Hacker News Reader

Comment by mbillie1 | Hacker News Reader

It's almost like working 60+ hour weeks churning out CRUD apps to get a rich person richer isn't the secret path to happiness or something.

View on HN

The amount of time spent commuting certainly doesn't help either.

Commute time should really be considered part of work. I wouldn't be making the trip if it weren't for going to the job so why shouldn't it be considered work hours?

Because you have considerable influence over how long your commute time is. I can choose to live in a tiny apartment across the street from my job and walk to work, or I can choose a large house and drive 50 minutes to work. That's a personal decision. The worker who chooses the 50 minutes isn't entitled to anything more than the one who lives close by.

not really, once you have kids in picture its a whole different math. also the whole buying vs renting thing. to drive the seriousness of this home, Elizabeth warren did a study back when she was a prof & found that for every 10 point deviation from median in school performance house prices went up by 20 points.

Yeah the amount of influence you have is very minimal, especially when you consider changing jobs, are you supposed to move each time you do? I think that is an often claimed adage (like the whole trickle down effect one) that is much less true in reality.

Don't change jobs then. You have that choice. There are jobs I will not accept because the commute is not acceptable to me.

Just because you do not like the choices that are available to you does not mean such choices do not exist. I have a child so I know all about the different math. We could still choose to live in a small apartment in the city. Some people do that because they want to; others, because they have to.

Hold on, I need to write that one down...

In your CRUD ToDo app?

I feel like you're judging me and my app.

Of course I am, I'm European!

This is a CRUD app safe-space.

How common is this really? I've worked at three companies. One big, one small, one medium. And at all of them I work around 40 hours making 6 figures, and feel like I'm working more than everyone else at the company.

Where are all these 60+ hour workers? Are they making even MORE money?

Shocking how people accept that.

Shocking how average people accept the salaries they make and tax rates they pay.. smart people know better.

Indeed. Just think of the social safety net and universal healthcare we could have in the US if we taxed the highest marginal income rates appropriately.

EDIT: And how much more holiday/vacation time we'd have if it was mandated at the federal level.

You need to tax wealth as well, not just income. Accumulated wealth is what results and continues the inequality, not incomes.

What kind of wealth is currently untaxed?

Stocks or bonds => income tax + capital gains tax

Real estate => property taxes + capital gains tax

Cash => taxed by inflation

Metals => capital gains tax

That will disincentivise investment and encourage consumption and emigration once you've made your pile.

that's very socialist approach - excessive taxation on everything only gives rises to tax havens for wealthy ones. who would be targeted is not truly wealthy, but say upper middle class which isn't rich enough to use these kind of services, they are the ones spending most on services, which keep blue collar jobs, like it or not. This layer of citizens is necessary for healthy function of any society. If you strive to destroy them via excessive taxation (ie move them to low middle class over time), you are hurting economy in long run.

Don't forget truly rich have plenty of completely legal companies that advise them how to 'optimize' their taxes. Companies smarter and better equipped than your average lawmaker. I mean look at the presidential candidates - obviously both are doing it. Everybody rich is doing it.

Raising the tax rates to 45% would (optimistically) generate 250 billion in the first year, which is ~20% of just medicare and medicaid. Which is only to say, improving access to health care and making it sustainable in this country is a much more complicated problem.

EDIT: Links:

- http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/17/business/putting-numbers-t...

- https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/images/pubs...

I agree that we'd also have to drive down healthcare costs using single payer.

You do know that the US has one of the most progressive tax rates in the world right?

You mean progressively lower and lower for those with the most?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com