Society/Culture Billionaires

[Johnny Bananas]

Australian billionaires and the world's 10 richest men doubled their fortunes during the pandemic. Is it time for a wealth tax?

Oxfam urges governments to consider a 99 per cent, one-off tax on the COVID-19 wealth gains, as its new report reveals that while 99 per cent of humanity is now worse off, "billionaires have had a terrific pandemic".

www.abc.net.au

Australia has 47 billionaires, who control as much wealth as the poorest 7.7 million Australians (about 30% of the population). They doubled their wealth during the pandemic. So did the world's 10 richest people, in a time where 160 million people fell into poverty.

 

[kranky al]

Australian billionaires and the world's 10 richest men doubled their fortunes during the pandemic. Is it time for a wealth tax?

Oxfam urges governments to consider a 99 per cent, one-off tax on the COVID-19 wealth gains, as its new report reveals that while 99 per cent of humanity is now worse off, "billionaires have had a terrific pandemic".

www.abc.net.au

Australia has 47 billionaires, who control as much wealth as the poorest 7.7 million Australians (about 30% of the population). They doubled their wealth during the pandemic. So did the world's 10 richest people, in a time where 160 million people fell into poverty.

Any minute now it will start to trickle down.

If you want it quicker you will just have to give them another tax cut!!

 

[Fadge]

Australian billionaires and the world's 10 richest men doubled their fortunes during the pandemic. Is it time for a wealth tax?

Oxfam urges governments to consider a 99 per cent, one-off tax on the COVID-19 wealth gains, as its new report reveals that while 99 per cent of humanity is now worse off, "billionaires have had a terrific pandemic".

www.abc.net.au

Australia has 47 billionaires, who control as much wealth as the poorest 7.7 million Australians (about 30% of the population). They doubled their wealth during the pandemic. So did the world's 10 richest people, in a time where 160 million people fell into poverty.

The wealthy people I know are driven, intelligent, and have taken some educated risks in their lives.

The poor people I know are lazy and unmotivated.

I wonder if there is any coincidence in that?

 

[Johnny Bananas]

The wealthy people I know are driven, intelligent, and have taken some educated risks in their lives.

The poor people I know are lazy and unmotivated.

I wonder if there is any coincidence in that?

Do you know any poor people at all who work hard? Or any wealthy people who aren't that intelligent but got lucky? I know some of both..

Do you know anyone with disabilities or depression? Are they wealthy? If so, did they make their fortune before or after they began suffering from their condition?

 

[kickazz]

The wealthy people I know are driven, intelligent, and have taken some educated risks in their lives.

The poor people I know are lazy and unmotivated.

I wonder if there is any coincidence in that?

All else being equal, there is no coincidence. Of course there is a casual link there.

But you probably don't know many people, most of us don't

The world is full of people who work hard but are still poor, in absolute or relative terms.

 

[Chief]

The wealthy people I know are driven, intelligent, and have taken some educated risks in their lives.

The poor people I know are lazy and unmotivated.

I wonder if there is any coincidence in that?

How many hard working people took educated risks and still didn't make money? Tons.

 

[Gigantic]

The wealthy people I know are driven, intelligent, and have taken some educated risks in their lives.

The poor people I know are lazy and unmotivated.

I wonder if there is any coincidence in that?

That just sounds like confirmation bias to me.

 

[Kram]

Pretty sure Mr Tim Goyder now an old bloke spent a life time of exploring and drilling before finally hitting it big time with a couple of big finds with a 2 of his companies.

Peter KerResources reporter
Nov 10, 2021 – 5.49pm


Mining entrepreneur Tim Goyder became Australia’s newest paper billionaire on Wednesday after the first two days of what, by Thursday evening, could be a remarkable critical minerals treble.
The lithium developer that counts Mr Goyder as chairman and 17 per cent shareholder, Liontown Resources, will on Thursday publish a feasibility study into a new Australian lithium mine and hopes to spark the sort of market frenzy generated by Tuesday’s news that Mr Goyder’s Chalice Mining had made one of the best Australian mineral discoveries since the turn of the century.

