How much money do you need?

[adios]

Mid 20's OMG. I think it's way less than $2 million. Here's why. First of all you're probably going to keep playing poker and if you're a winning player (I'd say if you win the big one chances are better than 50-50 that you are) you can gain income from that. Second of all being in your mid 20's you're not ready for a rocking chair so you're going to look for opportunities to make money by investing some and if you're like most that are conservative and thoughtful you will. Someone mentioned a bursting of the "real estate bubble." Say this happens, do you think any opportunities to buy real estate will happen thereafter? When these things happen there's always buying opportunities, ask Warren Buffet. Third of all if you are able to stay out of debt (which tends to be a very conservative approach) and don't have a lot of too extravagent tastes you can come up with a low montly nut even including health insurance. High deductable policies are reasonable and being in your mid 20's even makes it more so.

[grandgnu]

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In order for someone to be rich, many others must be poor.

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I must have missed that in economics class. Oh wait, that's because it has nothing to do with capitalism what so ever.

In mercantilist systems yes, someone is rich and someone else is poor. This plagued the middle ages and the Rennaisance period. Capitalism, by definition, allows for everyone to be rich. Capitalism is about creating value from unrefined, requisite elements. Gates, for example, created value by developing software. Food companies create value by creating finished goods from ingredients of individually lesser value.

In practice, not everyone becomes rich. Some people don't know how to create value. Some people aren't motivated. Some people are mercantilists (goods traders) who don't really understand what capitalism is. Although we are taught that "capitalism" is a key element of American society, we are not taught what it really means and how it works.

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Just because something, by "definition" allows everyone to be rich, doesn't make it so. Communism, by "definition", sounded excellent, but in practice didn't turn out that way.

We live in a system where our economy is destroying us as a people, our values, or mental stability and our physical health.

While it wouldn't hurt for most Americans to learn to spend more responsibly, we live in a system where employers now tack on "and other general duties, as assigned" so that they can wring another 0.54% productivity out of you. They look to downsize and 'cut costs' instead of trying to increase revenue.

There is very little company loyalty anymore, and little happiness for most of those who work.

Many couples work two jobs and still struggle, not only financially, but as a couple and as a family. People don't have enough luxury, social or family time anymore, and our nation is suffering because of it.

Do I have a solution? Unfortunately, no. I think that people should work, at most, 4-6 hour shifts, and 20-30 hours per week, because I believe that social, luxury and family time are extremely important. Unfortunately, our system is setup to benefit the employers.

When you have a system where some schmoe at the top can lay off 20,000 employees and receive a million dollar bonus because of it, well, that's a failed system. All it does is create a dominoe effect, whereby there are 20K less people able to make as many purchases, and that affects Company B, who lays off 16,000 employees, and so on.

Cost-cutting sucks, ridiculous salaries and benefits for top-level CEO's sucks, as does all the corruption at the top where their millions of dollars in stock options and other benefits just isn't enough, and they see fit to misappropriate company funds for themselves in other manners. God, it makes me sick. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[grandgnu]

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We live in a society where we are taken advantage of by the minority upper class who control the majority of the money and assets. And we are too apathetic and comfortable to fix the system.

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Apathetic and comfortable? Perhaps because our standard of living is so high that instead of tilling fields in near-slavery we are able to play poker all day long or sit in climate controlled offices in front of computer screens communicating freely formed and freely spoken ideas with no agency to regulate such transactions?

And you're sad because you don't have a private jet?

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I'm sad because we're all slaves to the system, and the people in power love that we don't get involved, because it allows their special interest groups to sway the votes and keep themselves in power.

Voting is useless, because there is no choice. I can vote for:

Rich Guy A

Rich Guy B

neither of which could possibly understand what it's like to live like the rest of us. Screw em, fight the power. The only way to fix the system will be through violent means, those in power are too firmly entrenched to legally correct things (and don't even get me started on the way in which laws are written, because they're designed to be confusing so that only a minority can truly decipher them and wield any power, when they should be accessible to everyone)

[adios]

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I could make a million dollars a day, FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE, and not have as much money as Bill Gates has right now.

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Gate's has donated over $17 billion to charities and plans to leave the rest of his wealth to charity when he dies. Warren Buffet plans to do the same thing i.e. leave his wealth to charity when he dies. Buffet is living proof of this as his children lead basically middle class existences. Buffet's paid for his children's education but they're really on their own and aren't anything close to being millionaires.

[spoohunter]

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I could make a million dollars a day, FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE, and not have as much money as Bill Gates has right now.

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Gate's has donated over $17 billion to charities and plans to leave the rest of his wealth to charity when he dies. Warren Buffet plans to do the same thing i.e. leave his wealth to charity when he dies. Buffet is living proof of this as his children lead basically middle class existences. Buffet's paid for his children's education but they're really on their own and aren't anything close to being millionaires.

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This is a bit exaggerated... I'm betting he's not leaving his daughter and wife as paupers.

[spoohunter]

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In order for someone to be rich, many others must be poor.

[/ QUOTE ]

I must have missed that in economics class. Oh wait, that's because it has nothing to do with capitalism what so ever.

In mercantilist systems yes, someone is rich and someone else is poor. This plagued the middle ages and the Rennaisance period. Capitalism, by definition, allows for everyone to be rich. Capitalism is about creating value from unrefined, requisite elements. Gates, for example, created value by developing software. Food companies create value by creating finished goods from ingredients of individually lesser value.

In practice, not everyone becomes rich. Some people don't know how to create value. Some people aren't motivated. Some people are mercantilists (goods traders) who don't really understand what capitalism is. Although we are taught that "capitalism" is a key element of American society, we are not taught what it really means and how it works.

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Capitalism is an insufficient answer to an important question.

[adios]

No his wife is entitled to community property accumulated after they were married. Gates and his wife signed a pre nup. Gates indicated that his children will have to make it on their own much as has Warren Buffet's children have had to do. We'll what Gates does remains to be seen, we know what Buffet has done. Buffet and Gates are friends and I believe that Buffet had a big effect on the Gates decision.

Even if Gates left his children $10 million each (which he says he won't even come close to doing) donating over $50 billion to charity (the Gates contribution) is certainly something to take note of and certainly puts the wealth accumulated in a different light than the poster who I responded to made it out to be. The vast majority, well over 90% of the wealth that Buffet and Gates have accumulated via capitalism US style, will go to the benifit of mankind. Methinks that you simply don't want to acknowledge the point that capitalism can have it's benifits to mankind as well. Combining Gates and Buffets contributions to charity make the total well over $80 billion. And how many people have been employed directly and indirectly via the investment of entrepeneurs. I guess many believe the government will just create jobs and consummer markets. How else are you going to create jobs in the economy if people don't make a profit from their investment?

[daryn]

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I guess the real answer is, however much you can be content with.


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uhh.. yeah, i think that is the question.

[grandgnu]

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I could make a million dollars a day, FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE, and not have as much money as Bill Gates has right now.

[/ QUOTE ]

Gate's has donated over $17 billion to charities and plans to leave the rest of his wealth to charity when he dies. Warren Buffet plans to do the same thing i.e. leave his wealth to charity when he dies. Buffet is living proof of this as his children lead basically middle class existences. Buffet's paid for his children's education but they're really on their own and aren't anything close to being millionaires.

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TAX DEDUCTIONS!

[detroitplayer]

Do you even understand the concept of tax deductions?

Even if he was taxed at 50%, he's still giving 50% of his money away. Being the highest tax bracket in the US is 35%, he is effectively giving away .65 cents on the dollar of his own money. And that takes into consideration that the money owed to the IRS is less greater than or equal to 35% of his total donations.