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Comment by rationalbeats | Hacker News Reader

Well to plays devil's advocate, the coal miner is working in a coal mine because he did not get a superior education.

You can argue about why, but I am willing to bet (I don't know anyone working at Zynga) that many of these employees still have tens of thousands of dollars in college loans and seeing the sacrifices they made to get into a position in order to pay them off, erased in a matter of weeks, makes them feel like trapped rats.

I never really like these comparison though because why is a ditch digger better or worse than a computer programmer? Both hold basically the same desires. Why should one's misfortune be less important than another? They both work just as hard?

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I think, regardless of socio-economic status, "severely injured/dead" is worse than "only made 120k and I'm in debt".

>Well to plays devil's advocate, the coal miner is working in a coal mine because he did not get a superior education.

Which is heartbreaking in itself, on top of the bloody mine crushing on him.

You say it like this argument somehow makes the Zynga case more heartbreaking, instead of less...

>I never really like these comparison though because why is a ditch digger better or worse than a computer programmer? Both hold basically the same desires. Why should one's misfortune be less important than another? They both work just as hard?

No, they don't. And they don't get the same compensation either. Or job satisfaction -- the ditch digger pretty much works that job because he has to support himself / his family and he doesn't have the means to get something different. The computer programmer could have been 10 other things if he wanted, from tech support to floor manager at a Costco.

Really, try ditch digging for a year, and then we'll talk.

And, unlike ditch diggers and coalminers, programmers (and other educated folk) can work until they die if need be. This make it or break it silicon valley thing is kind of distorting people their brains. Most people in this world have a job to provide for their family; as a developer you are much better off doing that. You get paid more, it's easier to switch jobs, you can move mostly anywhere and you can work until you're old/dead and enjoy it. A lot of educated people (at least 2 devs) over 70 I know still work and are happy to do so.

And gambling on equity when you get paid well over average with all the options you have for your future is not that bad all considered.

>>Really, try ditch digging for a year, and then we'll talk.

What's that? Is it like "First perform at the Opera House and then we'll talk Mozart"?

Most of the times they do not have same desires. For whatever reasons. Be it the immediate need to support family or the ambition the fire of desire having been lost over the years or fight and struggle to look for a stable mean to live. Or maybe the kind of education/upbringing he received. Or the company he grew up with (well, this is very important). This is also has a lot to do with the genes you were born with.

This is the nature of a capitalist society and other ones are even worse. In a capitalist people are supposed to be of uneven means so they are. In a society like communist societies people are not supposed to be of uneven means (in the usual sense) and still they are and the gap is a lot wider than that in the former society.

The genes? Like, if the kid of a miner is adopted by a couple of lawyers, his miner genes would still push him to a life of digging?

Don't feed the troll, galactus.

>the coal miner is working in a coal mine because he did not get a superior education

Now, this is heartbreaking. Given the fact that most probably not having superior education (or education at all) didn't have anything to do with neglecting studies but simply being born to poor parents.

>why is a ditch digger better or worse than a computer programmer?

It's the society we live in. There are various places on this planet where you are an untouchable by caste the caste you were born in leave alone money and job.

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