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Comment by silexia | Hacker News Reader

Only for the upper class. The lower class still has to go man the gas stations, grocery stores, warehouses, and factories.

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Don’t think it has to do with class. Surgeons and dentists still need to show up to work. Even in tech, the higher up you are, the more likely you will want to be in the office.

The upper class at least gets the choice. The lower class does not.

If you don't show up to work, you will be fired. If you are fired for not showing up to work, finding your next income source will be more difficult. This is true regardless of whether you're making $7.50/hr or $350k/yr.

Yes, the doctor making $350k/yr can arrange his life in such a way to be more flexible in the face of diversity, but he's just as likely to have $150k worth of school debt and a house/car/etc. he couldn't afford if he had to switch careers. At $7.50/hr, you can probably walk down the street and find a better paying job.

Edit in reply due to depth restrictions: I'm not suggesting this is about ease of switching careers. I'm suggesting that you will be forced to switch careers if you don't show up to work, and it's probably easier to switch between jobs with no prerequisites than careers with 8 years of intensive prerequisites and $150k in university.

I didn't mean "choice to easily switch to whatever job they want at their convenience" and the notion that I did mean that is so absurd that I find it to be a bad faith read of my comment. I encourage you to first steel-man my position. Or don't, that's fine too. Just don't respond with such a technical and self-assured response that is in fact arguing against a point you yourself imagined (and is not rooted in reality). It is exhausting to debate against, especially on the internet.

You are missing the feedback loop - if middle class doesn't need to be crammed in a megacity to have a career, then neither does the grocery store.

Yes, this is true. I'm not sure that the opportunity should be foregone for that reason, but it would widen the cultural and living standard has between the classes.

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