How To Make Trillions Of Dollars

Happiness, health and stability are not core objectives of our society. The production of wealth, as measured by GDP, or by the stock markets, or consumer spending, is our yardstick of success.<p>I hope that in the remainder of the century we can can transition to better forms of society where the health and happiness of the general population is more important than the efficiency of our economic structures.

This is a classic example of the animism fallacy.<p>Lightning flash, terrifying thundercrack. The Invisible Skygod is mad!<p>All bunkum, of course. But it fits how humans usually think about the world: that every event has <i>agency</i>, has some directing cause which involves intelligence.<p>The idea that the world we see emerged from a massive, incomprehensible complex system? Bah. Can't be. I see the lightning and hear the thundercrack.<p>Must be the invisible trillionaires.<p>Incidentally, the only thing in this article that resembles classic marketing is the title. Straight out of the copywriting handbook.

Consumerism dominates our culture. I used to think that pertained to the United States the most, but it is a global issue.<p>I have not had a job since March of 2012. You could say I lost my consumer power. I have made very few purchases outside of utilities, food, and other basics. It has been an eye opening experience to my own habits.<p>At first, I felt lost and out of touch with society. I could not make purchases like my friends and family. I did not have any new toys to show off or new clothing to wear this year. This past holiday season was the worst. As much as I disliked the holiday spending spree every year, being left out feels strange. The feeling that arises from lack of consumption is strange. It is as if society fixates on purchases and those purchases define your life(create milestone). I have not had any of those recently.<p>Today, I feel normal. Sometimes, I lust for new gadgets. But, most of the time, I never think about buying "stuff." If I was not in a committed relationship, I would be happy not being an avid consumer.<p>Maybe, it is just my brain adapting to the circumstances.<p>*My girlfriend, buys lots of things, she works in retail. I am not completely out of the consumption sphere.

This is hands–down one of the best pieces I've ever read on the Internet.<p>I love the message of not hating "The Man". I've noticed in the past years more and more energy being wasted on hating things which are beyond our control (at least, they are if we only spend our energy on hating).<p>To focus instead on building our self-reliance (and creativity, etc.) is a brilliant take-away.<p>This is one of those bits of writing that didn't add any knowledge but reminds me of things I forget on a day-to-day basis.

This is a great post. My only disagreement is with the insinuation that the lack of universal healthcare in the US is there to intentionally trap people in unfulfilling jobs. While I agree that it sometimes has this affect, I think universal healthcare may actually make people even more dependent on the system the author is writing against, all while decreasing the quality of the health care we receive.<p>Great article though.<p>--Written from my budget apartment, while working on stuff I love

Amazing article. The most powerful method of marketing I've seen is that which blurs the line between "want" and "need", or between pain and discomfort. Then they put their product on the "need" side, or categorise your discomfort as real pain.<p>"You don't <i>want</i> a cell phone, you <i>need</i> it. Look, everyone around you has one, so it must be necessary!"<p>"Hey, that minor discomfort you have with [whatever]? You have every right to be in <i>pain</i> from it. Heck, you should go out right now and get diagnosed with a disorder we invented/coined last year. Oh by the way, we also have a drug that relieves the symptoms."

Concrete supporting example, deodorants: <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/How-Advertisers-Convinced-Americans-They-Smelled-Bad-164779646.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/How-Advert...</a>

Fuck the police, kill your television, and Like us on Facebook.

Originally posted on the author's blog, about 2 years ago<p><a href="http://www.raptitude.com/2011/01/how-to-make-trillions-of-dollars/" rel="nofollow">http://www.raptitude.com/2011/01/how-to-make-trillions-of-do...</a>

Very good article ! I am genuinely surprised that HN's positively reacts to blog posts like this while massively reacting against ad blocking initiatives. For example this HN news thread: <i>France’s second-largest ISP deploys ad blocking via firmware update</i> [1].<p>Can someone that like this article and dislike [1] explain me.<p>[1] <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5004621" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5004621</a>

It's been a long time since I read an article I agree with so much.

