Ultra-wealthy people are working remotely from their superyachts | Hacker News Reader

Ultra-wealthy people are working remotely from their superyachts

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55 pointsharambae49 comments

They should remake Waterworld, set 100 years into the future. Central banks have printed enough money to buy up all the houses and leave them empty and decrepit. Civilization is reduced to living in Walmart parking lots while the rich have settled on floating ultrayachts in the middle of the ocean. A man develops gills and can swim between the yachts, which he plunders designer products from to deck out his swagboat. He discovers a mysterious key in an LV bag which can unlock the county assessor's office and return everyone to dry land, and everyone is after it.

Let's call it, "Walley World."

I mean, that sounds like just a few tweaks to the setting of "Snow Crash"

I never had the impression that people with eight or nine figure paychecks shlepped to the office regularly even before the pandemic.

I think some of these superyacht owners might actually be in the $1 paycheck club.

What rubbish clickbait. Anyone who can afford a super yacht was never constrained by return-to-office mandates. They are the boss dictating their own fates.

I don't see this freedom as a problem.

The greater problem is the accelerating CEO pay compared to worker pay. Auto workers were recently offered 21% while CEOs saw gains of 40%. Widening inequality and lack of integrated delivery social programs creates a myriad of socioeconomic problems including the homelessness crisis, latchkey kids with absent dual income parents, and reduced purchasing power.

Do you mean "accelerating Worker pay"? or do CEOs still need more?

So they are all lazy and don't really work?

Because that's what's being said about the not super rich in home office

Probably. My apartment doesn't have an infinity pool with attached hot tub, a tennis/basketball/whatever court, game room, servants, "servants" or helipad with waiting helicopter.

So your helipad has to share a vehicle with others? How gauche,

The picture shows just about the most unproductive working position imaginable, raising the neck to stare at a laptop washed out in the bright sun while having to type with arms that also need to support the body.

Also lying on a net, I wonder what this person's elbows look like after a few minutes.

I heard from a friend that executives in the Auto Industry were taking Zoom meetings from their boats early on in the pandemic. The bad PR from this pushed people back to the office.

In February and March in the SouthEast, I'll occasionally tune into listen only all calls, on the dock or the pontoon boat (this seat and table works well as a short term desk for some fresh air)

Sending "we're better together" RTO mails from their yachts, too, I'm sure.

I wonder if warehouse workers would really distinguish much between a yacht deck, a $200K tech sprinter in a forest or even 345 Spear St. Must be nice to see all those pretty shades of gray.

So is the implication that the poor (in wealth) souls should do better to educate themselves on the types of aquatic luxuries, or that it's better to be so poor you don't have to worry about the different types of aquatic luxuries?

Rephrase: What are you on about man?

It’s curious to me why such articles about the 1% of the US are standard fare on a website blessed with the top 1-2% of the World.

I guess it’s just different and warehouse folks should appreciate that.

Because your average low six figure software dev has more in common with the warehouse workers then the actually rich. Accounting for inflation all these "rich" tech bros have made it to what would be called "middle class" in the 80s and 90s. And unless you're DINKing around at $250k base salary in a low CoL area you haven't even made it to uppper middle class of that era.

High inflation and the disproportionate increases in housing costs even relative to the high inflation have made people so much poorer but it happened so fast the number adjustment hasn't caught up to where people don't realize that $80k which was a modest salary in 1990 you need $180k today to get that purchasing power.

The sentiment "woah, you make six figures!" was affected by inflation too and you need a quarter million to have that today.

$80k was not a modest salary in 1990; that was 2.7x the median household income. My dad made less than that in 1990 we lived comfortably in a 4BR house in the suburbs of DC.

[edit]

I should point out that my parents purchased a house for $100k in 1985 that, by inflation, should be worth $285k today. Instead, my friend's house (same neighborhood, 4BR, within 30 square-feet of the size of my house) just sold for over $800k. Ignoring affordability of the mortgage (which is complicated due to interest rate changes), my parents could not have swung the down payment a house that cost similar after inflation ($160k in 2023 dollars, ~$55k in 1985 dollars).