Between Chalice Mining, Devex Resources and Liontown, Tim Goyder is having a big week. Trevor Collens
The 35 per cent rally in Chalice shares over the past two days sparked a 26 per cent rally in a third company that counts Mr Goyder as chairman and major shareholder, Devex Resources, which is searching for critical minerals close to Chalice in Western Australia’s Julimar province.
The huge week of corporate activity for Mr Goyder, who owns close to 12 per cent of Chalice and has stakes in other ASX-listed companies such as Minerals 260, took his paper wealth narrowly past $1 billion during Wednesday’s trading session.
“I don’t believe it. I am the same person, I have got my feet firmly on the ground,” he said, when asked how the billionaire label felt.

Related Quotes​

CHNChalice Gold Mines​

$7.850 -0.51%
1 year1 day

Mar 21Sep 21Mar 224.0008.00012.000



Updated: Mar 10, 2022 – 8.42pm. Data is 20 mins delayed.
View CHN related articles

LTRLiontown Resources​

$1.590 3.58%

Mar 21Sep 21Mar 220.0001.0002.000

PLSPilbara Minerals​

$2.8400.00

Mar 21Sep 21Mar 220.8002.4004.000




“It is not only about the money. I have aspired to make discoveries and create something and we have done that.
“I find that part very invigorating, I am a man of simple means; I like a nice bottle of red and lots of laughs.”
Chalice’s Gonneville deposit in the Julimar province near Perth contains four of the minerals that the United States Geological Survey has dubbed “critical” to US national security and economic growth: platinum, palladium, nickel and cobalt.
Gonneville’s other two metals, copper and gold, are among the most sought after by investors, and the combination of those six metals at shallow depth within 70 kilometres of Perth prompted veteran analysts to declare it the best discovery of platinum-group elements they had ever seen.
Mining might be one of Australia’s oldest industries, but Mr Goyder said it had a bright future in a world where governments were determined to secure mineral supply chains and decarbonise their economies.
“I think the endowment of nickel, lithium and rare earths in Australia is just outstanding,” he said. “Being a Western country we are going to be playing a very large part in smart technology, electric vehicles, the whole gambit.

“We are really well set. We just need governments to be very supportive and we can build on it as an industry.
“It would be great to see more downstream processing here and that is certainly something both Chalice and Liontown will be looking at.”
The construction of a plant to process Liontown’s lithium-rich spodumene rock into battery-grade lithium hydroxide within Western Australia is expected to be part of Thursday’s feasibility study.

 

[Kram]

Not sure what his total personal wealth is but an interesting article on the rather eccentric David Dicker.

Why the CEO of $2b tech company doesn’t pay himself a salary​

Yolanda RedrupReporter
Updated Mar 29, 2021 – 11.59am, first published at 10.42am


Media tycoon Kerry Packer was long gone, but his legacy informed one of ASX-listed tech giant Dicker Data’s most critical business decisions, which has made the company a favourite with its investors and earned the CEO and founder tens of millions of dollars.
Speaking to The Australian Financial Review after the company exceeded $2 billion in revenue for the full year for the first time, Dicker Data chief executive David Dicker revealed why for so long he has opted not to pay himself a single cent as a salary.

David Dicker pays himself out of company dividends, rather than taking a salary.
Rather, the company has a 100 per cent dividend payout ratio, which resulted in its 35.5¢ per share of total dividends in 2020 netting Dicker a healthy $21.5 million.
“I credit the idea from Kerry Packer. I figured if it was good enough for Packer, it would be good enough for me. I thought that was the correct strategy,” he says.
“I make a fair bit of money, but I only make that based on the company getting the outcomes, and it’s my final responsibility to make that happen.”

Related Quotes​

DDRDicker Data​

$13.880 1.09%
1 year1 day

Mar 21Sep 21Mar 228.00012.00016.000



Updated: Mar 10, 2022 – 8.52pm. Data is 20 mins delayed.
View DDR related articles

While Dicker and his co-founder Fiona Brown own the vast majority of the company (more than 70 per cent between them), Dicker says the company’s other investors are supportive of all the profits being paid out as dividends, because the business doesn’t function like one of the now-popular high-growth software companies such as WiseTech or Whispir.

David Dicker also owns a track car manufacturing business. Dean MacKenzie
“You can only do it in certain types of businesses,” he says. “Our business isn’t capital intensive. Outside of the real estate ... we don’t have a requirement for capital, because we’re not a manufacturer. So we were in a position to pay out all our profits, and it’s something that appealed to me.“
Dicker Data, which has a market capitalisation of $1.9 billion, is a hardware and software distributor. It acts as a middleman connecting vendors and resellers of IT hardware, software, cloud and IoT solutions.
In the past year its share price has surged 124 per cent, from $5 to more than $11.
In the company’s recent full-year results, it revealed revenue had leapt 12.8 per cent to $2 billion, while its net profit after tax jumped 5.3 per cent to $57.2 million.

