You get rich either by being in the absolute top echelon of your field assuming also that you are in a lucrative field, by ownership of the means of production, or by inheriting or marrying into it.
Those are pretty much the choices.
Those are pretty much the choices.
Really, it's easier than ever to start your own business (own your production). Most people reading this could begin today.
It's even possible to retire in your 30s via an average salary. Look into Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE).
Is not having to work anymore not a sufficient definition of rich? Though IMO having control over your schedule and not having to work for someone else is pretty close too.
I ran a small business you’ve never heard of, and left it four years ago with a not huge (<£1M) amount of money - but it was enough for me to acquire enough working assets that I have been able to retire from having to work in my early 30’s. I spend less than the assets earn, and because I’m free from having to work, I’m able to live in an inexpensive country, where my purchasing power is huge - freeing yourself from direct labour is the dividing line in my view - and you can get there by eschewing depreciating assets and instead acquiring earning assets. I don’t own a helicopter, I don’t have a yacht, my car is a beat up 1988 hilux - I could have those things, but then I would be poor again.
I did spend a lot on coffee, while running the business, admittedly.
I get that political history makes discussion of Marx's ideas a ridiculous hot potato. But the actual economics behind it is pretty banal and uncontroversial. If you own a business you can get rich without bound (or bounded only by the size of the relevant market), and if you don't you're trapped at whatever the market has set for wages in your profession.
That's, really, just sort of a "duh" point. This very website is effectively dedicated to that exact pursuit! "Make things people want so you can hack the system, find an exit and get rich" is just a restatement of "the bourgeoisie can lift themselves above the proletariat by ownership of the means of production" from the bourgeois perspective.
Whether that is good or bad, or deserves a revolution to adjust, is sort of a different issue. But no one seriously argues with the facts here.
And the point of communism (informed by late 19th century industrialization) was that this imbalance leads to inevitable injustice as proletarian wages get pushed ever lower by increasing automation and centralization. It wasn't even wrong, really, though it doesn't have much relevance to tech jobs today.
But to confuse "a brain" with "the means of production" is fundamentally missing the point of the concept.
I think most riches come as a combination of hard work/smarts and right place and right time (or luck), in varied proportions.
I can't see housing as "means of production".
Like I've got a friend, 40ish, works in education hiring teachers etc on a normal salary but every 5 to 10 years has bought a place on a mortgage and now it's worth that. She's not even entrepreneurial especially, just had the sense to do that when the opportunity was there.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1002103360646823936.html
TLDR Own and build things that generate income and store wealth (real estate, equities, fixed income, shares in a business, etc). Optimize for wealth, not status.
This won’t get you to be a billionaire. That requires mostly luck, inheritance, knowing the “right” people, etc.
I guarantee you, and anyone else reading this, that with very little information I can predict with high accuracy how much money you make.
- Where you were born
- How much money your parents make
- Your health status at birth
- What college you went to, if applicable
- What you majored in while in college, if applicable
- How much your prioritize making money
I hate to say it, but the #1 predictor of your income is your parents' own situation. So if you want to make more money, be born to better parents. They will gift you the health, genetic advantages and socioeconomic circumstances that will statically make you succeed.
For everyone else, understand the rules of the game and bend them as much as possible. One thing I hate about working at Google is the sheer amount of out of touch engineers here. Everyone is so nice and friendly, but as soon as you talk about anything related to money you can see that some people are living, in a matter of speaking, on another planet.
EDIT: Looks like the post was edited to be removed. Basically the OP was saying he made 400K+ at Google and their significant other made another 200K as a car salesperson and they are both "run of the mill" at their jobs. The OP then goes on to say that if you try hard enough it's pretty easy to get to the position their at.
Ironically the reaction of removing the post is exactly the same sort of reaction I get in person in when money or money related matters is ever the subject of a conversation with someone who is an engineer at Google. If a non-engineer is in the conversation the engineer will just say life isn't fair and leave.
