Current Events > "I don't Think of Myself as Rich"

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/joe-biden-tax-pledge-400k-earners-95d25ff9
The article is paywalled so I haven't read it fully myself but based on these screenshots...come on. I just fucking can't.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/4/4724d4f5.jpg

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/7/74ade7cf.jpg

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/e/e1124a0d.jpg

Well yeah, a major part of being heinously rich is a massive victim complex.

What will be interesting about this is that on paper it absolutely destroys states like California where the cost of living is so high relative to other states. If businesses weren't already incentivized to move out, all of their executives now being in a position where the value of their pay is much more important than the number certainly gives them another reason.

Aren't tax thresholds on earnings over that threshold anyway?

This reminds me of the UK debate show Question time where a party has announced higher taxes for the top 1%, at the time being those earning over 80,000 a year. Some audience member challenges this. "I earn that, I'm not in the top 1%!". Then there was an awkward silence and all the guests and host were like... you factually are.

"I just worked hard."

Fuck all the way off.

It's amazing that healthcare executives don't understand how tax brackets work.

Sry4PartyRockin posted...

It's amazing that healthcare executives don't understand how tax brackets work.

Most do, they just act like they don't because there are a bunch of low income people that will vote in their favor if they play the victim and act like someone below poverty is at risk of having their taxes raised.

If he is feeling that demotivated, I'll gladly do his job, and he can do mine.

The funny part is being rich or not and being a "hard worker" aren't mutually exclusive terms.

Rich people always act weird about shit like this.

Btw, the average salary in Tampa is like $60k. So this dude is making like 6.5x that.

s0nicfan posted...

What will be interesting about this is that on paper it absolutely destroys states like California where the cost of living is so high relative to other states. If businesses weren't already incentivized to move out, all of their executives now being in a position where the value of their pay is much more important than the number certainly gives them another reason.

Maybe. I think we've also seen that rich people at times just like living in California. Obviously we shouldn't assume that there's no breaking point, but man. It's very very unsympathetic

emblem-man posted...

Maybe. I think we've also seen that rich people at times just like living in California. Obviously we shouldn't assume that there's no breaking point, but man. It's very very unsympathetic

Let me be more specific. What I meant by interesting is that I think it will have fairly significant unintended consequences for areas that are tech hubs or have built up a really dense concentration of expertise. Not specifically that it will damage california. It'll have the same effect with manhattan. It might actually be really helpful in the long term because it will force industry to spread out a little bit more rather than concentrating into only a couple of places, creating this endless spiral of pay raises and incentives to motivate people to move there until the cost of living is completely unsustainable.

Any increase in taxes will require cities and states to improve to show the value of the area and they need to also decrease cost of living in general (housing being the big one).

I just can't get over how out of touch these interviewees are though. Really well done rage bait tbh.

I don't think of myself as rich either.

I'm filthy rich, baby.

I grew up in a very cost conscious household. Lot of coupons and sales shopping, not a lot of eating out or fun spending. I didn't get new video games or toys unless I paid for them myself. As a kid I definitely didn't realize we were rich. But by the time I was in high school I managed to put two and two together. I don't know how this guy has less self-awareness than a 14-year-old me.

This man never has to worry about making payments, how to put his kids through college of if they can put food on the table. Being rich isn't about the luxuries you do or don't buy. It's about how easily you can pay for the needs. The luxuries are secondary.

Compsognathus posted...

I grew up in a very cost conscious household. Lot of coupons and sales shopping, not a lot of eating out or fun spending. I didn't get new video games or toys unless I paid for them myself. As a kid I definitely didn't realize we were rich. But by the time I was in high school I managed to put two and two together. I don't know how this guy has less self-awareness than a 14-year-old me.

This man never has to worry about making payments, how to put his kids through college of if they can put food on the table. Being rich isn't about the luxuries you do or don't buy. It's about how easily you can pay for the needs. The luxuries are secondary.

Yep. It has to be one of those, "yeah I can buy my basics and luxuries without thinking about it, while maxing out retirement accounts, plus additional savings, but if I'm not buying first class international flight tickets, am I really rich?"

emblem-man posted...

Yep. It has to be one of those, "yeah I can buy my basics and luxuries without thinking about it, while maxing out retirement accounts, plus additional savings, but if I'm not buying first class international flight tickets, am I really rich?"

Yup. I didn't grow up in a life of luxury but I still had a giant headstart in life that cannot be overstated. Much more than some friends who might have had cooler toys or name-brand cereal but still had to take loans to go to college.

emblem-man posted...