The author makes a good introduction and really gets to the point about halfway through. Should have ended there. The rest is just repetitive.

I loved everything about this post. Very enlightening

The article is a bit silly but there is an interesting tidbit. The observation that people can afford seemingly limitless trinkets that they don't really need while the necessities of life are quite expensive. Shouldn't something that literally everyone needs and thus is guaranteed a ubiquitous market and thus obscene rewards for innovation be cheap? Is there some iron rule of technology/market that says that innovations in these areas is impossible or prohibitively expensive?<p>There are multiple answers to this question, and I think it is worth meditating on.

Note that people who are outside the American madhouse, those who live in developing countries like the Philippines or China, very much want to adopt American customs.<p>Few of them want to live a monastic or back-to-nature lifestyle. These people can learn from Americans' experience, yet there is no mass movement to adopt the good part while staying relaxed, centered, and happy.<p>I'm not saying that they prefer employer-linked healthcare to single-payer, or that they want to be stressed-out and depressed, but they very much want TV, possessions, yuppie-style jobs, etc., without worrying too much about the alleged misery that we Americans experience.

The "culture of narcissism" wasn't invented after WWII and it's not even western. You could see the modern kind of moral decay even in Tokugawa Japan 200 years ago.

Great points. But: How do you make a living while <i>combatting</i> this?<p>I am torn on the question of universal medical coverage, for complex reasons that I imagine no one here wants to hear. I am wondering, though, if anyone has any ideas on how America could implement government funded, universal healthcare, what pitfalls we should look out for, etc.

This article didn't actually give useful information on how to make trillions of dollars or on how anyone else has done so.

Am I the only one who finds irony in the fact that he recommends throwing out the things with a low ROI yet at the bottom of the article he recommends "liking" the blog on Facebook?

Different people have different goals in life. Just because others chase GDP or work all day doesn't mean that you have to.

Poster here - just to be clear, I'm not the author - I just came across it on Reddit, and figured it would resonate here.

Is this an homage to the Rothschilds?

great points on life skills, understanding marketing motivation, worthless hate. i don't believe the author is implying a conspiracy theory - but maybe i'm missing it - do we need conspiracy for each marketer to do their job?

if you liked this post I'd recommend reading Prosperity without Growth - <a href="http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/publications.php?id=914" rel="nofollow">http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/publications.php?id=914</a>

Good article. Counter-cultural without being conspiritorialist.

Where is our modern day Victor Lebow to set a new paradigm?

It's amazing to me how much expense comes out of fear.<p>For example, one of the reasons why Manhattan real estate is so expensive is that people feel a need to live here in order to keep up their professional status. Not to limit their commutes, but because the really evil law and financial firms stop promoting you as soon as you move off the island. So they spend $5 million on a house, as opposed to, for example, not working for douchebags.<p>Where this is worst in New York is in the private school industry. $40,000 per year is market now, and it starts in nursery school. On no data whatsoever, parents now spend half a million out of fear that if their kids go to public schools, they won't be able to get into the top colleges and get good jobs. New Yorkers, take note that people in the rest of the country think you're a giant douchebag if you spend $40,000 on a nursery school.<p>The Bush years were awful for political reasons-- curtailment of civil liberties, illegal wars, disastrous morale-- but, economically, this past decade would actually be a fairly good time for the U.S. if the Satanic Trinity-- healthcare, housing, and tuition-- of costs were better controlled.

Thanks for this enlightening article. I now know hot to make my first million.<p>Thanks again mate for posting this here on Hacker news.

Only one way to make trillions of dollars, be born into the Rothschild family or marry into them. They are worth trillions and own banks and own a lot of nations' debts. Because they own a lot of debt, they charge huge interest rates on them, and profit from them a lot.<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rothschild_family" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rothschild_family</a>