Titanic tourist sub missing
- Thread starter not-bono-ever
- Start date
I think it’s six and half a dozen really, on advantages conferred. I’m not campaigning for public love of billionaires, but at that level of wealth, the downsides would start to crowd in - a free run at bad decisions with no barrier to carrying them out fully, detachment from other people, trust issues, security issues, security issues for your children. I’d be surprised if billionaires (and royals and other heads of state) actually did live longer than the average rich person. I would think their average life spans are probably rather shorter - from assassination and lack of strong social support networks to private planes and subs going wrong via constant worry that your children are in danger/only being dated or befriended by those on the take, there are risks that nobody else has to factor in.
Having a house paid off plus enough cash in the bank to indulge yourself a bit and see you/your immediate family through all eventualities, up to having a net worth in the low tens of millions - that’s one thing. That’s ideal living. Beyond (and certainly below) that level, the stress would outweigh almost all of the on paper advantages, and the ability to make truly disastrous personal decisions alongside firing or divorcing or murdering anyone who’d caution you against your worst impulses wouldn’t help either.
Having a house paid off plus enough cash in the bank to indulge yourself a bit and see you/your immediate family through all eventualities, up to having a net worth in the low tens of millions - that’s one thing. That’s ideal living. Beyond (and certainly below) that level, the stress would outweigh almost all of the on paper advantages, and the ability to make truly disastrous personal decisions alongside firing or divorcing or murdering anyone who’d caution you against your worst impulses wouldn’t help either.
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((Billionaires))
Lol
Lol
planetgeli
There's no future in England's dreaming
Does it really matter when virtually all seriously rich people live on average 9 years longer than the average poor person? Wealth buys health. I'm not really interested in discriminating between £1 billion and £287 million.
I literally said that wasn’t what I was doing.
And why would you discriminate between the two? Those two sums are both the same kind of superwealth (I agree it’s undesirable, and probably for most but not all of the same reasons you do) that’s beyond the experience of all but a few thousand people in human history.
Money helps, until it doesn’t. A quick google led me to Forbes magazine, which calculates the average billionaire dies at the age of 78. That’s lower than the population average. Obviously that’s because while the sensible ones have a much higher chance than average of seeing their 90’s or 100’s, the less sensible or lucky or nice ones die or are killed at far younger ages - and the people who make that kind of money and/or become heads of state aren’t very likely to be nice to start with, although they might be lucky right up until they aren’t.
They are a relatively tiny community of people, who should probably be separated out from the vast numbers of merely rich people who have the advantages of money (who do live longer and healthier lives), without the risks that start to come into it once you get into the detached super rich category. Lumping in billionaires with people who have 10 or 20 or 30 million (and therefore have all the advantages but crucially without the dangerous parts like lack of real peers, the decision making divorced from reality and risk, and the dodgy connections with seriously dreadful people who have stuff like the apparatus of state at their disposal) tells us nothing.
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MickiQ
In My Defence I was left Unsupervised
The average life expectancy in the UK is 80.9 which isn't different enough from billionaires to be statistically significant tbh, another quick google reveals there to be 171 billionaires and a little under 3,000 millionaires in the UK though I would definitely take that second figure with a big pinch of salt. They aren't numerous enough compared to the 60+ million yokels for an accurate analysis of their lifespans to be made I don't think.
As to whether or not their wealth makes them happy you can't help but be reminded of the old adage. "Money doesn't make you happy but at least you can be miserable in comfort".
Not all but many of societies problems (and individual's personal problems) in this country could be solved or at least alleviated with a somewhat more equitable share out of wealth.
As to whether or not their wealth makes them happy you can't help but be reminded of the old adage. "Money doesn't make you happy but at least you can be miserable in comfort".
Not all but many of societies problems (and individual's personal problems) in this country could be solved or at least alleviated with a somewhat more equitable share out of wealth.