EGP Capital founder Tony Hansen bought into the company around April 2012, when it was trading at only 40.5¢.
He has already been paid back three times his investment in dividends alone, but says he initially pushed Dicker and CFO Mary Stojcevski to lower its dividend payout ratio and reduce the company’s debt.
But in his nine years of owning the stock, he’s come to see Dicker’s strategy as the right one.
“Substantially, all the other top 10 holdings in my fund are net cash, I don’t like debt,” he says. “But David has an idiosyncratic view as to why companies exist - to put money in shareholders’ pockets - and he’s always said if there was a valid reason to raise equity, then he would do so.

Related​

Dicker Data soars past $1b in first-half revenue​

“In his view, this introduces capital discipline and it forces the managers of the company to think carefully about how they deal with capital, because there’s limited access to it.

“It’s been demonstrably proven to be the right thing to do. It doesn’t have an excessive level of debt relative to the earnings of the company ... and it’s got lower relative to total earnings.
“I’m a convert, although if I was CEO I’d probably run the company with a lower debt level, because I’m a conservative operator.”
Not paying himself a salary isn’t the only way Dicker bucks the mould of a traditional CEO of an ASX-listed company.

Embrace the rich​

He’s outspoken, self-assertive and owns a supercar manufacturing business on the side called Rodin Cars.
When asked what the country needed to do to leverage the momentum surrounding the acceleration of digitisation off the back of COVID-19 thanks to the big shift to remote working, he said it would be impossible to become a tech-led digital economy without a shift in how Australians view the ultra-rich.

“The real problem we have is wealth is built on the replication of single items, which is why I don’t like services,” he says.
“It’s either built on manufacturing, where you develop a product and make thousands or millions of them, or write software and sell copies of it.
“A few hundred bricklayers don’t generate wealth in the same way because you don’t get that economy of scale.
“To make it work, you have to have a society comfortable with the fact that a handful of ideas will become very wealthy and another handful will be pretty wealthy, but that’s not very socially acceptable in Australia.”
Dicker says this model leads to people such as Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey, who are “fabulously wealthy” but don’t win any popularity contests.
“That’s the environment you have to have. You need a free society, which we’re in grave danger of losing with the way the culture is going, and then you need to maximise personal freedom and agency to make this happen.”

Dicker says there is no genuine way for the government to drive a step up in people coming up with innovative products or software.
“All of these things rely on people coming up with ideas, and that’s the antithesis of governments, which are bred in conservatism, be it Liberal or Labor.”

Labour law changes​

Dicker has also been a long-time supporter of flexible working, embracing the concept when the company was founded 43 years ago.
This, he says, helped him to establish a 43 per cent to 57 per cent female to male gender split in the company- a percentage far higher than most of his industry peers.
”It was a conscious strategy that went back to the ’80s, or really further back than that, he says.

“When I was in primary school, I went to a co-ed school ... and the smartest kids would be sat at the back. There were at least half a dozen girls smarter than all the other boys.
“It was pretty obvious to me they had the capability. I’ve never been a guy who thought men were superior to women. So when we started to hire people, we pretty much exclusively hired women that were mothers and wanted to return to work.”
In the `80s, Dicker was able to offer these working mothers flexible, well-paying roles, but they were paid on an hourly basis. He says this enabled them to set their own hours and not worry if they needed a morning off for school drop-off.
But he says the current strict labour laws prevent companies from adequately offering the flexible conditions necessary to encourage women to rejoin the workforce after having children.
“It was a flexible environment that worked well for everyone. Unfortunately the government made it illegal, which I find aggravating,” he says.
“There’s always a percentage of people who will screw people over, but it hurts the economy not being able to do that.
“Women with kids have different priorities, and the only way to tailor to those priorities is with a more flexible system. The current laws are built on structures around the basic concept of a 40 hour week ... which is suited to male employment, and that’s the problem.”

 

[Kram]

All else being equal, there is no coincidence. Of course there is a casual link there.

