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Comment by bigmattystyles | Hacker News Reader

I attribute some of my anxieties to my grandparents who always made it seem like there was no middle ground - you were either doing OK or going to be homeless and destitute. If you weren't near the top of your class - well, oh shit, you would be delegated to a low paying, remedial job if any at all. I attribute their behavior to growing poor and going through WW2 in an occupied country as tweens. I don't know why, but I don't resent their behavior, I know they always loved me dearly and were just looking out for me. To this day though, whenever my manager wants to talk to me, I reflexively think to myself, well pack it up kids, we're moving out to under an overpass.

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This may be the same sentiment that was illustrated in startup culture as 'default alive or dead'. If you have to spend every day fighting the chaos to be okay, you're going to slip at some point and the wheels will come off.

Depression era people kept reusable things in spades and also cared a lot more about social networks (real social networks) more than anyone since. If you had a streak of good luck you banked some of it with your network, because you never knew when the other shoe might drop and you needed to make withdrawals.

> well pack it up kids, we're moving out to under an overpass.

This gave me a good chuckle, thank you!

It's actually the same for me, only my parents were the cause not theirs and I honestly hate them for it.

parents are people too

As Philip Larkin pointed out.

> It's actually the same for me,

Same anxiety here, even though I'm in my early 40s.

In my case though is not the fault of my parents, but of the general socio-economic conditions back in my adolescence years (the '90s were hell for some of us in Eastern Europe) that saw my family move from middle-class status to almost destitute in just 2-3 years. My dad actually felt (probably still feels) pretty guilty about it all, even though it was not his fault, the socio-economic forces in play were just too great. I just hope I won't pass the same feeling of financial insecurity to my kid(s).

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