[KingOfCoders]

One of the best things when you are rich, you can buy when everyone wants to sell, and sell when everyone wants to buy.

At one level of money you are not impacted by a market downturn or crisis.

Many very rich people in Germany became very rich during or after WW2 - but they already were rich. Normal people just get poor in a crisis or market downturn.

[bushbaba]

And many very rich people in Germany got very very rich in ww2 by stealing Jewish assets and businesses.

[KingOfCoders]

  A. Yes. Plus selling to the Wehrmacht ("war is a racket"), often with forced labour - or both, first stealing from Jews then selling to the Wehrmacht (like the current owners of BMW, ancestors sold to the Wehrmacht, profited from forced laber and additionally stole from Jews [1]). In communist East Germany Jews even couldn't get back their assets after the war, because Jews where "capitalists".

  B. The vast majority of Germans profited from stealing from Jews (see book "Hitlers Volksstaat"), e.g. Germany was out of money before Kristallnacht and Jews had to pay 1 billion Reichsmark after the progroms, which helped the German state. Also jewish furniture etc. was auctioned off to all Germans - people too often only talk about arts and houses.

[1] The Quandts already were rich selling to the Prussian army, then during hyper-inflation of the economic crisis bought struggling companies, then "bought" companies from Jews who were forced to sell, then used forced labour in their companies, sold to the Wehrmacht, after WW2 got everything back and the debt they accumulated to buy all of that had evaporated because of the war. Today they own large chunks of BMW for example.

[Dracophoenix]

You don't need to be rich to do that, just wise enough to keep savings and live below your means.

[from-nibly]

No you need to be really long term liquid and thats what poor people really don't have ( liquid assets to throw at buying stock)

[Jensson]

Most people are between poor and rich, he said not rich not that the poor could do it.

[KingOfCoders]

You can't buy cheap houses when everyone wants to sell and there are loans. But if you are rich, you buy when everyone sells.

[vintermann]

Piketty's point in a nutshell, wasn't it? Only he talked about it in terms of insurance.

[caeril]

> One of the best things when you are rich, you can buy when everyone wants to sell, and sell when everyone wants to buy.

Generally untrue, since most rich people hold their assets in what's being sold. There are a handful value investors left, who bother holding cash equivalents when PE ratios get absurd, but they are few and far between. Tech billionaires, in particular, are very unlikely to be sitting on much cash.

[KingOfCoders]

"Generally untrue"

I know several people who bought vast amount of real estate during the financial crisis.

You don't need to "sit on cash" to buy things.