Hacker News Reader

Comment by president | Hacker News Reader

That's life. Not everyone can afford a cushy 6-figure desk and chair job.

Nope, not really. Economy is sort of a closed loop. There is that much basic resources and this much people, and it's all about how it gets distributed between them. "Sort of", because it creates incentives for people to do some things, and if these incentives are right, the economy creates new value.

In an anarchy it boils down to who's got a bigger gun. Under feudalism, it's about what class you were born to. For a brief moment in human history in a bunch of Western countries it was about who managed to create something of value and sell it to others. But that would also mean bankrupting inefficient behemoths to make room for the next generation, but we stopped doing that in 2008.

So now, if you have bought a couple of Walmart shares back in 1970s, you're good. If you have purchased a house prior to 2010s, you are great. But if you are younger, you're screwed. The media tells you that living in a box and having no family is OK, and if you are ambitious - go play a victim and get forced non-monetary recognition from others. The incentive to create things is gone, so the society is inevitably converging to some weird corporate feudalism, and that only means further degradation for those except the hereditary elites.

Maybe you're being ironic, but it sounds like you're whining... there are "other" Walmart shares, nowdays it's easier and cheaper to buy them...there are houses which'll appreciate in value (most? do) but wealth does have that bad habit of holding you still, those shares need researching, the house repairing... and anyway I'm sure you prefer to travel...

I never did understand why people keep up with their 9/5 5 days a week (and in Europe a month holiday ) when they could save more, spend less (on heating) by heading south in the winter... in a way the most important thing people from the west have is their passport which (unfairly) allows them pretty much freedom to travel anywhere...and a basic salary which would cover a years expenses for a couple months of work...

A sense of place and belonging is critical to life satisfaction. If we can't settle down and build a life in a community, then that is not a slight obstacle to happiness, its a major detriment to the health of the population.

I'm of the opinion that we are more animal than we remember, and the human animal thrives in a participatory community. I reject that casualness of your point.

Having school age kids, and social connections in general, make a nomadic life challenging.

You're right except stocks don't matter at all. It's the land that matters if you want to reinstate feudalism. USA was the land of the free because nobody "owned" it. 300 years later it is running into the same problems that drove people out of Europe to North America.

The problem is society can’t afford the outcome of paying truck drivers less.

Lower paid, younger, less experienced, more exhausted, and passed off truck drivers are an increased danger to other drivers.

That is an externality, to say it’s just life is pretty much saying it’s acceptable to underpay people as longing as the only risk is to others…

Yeah I think it’s ridiculous that people forget that we only got to this point because previous generations built a framework which we currently live in and where many of us can prosper.

If we want to abandon that and go back to the centuries of fiefdom where we barely made progress, by all means do it somewhere else.

Corporations willing to hollow out the foundation of society is their fault, not people who get told to “find a better laying job”

If your job is essential to the functio of society you should

1) have a living wage

2) have a group advocating and bargaining in Your interests

3) have a say in the corporate management

Essential employees are essential to society, not to corporations. Society (I.e., government) should assure they are treated in a functional way

Reply on news.ycombinator.com