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Comment by pc86 | Hacker News Reader

> Almost everyone who has ever lived (and almost everyone living today) would consider themselves lucky to have the spending power of an American on minimum wage.

And those people you're speaking of live in rural China or sub-Saharan Africa. Someone is not "lucky" by any global standard to be making minimum wage delivering pizzas in NYC or LA.

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Oh come on. That person is a bus ride away from some cheaper place, where they can live in comparative comfort.

Its exactly those available resources that separate 1st-world from 3rd-world. We are like fish, who cannot sense the water.

What if that person is a dad who has two kids, a wife, and parents living locally, who take care of their kids during the day? Not everyone can so easily be uprooted.

Yes, that's a difficult choice. Still, they have the choice. They can take the bus, or ride a train, or move in with the parents. Not to mention the free clinic open 24 hours, and the internet, and food stamps, and on and on.

The point is, its a 1st world problem no matter how you cut it. "My job is not satisfying. I wish I had more money for discretionary spending." These are not 'real' problems.

I gotta tell you: not everyone is on the internet. In the US, publicly usable internet usually comes in the form of wifi, or terminals at the library. Not everyone has a library near by. Not everyone has enough money for a cheap cellphone or cheap laptop to take advantage of free wifi. Internet cafes aren't a going concern here.

And some people are legitimately scared of computers! Is it their own problem? Emphatically yes. Is it also society's problem? Again, emphatically yes. Is it their own fault? Well that's a matter of opinion. I think we should solve the problem and then argue over blame if there is time left over.

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