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Comment by 1235711 | Hacker News Reader

The systems are so weirdly gameable though - I know a number of couples living with their parents for free to save money in very expensive parts of the country - they'll be paid top rates with no expenses vs. someone living in a poorer part of the country to be with family taking a massive paycut.

Others are living in the hubs they always have while renting out flats in cheaper parts of the country as side income.

The endgame is living in the cheapest neighbourhoods in SF/NY/London while working "remote" - the commute being bad in that part of the city doesn't matter anymore.

Maybe we can just show our rent checks for food at the company store.

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It's worse than gameable; it continuous to contribute to "discrimination" based on socioeconomic class.

Your exact example: If you were born into a wealth area, your family likely has extra space for you to live, and you will continue to be paid highly due to living in an "expensive" area.

If you were unlucky enough to be born into a poor area in a poor part of the country, you may have to move home to support your family due to a pandemic. They likely don't have extra room for you, so you have to find and pay for your own place. On top of that, you get your salary cut 50% as an "adjustment".

It is a side effect of a system where the already-well-off will be treated better.

Outsourcing generally has the same effect on a global scale - people in poor countries will get low salaries for doing the same work, which keeps those countries poorer than the rich ones.

It's the opposite. Outsourcing gives an opportunity for people in poor countries to earn money, bringing their wealth up.

Just look at Mexico and the US. In the US, auto manufacturing labor was paid $80k+. I don't know the exact numbers for Mexico, but it seems reasonable to assume people in Mexico typically work jobs that pay far less than $80k. Automakers go to Mexico and say we'll give you $40k to do the same work we are paying $80k for in the US.

For people in Mexico, $40k is a much better option than anything else available, so the people in Mexico jump at the opportunity to earn $40k, and are wealthier because previously they were earning less than $40k (by definition, otherwise why would they jump at the opportunity to earn $40k). People in the US are now earning $0.

Quality of life has increased for many, many millions around the world due to outsourcing, and one could make the claim quality of life (or at least security of income) has decreased for millions in the developed world. But this is arbitrage at work. Of course, labor arbitrage isn't the only type, there's also environmental arbitrage (which is bad for the world).

Everything is a trade off. Do you thing living with your parents/relatives past a certain age is free? Maybe in the monetary sense.

If the situation was reversed, where poorer employees were living with their parents, people would be upset with the inequality too. Even more so if the ones who were not living with their parents got stabilized rent after 5 years, or bought property and saw their equity rise in value.

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