I was talking mainly globally in numbers, but yes - these are such small numbers when it comes to the super rich (and therefore powerful) that it’s very difficult if not impossible to say anything conclusive, other than the fact that the number of elaborately gruesome ways to die get much higher. They aren’t the same people who have ten or low tens of millions.
£20m might lead to a stress free life, hanging out with people who probably don’t want you dead, not having to worry about bills, chilling out at attractive spas and eating well. £20b is less likely to lead to a relaxing time, and more time obsessing with ex SAS guards to ensure your children are protected from all the crazy people you’ve crossed along the way...
Or in your arrogance, you think a homemade submersible three miles under the Atlantic sounds like a fun weekend break.
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MickiQ
In My Defence I was left Unsupervised
Yeah but there are other factors involved there, such as access to healthcare, diet etc but the same 'there aren't enough to make a difference' principle probably applies there are apparently 2640 (potentially minus 2 now) billionaires in the world against a total population of knocking on for 8 billion now. That's only 0.00000033% and half of them are in the USA which for instance has an average lifespan of 77 as opposed to the 85 of the Japanese (who are cursed or blessed with only 40 of the fuckers) that probably has more of an impact than wealth.
I suspect the general view on Urban is "There are way too many and they all live way too long anyway"
Wilf
Slouching towards Billingham
I prefer ironic deaths tbh, space debris landing on Musk, Branson from shock when somebody bursts a balloon, a wall collapsing on Trump... of, heck, no, assassinations it is.
Yuwipi Woman
Whack-A-Mole Queen
All of the studies I've seen show that zip code matters, which is largely determined by your wealth:
I won't post it again, but there was an extensive study done on the city I live. They found that the more affluent neighborhoods had an average lifespab of 92. The poorer neighborhoods had an average lifespan of 59. Some of this isn't due to wealth, per se, but rather due to the way that medical care bleeds you of wealth in the US. You lose your wealth trying to get medical care, which necessitates moving to somewhere where the rent is lower. Then, when you run out of money--you die. Other factors definitely are due to wealth. All of the hospitals are located in the richer neighborhoods. Most of the supermarkets are there too, with the poorer neighborhoods being served by a combination of ethnic markets and corner shops. Affluent neighborhoods have the largest parks and the most walking trails, while the poorer neighborhoods have more fast food outlets.
I won't post it again, but there was an extensive study done on the city I live. They found that the more affluent neighborhoods had an average lifespab of 92. The poorer neighborhoods had an average lifespan of 59. Some of this isn't due to wealth, per se, but rather due to the way that medical care bleeds you of wealth in the US. You lose your wealth trying to get medical care, which necessitates moving to somewhere where the rent is lower. Then, when you run out of money--you die. Other factors definitely are due to wealth. All of the hospitals are located in the richer neighborhoods. Most of the supermarkets are there too, with the poorer neighborhoods being served by a combination of ethnic markets and corner shops. Affluent neighborhoods have the largest parks and the most walking trails, while the poorer neighborhoods have more fast food outlets.
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belboid
Exasperated, not angry.
there is a more than 10 year disparity between the longest living postcode in Sheffield and the shortest living. That's pretty fucking significant.
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The Forbes figure seemed to be the global average, which makes sense because they aren’t rooted to one country. I just think it’s vaguely interesting that it’s not as high as might be assumed, and it wouldn’t be - they aren’t the average rich. They are a very distinct set of people which includes the likes of the Bin Laden's, the Gaddafi's, the Putin’s, in addition to people who go in homemade submersibles for the hell of it. It would be surprising if, as a group, there were any life expectancy benefits to it.
It’s the same here, by postcode, and further broken in other ways. Last time I looked, my own ward showed both male and female life expectancy to be 90, with just two months difference between men and women*. So much higher than average, and without the difference that usually accompanies gender.
*Edit - the men are shown as living two months longer. Never having to do any manual labour certainly seems to make a difference. They are shown as dying at 8 months past their final birthday, the women at 6 months.