I’d also imagine those with the highest IQs in American society are academics in STEM fields, who are hardly rich by the measure of our current inequality.
The cost of living is different everywhere. You could live like a king in a country like Cambodia and be barely middle class in the US.
"How much money your parents make"
This doesn't really have to do much with success. I know plenty of people (myself included) that grew up with barely enough to scrape by and make much more than their parents.
"What college you went to, if applicable"
This helps, of course. Mostly because it is an example of being able to start and finish something that's difficult and stick with it until the end. Someone that can do this will most likely be successful in other areas of life.
You also have companies like Google looking down on anyone that doesn't come from an elite college, which only makes it more difficult for everyone.
"How much your prioritize making money"
This is a big factor, but it is a choice. I have a friend that is college educated and intelligent. Hates the idea of making money and works a minimum wage job at 35 years old. The only reason she isn't living in poverty is because her husband is a manager at a major corporation and makes really good money.
"For everyone else, understand the rules of the game and bend them as much as possibly"
What a terrible outlook on life. The Internet has made it so anyone can start a business with almost no money. Instead of taking advantage of this, too many people waste their days on social media and instead try to lobby the government to give them a pay wage increase.
A lot of people like yourself, who grow up poor say this. However you're wrong. It's not to say that your success is predetermined entirely by your parents' socioeconomic status, but it's a large (and according to many scholars, the largest) predictor. Also, I have to say the usual disclaimer that correlation is not causation and all that.
In general I'd say hard work is necessary, but not sufficient to succeed.
Source: https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/hendren/files/mobility_geo...
Yeah, well, I have plenty of examples that prove otherwise.
"In general I'd say hard work is necessary, but not sufficient to succeed."
Hard work is always necessary for success. Unless your parents or relatives are giving you money..nobody will just hand it to you.
Slightly off-topic, but curious. Are you quoting salaries, or the amount you've been earning including stock/options you've been granted and how it has performed?
In high school I experienced severe depression. My first psychiatrist prescribed me antidepressants that didn't work well and caused me to have auditory hallucinations. I went on antipsychotics that made things worse.
It took two years to resolve everything and find a doctor and a medicine that worked for me. During this time
1. My mother was a homemaker and could spend a large amount of time driving me to doctors that were far away from home. She was also able to coordinate extended leaves with my high school (I missed an entire month straight at one point).
2. My parents made a lot of money. We were able to afford a psychiatrist who didn't take our insurance, spending thousands of dollars a month on bills.
3. My parents and several extended family members had personally experienced depression and were able to empathize well with my experience rather than telling me to suck it up. I had continual support from them.
If some of these things go the other way, I don't graduate high school.
Add this to all the myriad of other privileges I experienced along the way and I very much did not end up making a mountain of money at Google by just trying hard.
Congratulations! You’re in the top echelon of your field, and it’s a lucrative field. Of all the engineering gigs in the world, you’re at one of the top companies making a top salary.
I know it feels weird because from the inside there are so many FAANG employees. You don’t feel special. But you are! This is a special position you’re in, and it’s great that you’re taking advantage of it.
If you're anything less than that, the best you can do is try to give your kids an upper class environment to grow up in. Or just opt out of the "money is happiness" game and find other things that fulfill you.
I’d guess that most people whom you’d assume to be fancy white upper class folks are broke, and many of the poor brown people whom you pitty are more prosperous than you think.
In my life I can think of a relative whose family was living it up: fancy house and cars in a desirable suburb, kids went to great colleges, had great stuff, etc. It was all a show, fueled by home equity and debt. Now they are retired and living in subsidized housing on Social Security, and the BMWs were replaced by a 15 year old Civic.
The I look at a gentlemen who recently passed away at my church. He was a custodian and handyman, his wife is an LPN. He left a significant legacy to his kids and a school, and by all accounts led a fulfilling and happy life, with many people whom he had touched in some way.