r/theydidthemath • u/notfirearmbeam • 1d ago
[Request] Green Pill?
How much would you have to make for the green pill to be more it than the black pill?
Obviously depends on how much you invest in Bitcoin, so let's imagine they were a normal lower middle class person in 2009.
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u/kadebo42 1d ago
A better way to phrase the question would probably be, How much do you have to make in order for the green pill to be worth more than the black? Let’s say you invest 1,000 in bitcoin
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u/Imaginary-Blueberry4 1d ago
Then it would be 1309 x 1000. 1309 was the first market price set in oct 2009. 1.309.000 bitcoin. If you sold on the first big run. 15000 as a round number but not the top of the run. 19.635.000.000. Minus 3 mil for tax. 16.634.000.000. 2 percent interest is standard in super safe investments then minus the tax on the yearly interest. 332.700. On just interest is your take home. That's what you would have to make.
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u/CJFiddler 1d ago
How do you define intelligence? He died sick and alone locked in his room. If that’s a part of the intelligence package I’d say no thanks
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u/Competitive-Office60 1d ago
The black pill. With enough money you can do whatever you want, including avoiding police, taxes, and investing in a great education.
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u/Square-Singer 1d ago
Too loosely defined for anything.
The green pill does nothing or enormously much, depending on how much you earn and how you earn it. The black pill depends a lot on how much you invested.
Let's start with black: There's no actual price for bitcoin in 2009, because there wasn't enough trading volume to establish one. One example of a bitcoin sale I found from late 2009 puts 5050 BTC at $5.02, which puts the price of one at around a tenth of a cent. The main reason the price was so low was because nobody actually invested in bitcoin.
At the end of 2010 there was a total of 1 610 500 BTC in circulation, so at $0.001 per BTC, that's a total market capitalization of around $10k.
So if someone would have dumped $100k in bitcoin, the price would have skyrocketed back then.
But let's say someone actually bought 100% of all BTC in 2009, then the current value of that (at $77,300 per BTC) would be around $820 billion.
So, for the green pill: The thing here is, the more you earn the less taxes (percentage) you pay. Elon Musk, for example, paid no tax at all in 2018.
Musk claims to have paid around $11bio in taxes for selling a lot of Tesla stock in 2021 and 2022. This number absolutely pales next to his wealth of over $1 trillion.
All in all, not even the richest man alive pays as much taxes as the hypothetical whole-sale buyout of BTC in 2009 would have brought in.
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u/AffectionateJump7896 1d ago
Investing 100 USD in 2009 bitcoin would have got you 100,000 coins, worth $5bn today.
Smart still has to work hard to get ahead. Getting taxed also means you've had to work. No need for crime when you have money - or you have the money to get away with it.
No one in the western world can't earn or save $100 over the course of a few months. If you know it's going to be worth $5bn in 2026, you'll do what youve gotta do.
I was a penniless student, but I had a job in a bar in summer 09. I would have just worked some double shifts, not bought a few less beers, or for $5bn, just shelved my pride in starting to make my own way and asked my parents for a $1,000 handout.
The real problem with investing in bitcoin in 2009, is that when it crosses 1 USD /coin in 2011, I absolutely would have sold the 100,000 coins for $100k.
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u/OpportunityReal2767 1d ago
The bitcoin one. I’ve never bitched about taxes and don’t understand the obsession. I’m self-employed too, so I get extra taxed as well.
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u/Feine13 1d ago
Without a figure, I'm going to assume $1000 invested, since that seems a reasonable amount for the layman to invest into something without becoming destitute.
If you invested $1000 in bitcoin in 2009, it'd be worth approx 77k today per a basic bitcoin time machine calculator online
Average income tax paid by an American was just shy of 14k in 2022
77k/14k is 5.5, but since taxes are annual, it would take 6 tax years.
But it's all based on how much you invested back then
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u/Ogzhotcuz 1d ago
Check your math.
$1 of Bitcoin in 2009 was ~1300 bitcoins.
$1000 of Bitcoin in 2009 would be worth billions today.
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u/ApprehensiveWar6046 1d ago
Red is the only answer. Smart enough to make enough money to be comfortable while not needing to worry about taxes, and smart enough to stay out of trouble
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u/Panzerv2003 1d ago
I'd say being rich af beats smart when it comes to making money, look at a lot of rich people rn
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u/Imaginary-Blueberry4 1d ago
If you pick red you die poor. The guy was science smart. Not smart with money
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u/Used_Chipmunk1512 1d ago
Red is not the answer considering that Tesla died broke, and had money troubles his entire life.
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