If you covet what rich people have, you should emulate their behaviors. If you want money, do with money what rich people do with money. If you want smart kids like the rich folk, you should raise your kids like the rich folk raise their kids.
If you want smart kids like the rich folk, you should raise your kids like the rich folk raise their kids.
Is there any reason to believe this is true? I would guess Judith Harris would say no, and she’s spent a lot more time thinking about this than I have.
First off, it seems like wealth is a zero-sum game. If I make money then someone somewhere else is losing money. They may be getting something of equivalent value in exchange, or they might just be getting screwed—it really doesn’t matter.
You could probably argue that most people want to be richer, right? I mean, if you asked a random segment of the population, you’d probably get a conservative 80% of them to say “yes, I’d like to have more money.”
If all these people followed the rule in this quote, then this would be the problem: what’s the outcome when two or more people who have identical goals (and methods of obtaining those goals) play each other in a zero-sum game?
I’m not sure that it would end well for the majority of people.
Wealth isn’t a zero-sum game unless there is no economic growth; people getting richer in non-zero-sum ways is ( as i understand it) what economic growth is.
Sean
Ok, I purchased my mansion and a sportscar. What’s step 2?
You might be interested in borrowing a copy of The Millionaire Next Door from a library. It’s a bit more accurate about rich people than television.
Does this strike you as cargo cult language?
That’s not cargo cult language, it’s just ordinary cargo cult behavior.
Is there any reason to believe this is true? I would guess Judith Harris would say no, and she’s spent a lot more time thinking about this than I have.
Well, it’s clear that propensity to acquire wealth isn’t purely genetic.
First off, it seems like wealth is a zero-sum game. If I make money then someone somewhere else is losing money. They may be getting something of equivalent value in exchange, or they might just be getting screwed—it really doesn’t matter.
You could probably argue that most people want to be richer, right? I mean, if you asked a random segment of the population, you’d probably get a conservative 80% of them to say “yes, I’d like to have more money.”
If all these people followed the rule in this quote, then this would be the problem: what’s the outcome when two or more people who have identical goals (and methods of obtaining those goals) play each other in a zero-sum game?
I’m not sure that it would end well for the majority of people.
Wealth is very clearly NOT a zero-sum game.
Wealth isn’t about money, it’s about value. Ask yourself: if you create value, is someone somewhere else destroying value?
Money (in this context) is just a unit of account. Any central bank can produce an unlimited amount of these.
Wealth isn’t a zero-sum game unless there is no economic growth; people getting richer in non-zero-sum ways is ( as i understand it) what economic growth is.