I’m more likely to become massively rich by being a fantastic singer than I am to become massively rich by being a fantastic philosopher, or even a fantastic economist.
It’s always fun to see what empirical facts might change one’s assessment. Philosophers, ever since Thales at least, haven’t been known for wealth but—Are you sure becoming one of the greatest economists in the world wouldn’t be likely to make you massively rich?
I’m sure we both agree that the average economist makes more than your average singer (and median too); but have you considered that superstar economists can still make more than superstar singers?
Michael Jackson is one of the wealthiest singers of all time (wealthiest?), yet he died with maybe 500 million USD in assets; there were hedge fund folks who made several times that in 2008 alone. And he doesn’t hold a candle to Warren Buffett. Or consider Lawrence Summers. Despite a career largely spent in government or academia, his world-class status means that he can do things like pick up a >5million USD a year salary working less than a day a week. We may argue that these kind of financial bonuses are obscene and unfair, but economists and other financial types reap them nevertheless...
I’m sure that extraordinary expertise at economics would enable people with the right mindset to make large amounts of money, but the obvious avenues (e.g. spending all day trading stocks) would not interest me, and I’d be unlikely to value the money enough to put up with them in the quantity necessary to become massively rich. If I magically acquired extraordinary expertise at economics, I’d probably mess around with it until I had enough money to hand the reins to a less-skilled accountant to handle and invest for me and keep me in housing and groceries for the rest of my life. I’d be more comfortably upper-middle-class than rich. It’s possible that my extraordinary expertise at economics would also inform me of fun ways to make money with it, but none spring immediately to my unskilled-at-economics mind.
Its quite a leap to go from economist to hedge fund manager. Their skill sets are not at all the same. The best way to make bank if you are a brilliant economist is:
1) make a fundamental contribution to economics, especially related to finance.
2) win nobel prize or at least have your contribution adopted by industry.
3) get paid millions to “consult” or “advise” hedge fund managers who will use your name to attract investors and probably never ask you to do actual work.
It’s always fun to see what empirical facts might change one’s assessment. Philosophers, ever since Thales at least, haven’t been known for wealth but—Are you sure becoming one of the greatest economists in the world wouldn’t be likely to make you massively rich?
I’m sure we both agree that the average economist makes more than your average singer (and median too); but have you considered that superstar economists can still make more than superstar singers?
Michael Jackson is one of the wealthiest singers of all time (wealthiest?), yet he died with maybe 500 million USD in assets; there were hedge fund folks who made several times that in 2008 alone. And he doesn’t hold a candle to Warren Buffett. Or consider Lawrence Summers. Despite a career largely spent in government or academia, his world-class status means that he can do things like pick up a >5million USD a year salary working less than a day a week. We may argue that these kind of financial bonuses are obscene and unfair, but economists and other financial types reap them nevertheless...
I’m sure that extraordinary expertise at economics would enable people with the right mindset to make large amounts of money, but the obvious avenues (e.g. spending all day trading stocks) would not interest me, and I’d be unlikely to value the money enough to put up with them in the quantity necessary to become massively rich. If I magically acquired extraordinary expertise at economics, I’d probably mess around with it until I had enough money to hand the reins to a less-skilled accountant to handle and invest for me and keep me in housing and groceries for the rest of my life. I’d be more comfortably upper-middle-class than rich. It’s possible that my extraordinary expertise at economics would also inform me of fun ways to make money with it, but none spring immediately to my unskilled-at-economics mind.
Its quite a leap to go from economist to hedge fund manager. Their skill sets are not at all the same. The best way to make bank if you are a brilliant economist is: 1) make a fundamental contribution to economics, especially related to finance. 2) win nobel prize or at least have your contribution adopted by industry. 3) get paid millions to “consult” or “advise” hedge fund managers who will use your name to attract investors and probably never ask you to do actual work.
Not for our genie!
EDIT: also, I think trading skills are covered under either economics or another college major, so the genie can give you them.