this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2026
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[–] qevlarr@lemmy.world 29 points 1 day ago (3 children)

If Elon Musk finds a $100 bill in the street, it isn't worth his time to pick it up

[–] FrowingFostek@lemmy.world 1 points 7 hours ago

Idk, I think he'd pick it up because it's liquid wealth. The majority of his wealth is tied to the speculative market. I'm uncertain how much he could even make cashing his winnings out of the Stockmarket. Assuming he withdrew all assets and liquidated them. I'm sure it would be a ridiculous amount still.

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 1 points 8 hours ago

If you have $100,000, then $1 is worth about as much to you (relative to your net worth) as $1,000,000 is to someone with $100,000,000,000...

Let that sink in, and then ask yourself why billionaires don't pay more taxes...

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 23 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

Meanwhile, if your yearly salary is less than $315,360 it is worth your time to pick up a penny.

mathAssume picking up a penny takes one second. There are 31536000 seconds in a year (roughly, let's not get into leap seconds). Multiply that by $.01, the value of a penny. Then you get the salary such that across the year you're making a penny every second. A caveat to this is that even if you're making more than this you need to debate what "worth your time" means because it's still a penny you wouldn't have either way, but I think this is enough to illustrate the wealth gap.

Small edit: To add to that last point, what I mean is that it's not like you stop earning your yearly salary while you're picking up a penny.

[–] Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (1 children)

Picking up a penny takes way longer than one second! At least 5, if it includes stopping, and even longer if you check it out and put it in your wallet!

😁

[–] some_kind_of_guy@lemmy.world 1 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

I'd have to include another 30 seconds to unlock my phone and search something like "is 1956 penny worth anything", then another 20 seconds for disappointed reflecting.

[–] NottaLottaOcelot@lemmy.ca 2 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Unless picking up the bill stops someone from earning for some reason, most people should earn their hourly wage plus $100

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 1 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Is this part not showing for you or did you just miss it?

Small edit: To add to that last point, what I mean is that it's not like you stop earning your yearly salary while you're picking up a penny.

[–] NottaLottaOcelot@lemmy.ca 2 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

That’s what I meant as well - we are saying the same thing. I think I misread your comment as that being the threshold to make it worth it. Don’t mind me, my brain is mush after work lol

[–] normalentrance@lemmy.zip 3 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Although a dog may have peed on it, so wash your hands!

source: owner of a dog that proudly pees on any foreign item on the street.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 1 points 22 hours ago

If you're making less than $300k, can you really complain about your money covered in dog piss? /s hopefully obviously lol

[–] Denvil@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I mean to be fair, you wouldn't be getting paid $315,360 for a years worth of work, you'd be getting paid $315,360 for 7.488 million seconds in a year (ish, 40 hour weeks, no missed days)

So really to have picking up a penny in one second be "worth" your time, you'd only have to be making $74,880 a year or less

[–] MrShankles@reddthat.com 3 points 22 hours ago

Man, I'm not gonna math that out myself; but that sounds more realistic and I choose to believe you

Yeah bro I was thinking like I don’t make 300k a year and I still don’t pick up pennies…

[–] applebusch@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 day ago

It's always worth it when you're on the clock.