Yep. It has to be one of those, "yeah I can buy my basics and luxuries without thinking about it, while maxing out retirement accounts, plus additional savings, but if I'm not buying first class international flight tickets, am I really rich?"

It's basically rich people saying "Well, at least I'm not wealthy. THOSE people are the ones that are out of touch!"

Compsognathus posted...

This man never has to worry about making payments, how to put his kids through college of if they can put food on the table. Being rich isn't about the luxuries you do or don't buy. It's about how easily you can pay for the needs. The luxuries are secondary.

I'm starting to make some decent money. All my bills are paid and there is food in my fridge. This is something I had to worry about even five years ago.

I am grateful for where I am, but I realize where I came from.

Bump cause I found this so annoying

yeah he probably hangs out with really rich people. he's not quite ready for that reality yet

Boo fucking hoo

Woe is me says the guy making 400k a year in Tampa fucking Florida.

This is apparently a thing that happens with people who are rich but don't "feel" rich because they mostly interact with people around their same income level so it just feels normal to have that kind of wealth. Even though they're wealthier than the vast majority of Americans.

UnsteadyOwl posted...

This is apparently a thing that happens with people who are rich but don't "feel" rich because they mostly interact with people around their same income level so it just feels normal to have that kind of wealth. Even though they're wealthier than the vast majority of Americans.

they're rich. they're not rich rich.

Oooo I'm gonna be so mad if I make 1 dollar over the bracket change and that dollar gets taxed at a slightly higher rate.... oooooooo... *shakes fist*

David Deyer looks exactly how I pictured David Deyer to look.

"We're not extravagant people with high-end country-club memberships or a private jet or anything like that" he said. He declined to say who he is voting for

He's voting for Trump for sure.

Guys, if you meet someone making charitable contributions that are on par with their mortgage payments, they are in fact, rich.

Poor guy. Hopefully his bootstraps are strong enough to pull him up out of his pity party.

dudes on oil rigs work WAY harder than you bud. why aren't they making $400k?

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/d/d065ba8d.jpg

Villain_S_Fiend posted...

"I just worked hard."

Fuck all the way off.

I feel like there's a lot of misconceptions in society about wealthy people. For example, they seem to assume it takes a great intellect to become wealthy. This isn't the case, of course, as you can be stupid and get wealthy by dumb luck or swindling people. Trumps strategy was borrow millions from dad, throw it at random things, lose all that money, borrow more, and throw more money at more random things until some are successful enough to outweigh the failures. That doesn't take genius. It also doesn't require hard work.

Hard work:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/b/be66dec4.jpg

Not hard work:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/d/d706cb46.jpg

Healthcare executive is as evil as it gets.

Imagine enriching yourself by killing millions in the saddest, slowest, most unnecessary way. Then call it an honest hard days work.

It is a weird spot. I definitely did not grow up with money. We rarely went on vacation (and if we did, it was an 8 hour car trip to visit family). My parents did everything they could to make us comfortable, so it didn't feel like we were poor (we were just at the low end of middle class). My wife grew up with a dad who was a bus driver.

When we first got married, we barely made ends meet. Had some rough times and a lot of fights about money.

Now, 25 years later, we're very comfortable. We own our house, we have insurance, we're putting our kid through college, we go out to eat once or twice a week, go on a vacation every year, etc. It doesn't feel "rich" compared to people in million dollar houses and BMW's, but we're doing better than a lot of people

Demotivating to do what? If it was demotivating then he never would've worked to hit that tax bracket in the first place.

No one ever thinks of themselves as rich because all but the richest 3 people can think of someone order of magnitudes better off so comparatively it doesn't feel like enough. But just because you worked hard that doesn't mean the poors haven't. It's less pleasant to acknowledge there's people with bad luck that worked harder but weren't successful.

I honestly would not know what I would spend 400k a year on

FurryPhilosifer posted...

Aren't tax thresholds on earnings over that threshold anyway?

This reminds me of the UK debate show Question time where a party has announced higher taxes for the top 1%, at the time being those earning over 80,000 a year. Some audience member challenges this. "I earn that, I'm not in the top 1%!". Then there was an awkward silence and all the guests and host were like... you factually are.

I work with somebody like that, who complains about his salary. Were in the top 1% of earners in the country and hes lucky that he managed to get a job here. If he leaves here, I seriously doubt hell get better elsewhere.

Hes so used to working so hard, he can just get another job. After all, they raised those wages at McDonalds and he has so e bootstraps to pull.

