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Comment by MSM | Hacker News Reader

He isn't getting paid well, I agree with him there. However, factoring your car payment and car insurance into your hourly wage just because you happen to work from your car is kind of silly. If I work from home do I factor my house payment into my hourly wage?

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Are you serious? Imagine if you are a programmer but your computer takes an obscene amount of maintenance (like a car: tires, oil changes, preventative maintenance) to keep it running so that you can keep freelancing as a programmer. If you didn't factor this into your costs of being a "freelancer" you would be an idiot.

Everyone needs a car. If my car breaks down I would likely have to take a sick day to get it to the shop. No one factors that into their pay. I need to wear pants when I go into the office, do I get to allocate pants into my wage?

A car is something almost everyone needs. He's going to end up factoring it into his hourly wage and then getting a car for free.

a. not everybody needs a car.

b. the amount you drive even with a lengthy commute is nowhere close to what a person driving 8 hours a day 5+ days a week does. the amount you spend on gas alone is huge never mind maintenance and having the right insurance for driving that many miles (many drivers don't and can get totally screwed over if anything happens and the insurance company finds out they don't have the right coverage).

I definitely agree he should factor in costs that he wouldn't have been paying before. I thought his including his entire car was a little disingenuous, that's all.

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