But you probably don't know many people, most of us don't

The world is full of people who work hard but are still poor, in absolute or relative terms.

True but working 'smart' with whatever you have is just as important though. A lot of people don't get anywhere because they are just horrible with their money.

 

[kickazz]

True but working 'smart' with whatever you have is just as important though. A lot of people don't get anywhere because they are just horrible with their money.

That's true, some people think they need to spend every cent.

Then again, The basics like housing, food, energy etc keep climbing and those on lower incomes don't have a lot of leverage to move.

Globally, things are getting better. Hans Rosling"s "Factfulness" explains really well just how hard it is to break into various wealth barriers, but it is happening.

In the developed world however I'm genuinely seeing for the first time in my life that the lower and middle classes seem to be treading water or going backwards, whilst the super wealthy are raking it in like never before.

 

[kranky al]

How many hard working people took educated risks and still didn't make money? Tons.

Or lost it all because some mad russian dickwad decides to invade….

 

[kickazz]

Or lost it all because some mad russian dickwad decides to invade….

In Australia, one of the biggest differentiators to wealth would be "how many generations have your ancestors been able to accumulate it before it was all taken away by war"

There's always exceptions, and people who break out. But the aforementioned would be a key explainer for that class of Australian who are quite wealthy, even if they don't realise it themselves.

 

[Gralin]

True but working 'smart' with whatever you have is just as important though. A lot of people don't get anywhere because they are just horrible with their money.

Most people are only one bad event away from being ****ed, but they don't have the same odds of a good event making them a millionaire

This make your money work smarter for you requires a certain amount of money to begin with, and no emergency to stop it working until you reach critical mass.

Something most people can't really achieve.

 

[owen87]

Most people are only one bad event away from being f’ed, but they don't have the same odds of a good event making them a millionaire

This make your money work smarter for you requires a certain amount of money to begin with, and no emergency to stop it working until you reach critical mass.

Something most people can't really achieve.

There's a certain base cost of living, if you're earning award wage you're pretty unlikely to have much to spare to save, let alone invest.

If you suddenly earn twice as much, that base cost doesn't (have to) double, so you're able to save much, much more than double what a couple on award wage are.

It's an exponential curve, not a linear one. People seem to enjoy ignoring it when they talk about how poor people are choosing to be poor and they could be millionaires if they only worked harder or smarter.

 

[Kram]

Most people are only one bad event away from being f’ed, but they don't have the same odds of a good event making them a millionaire

This make your money work smarter for you requires a certain amount of money to begin with, and no emergency to stop it working until you reach critical mass.

Something most people can't really achieve.

If anyone is truly 'one bad event' from disaster financially they are very likely doing something silly like living beyond their means and over borrowing which goes back to my point about being poor with money.

 

[kickazz]

If anyone is truly 'one bad event' from disaster financially they are very likely doing something silly like living beyond their means and over borrowing which goes back to my point about being poor with money.

Yep. I mean, it does depend on how bad such an event is (and most, not all, of these can be insured against) - but everyone should at least be taking Scott Pape's advice of having a couple of month's pay sitting in an account for emergencies.

 

[owen87]

Yep. I mean, it does depend on how bad such an event is (and most, not all, of these can be insured against) - but everyone should at least be taking Scott Pape's advice of having a couple of month's pay sitting in an account for emergencies.

The Barefoot Investor book should be required reading in the school curriculum IMO. People would be much better off with a sound base financial education, which unfortunately too many people never have the opportunity to be exposed to.

If you grow up in a household that has limited financial knowledge, you'll likely learn the same habits, with the same lack of financial knowledge, and pass on the same to the next generation.

Basic high-school mathematics would be an ideal place to cover this stuff.

 

[kickazz]

The Barefoot Investor book should be required reading in the school curriculum IMO. People would be much better off with a sound base financial education, which unfortunately too many people never have the opportunity to be exposed to.

If you grow up in a household that has limited financial knowledge, you'll likely learn the same habits, with the same lack of financial knowledge, and pass on the same to the next generation.

Basic high-school mathematics would be an ideal place to cover this stuff.

It really is a good book. I like how some of his advice, while maybe not the 100% best idea from a numbers point of view, acknowledges the emotional side of money and being in control of it.

 

[Kram]

Seriously putting money away from a young age in your 20s to benefit from compounding instead of putting it all into buying cars, eating out, traveling, drinking or whatever is about the un-coolest thing ever.

