You'd buy long-term financial security with that kind of money.

You'd never have to worry that a significant unplanned expense would ruin your life. You come down with a major medical condition and end up with years of major medical expenses? Some drunk driver T-bones you and totals your car? Lose your job and spend a year or two unemployed? House burns down and you still owe the majority of your mortgage? None of those will ever be a concern again if you hold that $100M job for even a year.

As a German these are securities that basically every working citizen here has.

Medical expenses -> health insurance

Some drunk driver T-bones you and totals your car -> liability insurance is compulsory

Lose your job and spend a year or two unemployed -> unemployment insurance is compulsory, you get 60 percent of what you made for one year

House burns down and you still owe the majority of your mortgage -> uhg, got us here, we can't afford houses but there is private insurance for that

So even though I pay hefty taxes (or because I do), I still end up much richer than a developer in the US. In theory I don't even need to save up money for retirement, as the general pension fund has me covered (though with the current demographic development I don't fully trust that).

So I probably don't have a good reason to give up my morality of more money. Have been never tempted though.

So one thing people forget about serious illnesses is that it's not just about the cost of medical procedures. It's possible that the only doctors who know how to treat your particular condition are in another city, so there are travel expenses involved. Plus, if your health issues mean you can't work for a long period of time, that can also impact your finances.

(for what it's worth, I currently work for a company that makes software offering various kinds of secondary insurance, and I've spent the last few months learning about the kinds of things "cancer insurance" and "accident insurance" are for, and it's been an eye-opener)

And as for your car: yeah, liability insurance is compulsory in the US, but it's really painful to be hit by someone who's illegally uninsured. It actually happened to my mom a few years ago—she got lucky, her insurance was willing to pick up the tab, but she could've been on the hook for a lot of money if her insurance punted instead (to be fair, the damage to her car was entirely cosmetic, and her car was still operable, just with a car-sized dent in it).

> liability insurance is compulsory in the US, but it's really painful to be hit by someone who's illegally uninsured

In Europe this is covered and very rare currently. After the first four years the car need to pass an official exam each six or twelve months. No insurance means that you can't even start the test nor move the car from there except in a tow truck (paid for you). Driving with the test outdated means a fine and after some months your car can be deregistered automatically. It does not worth the trouble.

For what it's worth, the guy who hit my mom was an undocumented immigrant who had neither a driver's license nor a registered car.

I hold no ill will towards undocumented immigrants, but there's not much you can do if someone hits you in an illegal vehicle.

In that case there is an organism that pays you and then reclaim the money to the part without assurance, plus a hefty fine for him/her, by idiot. In Spain is el Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros and it belongs to the Ministry of Economy. Other countries can have their own systems.

Uninsured motorist coverage is a line item on my insurance documents. I know it is not required by every state but I don't know if there are states where it is not offered. I can't imagine choosing not to have that coverage if it were an option.

we have 3 of the 4 things you list here. "developer pay" is pretty broad, so its tough to generalize where you're paid more.

There’s principles and then there’s principles.

Maybe you wouldn’t be willing to sacrifice humans to Kali, but you might still be okay with working in an open-plan office for two years.

Offer other people the opportunity to enjoy the life you have the privilege to live.

I don't think doing that through money is a good thing. I actually thought about that a lot when Tony Hsieh died, which probably a lot of people here are familiar with. He was incredibly generous, had the best intentions, but at the end of the day he created dependency relationships.

'Offering' other people a life well lived as if that should be my task and not theirs, and justifying things you otherwise wouldn't do has very big problems. Because you can always take it one step further, it never ends really.

You could start a business and hire people: offering others a chance is not necessarily about just donating money and letting others live as leeches.

Basically, anyone who's got kids is trying (struggling?) to impart this very life lesson: it's easiest to just get your kids what they want, but that's not the best way to raise them.

Sort of. Most relationships have dependencies of some sort, but Tony Hsieh's money allowed him to take it to the next level, and not in a good/healthy way. But there's money and then there's money. Or rather, there's being poor and there's poverty, and money fixes that. If someone is struggling and living paycheck to paycheck because they don't make enough money to live on (minimum wage hasn't been enough to live on for decades), enough money to dig them out of the hole can be literally lifesaving.

You can't teach a man to fish if he's dead from starvation.

The best way you can do that is by offering as level a playing field as possible, not giving crap away.

You sound like somebody I’d like to hang out with. Props for good life perspective.