Are you a millionaire? Really?

[Texas Proud]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FIREmenow Most people in the 1900's didn't live past 50, either. Not much of a glide path needed back then.....

Actually, if you lived into adulthood most people did live past their 50s... it was dying young that reduced expected life span back then...

My mom did genealogy and you could easily see it... most families she has records from had kids that died young... but almost all of them lived into their 70s if they made it to 40....

[FIREmenow]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Texas Proud Actually, if you lived into adulthood most people did live past their 50s... it was dying young that reduced expected life span back then... My mom did genealogy and you could easily see it... most families she has records from had kids that died young... but almost all of them lived into their 70s if they made it to 40....

Interesting!

So much for trusting what is on the "interwebs"..... I thought everything I read on there was true!

[Danmar]

Agree that in historical terms we live in a truly wonderful time. At least if you were born in a developed country, with the right ethnic/racial background, fairly intelligent, worked hard, saved a bit, etc. I think a significant proportion of the human race don't have it that much better than 100 years ago. We are very lucky.

[2017ish]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Danmar Agree that in historical terms we live in a truly wonderful time. At least if you were born in a developed country, with the right ethnic/racial background, fairly intelligent, worked hard, saved a bit, etc. I think a significant proportion of the human race don't have it that much better than 100 years ago. We are very lucky.

Actually, most people are doing substantially better--albeit nowhere near as well as those of us who were lucky enough to be born in US/Canada, etc. For example, from an October 2015 BBC article:

Quote:

The World Bank has said that for the first time less than 10% of the world's population will be living in extreme poverty by the end of 2015. The bank said it was using a new income figure of $1.90 per day to define extreme poverty, up from $1.25. It forecasts that the proportion of the world's population in this category will fall from 12.8% in 2012 to 9.6%.

World Bank: Extreme poverty 'to fall below 10%' - BBC News Humanprogress.org has a wealth of data on this topic. Didn't link to that though since it is affiliated with Cato Institute, which raises concerns for some.

[FIREmenow]

Don't know if y'all have seen this, or if it is in any way directly related to this thread, but I think it is a really cool presentation/visualization:

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

[audreyh1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by audreyh1 The very wealthy had a cook to make them whatever they wanted - they only had to ring a bell. OK it would take like Niger than a few minutes. The rest - well - not a chance!

I'm sure I meant to type:

OK it would take like more than a few minutes.

in that last sentence. Who knows what happens, but I am often victim to extreme over-autocorrection.

[Danmar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2017ish Actually, most people are doing substantially better--albeit nowhere near as well as those of us who were lucky enough to be born in US/Canada, etc. For example, from an October 2015 BBC article: World Bank: Extreme poverty 'to fall below 10%' - BBC News Humanprogress.org has a wealth of data on this topic. Didn't link to that though since it is affiliated with Cato Institute, which raises concerns for some.

Interesting. Thanks for setting me straight. With all the bad news we see around the world, it is easy to forget that things are actually improving.

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by audreyh1 I'm sure I meant to type: OK it would take like more than a few minutes. in that last sentence. Who knows what happens, but I am often victim to extreme over-autocorrection.

Thank you! I puzzled over that for a while, wondering what it meant. Didn't think about auto-correct for some reason.

[Totoro]

Another favorite of mine (and Hans Rosling), child mortality:

https://ourworldindata.org/child-mor...ally-post-1950

Dropping and keeps dropping everywhere. Still a long way to go for some places.

[NW-Bound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunset Don't you call that a land yacht

I would not call my humble class C a land yacht. It's comfortable for me, but has nothing that one would call fancy.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Danmar Agree that in historical terms we live in a truly wonderful time. At least if you were born in a developed country, with the right ethnic/racial background, fairly intelligent, worked hard, saved a bit, etc. I think a significant proportion of the human race don't have it that much better than 100 years ago. We are very lucky.