That would be interesting if these types postings only started appearing during the inflation era. But this has been front page fare for much longer.

I walked by three stealth sprinters today getting coffee. Would people here get angry if I started calling them Land Yachts? I’d knock and ask for their YT channel, but they probably only do tiktok.

> Would people here get angry if I started calling them Land Yachts?

Probably. Because it's absurd to compare a multi-million dollar yacht with helicopter landing pads (yes plural), a 40' swimming pool and 10k sq ft of living space with someone who crams themselves into a tiny uncomfortable box trying to get some semblance of freedom. One of these things is attainable by most folks with a steady income and one of these isn't even attainable by the poor single digit millionaires.

I love that living in a van down by the river is apparently considered wealthy now. I never realized that Cousin Eddie was such a high roller.

It's certainly an activity you can dump tons of money into. Just not yacht or super yacht levels of money. Van living ranges from this (https://cdn-fastly.thetruthaboutcars.com/media/2022/06/29/84...) to this (https://cdn-bnfef.nitrocdn.com/eWjkeuhuSZgzzpVvWRuUwjfEcKLuv...) and everything in between.

I couldn't have put it more clearly.

I look at the local dismal state lottery; it takes months to tick up from $1 million prize to $2 million, and think "even if I won, I couldn't even really quit my job." After taxes, it would barely cover a slightly above average tract home in a new development.

Because raging against the spending habits of billionaires is always easier than self-examination and consideration of one's own wealth and privilege.

Are you talking about working aboard superyachts, or working about the backup "emotional support yachts" needed to carry extra jet skis, clothing, staff, and personal hospitals?

Imagine how productive they would be if they came to the office.

Neither boat pictured in the article is a superyacht.

> "Our expenses are roughly $3,500/month, including our $1,350 boat payment," the couple told Here. "We took out a loan, similar to a mini-mortgage, to buy our sailboat. It's the first piece of 'property' like this we've ever owned."

Seems more like alternative living and could just as easily apply to an apartment-sized RV (think diesel pusher) or a lake/ski/mountain cabin.

Sounds more #vanlife #fire than billionaire level.

> $1,350 boat payment

Does this buy a house in any US city?

Yes, but your options are very limited.

> Ultra-wealthy people are working

Oh come on now!

«Ultra-wealthy people are working remotely from their superyachts and running their businesses from the high seas»

I mean... Wouldn't you do the same? I would.

Looks cool, for shorter stints. Also heard of "poorer" folks using a cruise to help focus on a hard project.

However I always wondered what these ships do when a big storm blows thru? Or is possible to (almost) always avoid them?

Possible, but it's far from glamourous. Boat life isn't as much as tourism as it is bluewater boat maintenance. You either spend thousands on crap work or do crap work yourself. You have to monitor weather, anchor, batteries, fridges, water every day. If you have stowaways that are on vacation then it's even harder as you are always pulled to have fun (ever tried to travel while working with someone who doesn't have to?)

I'd like to know the food logistics for sailing around the world. Would they have a crew that procures bulk ingredients like fruit, rice, and such and make them meals 3x a day?

Superyachts have a crew far outnumbering the passengers, and they will stop at ports and send people out to buy ingredients regularly. Not that different from running a large country house in the gilded age.

That's the reality even with smaller yachts. Some family friends have a 70' yacht and even at that size they have two full-time crew members.

Boat is your house and dinghy is your car. People invest in good dinghy so they can easily move about while on anchor.

Yes. Then you re-stock when you go to harbour.

There’s a “crew chef” channel on YouTube.

"The Rich have always had Virtual Reality." - some wag way back in the 90s when VR started becoming "A thing."

Wonder what they are paying for their internet?

Starlink mobile priority for 5TB is $5000 per month not including equipment. https://starlink-enterprise-guide.readme.io/docs/compare-ser...

Starlink and directional 4/5G can make it cheap.

Article is a submarine

Get back to the office, you lazy bums!

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