I've realized I just don't understand greed

[Fizzzzle]

Kelly Loeffler and her husband, who is chairman of the NYSE and CEO of a Fortune 500 company, reportedly have a combined net worth of around half a billion dollars. They have a 15,000 square foot mansion in Atlanta, a $5 million house in Los Angeles (which they paid for in cash), along with probably a couple other places. They don't have any kids and, given that she's 50 years old, never will. They could just retire right now and live the rest of their days globetrotting and sipping wine. With that level of wealth, they're probably making $20-30 million/year from interest alone (probably more because you know those motherfuckers are insider trading)

 

Instead, Kelly Loeffler is... *checks notes* ... campaigning for a JOB?!? Probably for no other reason than to add to their scrooge mcduck vault? Why? I don't get it.

 

There's something fundamentally different in these peoples' brains. Or maybe I'm the one whose brain doesn't work? I can't imagine having so much money that I make 8 figures a year from just having money, and putting myself under any kind of stressful responsibility voluntarily.

 

Like, YOU WON! You won life! Congratulations! You don't have to deal with this shit anymore! Go get a part time job if you get bored in retirement like the rest of us! At least, those of us who ever get to retire.

[Keyser_Soze]

 

[Anathema-]

What will really bake your noodle is when you realize it's less greed than competition. 

[Fizzzzle]

14 minutes ago, Anathema- said:

What will really bake your noodle is when you realize it's less greed than competition. 

Competition for what, though? Like I said, they won! They won life!

 

Some people, like Trump, very clearly have deep, deep insecurities. I can understand why nothing is ever enough for him, because all you have to do is tell him he still has tiny hands and he'll make it his next goal to have the largest gold plated living room ever built. Kelly Loeffler does not strike me as such a person. She won, and she knows she won.

[Air_Delivery]

26 minutes ago, Fizzzzle said:

Competition for what, though? Like I said, they won! They won life!

 

Some people, like Trump, very clearly have deep, deep insecurities. I can understand why nothing is ever enough for him, because all you have to do is tell him he still has tiny hands and he'll make it his next goal to have the largest gold plated living room ever built. Kelly Loeffler does not strike me as such a person. She won, and she knows she won.

They see themselves as poor compared to the multi billionaires.

[Anathema-]

They haven't won because they're playing a different game. 

[Fizzzzle]

It's still somewhat surprising. Loeffler, for example: She comes from money, but she doesn't come from "fuck you" wealth like, say, Donald Trump. I associate the people who are "playing a different" game with people who were born into that highest echelon. They've never known anything other than unimaginable wealth, so you can kind of see how the whole thing becomes a game.

[Anathema-]

Well that's just what it would take well meaning people like you and me to get like that. She's obviously wired different. 

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

Being a senator has it's own perks outside of it's salary/pension/etc

 

It makes you one of the most important people on the planet, and people are basically forced to listen to whatever dumb shit comes to mind, and people will in fact actively seek you and your dumb opinions out. All this and you don't have much real responsibility to speak of, and you have the job for six years and there's just about not a goddamn thing anyone can do about it in the meantime

 

[Fizzzzle]

I wish more rich people could just be like Tom from Myspace. He cashed out in 2009 and was like "alright, I won. I'm gonna go travel the world, take pictures, and probably slay some poon. Catch me on my yacht, bitches." And we've barely heard from him since.

[Bloodporne]

3 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

He's not that kinda boy 

[CitizenVectron]

1 hour ago, Fizzzzle said:

I wish more rich people could just be like Tom from Myspace. He cashed out in 2009 and was like "alright, I won. I'm gonna go travel the world, take pictures, and probably slay some poon. Catch me on my yacht, bitches." And we've barely heard from him since.

 

Indeed, the greatest thing (and only acceptable thing) a rich person can morally do with their money (which is all immorally earned) is spend it as quickly as possible.

