It seems like everyone is getting rich?

It is not true, you see it because people like to brag. But they prefer to hide their problems, sometimes very deep. The society discourages talking about these things unless you are close friends. Whereas positive aspects are amplified.

I give you an example. I have a couple of friends with two kids. They have an amazing FB/Instagram feed. You immediately see a wonderful model family living in a beautiful house, traveling together, enjoying every moment together, all smiling. It seems like they are always having fun in all possible places (it made my other friend who can't have kids a bit depressed).

One day I decided to visit their house and was a bit shocked. The kids were basically terrorizing the family. The father was half-alive but trying to smile all the time, sometimes unsuccessfully. The whole house was very cold because they spent too much on it and couldn't afford heating it adequately. But the most depressing was a bad smell from nearby chimneys of their neighbors. Apparently they couldn't do anything about. For me it was a living hell, I couldn't live in such a place for one day.

If it is any consolation, we will probably experience massive inflation in the next 20-30 years. Those with primarily financial (and not physical) assets will be hardest hit. At some point the economic wizardry will hit the fan.

But on a less depressing note, I suggest paying less attention to the areas where people are “getting rich.” Money isn’t the measure of true value and you will rarely find a correlation between wealth and wisdom.

I am no economist, but from what I understood, what’s happening is that central banks have been pumping cash into the economies since the 2009 crisis. They were starting to end this when covid happened, so they reverted course and kept pumping.

What happens when the money supply is high is that banks can then grant cheap loans to people or institutions who are solvable. So they give loans to already rich entities who then invest into all kinds of stuff.

The idea behind pumping cash into the economy is that the cash eventually flows into financing actual real world activity. And it actually works, the crises happened but the economy recovered fast.

But a side effect is that a lot of that cash also goes into raw speculation. crypto, real estate, collectibles. And because so many people are doing it, it creates a bubble which means more people and more cash go into these up-spiraling dreams.

But yes at some point money will get tighter, cheap loans will have to be repaid, and the bubbles will deflate.

Hopefully inflation and taxes on capital would erode all those wins and life will go back to “normal”. But yes that’s optimistic and we’re talking at least 20 years.

You're experiencing a classic case of selection bias. You're much more likely to hear about the person that got rich trading crypto rather than the person that lost a lot of money trading crypto.

Remember that people show you the highlight reel of their lives while you live the bloopers.

Just try your best and try not to compare yourself to other people as best you can. I find it helpful to think about history and intellectually satisfying things like math -- things that sort of transcend time. It gives me some perspective.

Comparing oneself with other people on a single dimension is a bad idea because likely the most extraordinary thing about that other person is what stands out. Said otherwise, it’s the reason you chose them as a comparison point.

Same with people posting fancy pictures on instagram.

You don’t see that they have a chronic but unseen illness, and that their children hate them, for example.

Specifically though when I see people who have accumulated much more wealth than I have, often they’ve been doing it much longer. It makes more sense when I remind myself that. And yeah I could have started saving/investing earlier, but if the best time to plant a tree was 30 years ago, the 2nd best time is today.

How do you not become discouraged? You don't have your identity in doing better than everyone else. And you don't have your happiness in how much money you have or in what you can buy.

And how do you do that? Aye, there's the rub. I think you do it by having your identity and your happiness somewhere else. You need more than just "not there". You need a specific somewhere else.

For me, it's in Jesus Christ and his love for me. (I recognize that most people here won't grab that as their answer...)

Aquire something Money can’t buy, like a skill. Then take solace in the thought that money can (did) lose all its value over night, while the skill you acquired remains.

Also think about that it’s easier to find true friendship when you have little more to offer than yourself.

Basically stop glorifying material wealth. I know, easier said than done :)

FOMO. This is what causes bubbles. Of course it isn't any consolation that people can keep getting rich off of overpriced assets for a long time. As the saying goes, "The stock market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent." In this case however, you aren't going insolvent, just suffering jealousy.

I'm not saying to jump in - the crash my come tomorrow. Or I'm not saying don't jump in - the asset prices may melt up with inflation and people who were out are left poorer. There are risks either way.

This doesn't apply to the high paying jobs I think. There you just have to decide what you really want and be happy with what you can get. As many other comments say, money doesn't equal happiness.

There's an old commercial where a guy is mowing his huge lawn in front of his huge house and he says "Someone help me. I'm in debt up to my eyeballs."

