How to get really rich!
I know money can’t buy you love, but wouldn’t it be nice to have enough money to buy whatever else you want?
I’m here to help you to help you!
The most likely way to become rich is to try to get into a line of work that’s hard to get into, particularly if the people in that profession are the ones setting the rules for entry.
For example, if you want to become rich, tech may be a less likely way than you suppose. In 2019, about 2.4% of software developers made it to the top 1% of earners. The odds are also against you if you go into the STEM professions. Just about 2.2% of electrical engineers made it to the top 1%, just about 3.3% of chemical engineers did and about 0.8% of industrial engineers did. The arts aren’t so hot either. Even just among people who manage to make a living as an actor, a director or a producer, just about 2.1% made it to the tippy top.
What’s wrong with all these professions? That’s simple: These are highly competitive, innovative and productive industries where global competition drives down earnings. You want to go into a profession protected by strong professional organizations and state legislators who will shield you from global competition and productivity growth.
So what profession is most likely to get you rich? Medicine! You get to save lives and make bank all at once! One third of doctors overall, including about 58.6% of surgeons, are in the top 1% of earners. There are more doctors and surgeons in the top 1% than any other job category.
Why is that? First, there’s our screwed-up health care system in which nearly 18% of gross domestic product flows into medicine and disproportionately toward a relatively small number of doctors. Second, there are huge barriers of entry into that profession — including, of course, the strenuous education that’s required. The number of medical school students is limited. In 20182019, only 41% of applicants who applied to medical school actually got into one. Plus, a 1997 federal law capped the number of residency slots that Medicare funds would support.
It typically takes a minimum of 11 years of difficult training to become a doctor, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. Once you’re a doctor, you are protected by state laws from competition from lower-cost workers.
If you’re squeamish around blood, you can go into law. Census data for 2019 shows that about 14.5% of lawyers are in the top 1% of earners. And for some of the same reasons: high barriers to entry, limits on competition from less costly alternatives and limits on innovation. For example, in most states it’s illegal for a nonlawyer to own a law firm. If some MBA has an innovative idea for how to streamline practices, she is not allowed to start a firm and use that idea.
If that doesn’t float your boat, try getting a job in venture capital, hedge funds or private equity. Don’t go into consumer banking. Companies with low-fee options, like those introduced by Vanguard, can’t pay the big bucks. The real money is in managing those higher-end investment vehicles to which only rich people and institutions have had easy access. For reasons that seem to mystify everyone, pension fund managers are willing to pay ridiculously high fees to people in those professions, so there are tons of money to be made. About 5% of financial managers are in the top 1% of earners.
Once you’ve made some money, there’s one more way to get richer.
Buy a home in a neighborhood with a lot of zoning restrictions. For example, 84% of the land in Charlotte, North Carolina, and 94% of the land in San Jose, California, is zoned for detached single-family homes. These restrictions keep the supply of housing low and jack up the value of homes for people wealthy enough to already own one.
My main message is that if you want to get rich, don’t invent a new and useful product, start a company and try to sell it. That seems risky. Put the effort into entering a clubby line of work in which legislators and professional associations are working to make you rich. It’s easier!
The only problem would be if legislators undo rules that make the rich richer. For example, in California this week, the Berkeley City Council began dismantling the single-family zoning restrictions that keep the housing market tight. If that sort of thing continues, only people who win free and fair competitions will get rich. That’s not the American way!
With nominees appearing by remote video and hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler on different sides of the country, a very socially distanced 78th Golden Globe Awards trudged on in the midst of the pandemic and a storm of criticism.
Fey took the stage at New York’s Rainbow Room while Poehler remained at the Globes’ usual home at the Beverly Hilton. In their opening remarks, they managed their typically welltimed back-and-forth despite being almost 3,000 miles from each other.
“I always knew my career would end with me wandering around the Rainbow Room pretending to talk to Amy,” Fey said. “I just thought it would be later.”
They appeared before masked attendees but no stars. Instead, the tables were occupied by “smoking-hot first responders and essential workers,” Fey said.
In a production nightmare — but one that’s become familiar during the pandemic — the night’s first winner accepted his award while muted. Only after presenter Laura Dern apologized did Daniel Kaluuya, who won best supporting actor for his performance as Black Panther leader Fred Hampton in “Judas and the Black Messiah,” get his speech in. When he finally came through, he waged his finger at the camera and said, “You’re doing me dirty!”
Pandemic improvising was only part of the damage control for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which puts on the Globes.
After the Los Angeles Times revealed that there are no Black members in the 87-person voting body of the HFPA, the press association — which Ricky Gervais last year called “very, very racist” in his opening monologue — came under mounting pressure to overhaul itself and better reflect the industry it holds sway in.
This year, none of the most acclaimed Black-led films — “Ma
Rainey’s Black Bottom,” “One Night in Miami,” “Judas and the Black Messiah,” “Da 5 Bloods” — were nominated for the Globes’ best picture award. With the HFPA potentially fighting for its Hollywood life, Sunday’s Globes were part apology tour. Fey and Poehler started in quickly on the issue.
“Look, a lot of flashy garbage got nominated but that happens,” Poehler said. “That’s like their thing. But a number of Black actors and Black-led projects were overlooked.”
Within the first half hour of the NBC telecast, members of the press association also appeared on stage to pledge change. “We recognize we have our own work to do,” said vice president Helen Hoehne. “We must have Black journalists in our organization.”
The show, postponed two months from its usual early January perch, promised little of the
glamour that makes the Globes one of the frothiest and glitziest events of the year. Due to the pandemic, there was no parade of stars down the red carpet outside the Beverly Hilton.
When attendees would normally be streaming down the
red carpet on Sunday evening, many stars were instead posing virtually. Regina King, resplendent in a dazzling dress, stood before her yawning dog. Carey Mulligan, nominated for “Promising Young Woman,” said from a London hotel room that she was wearing heels for the first time in more than a year.
The circumstances led to some award-show anomalies. Mark Ruffalo won best actor in a limited series for “I Know This Much Is True” with his kids celebrating behind him and his wife, Sunrise Coigney, sitting alongside. John Boyega, supporting actor winner for his performance in Steve McQueen’s “Small Axe” anthology, raised his leg to show he was wearing track pants below his more elegant white jacket.
Other awards included Pixar’s “Soul” for best animated film; Catherine O’Hara (“Schitt’s Creek”) for best actress in a comedy series; and Aaron Sorkin (“Trial of the Chicago 7“) for best screenplay. The film, a favorite to win best drama film at the Globes, was sold to Netflix by Paramount Pictures last summer due to the pandemic. “Netflix saved our lives,” Sorkin said.