Comment by 411111111111111 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by 411111111111111 | Hacker News Reader

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411111111111111

I had a pretty substantial increase in salary about 13 month ago and can confirm: it increased my happiness a lot.

I'm absolutely certain that another increase is that magnitude would still increase it immeasurably. Further increased however would have significant diminishing returns and drop off entirely at around triple my current wage I think .

I find this very interesting, considering that the average CEO gets significantly more than I would get after tripling my current wage.

But I guess that just shows that ppl that fill the role of a CEO are a different breed. Personally, I'm glad I don't feel entitled nor particularly want so much more money then my colleagues. And honestly, I have trouble feeling any empathy toward them at times, considering how they usually behave.

I do think there will eventually be abloody falling out between our classes. Times have changed however, and I doubt workers will be able to 'win' anymore.

At least I'm already over 30, so I likely won't have to live long in the shithole this place will become.

CEOs are paid what they're paid due to prevailing financial incentive structures and scarcity of talent, not because they feel entitled (though I'm sure many of them do).

From my own personal experiences- which you can take with a grain of salt- given the option between 100 talented devs with an excellent business model and an elite CEO with a ham sandwich, I'm taking the ham sandwich.

I had my pay triple at the beginning of this year, 75k -> 230k. I’m working a lot more, I have not increased my lifestyle in any way (my rent is now 7% of my salary), and I’m happier.

For me it all boils down to a feeling of stability and hope for the future. Houses here start at 700k and retirement is expensive.

I also did just pay off my student loans this year after a decade of grappling with them. So that’s probably contributed to my increased happiness as well (I would have paid them off this year even if I hadn’t gotten the raise).

How did you do it? (The tripling)

New job nearly doubled my salary and a side-project I had going benefitted tremendously from this COVID stuff.

I think I will likely see a 1/3 decrease in my take home in 1.5-2 years.

That's awesome - regarding the side-project, great job.

> I do think there will eventually be abloody falling out between our classes. Times have changed however, and I doubt workers will be able to 'win' anymore.

It's a shame, but I have to agree. I'm not into conspiracy theories, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was actually some sort of concerted effort by some elites to keep normal people at odds with one another, simply because if they weren't fighting amoungst themselves they would begin to wonder what to do about the fact that so much wealth and power has concentrate into the hands of such a small group of people. We might could find a political solution to address this if there majority were united, but I think once police and military work are largely automated that will be the ball game. There will thenceforth no longer be any fear of extralegal repercussions (e.g. riots, revolution, etc.) for abusing society at large for personal gain in legal ways.

An average CEO though could be spending three times what you spend for clothes. I used to have a conversation like this some twenty years ago when I worked at a big multinational company and one of my coworkers at that time was earning like 3 times my salary. His expenses for doing his work were a lot more than mine. He was in marketing so appearances did matter, I worked at programming and could go to work with jeans and a t-shirt. That's the thing with the corporate world, the higher in the ladder you are, the more of a presence you have to preserve.

Let's not be so foolish as to think that CEOs actually spend all their money. Even the average silicon valley engineer is dumping a large portion of their pay into investments.

Bill Gates has so much money, he can afford to eradicate diseases off the face of the planet. I don't care how much he spent on his silk tie, you're not even talking about the same ballpark. Expenses mean nothing at that level.

Doesn't matter, at all.

1. You can always take it all and leave. The CEO can take more. 2. The CEO is more insulated from the world - he/she can afford health care for themselves and their family. They drive newer cars which are safer. They live in areas with less crime and more building codes, etc. The point is that there is noticeable comfort/safety increase for these expenses.

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