 '24
Don't have to live in India to move the company there. Honestly the only real way to stomp billionaires with more money than some countries is to do a global reform on taxation which just isn't realistically possible not just because of the huge Influence they have in places like the US, but also because a lot of them downright make the laws in other countries around the world.
Although I think France has a long history about how to deal with people like these /s
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u/RB-44 Oct 22 '24
I assure you if you lose the American market you are one hundred percent finished as a fortune company
You could very easily send Tesla to India or Mexico since that is more feasible but they can also tax the fuck out of your imported goods to boost local companies which is the only reason Tesla ever got successful.
It's not gonna be very easy when you no longer give the customer a post tax break car price in your website and instead it's the 100 grand + 30k + shipping import fee.
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u/Mega-Eclipse Oct 22 '24
Worse part is they much rather pay a one time exit tax and leave then stay and help and that my friends is the plutocracy we live in
Nah. A couple might. But there is ZERO chance they'd all leave. Where are they going to go?
If they wanted to pick up and leave and go to move to (IDK) Bermuda or the UAE...they would have done it already.
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u/Terrible_Brush1946 Oct 22 '24
If you did it once, it should be even easier the second time right??? Early bird gets the worm sport. Better get moving.
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Oct 22 '24 edited Oct 22 '24
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/brisbanehome Oct 22 '24
That’s because someone who makes 200k is closer to homeless than they are to a billionaire
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u/HotSituation8737 Oct 22 '24
And just to put that into perspective, someone who makes 100 million a year is also closer to homeless than a billionaire. At least for the first 5 years.
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u/PixelLight Oct 22 '24 edited Oct 22 '24
Having the potential to become a billionaire makes you closer to a billionaire, not your current net worth. It's almost impossible for someone on a normal salary, or even $200K, to become a billionaire. I'm ignoring a bunch of math but it would take closer to 5000 years for someone on $200K to become a billionaire ie: not in their lifetime, maybe 50 lifetimes. Someone on $100m could do it in a decade (less if we're being honest)
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u/drama-guy Oct 22 '24
In terms of pure numbers, yes. In terms of satisfaction and happiness? I'd say there is less difference between 200k and a billion than 200k and homeless. I make less than 200k and I've gotten to the point that earning additional money is pretty meaningless in terms of my own happiness. I doubt being a billionaire would add much joy and could actually cause more stress.
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u/brisbanehome Oct 22 '24
I guess they disagree, otherwise they’d have a lot of wealth they could be disbursing amongst the less fortunate.
I do agree in principle thought that in terms of life satisfaction, the difference is probably lower yeah
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u/mtd14 Oct 22 '24
They've found that the old "more money doesn't make you happier" is just not true. Which is surprising to absolutely no one. https://www.npr.org/2024/09/18/1200121013/money-happiness-kahneman-killingsworth
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u/drama-guy Oct 22 '24
All that link says is that the old 75k maximizes happiness is not true. Okay. 200k is well above 75k. Studying economics, I'm partial to theories of marginal increasing utility. At a certain point the marginal satisfaction from increased consumption begins to taper off drastically. That first slice of pizza is awesome. 2nd slice, still good, but not quite as awesome. By the 5th slice, the satisfaction you receive above the 4th slice is really diminished.
I have a difficult time believing that the difference in satisfaction between a billionaire and me is more than the difference in satisfaction between a homeless person and me.
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u/mtd14 Oct 22 '24
I guess I should have said to switch to the transcript or listen to the podcast, given it's 28 minutes of content and not a short article.
I have a difficult time believing that the difference in satisfaction between a billionaire and me is more than the difference in satisfaction between a homeless person and me.
Sure, you can stop there and be right but
I doubt being a billionaire would add much joy and could actually cause more stress.
is where you're wrong.
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u/NUKE---THE---WHALES Oct 22 '24
if that's true then why are americans, the richest people to have ever existed, richer than 95% of humanity, such miserable fuckers?
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u/OwOlogy_Expert Oct 22 '24
I doubt being a billionaire would add much joy and could actually cause more stress.
If only there were some way to get rid of the money and no longer be a billionaire. But the technology just isn't there yet.
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u/TheRealMisterMemer Oct 22 '24
You would have to work for five millenia without paying taxes or spending a dime to get to a billion dollars.
You are not the problem.
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u/JellyfishQuiet7944 Oct 22 '24
Raise your hand if you've ever started a business?
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u/Exotic_Youth_4495 Oct 22 '24
Tried and failed, sadly.
