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Comment by berniemadoff69 | Hacker News Reader

Would your tune be any different if they were 34, staying at home all day playing video games, but somehow earning half a million dollars a year doing some "gamer" Twitch/Patreon/YouTube/influencer streaming schtick? Or, better yet, playing video games all day, but magically manage to make obscene amounts of money "trading cryptocoins" . Would their lifestyles suddenly become acceptable to you, simply because they are "making money" off of their sedentary lifestyle ?

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I think this would somewhat validate his “prepared for life” argument because if they have a lot of money they can provide for themselves (food and transport is pretty easy with the gig economy).

(The previous comment used to include something about people wanting to quit their jobs and just play games all day) For your point about playing games all day — there’s definitely some aspect of “having a purpose” that makes some hold down a job even if they are already rich. So for some it’s definitely their life dream to sit in their room all day, and for some having something that you can point to saying “I contributed this” is an invaluable part of their lives

Being an influencer is an enormous amount of work. Sure, one could build a brand around games, but maintaining that brand is constant effort, even though the audience rarely sees it.

The people you talk about work awful lot and burn out. Attracting and keeping audience is hard, just playing wont make people watch it regularly. You are entertainer there. And you constantly deal with harassement and bs.

Thanks for this answer - I respect your opinion and it's made me rethink my statement a bit.

I think if they were working from home it would, obviously, be a different story. They could stash some cash away and be able to care for their aging parents in the future.

(Off topic) Curious why you think it's on the kid to pay for the parent?

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