[Fizzzzle]

1 minute ago, CitizenVectron said:

 

Indeed, the greatest thing (and only acceptable thing) a rich person can morally do with their money (which is all immorally earned) is spend it as quickly as possible.

I don't mind people getting rich, honestly. Do you the best you can. Leave shit for your ungrateful children if you can. I just start to have a problem when people who are so wealthy that they have literally already won the game of life and now exist in Elysium are deciding policy decisions and such for people who very much still have to think about things like bills. Like, you don't exist in our world anymore, you have no business governing it.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

I'll let Gordon Gekko explain:

 

 

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

1 hour ago, Fizzzzle said:

I don't mind people getting rich, honestly. Do you the best you can. Leave shit for your ungrateful children if you can. I just start to have a problem when people who are so wealthy that they have literally already won the game of life and now exist in Elysium are deciding policy decisions and such for people who very much still have to think about things like bills. Like, you don't exist in our world anymore, you have no business governing it.

Legitimately the most money someone can conceivably get as a worker is around $10million in their lifetime (in today's money) in the form of wages.

 

Anything more than thereabouts you've probably done something immoral or unethical, though probably legal (at the low end)

[CitizenVectron]

27 minutes ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

Legitimately the most money someone can conceivably get as a worker is around $10million in their lifetime (in today's money) in the form of wages.

 

Anything more than thereabouts you've probably done something immoral or unethical, though probably legal (at the low end)

 

And if someone is making $10 million in wages, they are at the very high end. That's $250,000/yr for 40 years.

[mclumber1]

32 minutes ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

Legitimately the most money someone can conceivably get as a worker is around $10million in their lifetime (in today's money) in the form of wages.

 

Anything more than thereabouts you've probably done something immoral or unethical, though probably legal (at the low end)

 

Yeah fuck professional athletes

[Fizzzzle]

3 minutes ago, mclumber1 said:

 

Yeah fuck professional athletes

I mean, that is a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very small exception

[CitizenVectron]

18 minutes ago, mclumber1 said:

 

Yeah fuck professional athletes

 

Honestly...yeah, fuck'em. Almost nothing is worth making millions per year (except making someone else more, which is why people are paid that much). But in terms of actual value, almost anyone in any job (including athletes) can be replaced by someone else, it's not like the majority of rich people are actually better at what they do than other people who aren't rich.

[Joe]

24 minutes ago, mclumber1 said:

 

Yeah fuck professional athletes

They’re honestly the best rich people. They spend a ton of their money and enrich the lives of those around them as well as opposed to wealthy billionaires who only think about their families.

[Keyser_Soze]

10 minutes ago, Joe said:

They’re honestly the best rich people. They spend a ton of their money and enrich the lives of those around them as well as opposed to wealthy billionaires who only think about their families.

 

Depends on the athlete.

[Fizzzzle]

That's why Andrew Bynum is my hero. He played in the NBA long enough to get a massive guaranteed contract and then was like "you know what, guys? I honestly don't really like playing basketball. I just did it because I'm seven feet tall and people told me I should. Now that I have this money.... catch me on my yacht, bitches."

 

And we've barely heard from him since.

[Keyser_Soze]

2 minutes ago, Fizzzzle said:

That's why Andrew Bynum is my hero. He played in the NBA long enough to get a massive guaranteed contract and then was like "you know what, guys? I honestly don't really like playing basketball. I just did it because I'm seven feet tall and people told me I should. Now that I have this money.... catch me on my yacht, bitches."

 

And we've barely heard from him since.

 

What about Andrew Luck?

[Fizzzzle]

1 minute ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

What about Andrew Luck?

I don't know that much about his retirement, but good for him if that's what he wants to do and he still gets that money.

