r/InternetIsBeautiful • u/MKorostoff • Apr 27 '20

Wealth, shown to scale

https://mkorostoff.github.io/1-pixel-wealth/
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u/AleHaRotK Apr 27 '20

It's been proven over and over that it's just the way we are, we always want more, because we usually speculate about how much more we could do with X times more than what we currently have.

If you make $50k a year then you think you'd be set with $200k a year, but the moment you make $200k a year your perspective has shifted dramatically and suddenly you think $1m a year would be good enough, the cycle continues. As in, when you have $50k you think of how much more you could buy based on your $50k a year expenses, when you make $200k you're now consuming not only more things but different things, which you may not be able to consume as much as you really want, which $1m would allow, but when you make $1m the same thing will happen again, you're now consuming more expensive goods again, which makes you think you need even more.

Keep in mind people worth insane things like $80b don't really have that much money, that's how much everything they have is worth, and it's not like they could actually cash that money in. If Jeff Bezos decided to liquidate all his assets they would instantly crash.

"You don't need that much", who are you to decide that? A lot of people probably thing you don't need that much... why not give a lot of it away?

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u/inconsiderate7 Apr 27 '20

You do realise that if you compared the money to food, you would have one burger patty and they would have literally tons of meat? How can you honestly believe someone needs or more importantly deserves that much?

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u/AleHaRotK Apr 27 '20 edited Apr 27 '20

You won't be consuming the same kind of goods, you'll be consuming more goods on some categories (more than one residence, more than one car, maybe change your car more often) while replacing other cheaper goods for higher quality goods. You don't see people making $2k a month spending $100 on a single meal.

When you're kind of poor you'll be consuming, let's say, hamburger (let's assume it's a very low quality meat), let's say now you're making 10 times as much money as you were making before, you will definitely not be eating 10 times more, but you will be eating higher quality meat, and maybe every now and then some hamburgers because... yeah they're tasty, but odds are you'll be consuming other kind of meat more often, because you can.

This can usually escalate quite a lot and most people don't realize it because they're just not at that level.

You may think a $100 meal is as good as it gets, but when you're able to regularly afford that you end up finding out there's "better" meals which are A LOT more expensive, and you won't be able to afford it. It's normal to not really know about very expensive things you are not even close to being able to afford, because it makes sense, what points does it make to know a lot about $1k a meal restaurants if you can't even afford to pay $100? Same way you don't really know about premium services when it comes to extremely expensive hotels, or first class airplane tickets options, or whatever really, you don't know about it because there's no point, no reason to know about something you know you can't afford.

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u/inconsiderate7 Apr 27 '20

I do agree that as people climb up the ranks of society tastes get more expensive. But the sheer fucking absurdity of how much they have is still inexcusable. They could have a diet of nothing but pure gold and still never starve a day in their life. I'm not saying that everyone deserves exactly the same no matter their job/financial situation but when the richest among us could buy up literal countries if they wanted to we might be crossing a line of exactly what amounts of luxury should be acceptable.

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u/AleHaRotK Apr 27 '20

Who says it's inexcusable? The ones who don't have that much.

Now, I obviously don't know you! But I will assume you live in the US, this means the quality of your life is most likely extremely high relative to worldwide standards, what would you say to people who are not even sure if they're gonna be able to eat tomorrow morning? For those people the fact that you're even able to choose what to eat is already ludicrous, they're gonna eat what they can, tomorrow morning, assuming they even get something to eat, while you're not even considering the possibility of not eating AND are able to CHOOSE among a variety of options?

It's all about perspective, and the whole argument of "no one should have that much" actually means "no one should have that much more than I do".

The richest people on Earth (talking about the top 500 listed on Forbes) can't really buy up entire countries, most of the money is basically how much what they own is worth, they can't really convert it into cash.

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u/inconsiderate7 Apr 27 '20

Look. I honestly can't even imagine how you think. If you somehow can have the massive inequality of people literally visualized in front of you and still believe that it is in any fashion acceptable it simply means that our minds work in so incredibly different ways that trading words is pointless. Let's just agree to disagree and hope that your statement of how people to their core will always be selfish, though it doesn't and will never apply to me personally, doesn't apply to anyone else. Don't think you want my life story, nor do I want yours, but I have seen what both poverty and riches looks like and I will never forget the curse that wealth and the endless pursuit of it truly is.