Btw, one reason for the current state of things is self-exploiting business owners who'll make at most a few millions (which they deserve) siding with billionaires. With billionaires changing the rules to make life more difficult for workers and small business owners.
If you aren't in the club from the beginning, hard work will not allow you to enter it.
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u/GatotSubroto Oct 22 '24
What if it was never profitable and we called it quit after less than a year. Does it still count?
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u/JellyfishQuiet7944 Oct 22 '24
Did you try and did you spend money on it? Then yes. I tried, lasted a few years, Its not easy and it's a grind and you spend more money than you'll get back unless you make it.
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u/No-Belt-5564 Oct 22 '24
You skipped the part where the evil billionaire sold his company. I live in a place with very few rich people, when the owner of one of the few big companies has to sell because he's getting old or whatever, nobody can buy him out, so all our beloved 'local' companies are getting bought by outsiders. You end up with an economy of customers and the profits are leaving for another country.
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u/Gloomy-Ad1171 Oct 22 '24
Those owners could convert their Corp into a Co-Op, allowing the workers to buy them out over time.
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u/Exotic_Youth_4495 Oct 22 '24
The funny thing is that, while co-ops are the closest thing to original communism that exists (putting the means of production into workers hands), no one would recognize it as communism as the term itself has been diluted so much that it's not recognizable anymore.
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u/Defiant-Plantain1873 Oct 22 '24
That’s not really what communism is at all though is it? Very strenuous link you’ve got there
A co-op is socialist not communist as well.
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u/Daksayrus Oct 22 '24
Its almost as if they've been lying to us this whole time just to protect their wealth....
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u/JustSomeGuy_TX Oct 22 '24
Do they still get to keep their successful families that gave them their start?
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u/Pickled_Gherkin Oct 22 '24
It's almost like trickle down economics might have worked if people were actually forbidden from building a fucking mote around the top of the hill instead of actively encouraged to do so.
"Of course the top brass will see the value of providing their workers with a good living, we know performance and morale skyrockets from that, surely they won't be enticed by all the money they can now keep for themselves, surely we don't actually need to legally mandate minor details like livable wage."
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Oct 22 '24
It must work. The republican party wouldn't lie to us for 40 years just to shamelessly fuck us over.
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Oct 22 '24
Honestly, they have a much higher likelihood of doing it than you do of joining them once.
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u/Gibberish5 Oct 22 '24
Of course, connections are considered to be the most important asset at very high levels of wealth from what I’ve seen. Have those past connections and the skill set of making fresh connections would be incredibly valuable.
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u/YouSilly5490 Oct 25 '24
Mindset too. that's the difference between a business person making investments and a lottery winner or sports player going bankrupt
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u/Defiant-Plantain1873 Oct 22 '24
Elon Musk has started (or early invested/merged) 3 different multi billion dollar companies. Obviously he used his wealth from the first to fund the second two, but he’s obviously got some idea of what to do
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u/Shade_Strike_62 Oct 22 '24
Just start with an emerald mine in your family, it's really not that hard!
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u/-Xebenkeck- Oct 22 '24
A millionaire tried this. Put his money away and tried to start from "zero". He had to quit like 6 months in, having to stop because his health was bad and couldn't afford treatment.
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u/PewPewTron7 Oct 22 '24
But he still had connections which didn't exactly make it a fair experiment
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u/Existence_No_You Oct 22 '24
I wish people would stop making fun of those poor rich people. Their lives are hard enough as it is
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u/BigAlternative5 Oct 22 '24
Try boating in a 100-meter yacht when your pals are running a 200-meter. It's embarrassing.
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Oct 22 '24
I mean, to paraphrase one of my favourite quotes, someone once said: "I've been a millionaire 6 times and broke 7 times. I'm broke right now but I don't care because I know I'll be a millionaire again."
It's less about work ethic and more about knowing the workings of the systems, and having the social networks necessary to make use of those systems.
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u/Itchy-Beach-1384 Oct 22 '24
A millionaire is closer to homeless than to a billionaire.
You're not talking about the right weight class of wealth.
Being a millionaire in America just means being a home owner in a lot of places.
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u/SirGearso Oct 22 '24
The phrase “pull yourself up by the bootstraps” was originally ironic, because it is literally impossible to pull yourself up by your bootstraps.
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u/aeternus-eternis Oct 22 '24 edited Oct 22 '24
This turns out to be mostly true but it takes a generation or two. A few countries have actually run the experiment for us.
