Fairness

Foreword

Some people are born with a silver spoon in their mouths, others inherit healthy trust funds or major companies and never need worry about money in their lives. Yet others strike the lottery, or stumble upon buried treasures in their backyards. How is any of these fair?

As usual, a reminder that I am not a financial professional by training — I am a software engineer by training, and by trade. The following is based on my personal understanding, which is gained through self-study and working in finance for a few years.

If you find anything that you feel is incorrect, please feel free to leave a comment, and discuss your thoughts.

Conversations

For the past 10 odd years, perhaps more, millennials (1) have been complaining of the short end of the stick they’ve been given, especially by the baby boomers. The gist of the complaint goes along the lines of baby boomers in power have rearranged rules and laws, such that they have benefited unfairly, for example the housing boom (which benefited boomers the most), the financial boom (again, boomers were the main beneficiaries), etc. At the same time, millennials complained that boomers have left us a pile of trouble, including global warming, geopolitical tensions, divided politics in the USA, etc.

Talking to my software engineering compatriots, many of them are completely gloomy about their future prospects, with some predicting they’ll never be able to afford a home, never be able to afford kids, get married, retire, etc. Most of them are convinced the only real way they can ever get ahead in life is to win the lottery or otherwise cheat in a “rigged game”.

Childhood

A long time ago, when I was little, around 6 or 7, my family visited a small island in Indonesia, then a third world country, and fairly poor by most standards. Upon arrival, we were swarmed by a swarm of kids, most around my age, more than a few younger. One of them made a particularly strong impression on me, an impression I remember to this day:

The kid, who was probably around 4 or 5, was running with a shallow wooden drawer strapped to his neck and balanced on his belly, filled with various sundries. He was going around, clearly asking anyone to buy something from him.

I had no need of the goods he was peddling, and I had no money anyway. But for some reason, I felt sad that this was the life of someone who otherwise was so similar to myself, and I offered him the only thing of value I had at the time — a sticker of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2) that I was particularly proud of, and carried around with me all the time.

The child stared at me like I was mad, shook his head and eventually ran off. I couldn’t explain to him that it was a gift, that I wasn’t expecting to trade it for something — he spoke no English and I spoke no Indonesian, and that was that.

To put things in context, the most expensive thing on his drawer was a 25c (rough equivalent of local currency). I paid a friend almost double that for the sticker.

Blessings

For the vast majority of folks who were born in the USA, Canada, western Europe, the richer countries in Asia (Japan, South Korea, Singapore, etc.), the raw truth is that you’ve already won life’s first mini lottery. If you don’t have to worry about clean running water, if you can reasonably trust your doctors and leaders, if you can step out of the house in the middle of the night without reasonable fear of being harmed, then compared to the majority of the world’s population, you already have it pretty good.

If you further were born in one of the first or second tier cities, or at least in the suburbs of one, then you’ve won the second lottery. Access to life’s opportunities are disproportionately available to those who live near the centers of finance, typically the tier one and two cities.

Finally, in addition to all the above, if you were afforded the chance to attend K-12 schooling, or even better, if you had attended college, then you’ve pretty much struck the lottery. As long as you do reasonably well in school, you are almost guaranteed a decent selection of jobs.

Software engineers

Rounding back on my software engineering compatriots — I’m fairly certain that all of them make a 6 figure salary, and most make $200k or more a year, with more than a few going much higher. Even if many of them live in the San Francisco Bay Area, infamous for being one of the most ridiculously expensive places to live on Earth, it is instructive to note that those in the same area not so fortunate to work for a large tech company will be lucky to see a 6 figure salary (3).

So, yes. Life is unfair, and some people just have it easier in life. Welcome to Earth, blah, blah, blah.

But maybe let’s not rub it in other people’s faces?

A bit of light heartedness

And with that, I leave you with a little bit of light heartedness. Happy New Year!

Stocks, why’d it have to be stocks

Because this is, after all, a finance blog. On the topics of being broke, for those who want to see what crazy shenanigans I’ve been up to, and how fast I’m going broke in my brokerage account, you can follow 1 (out of 10+) of my brokerage accounts on StockClubs, an app I’ve invested in.

Footnotes

1. Disclaimer: I’m a millennial.
2. Don’t judge. TMNT was hot stuff back then, and TMNT stickers and Ghostbuster stickers were basically money to kids in my school.
3. Per capita income in San Francisco Bay Area in 2021 is just under $80k. Source.