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Comment by swagasaurus-rex | Hacker News Reader

For many of my friends who never went to college (and some who have), their life looks similar to how it did ten years ago: Shifting from low paying job to low paying job, moving between states just to see what it's like, insecure in housing (who can afford that?)

Our economy has put a ceiling on what unskilled labor can earn, while forcing the poorest to compete against the richest in the housing market.

Healthcare is simply laughable, unattainable and unaffordable. These people only birth children as a mistake.

When a person can't plan for the future because all roads look as bleak as where they came from, whats to stop them from going feral?

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Ideally, support from society would stop them from going feral. There's no reason we have to be insecure in housing (there are more vacant homes than homeless people), no reason we couldn't have universal healthcare in the USA (plenty of other countries have it), no reason the economy has to have a ceiling on unskilled labor (during my parent's generation a factory worker could support a family).

Instead, we prefer to live in a ruthless society where losing your job puts your very survival in jeopardy. The problem is capitalism, not the biology of men.

I think "support from society" along the lines of the examples you have given is part of the problem. People need something meaningful to do. I'm not trying to put forward a position of governments role in healthcare and housing, just saying they wont make the problem go away.

There is a lot in the article I dont agree with, but the point that we need an outlet for human nature, basically to be part of something, I think is solid, and I don't think its solved with handouts.

I'm not suggesting we turn people into cattle. I believe that people could find meaning much more easily if there was a stronger social fabric for helping others. Individuals could work on projects meaningful to them without having to worry about a commercial component. People would have time to take care of their family and friends because they wouldn't have to work two jobs. It's about freeing people from the struggle to survive so they can use that energy to thrive.

Was your society any less market-driven during your parents' generation, when the factory worker could support a family with a single income?

On the other hand, are societies like India or China becoming less capitalistic, where many of these trends are broadly moving in the opposite direction?

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