There's a hilarious book by the same name by an actual (late) billionaire. It won't help you get rich unless you change your thinking and go with what works.
PS: I'm always sad that so many corporate employees are content with not attempting to do the work to get rich and put their futures and their family's future in the hands of capricious managers who will happily fire them and make it next to impossible for them to be rehired anywhere else if they're "too old". If you're not trying to get rich in meaningful ways, then someone else is getting rich off of you.
Why would I risk throwing away what wealth I have accumulated for a small chance of growing my wealth multiplicatively? I see your attitude a lot in friends I’ve made since college who are almost all from at least upper middle class families. It’s much easier to take risks when you have a wealth safety net.
"How to Get Rich" by Felix Dennis. A great and hilarious book.
One lesson from the book is that, when starting out, he and other startups mutually helped each other out and grew their businesses together througout the years.
the implication is the only way to get rich is to exploit other people, and you could reason from that that the reason so few people try to get rich is that they would rather not get rich and not exploit people than get rich and exploit people.
What do you mean by "exploit"? Do you mean people shouldn't hire other people to help them in the company they want to start? Do you mean that there is a black market for slavery and people are buying other people in Istanbul or Madagascar or Iceland and making them work in their parent's basement for them for free and they keep them in chains? Does exploit mean that you try to sell your products to people and that they buy them and you get money from them, when you should give everything away for free, a la Richard Stallman? "Exploit" is a pretty vague word, what specifically do you mean by exploit? Because honestly, I have zero idea what you mean.
Exploit: Pay them (much) less than their work is worth. Because some of that money that comes from their work goes to other people that don't work (previously called slave owners, then feudal landlords, now called shareholders).
Also, if I should happen to save some money up, shouldn't I be able to invest is somewhere and get a return on it? Or is charging interest or getting a return on your money bad? Because if one gets interest or loans money to a corporation, and expects to get some kind of dividend at all, then that is using someone else's work for me to get money.
I'm not pro or con here, just trying to understand.
It doesn't matter how much is work worth. Their work generates some amount of money and some of that money goes goes to people that don't work. That is all.
In my opinion, investing and expecting returns (above bank deposit rate, which would be very low in normal, stable economy) is the bad and unfair thing in all this. It is unfair because it allows a person that has a lot of money to get even more money in a self-sustaining loop without work. I have nothing against being rich. Just don't get even more rich doing nothing.
So what do people do with the money they make? Just keep in in the bank with no interest? Put it in a shoe box?
Also, what about people who have so much money, like Jeff Bezos, that it doesn't matter if he gets interest because he has so much money he doesn't have to work.
Also, what about business owners - if they have employees, they can't just sit at home and watch movies all day? Or are you saying that they should be in their business working all day, and they have no options, they must work, just like a slave - not allowed to not work? Or if they don't work, then are you saying that they get their business taken away from them? And given to whom, if so? The employees? The government?
How would people get rich in your scenario? Is it only by working, like a surgeon who can charge $1 million per year, but still works? What about if someone sells info online but once he or she creates the information, people keep buying the info, but the person doesn't really work, except for the one time? Since he or she is not actively working, do 100% of the profits go to the government?
It's so confusing. Is there a book about this economic system that you are talking about?
> So what do people do with the money they make? Just keep in in the bank with no interest? Put it in a shoe box?
Any of these. Or buy stuff, just like 99% of people do with their money. Or give for charity. Or start a space program / rocket industry. It's their choice.
> Also, what about people who have so much money, like Jeff Bezos, that it doesn't matter if he gets interest because he has so much money he doesn't have to work.
So what? I'm not proposing to take their money away.
> Also, what about business owners - if they have employees, they can't just sit at home and watch movies all day?
You mean like a modern slave owner would do, if slavery was legal?
> Or are you saying that they should be in their business working all day, and they have no options, they must work, just like a slave - not allowed to not work?
No. Be in business, work all day for a number of years depending on how much successs they have, then sell the business, retire early and stay at home spending the money they got for selling the business. In a world where having money won't bring more money, I imagine a business won't be worth as much as it does in the current world, but they can still retire early.
> Or if they don't work, then are you saying that they get their business taken away from them?
No. Simply not get paid.
It would be difficult to tell if a person actually works or not, I know.
> And given to whom, if so? The employees? The government?
Any proposition for improvements can be stretched into a horror dystopia by an extremist. Tere's far-left extermist dystopias and there's also far-right extremist dystopias.
> How would people get rich in your scenario? Is it only by working, like a surgeon who can charge $1 million per year, but still works?
Yes. Is that not fair? If you think it's not, create more medical scools. In ~5 years there will be more competition.
> What about if someone sells info online but once he or she creates the information, people keep buying the info, but the person doesn't really work, except for the one time?
To create information worth selling he/she would have to work (unpaid) for some time. Getting paid after seems very reasonable to me. And he/she won't get paid forever. Copyrights expire after a while.
> It's so confusing. Is there a book about this economic system that you are talking about?
I'm not aware of any.
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Let me say it again: just having lots of money should not bring even more money.
PS: I'm always sad that so many corporate employees are content with not attempting to do the work to get rich and put their futures and their family's future in the hands of capricious managers who will happily fire them and make it next to impossible for them to be rehired anywhere else if they're "too old". If you're not trying to get rich in meaningful ways, then someone else is getting rich off of you.