Are you a millionaire? Really?

[Totoro]

Yes, eventually people will have to learn to do with less, as the earth resources dwindle.

I'm not sure about that aspect as driving force for less availability. Every atom 'used' is still here, it's a matter of getting even better at rearranging them.

No easy feat, yet all it really needs is energy and people ingenuity, we're getting much better at that all the time. And with a great nuclear fusion reactor in the sky we're not running out of energy anytime soon.

Demographics can be a thing, although we already reached peak child on the inflow side. The biggest trend to fight (besides black swams like epidemics and meteors) is on the outflow side: aging badly.

Bunch of dementing, frail and useless elderly (of which I would be one) supported by dwindling youth can throw us off the deep end. Unclear how that will evolve, Japan and Germany are giving us the 'best' sneak peek right now and in the coming years.

The only unsolvable issue is less land per person with each person. Before that really becomes a problem we'll need to go x3 or x5 though. Still a ways off whatever growth or aging scenarios prevails.

 

[Texas Proud]

No, it was in today's dollars. The same Wiki article has a summary box that says "Net worth: US$309 billion in 2007 dollars, according to Forbes".

That's still 4X Bill Gates' net worth, which is the highest in the world at $75B.

Sorry... I had typed that before I added his total net worth... I do think the purchase price was the 1900 dollars...

 

[Redbugdave]

Good points about the rich of past. Some things to think about. Hmmm...A comfortable rolling voyage on a ship vs an airplane ride of today. Things were different for sure.

 

[6miths]

And prior to the 20th century even in the most affluent countries one could expect to lose half of one's children and have about a 50/50 chance of losing one's DW in childbirth. Being rich helped a bit but not much, especially on the maternal mortality.

 

[tennisplyr]

No......but I'm happy

 

[OneDay]

I'm not rich by any means, but I've got 75 acres, a nice home, decent vehicles, all paid for. I've also got a good nest egg, but more importantly I've i got a wife I adore and two beautiful kids, come to think of it, yeah I'm rich.

 

[jollystomper]

Two words: indoor plumbing. That alone makes we a whole lot better off that the millionaires in the 1700s.

 

[mickeyd]

According to Wikipedia (and I don't think the calculations are far off), a million US dollars in 1900 is equivalent to $28,400,000 in 2015:

Since we are playing games with big numbers, if Vanguard TSM was around in 1900 and I had $1M invested in my taxable TSM account since that time and let the dividends accumulate, I wonder what my account total would be today?

 

[6miths]

Since we are playing games with big numbers, if Vanguard TSM was around in 1900 and I had $1M invested in my taxable TSM account since that time and let the dividends accumulate, I wonder what my account total would be today?

Alot! Inflation adjusted annual return of S&P500 is 6.5% since 1900.

That means 1 million went to 1.41 billion by my calculation.

 

[Bamaman]

Yeah, choices.

Weather I want my butler to "wash my dick" or not would be one of them.

I was with my college roommate yesterday, and he was raised in one of the premier antebellum mansions in The South.

Ring the doorbell, and a uniformed butler would answer the door. And the butler was also the bartender. Nobody ever visited and didn't leave without being completely intoxicated.

Really wealthy people may have never cooked a meal in their lives--and have a full time cook. The cook would serve shrimp cocktails on puff pastry shells off silver trays.

We'd drink gin and grapefruit juice until dark when they switched over to Jack Daniels on the rocks. The father died at about age 70--of alcoholicism.

And never did their butler do what you're suggesting. The wealthy do have some kind of pride.

 

[FIREd]

It is hard to feel like a "millionaire" when I am also the cook, the footman, the maid, the butler, the gardener, the handyman, the accountant, the tax preparer, the chauffeur, etc...

 

[Redbugdave]

It is hard to feel like a "millionaire" when I am also the cook, the footman, the maid, the butler, the gardener, the handyman, the accountant, the tax preparer, the chauffeur, etc...

That's how you got to be a milllionaire...by being self sufficient!

 

[NW-Bound]

I also feel proud of being able to take care of myself.

 

[bclover]

It is hard to feel like a "millionaire" when I am also the cook, the footman, the maid, the butler, the gardener, the handyman, the accountant, the tax preparer, the chauffeur, etc...

LOL, that's called a "Mom"

 

[ejman]

I think most people look back with 20-20 vision from today's standards. Sure...medicine and technology are better today than the 1700 or 1800's. Lifespans are longer now. But, I think millionaires of the past still lived a better life than millionaires of today. Think about it...the rule of law did not apply to the upper class as much as it does today. Those folks did whatever they wanted to do. They made the law. The Robber Barons of the 1800's and early 1900's really lived lavishly in a different style than the rich of today. Think of the land and empires these people owned. Look at the Biltmore Estate for instance in it's heyday. Many of these rich people may have lived shorter lives with more disease but the quality of life is what counts in my eyes.

Now try to think ahead to the future of the rich. I think the age we live in now has no reference to the future. We can only look back with tinted glasses. In the future, there will be less resources, more people, less land, and because of that probably more wars. I do realize the rich are insulated from much of this, but when resources are strained it affects everybody.

Opinions? What are my flaws? This is an interesting subject for me.

I think the flaws in your thinking are as follows:
1) Less resources - Technology has demonstrated an incredible ability to substitute advanced technologies for expensive resources. I remember reading long ago that third world countries would never reach wide availability of phone services as in the 1st world because there was not enough cooper to build all of the phone lines needed. People in the middle of nowhere in Africa have cell phones now. Cooper land lines totally bypassed.

2) Less land/ more people. Yes on earth. Have you noticed how things seem to be really jumping in the space development area? - it's a big universe out there.

3) More wars. Although the media makes it appear as if Armageddon is here, any objective analysis of the actual numbers of people killed in warfare show that this is actually one of the most peaceful periods mankind has known and as economic development continues throughout the world that trend will probably accelerate.

 

[Redbugdave]

I think the flaws in your thinking are as follows:
1) Less resources - Technology has demonstrated an incredible ability to substitute advanced technologies for expensive resources. I remember reading long ago that third world countries would never reach wide availability of phone services as in the 1st world because there was not enough cooper to build all of the phone lines needed. People in the middle of nowhere in Africa have cell phones now. Cooper land lines totally bypassed.

2) Less land/ more people. Yes on earth. Have you noticed how things seem to be really jumping in the space development area? - it's a big universe out there.

3) More wars. Although the media makes it appear as if Armageddon is here, any objective analysis of the actual numbers of people killed in warfare show that this is actually one of the most peaceful periods mankind has known and as economic development continues throughout the world that trend will probably accelerate.

Good points, EJ. I need to mull over this some more. Space...The final frontier, but I don't think space will ever take the place where we are adapted for now, though. I guess for the amount of people on the planet now vs centuries before, we are a bit more civilized on the numbers from war. Hmmm.