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Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
nothing seems to be going well for them recently, those poor 1%ers:
Billionaires ‘disappointed’ after superyachts banned from Naples port | Italy | The Guardian
Yacht belonging to world’s second-richest man, Bernard Arnault, falls victim to new size restrictions at Italian city’s Mergellina port
There’s 12 years difference average lifespan between Glasgow and Hampstead.
MickiQ
In My Defence I was left Unsupervised
It is for the poorest people but I think once you get over a certain minimum income where you eat properly and don't have to work yourself to death or go without heating then there is no extra benefit or loss from the amount of wealth you have whether it's £50K or £50 billion certainly not to the extent it buys you an excessive number of extra years.
You’re missing the very best private healthcare vs cash starved NHS waiting lists.
Yuwipi Woman
Whack-A-Mole Queen
This wouldn't surprise me.
MickiQ
In My Defence I was left Unsupervised
No-one is questioning that rich people have much fuller and healthier lives than poor ones that goes without saying but once you are over the minimum hump you don't live a lot longer because you are rich.
As Magnus McGinty pointed out there is a 12 year longer lifespan between Glasgow and Hampstead but there isn't a 20 year gap between Hampstead and Kensington.
For the moment at least the super rich can't significantly extend their lifespans beyond anyone else, the shit might hit the fan if any of this research pays off and there is a drug that can extend lifespans by 100 years that costs a £million a shot then I suspect there will be talk of pitchforks and tar again.
And there’s a marked difference between Glasgow and Liverpool, in Liverpool’s favour. Liverpool isn’t richer, so something else is going on too, and it’s not fully understood what that is. They’re both large ex industrial cities, they both have historic entrenched poverty, they don’t have significantly different weather or other natural risk factors that would lead to anything glaringly obvious. I believe there was another multi agency conference quite recently about this, with nothing further discovered or decided.
Within the Glasgow area there are more obvious patterns - you don’t need to compare it with Hampstead for shock value. Bearsden is well in excess of the city itself for the usual kinds of reasons. There is no accepted settled explanation as to why Glasgow itself scores so badly. What is accepted is that poverty and associated access to medical care/education isn’t the whole story - if that was it, Glasgow would do better than many similar English cities, but it very markedly doesn’t. There’s something else going on.
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i'm in the fuck the rich camp on this one. If they live longer, fuck em, if they have access to the very best of everything, fuck em, if they pay more of a contribution to society, fuck em. truth is we are all going to be better off and have a more civilised society without em, but the first step along that road is to recognise it (and many have not), then work out a serious way of doing something sensible about it. So far we have failed on that one. Keep the faith though.
Quality of life also. It’s almost amusing that some folk can live beyond most people’s wildest dreams only to throw it all away on ill advised journeys into the unknown.
MickiQ
In My Defence I was left Unsupervised
Well Yes indeed has the original subject of this thread demonstrated, wealth doesn't stop you from doing things that are monumentally stupid.
planetgeli
There's no future in England's dreaming
There are multiple studies that say you're wrong.
MickiQ
In My Defence I was left Unsupervised
such as?
Yuwipi Woman
Whack-A-Mole Queen
Awesome! Let's see them!
NoXion
Craicy the Squirrel
And yet, they seem to endlessly worry about the peasants rising up and killing them, even though for the most part they just want better pay and conditions. Yet instead of investing the relatively small portion of their vast wealth that it would take to address such concerns, they press on with sponsoring authoritarians and fighting unions and spending money on apocalypse shelters.
They may have human-shaped bodies, but I have a really fucking hard time understanding the seemingly inhuman mentality of these hyper-rich wasters.
planetgeli
There's no future in England's dreaming
Oh sorry, it was comparing with 'average'poorer people, not people who earn 50K.
The point is rich people live longer. You keep sticking up for the poor billionaires though.
They’re mostly psychopaths I think.
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