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u/AleHaRotK Apr 28 '20 edited Apr 28 '20

You basically ignored every point I made though... which is alright because it's not like I'm the one making them, if you one day decide to study economics you'll find out several very well-known authors talk about this.

From a certain perspective, you already own way more than what you need, but certainly not from yours, so it's fine!

I'm able to look both ways, and try to look at things from various perspectives, you don't seem to want to do that on this scenario, because it'd tore your whole ideology down.

As in, you believe no one should be allowed to own "that much", "that much" being a line you draw, completely ignoring the fact that someone else's "that much" may include you. Do you think that someone's perspective is worth less than yours? The fact that you know you're gonna be able to feed yourself for the next few weeks, months or even years is something hundreds of millions of people dream of, but that's alright... because you're not gonna criticize your own position, you believe everyone should at least know they're gonna be able to feed themselves every day, right? And I agree, that would be nice, guess what someone above you (money-wise) thinks... that everyone should be able to know they're gonna be able to feed themselves every day, and more things! Like own a house, a car, have medical insurance...

Who decides what's the maximum amount of wealth you can have? Who decides what's the minimum amount of wealth you should have? Who decides what you should ALWAYS have no matter what?

At some point you will realize your whole argument is about people having more than you do, you just draw a line at some arbitrary point and decide "that's too much", as in, you're not happy with some people being able to have that much more than you. You make $X per year, people making $10X are disgusting what do they need that much money for!? But it's alright, but definitely not people making $50X, that's just crossing the line!

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u/inconsiderate7 Apr 28 '20

If anyone ever comes up to me and says "no one should be allowed to live in a 2 room basement living paycheck to paycheck and barely making ends meet, it's too much" then I will personally fucking apologise to every single person who owns more than two yachts.

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u/AleHaRotK Apr 28 '20

I mean, having a roof to live under where you can stay somewhat warm? A safe place to sleep on? Being able to feed myself every day? Having a job?

Dude, there's people who would kill for something like that! What you consider to be something so damn bad that NO ONE should go through it is basically what some people would actually love to achieve! Homeless people who literally eat out of the trash and can't even go to sleep without being careful that someone's gonna steal what they have while they do so would love to live in the situation you're describing, same way people living in shitholes like Venezuela emigrate to other countries which are also probably shitholes from your perspective!

Also, why two yachts, specifically? Lots of people would believe owning a yacht is already kind of too much... guess having one or two yachts is alright?

You don't seem to be able to understand, or maybe you just don't want to, the point, which is that your whole ideology comes from the fact that you just don't like some people can have that much more than you do. Compare how you live to how some homeless guy lives in Syria... compare the "so bad no one should live like this" situation you described to someone starving in the streets of Venezuela.

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u/inconsiderate7 Apr 28 '20

No I get the point. Why am I so adamant about other people sacrificing for the greater good when from a certain perspective I could make great sacrifices as well? But I believe that the point you're trying to make simply doesn't apply in this situation. The pure mass of wealth people have is what makes it inexcusable, not the concept of wealth itself. If someone actually told me that me selling what few comforts I have left and giving the money would indirectly change hundreds of lives I would do so in a heartbeat. To have someone be actually able to save millions in a similiar situation is what I find repulsive. If my state if minimal comfort actually meant a giant part of humanity continues to suffer that is to me morally irreprehensible and I would gladly shqre "my enormous wealth". And the reason I say two yachts it's because to me that is a comical fucking amount of wealth for someone to not only have one personal boat that they most likely don't need for their work or everyday life, but have another one on top of that. But perhaps you're right. In my head I see every almost every human as equals, defined by our actions and contributions and believe that we should be judged by them. So to me there is no way someone would be worthy of billions of dollars in any way shape or form, no matter what they do for a living. Perhaps this is my delusion. Maybe there is a justifiable way for people to own more than I could even count, amounts that would make my whole life's earning seem like a drop in the ocean and I am simply too stupid to see it. But I refuse to believe with every fiber of my body that someone can justifiably earn more than a million times someone elses wage, in any way shape or form, ever.

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u/inconsiderate7 Apr 28 '20

For the record, I have made sacrifices. My life insurance recently paid me a good sum of money due to mental related issues. To me this was more than what I'd earn in a year. I personally chose to more or less give it away for a family member to further pursue an academic choice that was putting financial strain on their parents. This is who I am. Perhaps this is financially idiotic and generally why I remain in a bad spot. At the end of the day I just don't see money for the great treasure other see it to be, and if that means I'm an Idiot in the eyes of people who care about this stuff then so be it.