this post was submitted on 06 May 2026
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As long as you live frugally and in a reasonable COL area, this isn't crazy expensive. Doable with a couple million in net worth. Huge difference between that and what many of the rich are worth. The reality is that a million dollars isn't what it used to be and the fight isn't with people with single digit millions, it's with people with triple digit millions and up. Yes, having single digit millions feels like being rich in today's economy to many, but, in the eyes of the truly wealthy, a single digit millionaire might as well be a destitute homeless person.
The phrase "ultra wealthy" really doesn't do the concept of "a billion" justice in the minds of us creatures that typically can't visualize quantities of distinct objects greater than 3 in number before beginning to add a layer of simplification by counting in multiples in order to conceive of the entire quantity simultaneously.
A couple of million dollars is outside the realm of possibility for 99 percent of the population at this point in time, excluding property value.
Stopped reading here.
The difference between a million dollars and a billion dollars is about a billion dollars. To a billionaire, a mere millionaire might as well be someone on welfare.
One million seconds = ~11 days
One billion seconds = 31 years
It's not one order of magnitude - it's three.
One billion vs one million is the difference between a dollar candy ($1) and a full-time paycheck ($1,000).
The space between a nice bottle of wine ($50) and a median priced automobile ($50,000).
The delta between an expensive night out ($250) and a fucking house ($250,000).
And ultimately,
The failure of a working class income ($30,000 - or $15/hr x 40hrs FTE) and the assholes who rule us ($30,000,000).
Soon they'll be trillionaires, and there will be no stopping them.
Elon fucking Musk...
They will stop themselves, their politicians will cannibalize them, silver lining!
Yes, the money on the higher end is measured using a log scale: there are people just like me, 10x richer, 100x richer, etc. simply because money helps to create money even with safe hedging.
The scale is the problem of capitalism, there's not so much we can do about it today. What could be achieved in our lifetime, is the progressive tax scale that although does not stop exponential growth, at least it tries.
And no, fuck Europe. Progressive tax scale in Europe doesn't flatten the exponential incomes, it affects only regular workers. Which may be good, but it's not enough
I'm not sure these examples really do justice to the topic, they help bring the delta back to things we rationally understand but the scale between millions and billions is precisely what the major point is, since a million is already a lot then a lot of these is, like, really a lot, maaaaan.