Euripides posted...

Now, 25 years later, we're very comfortable. We own our house, we have insurance, we're putting our kid through college, we go out to eat once or twice a week, go on a vacation every year, etc. It doesn't feel "rich" compared to people in million dollar houses and BMW's, but we're doing better than a lot of people

I fully understand why people can feel this way. Especially when you get to the point where you're maxing out your 401ks and you're saving like 20k+ a year, but because it gets taken out pre-paycheck, people don't really internalize that they're saving tens of thousands a year. Then lifestyle creep stuff happens, etc. then you have friends who have even more wealthy, so comparison becomes the thief of joy.

It's just important to try to internalize how good you actually are doing....

But yeah, the people in the article need to touch grass.

.

Has anyone said exactly how much more these people would be paying under a new tax bracket?

Are we talking tens of thousands more a year or is it a thousand or even a few hundred.

yeah, when you and a spouse can collectively contribute more to retirement than the average household's gross income you're fucking rich and thinking otherwise makes you a worthless piece of shit

ClayGuida posted...

Has anyone said exactly how much more these people would be paying under a new tax bracket?

Are we talking tens of thousands more a year or is it a thousand or even a few hundred.

Na, it's just about a general idea of taxes increasing for households making over 400k a year. This is because of Biden saying he won't increase taxes on those making below 400k.

It's about the vibes of a tax increase.

I know people in executive level positions that think exactly like this guy...sadly.

emblem-man posted...

"I don't think of myself as rich"

(...)

The article is paywalled

I can't be the only one who finds this funny.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMaSh20qBbg

Rich assholes like this should be forced to live as poor people for like a year just to give them an idea of what it's like. I feel most people who actually struggled and actually worked hard to get themselves up to this position wouldn't think this way and have some kind of perspective on things. This is probably another person who was born on third base and thinks they hit a triple.

If the tax increases over 400k and he makes slightly over 400k, this would barely affect him anyway.

pjnelson posted...

I feel like there's a lot of misconceptions in society about wealthy people. For example, they seem to assume it takes a great intellect to become wealthy. This isn't the case, of course, as you can be stupid and get wealthy by dumb luck or swindling people. Trumps strategy was borrow millions from dad, throw it at random things, lose all that money, borrow more, and throw more money at more random things until some are successful enough to outweigh the failures. That doesn't take genius. It also doesn't require hard work.

It takes intellect to recognize the value of an opportunity for what it is (aka recognizing the chance to take action and subsequently "get lucky") and it especially takes effort and intellect to grow and maintain wealth. Having wealth does afford you more opportunities and give you courage to take on other financial endeavors that you wouldn't be able to take on if you were living paycheque to paycheque.

I think the bigger misconception, to the point of society's detriment (I honestly think this is intentional), is the focus on a singular effort to grow wealth as opposed to respecting that wealth is a team and generational effort. From your parents investing in your education and personal interests from young to financially supporting your business and helping you get your feet off the ground and get established, those are tried and true tactics. There's a book called Creativity by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, psychologist, who interviewed top people in their fields. Many echoed the same support from their family.

Sad_Face posted...

I think the bigger misconception, to the point of society's detriment (I honestly think this is intentional), is the focus on a singular effort to grow wealth as opposed to respecting that wealth is a team and generational effort. From your parents investing in your education and personal interests from young to financially supporting your business and helping you get your feet off the ground and get established, those are tried and true tactics. There's a book called Creativity by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, psychologist, who interviewed top people in their fields. Many echoed the same support from their family.

Definitely this.

My parents were firmly in the "boomer generation" but both worked their way from entry level jobs to higher-end supervisor roles. Mom went from a bank teller to the VP of the Consumer Lending Department of a bank. Dad went from a literal janitor to being the maintenance staffing supervisor of 5 Targets on Long Island.

We lived firmly in the middle class my whole life. Never wanted for anything, but never had anything considered "high end".

That being said... I completely recognize that I was awarded opportunities that others my age did not, and others my age were awarded opportunities that I wasn't. I went to Community College while many of my friends went away to private schools, and others didn't go to college at all. I got a hand me down car that was older than I was when I got my license, some of my friends got brand new cars, others had to save up to buy their own car, or didn't get one at all.

Now, at 46 years old and firmly in whatever is left of the middle class, I recognize that I wouldn't be in the spot I'm in now without my parents (and my In-Laws) help. But I also do apologize for being in the spot I'm in compared to others that are worse off than I am.