Quotes About Wealth

For all the emphasis we place on our multicultural cities, they epitomise our oligarchic reality.

The West's global cities are like tropical islands surrounded by oceans of resentment.

To the West's economic losers, cities like London and Chicago are not so much magnets as death stars.

The meritocratic society has given way to a hereditary meritocracy. The children of the rich are overwhelmingly likely to stay rich.

No bourgeoisie, no democracy.

By any numerical measure, humanity is becoming rapidly less poor. But between half and two-thirds of people in the West have been treading water – at best – for a generation. Tens of millions of Westerners will struggle to keep their heads above the surface over the coming decades. The spread of automation, including artificial intelligence and remote intelligence, which some call the fourth industrial revolution, is still in its early stages.

GDP numbers insist we are doing well, at a time when half the country is suffering from personal recessions.

GDP numbers insist we are doing well, at a time when half the country is suffering from personal recessions. The world's most informative graph is the Elephant Chart.

I am rich beyond the dreams of avarice.

Let me be clear. I don't object to some people being richer, even much richer, than others. I object to gain of wealth through political connections rather than earning it by merit.

even much richer, than others. I object to gain of wealth through political connections rather than earning it by merit. If a basketball franchise pays my neighbor Kobe Bryant $20 million a year because it takes that much to get him, fine. But if hedge fund managers bribe politicians to put a clause in the laws cutting the tax rate on much of their income to a fraction of the percentage the average worker pays, I object.

As Princeton Newport Partners closed I reflected on the proposition that what matters in life is how you spend your time. When J. Paul Getty was the richest man in the world and manifestly not fulfilled, he said the happiest time of his life was when he was sixteen, riding waves off the beach in Malibu, California.

Heller said he had something the rich man could never have. When a puzzled Vonnegut asked what that could be, Heller answered, "The knowledge that I've got enough.

Freud said that once we have the basic necessities of food, clothing, shelter, and health, then what we seek is wealth, power, honor, and the love of men and women. For financial titans who aggressively continue to seek tens of millions, hundreds of millions, and sometimes billions, you can ask, "Is the winner really the one who dies with the most toys?" How much is enough? When will you be done? Often the answer is "Never.

Success on Wall Street was getting the most money. Success for us was having the best life.

Moshe Adler, in his article "Overthrowing the Overpaid," points out, economists David Ricardo and Adam Smith, writing more than two hundred years ago, "concluded that what a person earns is determined not by what that person has produced but by that person's bargaining power. Why? Because production is typically carried out by teams…and the contribution of each member cannot be separated from that of the rest.

Wealth, which I use synonymously with the accountants' term net worth, shows how rich you are now, whereas income measures how much money your wealth, labor, and ingenuity are currently generating.

It's that increase in net worth from year to year that takes you up the ladder of wealth. To measure your increase in wealth from one year to the next, compare the yearly balance sheets. Divide the difference by the beginning wealth to get your percentage change for the year. This gives you an idea of how fast you are compounding. If you also construct an income statement for the period, the net income after expenses should match your change in net worth.

The big three for most investors are equities, interest rate securities, and real estate. Each accounts for about a quarter of the total net worth of US households, though the proportions fluctuate, particularly when an asset class experiences a boom or a bust.

In a typical life cycle, prior to adulthood we consume more than we produce. As we acquire education and training, we contribute more to society than it takes to support us. During this period, a prudent or fortunate investor will accumulate wealth from which to draw upon later as he ages and reduces his income from work.

You can make money in a small way without politics. But to make big money, you need to buy the legislature. Can't be done otherwise.

George S. Kaufman was not Miss Astor's last love. George had been supplanted in her affections by one of his best friends, whose name would surely have been disclosed had the hearing gone on. The scoop appeared on August 12 in the Daily Mirror, announcing that the best friend, an unnamed dashing broker and bachelor, maintained a seven-room penthouse on Park Avenue, complete with butler and maid. Kaufman had introduced Mary to "Mr. Big" in December, according to the Mirror.

Photography records the gamut of feelings written on the human face, the beauty of the earth and skies that man has inherited, and the wealth and confusion man has created. It is a major force in explaining man to man.

On the soft bed of luxury, most kingdoms have expired.