Lots of people make lots of money and then don't hang onto it. Lots of people who seem to be doing well aren't. It's sometimes all appearances.

I definitely need more money than I've got but... I am not overly impressed with the people who "have dozens of friends and the fun never ends, that is as long as they're buying."

There's also the great song "You don't know how it feels (to be me)" by Tom Petty.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TlBTPITo1I

This happens periodically. Internet stocks in the late 90s, real estate in 2007. And now we're in an everything bubble.

In December 1996, Alan Greenspan (Federal Reserve Chairman) used the phase "irrational exuberance"[2] to describe the market. It was already obviously a bubble. The bubble didn't burst until March 2000.

Some people think this particular bubble will end with the dollar crashing instead of the market.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irrational_exuberance

Many people are telling you that these are all fake show offs, but here are the facts:

1. We had one of the longest bull runs in stock market history. Even a modest investment in something like Facebook at it’s initial price of $15 dollars around 2009 would have netted you hundreds of thousands by now.

2. The pandemic dip was an insane buying opportunity. If you just parked some money in the SPY around the lockdowns you would have doubled your money (I’m talking in just one year, not 10 years).

3. Tech industry just exploded, the whole world relies on it. The jobs and opportunities just amassed.

4. The financial collapse pretty much made it so anyone and their mother could get a home mortgage loan with literally no interest.

So yeah, it did really happen for a lot of people. If anything, what you are witnessing now could be the tail end.

But, to remain optimistic, if we look at things purely based on eye balling numbers, the world population that is not totally connected into the Internet, and have not even begun American-level consumerism is still a pretty high number. We haven’t actually gotten everyone to buy apps, and sit around and watch Netflix. Just based on that fact alone you can somewhat infer that there’s way more growth ahead.

I wonder, are more people getting rich than ever, or is just more visible than ever? How true is the "these days" part of your observation?

I am discouraged, and that's ok. There are plenty of people who are worse off.

There's a Japanese mindset/idea that the best you should hope for for your children is for them to be average. This is statistically sound and reduces the hurt that one would feel when their child is not above average as well as provides more joy if they do happen to exceed expectations.

I had the dot com boom pass me by, saw many become rich, while I worked on ATG Dynamo based e-Commerce sites. I had the Web 2.0 boom pass me by, I remained a cog in the wheel, again saw many folks get ahead.

Was it distracting or mildly discouraging? Sure.

I finally jumped onto the touchscreen and app boom, lost a lot of time and money, but sharpened my development skills.

I have seen multiple booms where closed-networks of folks and insiders make huge money leaving the vast majority out.

I do my thing based on my capabilities and networking skills. Sucks to be an introvert on the autism spectrum. I have learnt to not be impressed by the highlight-reel of folks that is heavily curated. If you dig deep, you will learn the insider stories of the superficially happy-family folks and the ones with the latest cars.

Each of us have our own miseries, even the ones with money. Especially the ones with boat-loads of money.

Focus on building a life that operates from love and abundance rather than fear and lack.

Grow your skills so you can be of service to others.

These two things will make you most likely to become rich.

“Mastery of Love” and “Millionaire Fastlane” are two books I would recommend.

It is pretty difficult to peruse HN at times because peoples success stories feel completely unattainable to me.

Life has been hard so far.

For every transaction, there is typically a winner and a loser. The winners brag, and the losers keep quiet.

Despite so many having so much, it doesn't make them any happier. We still see suicide, overdose, greed, selfishness and many other problems. Yes, money does make things easier for those who possess it, but it shouldn't be the goal. Look at the positives in your life, be grateful, pursue meaningful experiences with the ones you love and live within your means. Strive to be better each day in all of the areas that are important to you.

No, everybody is not getting rich. The median income in the US is about $36K.

> How do you prevent becoming discouraged or distracted when there seems like so many opportunities calling and so many people doing better

Because the perception is not the reality. There is no great gravy train that you're missing out on. Yes, there are real opportunities for certain -- but there are always real opportunities. There's nothing special about today on that count.

Also, I'd point out the old adage: Comparing yourself to others will make you both vain and bitter, because there will always be someone doing worse than you, and always someone doing better.

But, to actually answer your question: I don't become discouraged or distracted because it's not my goal to "get rich". I have other goals, instead.

Don't worry, most of those people will be broke again in two years. Easy come, easy go.

