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Comment by mnd999 | Hacker News Reader

If you work harder and make more money all that happens is your landlord puts the rent up and takes it. So why bother?

In your hypothetical scenario, your disposable income would go down over time because your income stays constant and rent increases every year. Eventually you'll be homeless

If you are screwed either way, then it's not surprising that people choose the option where they don't have to work hard.

That's not being screwed either way.

The issue is that for many people, their income is already insufficient to meet their needs. So it becoming less sufficient to meet their needs may not be much of a change.

What do you mean either way? If your income keeps up with inflation or grows faster then you're not screwed. See every software job in the US and the massive difference between L3 and L5 for example

What are L3 and L5?

I think GP means this: different companies call them different things, but the difference between a Sr. Software Engineer compensation and Staff Engineer compensation can be 100% in some companies.

Not everyone works in a field that pays as well as software does. People working in the service sector don't make a minimum wage even if they work hard. So why work hard?

Yes, that is quite literally what is happening...

Rent prices have gone up 17% since 2021, and average household income have stayed the same.

And people are going homeless! Single-person homelessness up 3% since 2020, and chronic homelessness has gone up 16% since 2020. All per HUD.

That's not exactly hypothetical....

> you'll be homeless

We ran out of carrots, but we have this nice stick here.

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