 

If billionaires are signing your paychecks, take them for everything you can and leave nothing behind. You don't owe them shit. You don't owe the fans shit, either. Get that money and get the fuck out.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

1 hour ago, mclumber1 said:

 

Yeah fuck professional athletes

"Probably" is not "definitely"

 

There is maybe ~5000 pro athletes in the US, but by definition there's ~3.3 million people in the top 1% by salary, who could easily clear $10million in their working lives based on salary alone. Executives, lawyers, etc. 

 

Most pro athletes will not make $10million in a lifetime.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

For comparison, Per BLS, doctors and physicians make on average from ~180k-280k/year depending on speciality, with median income of about $200k

[Mr.Vic20]

Understanding these folks is not hard. Our social models place outcome based values above all else. Society rarely seriously considers the nature of how success is achieved. These kinds of people are bent toward competitive domination, often without limit. They are willing to do what you are not, rules and people be damned. And society rewards them for this. So the loop completes itself. Its only later that people come along and say, hey, that's kinda fucked up! but noting that something is fucked up is not the same as having an alterative. So "visionaries" will come along to make change and guess who they will hire? that same old group of monsters, er...winners! I meant winners! So terrible people, who have a constant "game on" attitude will always be a part of the puzzle because less psychotic people don't want to be "on" 24/7, because they are normal people!

 

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

― George Bernard Shaw

[Kal-El814]

1 hour ago, mclumber1 said:

Yeah fuck professional athletes

 

This is “BMI is useless because I know a guy who’s 6’2” 245lbs with 1% body fat” level posting.

[skillzdadirecta]

1 hour ago, mclumber1 said:

 

Yeah fuck professional athletes

And artists, and musicians, and performers, and youtubers, and writers etc...

[Joe]

7 minutes ago, Kal-El814 said:

 

This is “BMI is useless because I know a guy who’s 6’2” 245lbs with 1% body fat” level posting.

 

Not really though.

[mclumber1]

2 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

And artists, and musicians, and performers, and youtubers, and writers etc...

 

No one deserves or earned that much money.

[Chairslinger]

Just now, Mr.Vic20 said:

Understanding these folks is not hard. Our social models place outcome based values above all else. Society rarely seriously considers the nature of how success is achieved. These kinds of people are bent toward competitive domination, often without limit. They are willing to do what you are not, rules and people be damned. And society rewards them for this. So the loop completes itself. Its only later that people come along and say, hey, that's kinda fucked up! but noting that something is fucked up is not the same as having an alterative. So "visionaries" will come along to make change and guess who they will hire? that same old group of monsters, er...winners! I meant winners! So terrible people, who have a constant "game on" attitude will always be a part of the puzzle because less psychotic people don't want to be "on" 24/7, because they are normal people!

 

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

― George Bernard Shaw

 

 

And America in particular has supercharged this whole process by making greed and the accumulation of things into a literal moral virtue.

 

I remember when I heard the term "late stage capitalism" for the first time it seemed so perfect. I don't study economics at all, so I guess it is a term that goes back a ways and probably isn't a reference to it, but the reason my mind found it so apt is what we have in America is like the financial version of stage 4 cancer. We have late stage, terminal capitalism.

[mclumber1]

5 minutes ago, Chairslinger said:

 

 

And America in particular has supercharged this whole process by making greed and the accumulation of things into a literal moral virtue.

 

I remember when I heard the term "late stage capitalism" for the first time it seemed so perfect. I don't study economics at all, so I guess it is a term that goes back a ways and probably isn't a reference to it, but the reason my mind found it so apt is what we have in America is like the financial version of stage 4 cancer. We have late stage, terminal capitalism.

 

Late stage capitalism is just another buzzword that gets thrown around haphazardly by pretentious beanie wearing twenty somethings who decided to major in art or literature. 

[Jason]

Just now, mclumber1 said:

 

Late stage capitalism is just another buzzword that gets thrown around haphazardly by pretentious beanie wearing twenty somethings who decided to major in art or literature. 

 

Okay boomer. 

[Joe]

Mclumber getting spicy up in here.