Why Pathetic?

 I figured I should explain my comment from yesterday better, though for most people I think it's pretty self explanatory. Or, well... it's like the stories of politicians who don't know the price of milk.

That is, the majority of Americans are so intimately familiar with something that it generally doesn't bear commenting on, but someone who lives an extremely privileged (and isolated) life may not know, which generally makes them stand out in a 'what sort of bubble do they live in that they don't know that?' kind of way.

So. 

Here's the thing. The median wage in the US is about $60,000. That's median, not average, because the ultra-wealthy with really high salaries will skew the average higher. Median means half the population makes less than this, and half make more. 

Now, the top 1% have wealth in things that are harder to judge than salary - stock, land, etc. That's probably why so many statistics on wealth inequality talk more about the share of the economy or something. But let's say making $488,000 a year puts you in the top 1%. 

$488,000 a year is vastly different from $60,000 a year. I also feel compelled to point out, though, that the true anger is at the .01%. They're level of wealth is as vastly different from that $488,000 a year as $488,000/yr is to $60,000. (Maybe even more). Those people may make $7 million or more a year.

So here's the thing. I said yesterday that happiness is correlated to money only up to a certain amount (though I think I said $70K a year yesterday, and now I'm thinking it may have been $75K. The difference is trivial when compared to $488K or $7M so I won't bother looking it up.)

At $75K you probably have the following - a decent place to live, money for food, clothing, and entertainment. A reliable car. Health insurance. Money and time to take at least one nice vacation a year. 

Some of that takes some work, ofc. Maybe the house isn't as big a you'd like, or you can't get the most expensive clothes, or you're not driving an Audi or Bentley or whatever. But if you manage your budget well enough you can generally get the things that really matter to you, and you aren't generally stressing over the necessities of life. (In other words, you're not worrying about how you're going to eat if you pay the rent that month, or worrying that you'll be evicted if you don't pay the rent in order to pay for food. You may not get the clothes you want, but you can afford clothes that are decent and look nice and you can do so without having to worry that buying clothes will make it impossible to pay for your car.)

Now, I've heard that if you invest money .06% is a reasonable return on that investment... so if someone was making $488K/yr and chose to invest it all they'd only have about $29K a year. Not really enough to live comfortably off of without working... but .06% of that $7M is about $420,000... the ultrawealthy could invest most of their money and live off that investments with a salary that still puts them in the top 1%. Or close enough to be make no difference.

By which I mean, someone making 488K a year can (with time, and smart investments, etc) probably find a way to be financially independent without needing to work. They may not be there initially, but it's pretty doable. 

If they're not doing the whole 'keeping up with the Joneses' thing, and trying too hard to match lifestyles in stupid ways. Like - unless you have a reason to live in a place with a high cost of living, why do it? You can get a perfectly nice house in some place that isn't New York City or Chicago or California at a fraction of the price. Is it your job? Showing off how much you can afford? Associating with people of similar status?

Someone in that top .01%, btw, doesn't even have to do that level of planning. They could probably quit their job and live quite comfortably off their investments for the rest of their life. 

So - to bring this back to yesterday's posts - why do people with that level of wealth care so much about what everyone else thinks?

At this point I think it's worth discussing something else. That is - why would someone who could happily live off their investments do anything else? Why not buy some island, or ranch, or town, and just f- off and do whatever you want? 

Being President, or becoming a CEO, or pursuing a goal... really shouldn't be about trying to be happy. It's about being able to influence the world in a certain way. To make your mark. You could even say it's about power, though that has connotations that are not necessarily correct.

Or rather, there's pursuit of power and there's pursuit of power. There are people who like to build things, who will build a team that can make great decisions and create an amazing world to live in. And then there are people who just like to boss others around, and be the one who gets to make the big decisions... and they frankly don't trust their people to make any decisions without them, which also means that they have to spend far too much time telling people what to do because God forbid they think for themselves and make a decision on their own. 

(Seriously, that sort of leadership sounds exhausting. I don't want to be bothered with stupid questions you can figure out for yourself. As part of that whole 'team development' or 'teaching' or whatever I may help walk you through the decision-making process so you can see what sorts of things I think about when considering the issue, but that's it. And once you make that decision, I'll back it up and support it... because if I wanted something else I'd have said so, and I'm not about to undo all that work by undermining the decision you made.)

Anyways. The 1%, and the .01% especially are in a position where they can afford to be called 'eccentric' and still live a pretty cushy life. So forget all the peer pressure BS and go figure out what makes you happy. Not many people are lucky enough to have that option, and it's a crying shame that you are and don't choose to do it. 

If you care about that stuff because you want power (or power) then you should probably be thinking more carefully about the world you're helping create, and who you support in the process. You honestly have enough independence and self-sufficiency that you can probably find someone worth supporting, and if you feel like you have to support someone who is immoral, who leads people in negative ways, who bullies and intimidates and blackmails people into supporting them...

Well, why the hell do you think you have no other option? What are you afraid of? What compromises have you made with yourself in order to justify what you are party to? 

And are the consequences you're so afraid of really as dire as you think they are?