But it's obvious that just letting the money sit in a low yield fund isn't very smart. You need to put that money to work! Invest! Start a company! Do some philanthropy!

But you are just one person so the time you can spend deciding how each dollar is spent is falling. You are becoming "dumb money"

Dumb money makes stock market bubbles.
Dumb money can distort politics.

But the sad part is dumb money mostly gets taken by people paying more attention. Scammed away by bad investments.

And we don't really talk about it much, because it's not sad that someone had 50 million and wasted 20 million on a bad investment idea.

But think about all of the good things that could have happened if that money was invested more wisely.

It's just not a great feature of how this whole things works IMO.

@futurebird I think people should just not have 50 million to do with as they please

@futurebird I think people should just not have 50 million to do with as they please

@crmsnbleyd

There is a lot of attention paid to how poor people spend their money. How dare you buy a fancy purse and NOT sixteen bags of potatoes!

But in terms of volume the bad choices made with money aren't mostly the fault of the poor. Poor people make their money do more ... the more money you have the less attention you can pay to what it's doing.

@crmsnbleyd

All of those razor edge decisions made by poor and working class people about how to spend their money are in fact a form of labor. It's work.

The decision making keeps the market pointed in the direction of providing services and products that people might actually want.

Money spent indiscriminately, by contrast can nurture bad business ventures and harm industrious creators of real value.

@crmsnbleyd

All of those razor edge decisions made by poor and working class people about how to spend their money are in fact a form of labor. It's work.

The decision making keeps the market pointed in the direction of providing services and products that people might actually want.

Money spent indiscriminately, by contrast can nurture bad business ventures and harm industrious creators of real value.

@futurebird @crmsnbleyd all of these reasons was why the top tax brackets were/are at 90%. To keep the bewildered and overwrought multi-millionaires and billionaires from making poor decisions

And we don't really talk about it much, because it's not sad that someone had 50 million and wasted 20 million on a bad investment idea.

But think about all of the good things that could have happened if that money was invested more wisely.

It's just not a great feature of how this whole things works IMO.

@futurebird you got me thinking about this, because there's an argument that the 'mature' choice of them investing it, only for it to go sour is a worse outcome for them and the economy than them spending it all on something ridiculous.

One of the problems with having very wealthy people is that often they have no idea what they should do with their money. This can be hard to understand for the work a day stiff such as you and I: If I had more money there are repairs and upgrades to make, little fun things to buy, family members to help, trips to take and so on.

But if you have 50 million dollars? You can run out of ideas of things to spend money on. Hedonism has limits and each person can only think of so many projects.

@futurebird you got me thinking about this, because there's an argument that the 'mature' choice of them investing it, only for it to go sour is a worse outcome for them and the economy than them spending it all on something ridiculous.

@futurebird an astute argument for paying higher rate taxes, wealth taxes and inheritance tax. Love it.

@tgent_fens ?

The entire concept of markets being good things is dependent on every dollar being spent in some way representing the intentions, desires and values of real human beings and the things that they want.

So what happens when a large portion of the money isn't being spent on things that make sense? What happens if the best way to increase your wealth is to exploit loopholes and insider information?

The whole system starts to fall apart.

@tgent_fens

This whole rant was prompted by reading about several overvalued companies, bitcoin, and other market perversions. There is a point in all of these stories where the charismatic conman finds a rich guy, or several rich guys who simply . . . give. . . this person an obscene amount of money for their venture. The venture becomes important and pulls others in due to the seed cash.

It makes me think: why are there so many people with 50 million dollars to just toss at these things?

@tgent_fens ?

The entire concept of markets being good things is dependent on every dollar being spent in some way representing the intentions, desires and values of real human beings and the things that they want.

So what happens when a large portion of the money isn't being spent on things that make sense? What happens if the best way to increase your wealth is to exploit loopholes and insider information?

The whole system starts to fall apart.

@futurebird @tgent_fens markets are always, inevitably, bad things. Markets move wealth from those in need to those with surplus. Always. Inevitably. That is literally the only thing they do.

They increase wealth inequity, and thus social inequity; they enforce the maldistribution of goods. They have no redeeming features.

@tgent_fens

This whole rant was prompted by reading about several overvalued companies, bitcoin, and other market perversions. There is a point in all of these stories where the charismatic conman finds a rich guy, or several rich guys who simply . . . give. . . this person an obscene amount of money for their venture. The venture becomes important and pulls others in due to the seed cash.

It makes me think: why are there so many people with 50 million dollars to just toss at these things?

We focus a lot on the conman who runs the terrible investment bubble, scheme, rug pull, paying dividends with capital or whatever venture. But not as much on the rich guy who quietly shows up and puts in the first big pile of cash.

But that choice to invest big in a bad idea has consequences for everyone!

@futurebird Are they not part of the scam? They know they're not likely to be left without a chair when the music stops.