$1 million vs. $1 billion compared as a road trip

[mmascari]

@Brainspore

It is for a lot of millionaires, because people who have far shy of a billion dollars are still able to do those things. It’s just not generally true for someone who has a mere one million dollars to their name.

We need some new names, or maybe I just don’t know them.

Someone with 1 to 9.999 million.
Someone with 10 to 99.999 million.
Someone with 100 to 999.999 million. This one is probably a hundred millionaire.

Cause, yes, anyone in that third category is probably far shy of a billion dollars, but they still have 100 to say 700 times more than the the person is the first category. Lumping them in together isn’t helpful.

On the shear scale of every millionaire in the country, there’s way way WAY more in the first category than the last.

@gracchus

but it’s still a lot of money for 90% of people out there and it allows you to do a lot of things they can’t (most notably, have access to investment opportunities that make you even more money).

Yes, it definitely is. And, on the scale of the privilege it brings and the amount of friction it reduces, it’s amazingly huge.

That starts even earlier. I would argue that real comfort starts when you can go to the grocery store or a restaurant and buy whatever you want (within reason) and simply not worry what the register will ring up at.

@gracchus

At the high end is the area defined by Sanders and Warren in their tax proposals: somewhere around $30-50 million in net worth.

I agree with them. Which is also why they’re so focused on the $50 million, $100 million, and $1 billion.

Most of these visualizations are about showing that difference. People can imagine, and some, more each successive generation in a family, will get to a million dollars. Almost none will ever get near $100 million. Getting these people to understand that this policy isn’t crashing their or their kids dreams is part of what they’re for.