In looking at photos of people around the world, I cannot help noticing that people of 3rd world countries are getting, er, rounder than they used to be 30 to 40 years ago. Perhaps they eat too much carb, but that beats being skinny and hungry all the time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Totoro Another favorite of mine (and Hans Rosling), child mortality: https://ourworldindata.org/child-mor...ally-post-1950 Dropping and keeps dropping everywhere. Still a long way to go for some places.

I recently read somewhere a French peasant in the Dark Ages could hardly hope to get beyond his twenties. Even among the elite, to be able to make it to the 60s required a lot of luck that one escaped all infectious diseases. Even as recent as the beginning of WWII, penicillin was so expensive and precious that it was recycled from patients' urine for reuse!

So, for people who complain, they should stop, and start to smell the roses. And also their sumac roasted chicken. What, they do not have sumac chicken? Golly, they'd better learn to make some. It does not cost anything.

[Koogie]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FIREmenow Don't know if y'all have seen this, or if it is in any way directly related to this thread, but I think it is a really cool presentation/visualization:

That was excellent ! Thanks

[Letj]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 6miths Whatever they wanted? Well as long as it was local, in season, hadn't spoiled...

I think it's all relative. You don't really miss what you don't have. In my travels around the world, I've known plenty of people who could afford only the basics but had good friends and lots of joy and laughter. I could tell you for many of them, they weren't missing the technology nor high tech medical care but had a great life nevertheless.

[Letj]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound So, I am far, very far, from the millionaire class as first defined in 1719. But who cares? I bet the millionaires back then were miserable from the summer heat, not having cool AC like I do now.

Probably not as bad as you think. They were better adapted than we are today.

[braumeister]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Letj Probably not as bad as you think. They were better adapted than we are today.

And global warming is a modern phenomenon, right?

[FIREmenow]

Well, it certainly caused the flooding in LA.

[RISP]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Koogie That was excellent ! Thanks

+1. Thanks for sharing, FIREmenow!

[pb4uski]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FIREmenow Don't know if y'all have seen this, or if it is in any way directly related to this thread, but I think it is a really cool presentation/visualization:...]

I agree... very cool and very effective. I just wonder if the income axis is real or nominal.

And there is probably a realistic ceiling on age.... though someone might have said the same thing 100 years ago and been proven wrong... longevity doubled over 200 years... could it do so again?

[Danmar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pb4uski I agree... very cool and very effective. I just wonder if the income axis is real or nominal. And there is probably a realistic ceiling on age.... though someone might have said the same thing 100 years ago and been proven wrong... longevity doubled over 200 years... could it do so again?

Yes it was very interesting. Income must be real. Clearly illustrates that things are getting a lot better on average.

[cyber888]

Well, we are comparing today with the year 1768, right? While the real monetary value has gone down, the other side of the equation - quality of life has gone up. If you were a millionaire traveling in 1768, you'd be in a dinky boat. Today, you'd be traveling in a Jet. If you were a millionaire then, you'd be lucky to not be dead at 45 years old with the plague or from drinking non-pasteurize milk. With today's medical breakthrough, you'd live till a 100. If you were a millionaire then, you'd probably be waiting 6 months for a letter from overseas, while today it takes a second to get email. Today, the houses of non-millionaires are more comfortable with electricity, potable water, TV, telephone, winter heating, compared to Multi-millionaire Ibeniza Scrooge who can hardly part a sixpence for a lump of coal.


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

[Mr._Graybeard]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HadEnuff There comes a point where one has more money than there is useful stuff to buy. Probably more so in Thomas Jefferson's time than now. So what would the person with the equivalent of 641 Million $ do with that money in TJ's time? He didn't even have running water..

That reminds me of a passage from McCullough's biography of John Adams from the time JA and Jefferson were representing the US in Paris. According to McCullough, Adams was quite appalled by Jefferson's spendthrift ways. Jefferson apparently found plenty of merchandise to ship home to Monticello.

Of course, Adams was also appalled by Franklin's sexual escapades in the Old World. He seemed to take some pleasure in being appalled.