It seems like _it looks like_ everyone is getting rich.

Meanwhile, access to credit is easier than ever before, in so many forms, and the Internet has made it easier to "flex on plebs" in seconds.

Dump social media would be my takeaway. Shit's unhealthy

Bear in mind the avg westerner is super-rich compared to most of global pop'n and most of history. You're just observing people that are even more obscenely rich. Are they happy? Would you be happier if you had what they had? ;). There's the well-known graph where happiness rises steeply as one's wealth raises to cover the basics of life, then flatlines after that. In my experience , people with more money are often less happy, more stressed, and ironically seem to have more money worries.

This reminds me of a Newsweek magazine cover at the height of the dot-com mania in 1999: "everyone's getting rich but me!"

https://backissues.com/issue/Newsweek-July-05-1999

I'm not.

Join in.

Search for a new job, invest in the stock market, etc. It seems like a great time to find a job.

A lot of this apparent wealth if just BS by people trying to sell you something. Just hire a flash car, park it in front of a nice house, take a photo and use it show how 'successful' you are.

Selection bias combined with social media bs. You don't hear about industries that died or barely survived covid. There's a whole segment of population that was employed by those industries.

A lot of people talking about getting rich is not equivalent to everyone actually getting rich.

> It seems ...

That's the problem right there.

People like to advertise their gains, but never their losses.

Get off social media.

I find it much more enjoyable to be great at many things, have some financial stability due to having an average job in tech than making millions by being C-level on a trashy company like Facebook but unable to do any sort of physical activity and enjoying very little of what nature has to offer, just seeking as much comfort as you can, you can look for adventure. Adventure is just everywhere and is generally free or cheap. It will make you stronger and little by little will make you less worried about those rich people and rather appreciate how life managed to shift you to the most wonderful road one could be, of self-discovery, of finding a bigger truth, of empathy.

I climb, I skate and so on. I read philosophy, I have time to invest on myself on things which won't generate capital for me and I find it very amusing that even with that, I can still have a huge degree of financial freedom, as long as I work 8h a day 5 times a week and a small, but growing investment portifolio.

If you would work at a FAANG, or even be a C-level there or at a startup, there is no way you could be climbing and enjoying things on your 20s or 30s. By the time you would "make it very big", you would already be too old for this kind of things, not really health or body-wise, but you would be too attached to comfort. If you are more adventurous, you would actually look for opportunities that you could sleep on the floor, have some food deprivation and a hard adventure to test your limits. It's much more exciting than going to the office, doing politics and all. We aren't made to work in such artificial environments and that is why you and a lot of people are sad.

For me personally, I enjoy going to work, could be a few less hours and I would be happy with it. Even studying coding is nice. But I also need to go to nature, hug trees, climb mountains, hurt my foot and body whist doing it, accepting the discomfort of life as it is, in order to appreciate it. I would kill myself if all I had to do was to work, take care of kids and have expensive and comfortable travels. The best things in life are free or cheap. A kiss. A laugh. A new route.

Recently with my wife we've decided for ourselves that we don't need a kid and would rather enjoy life. There is a grind in having kids and at least 9 out of 10 friends I have that went this route are unhappy. Why have kids if I am already enjoying my journey?

Therefore, I can't be discouraged or distracted because people are doing so much better as you say, because this isn't better for me. If all you do is work and you aren't making as much as them, I feel sorry for you, maybe you are more like me, a monkey-man, that goes to the office and after work goes climbing. Or do anything else. If to be homo sapiens means to accumulate capital and shoot rockets to space, I don't belong there.

Many times the reason we are jealous is not because of other people luck but rather because we don't live up to our full potential. Try to focus on things you can control and to improve yourself, put on some muscle, dress nicely, do some cheap activities you enjoy, whether it is some specific hobby or if you don't have one do stuff anyways just for the sake of increasing your social interactions.

Those things will improve your situation regarding all the things you don't have to buy, like attracting the opposite sex or having fun experiences. By doing all those things you will also increase your "luck surface", you will hear about opportunities earlier, you will be more energetic and pro active and eventually something will fall into your lap. Even if not, you will enjoy your life and will not care so much about other people success on the financial front.

You become rich too? It is not that difficult nowadays, if you are above average intellectually, to make a very comfortable life. If most of the examples are doing it by fair opportunities and/or hard work, why can't you too? You can feel discouraged or encouraged by the opportunities.