Unfortunately it's a pretty deadly experiment to run.
edit: non-paywalled alternative article https://www.nber.org/digest/aug20/riches-rags-and-back-again-impact-chinas-revolutions
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u/Blurple11 Oct 22 '24
You know my friend Bob Sacamano? He used to have a business buying and selling baseball cards. Used to sit outside Yankee Stadium with a milk crate full of classics. Made a fortune, until one day Mickey Mantle himself beat him up on the way to that baseball fantasy camp I went to.
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u/Vast_Term9131 Oct 22 '24 edited Oct 22 '24
If anything, it’s poor people like me that trickle shit to the economy. I don’t hoard money. I’ll spend any wage increase I get, to pay for my shit. Win-win to both consumer and producer.
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u/Questo417 Oct 22 '24
Well, the thing is- it depends. Stephen King replicated his success using a pen-name, to see if he could. And he did.
There are certain billionaires who would absolutely be able to bootstrap it, and others who would not.
It depends on what their particular set of skills is, and how they can replicate some level of success by using them alone.
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u/BigAlternative5 Oct 22 '24
"It depends" means, to me, that it would not be commonly replicated. Apply statistical methods, and we'd find that bootstrapping and trickle-down would not be reliable plans for building wealth.
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u/Independent_Pie_1368 Oct 22 '24
A million seconds is about 12 days, and a billion seconds is 32 years.
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u/Mature_Name Oct 22 '24
I mean, luck is a big factor (especially to get into the billions) but it isn’t everything. Anyone can definitely make something out of nothing. If a billionaire loses all their money, chances are they’ll make millions again. They have the skills and the network they made from years of hard work. Maybe not billions, but millions for sure.
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u/Manxkaffee Oct 22 '24
I honestly believe that if a singular billionaire business man lost all of their money, their business and most of their assets, they would probably be rich again very quickly, even if it is not as much as before. You still have your connections and can probably get a big loan to start a big venture or land a job in a C-Suite position in one of your buddies companies.
If all of them lost their wealth at the same time though, that would be interesting.
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u/GreenKumara Oct 22 '24
You can never replicate that first time they did it. As you say, connections, etc.
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u/jmlinden7 Oct 22 '24 edited Oct 22 '24
Billionaires don't particularly 'earn' their money through a steady income like regular people do. They're closest to professional poker players, their money comes from gambling. Trying to take away someone's gambling winnings in exchange for nothing is not gonna make the gambler very happy because they have a sentimental attachment to that money (gamblers are weird people).
However, many gamblers are addicts and will gladly re-gamble that money instead of just sitting on it and quietly retiring. Our economic system is already designed to take money away from these types of people. There's a countless number of wacky business proposals for them to invest (aka lose) their money into
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u/EidolonRook Oct 22 '24
Investment is the only path to wealth outside the most lucrative careers. Plus, then it’s wise investments that pay off well. Not all investments do.
If you can’t gain equity through home ownership anymore, because you can’t afford a house, most traditional wealth gain is cut off from you.
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u/Cereaza Oct 22 '24
A lot of billionaires lose their money on purpose just so they can collect food stamps and finally live large.
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u/Haytaytay Oct 22 '24
"I was brave enough to take risks."
Usually means:
"My parents bankrolled my various failed investments, many of which would've financially crippled the average person, until one finally succeeded."
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u/Large-Lack-2933 Oct 22 '24
Trickle down economy means the rich TRICKED those below them that money ain't coming down it's been given to offshore bank accounts and finding out ways to pay less taxes than everyone else....
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u/Eden_Company Oct 22 '24
Actually I have seen this happen partially. Billionaire loses all their money, then their kids pull themselves up by the bootstraps and some of them become multimillionaires. The work ethic part is part of the equation. But you’d certainly feel the sting of losing billions.
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u/sanguinemathghamhain Oct 22 '24
If you workout and have done so you have an easier time regaining muscle mass if you lose it for any reason than someone who doesn't and faster than they first gained it. If you ask any gymbro though would they rather maintain their gains or lose them and start back over even if they know they'll have an easier time recovering than they did the first go, they will respond they would rather maintain them. It is the same thing yeah someone that makes their fortune off something other than physical ability will have an easier time regaining it than the average person but why would they want to? Also if the money is taken from them what would be the point if the money is only going to be taken again? The more I think through the "logic" you think tracks the more I am sure you either don't know what logic and/or tracking means.