Fair enough (and it's harder now than before now with BS house prices these days) but you can't then get to 35 after all that and then not take responsibility for having bugger all apart from a lot of debt.

 

[Gralin]

If anyone is truly 'one bad event' from disaster financially they are very likely doing something silly like living beyond their means and over borrowing which goes back to my point about being poor with money.

Lol no. I think you're imagination is limited here ir you've never actually been that poor to begin with.

Yep. I mean, it does depend on how bad such an event is (and most, not all, of these can be insured against) - but everyone should at least be taking Scott Pape's advice of having a couple of month's pay sitting in an account for emergencies.

Cool so how do yo do that if you're not getting paid enough?

None of this s**t works unless you're making enough money to begin with.

Do you both think the recent floods won't wipe people out?

The 2020 bushfires?

Covid lockdowns?

We've got plenty of recent examples to pick from

 

[kranky al]

If anyone is truly 'one bad event' from disaster financially they are very likely doing something silly like living beyond their means and over borrowing which goes back to my point about being poor with money.

Let them eat cake.


I have a couple that are good friends who both work at coles. They make minimum wage, they have a house theyve bought with his father who lives with them. She doesnt drink, if he drank 2 cartons a year it would be a big year.

They dont have foxtel or any of the fripperies. They are broke. Always broke, the car always needs a tyre replaced and they buy them second hand from peoples casts off that have a mm or two left on them. They own one small fuel efficient car that cost them $1500.

They have to pinch every penny till it screams and they dont have any savings.

Not because they are stupid or lazy or any of that - they are hardworking folks - she works nightfill and he works days - so between them someone is home when the kids get home from school

they just dont earn enough money compared to what everything costs these days.

Everything costs so much more - mate i voted myself a payrise at the beginning of the year - put my rates up $10 an hour + gst and my travel time rates up 20c a km - im about to stick a fuel levy on to cover the outrageous cost of diesel.

Most professionals i know have gone to their bosses and gotten decent payrises …. Of course ceos etc just add another million or two plus stock options.


They are still getting paid what they were a year ago and it wasnt enough then. It sure as s**t aint enough now.

Its $772 per week.

So multiply that by two and add some extra for nightfill.

Theres no overtime… coles dont like overtime you get time off in lieu. Aside from which if you work full time that should be funking enough to live - the minimum wage should be based on being able to live in our society at a level better than subsistence.

Its absolute bullshit.

 

[Gralin]

Let them eat cake.


I have a couple that are good friends who both work at coles. They make minimum wage, they have a house theyve bought with his father who lives with them. She doesnt drink, if he drank 2 cartons a year it would be a big year.

They dont have foxtel or any of the fripperies. They are broke. Always broke, the car always needs a tyre replaced and they buy them second hand from peoples casts off that have a mm or two left on them. They own one small fuel efficient car that cost them $1500.

They have to pinch every penny till it screams and they dont have any savings.

Not because they are stupid or lazy or any of that - they are hardworking folks - she works nightfill and he works days - so between them someone is home when the kids get home from school

they just dont earn enough money compared to what everything costs these days.

Everything costs so much more - mate i voted myself a payrise at the beginning of the year - put my rates up $10 an hour + gst and my travel time rates up 20c a km - im about to stick a fuel levy on to cover the outrageous cost of diesel.

Most professionals i know have gone to their bosses and gotten decent payrises …. Of course ceos etc just add another million or two plus stock options.


They are still getting paid what they were a year ago and it wasnt enough then. It sure as sh*t aint enough now.

Its $772 per week.

So multiply that by two and add some extra for nightfill.

Theres no overtime… coles dont like overtime you get time off in lieu. Aside from which if you work full time that should be funking enough to live - the minimum wage should be based on being able to live in our society at a level better than subsistence.

Its absolute bullshit.

And the pension and other forms of welfare are below the poverty line but we've cultivated this attitude of its poor people's fault they are poor

 

[Kram]

Lol no. I think you're imagination is limited here ir you've never actually been that poor to begin with.

lol please I'm from a poor family where everyone started right from the bottom, the old man was a shearer, mum cleaner eventually turned education assistant.

 

[Gralin]

lol please I'm from a poor family where everyone started right from the bottom, the old man was a shearer, mum cleaner eventually turned education assistant.

So it's a lack of imagination then cool