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Comment by giraffe_lady | Hacker News Reader

And you don't stop to consider why everyone doesn't see the same opportunities you did? That maybe something has changed since you took advantage of them?

> Starbucks offers to pay full college tuition for their employees.

No starbucks offers tuition reimbursement, for the online programs only, at one school, for some degrees, if you complete the entire degree while working at starbucks. Almost no one is actually able to take advantage of that. It's for their customers to feel better about supporting starbucks not for their workers to go to college.

This is actually a great opportunity for you to pull your head out of your ass and see how the world actually is, instead of how it was for you or how you think it should be.

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> That maybe something has changed since you took advantage of them?

Some things have indeed changed:

1. it's easy to get a loan for the full cost of college

2. pay for STEM engineers is a lot higher

3. you can start a business and reach a worldwide audience for free

4. you can start a business and hand over the logistics of shipping world wide for free (i.e. pay as you go, no upfront costs)

5. you can learn anything you want, via the internet, instantly for free

6. you can start investing in stocks for only a few bucks, with ZERO commission fees

7. you can reach collaborators for your business all over the world, for nothing

8. you can get funding via gofundme.com or kickstarter.com. Wow!

9. if you run an online business, nobody needs to know your name, background, race, religion, age, gender, whatever, unless you choose to tell them. Even then, you can just make it up, because nobody checks or cares

None of this was available in my youth.

Want a ticket from poverty to the middle class? This works:

a. stay in school

b. pay attention in school and learn the stuff

c. get a loan and go to college, selecting a lucrative major

d. don't do drugs

e. don't do crimes.

> 1. it's easy to get a loan for the full cost of college

And then spend the next few decades paying it off, having it as a constant stress.

> 2. pay for STEM engineers is a lot higher

Not everyone can be a STEM engineer. Not everyone wants to be; Society would be pretty terrible if all we had was STEM engineers.

> 5. you can learn anything you want, via the internet, instantly for free

Only for some skills. Watching some youtube videos will not make you a competent woodworker.

> 9. if you run an online business, nobody needs to know your name, background, race, religion, age, gender, whatever, unless you choose to tell them. Even then, you can just make it up, because nobody checks or cares

Until a lawsuit comes your way, or the local tax man decides to come by. As soon as your business becomes mildly successful, that easy anonymity starts to disappear.

> Want a ticket from poverty to the middle class? This works:

You forgot one more point:

f. get extremely lucky to never suffer financial setbacks. Be lucky to have parents who aren't so overworked that you're forced to spend your time taking care of siblings. Be lucky to have parents that can even work into their older age. Be lucky to never suffer a major health problem that financially ruins you. Be lucky to never be injured or hurt such that you can work.

You know you can just say "I don't care about inequality and people who are doing worse than me deserve it" or even just "I got mine who cares about the rest." It's not illegal. Some people might not respect you much but we don't respect whatever this is either.

> but we don't respect whatever this is either.

Speak for yourself. While it might be harder these days, the people I've seen that followed Walter's plan above were all able to get good jobs and support their families, including people who, like the sibling says, are poor, had to take care of siblings, had overworked parents, and so on. Yes, systemic inequalities exist, but well, an individual can't do much by themselves if they use that as the yoke on which they exist, they are not going to solve their problems or their family's poverty within a few years via voting or protesting, more immediate solutions exist. One must not fall into the trap of learned helplessness, and at some point, one has to cast off the yoke of bondage and begin to solve one's problems.

Free markets have vaulted more people out of poverty, by far, than any other system yet devised. The historical record on that is pretty clear.

I've run into a couple Afghans who I got to talk with (at different times). Both had escaped and arrived here with nothing but their skin when the US pulled out. Both had founded businesses and were thriving.

A third had arrived some years ago, and had become a deca-millionaire.

Isn't freedom great?

Have you considered that you might be subject to a kind of selection bias here? You ran into people that were successful enough to thrive here. What about all the others that did not succeed? That had to go back to wherever they came from because their visa ended and they could no longer stay in the country?

>Free markets have vaulted more people out of poverty, by far, than any other system yet devised. The historical record on that is pretty clear.

And unions are part of that free market. I don't know how much more free market one can get than people coming together to offer their labour in an organized fashion.

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