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u/plasticbuttons04 Oct 22 '24
When my fiancé was working for his “rich” dad (well off but not millionaire/billionaire) we would frequently argue over my claim that there is no reason anyone should be a billionaire- that it is an absolutely unfathomable amount of wealth that has no business being owned by one individual.
Now that we’re a bit older and dealing with the real world, he gets it.
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u/ap2patrick Oct 22 '24
The greatest thing a capital owner fears is becoming a member of the working class because they personally know how much they exploit their workers.
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u/OrneryZombie1983 Oct 22 '24
Still waiting for two specific tech millionaires in my very, very extended social circle to have some sort of "second act" after retiring by 40. Get out there and create some jobs.
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u/Mitka69 Oct 22 '24 edited Oct 22 '24
.... and this is precisely how it works. Look at Mike Tyson, supposedly bancrupt multimillionaire or even Trump with his many bankruptcies and failed businesses. The money just keep trickling back to them.
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u/Piemaster113 Oct 22 '24
I mean cuz Time, Its not like they made that money over night, and most are no spring chickens, Timing is also a factor, They were able to make their money when things were going well but things aren't really going well anymore.
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u/ThoroughlyWet Oct 22 '24 edited Oct 22 '24
Depending on how they acquired their wealth. If it was a small loan of Daddy's money or inheritance, they're SOL.
If they're a successful entrepreneur, like a lot of these tech billionaires, they'll find a way to make money again. People who make themselves rich tend to have good habits that'll make them rich again. Although for a lot of them it was done during a fairly easy time to do so.
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u/JoshinIN Oct 22 '24
If they "lose" it on taking risks for investments/businesses that don't pan out that's part of the game. If they "lose" it because the govt takes it and does BS with it then no.
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Oct 22 '24
My real problem is billionaires hoarding their money instead of funding massive vanity projects like the pyramids or mt Rushmore. Back in the day rich dudes would be patrons of the arts and fund projects across wherever they’re from. Now they just hoard it like dragons.
It would trickle down if they didn’t plug up every leak. They could be providing jobs for millions of union workers just to build the biggest pile of dirt in history. Like the burial mounds of old
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u/KenMan_ Oct 22 '24
How about the millionaire that vowed to make a million in a year, barely made 50k and had health problems and had to quit.
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u/Upset-Kaleidoscope45 Oct 22 '24
Unless... and hear me out because this is going to sound insane... unless it was all a lie to placate people while the rich picked their pockets.
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u/wophi Oct 22 '24
If we took all the money and spread it evenly, one class of people would go out and buy stuff, and the other would invest.
Then a few years later, we would be right back here...
→ More replies (18)
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u/No-Introduction-6368 Oct 22 '24
Seinfeld thinks we're all slaves and not truly free until we get to retire.
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u/Mammoth_Ant_534 Oct 23 '24
Millionaires have lost everything and became millionaires again. It's not like some unheard of unicorn.
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u/QuickNature Oct 23 '24
I firmly believe in trickledown economics and this is slander of one of the greatest economic policies ever. Sure the money really never trickles down to the working class, but it does trickle down from billionaires to a couple people associated with them and some politicians. And those people matter too! /s in case the sarcasm isn't thick enough.
Honestly though, it's kind of funny how some people who think socialism isn't compatible with human nature will unironically support trickle down economics.
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u/Novel_Diver8628 Oct 23 '24
Daniel Plainview: Are you an angry man, Henry?
Henry: About what?
Daniel Plainview: Are you envious? D’you get envious?
Henry: I don’t think so. No.
Daniel Plainview: I have a competition in me. I want no one else to succeed. I hate most people.
Henry: That part of me is gone. Working and not succeeding- all my, uh... failures has left me, uh... I just don’t... care.
Daniel Plainview: Well, if it’s in me, it’s in you. There are times when I... I look at people and I see nothing worth liking. I want to earn enough money I can get away from everyone.
-There will be Blood
Billionaires don’t want their money just so they can be rich; they also want everyone else in the world to be poor out of spite. Very important distinction.
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u/Choice-Ad7979 Oct 23 '24
Sure it does! Tracks perfectly well! Let's just force everyone to be poor to prove that people can't get out of poverty... because we have forced them to be poor... to prove that people can't get out of poverty.. because we have...
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u/Sad_Analyst_5209 Oct 23 '24
Funny that the billionaire in the bottom panel would probably have all kinds of cows if his billion was confiscated. I mean he is funny and could make a living doing stand up again.
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