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Millennial men with different incomes

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Re: Millennial men with different incomes

#51

Post by MrFoof »

Mystrl wrote: post #45
MrFoof wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My first job was at a Wal-Mart. My second job was at a meatpacking plant, because it simply paid better. My third job after busting my ass at home was doing web dev, back in the late 90s, in which I was hilariously underpaid. Today I'm a self-employed data warehousing and database performance consultant with no shortage of work and paying myself about what the Junkluggers guy does. There's a way out if you bust your…

Do most people actually have short commutes? I think I've grown so used to commuting an hour + each way doesn't faze me at all. In high school it was 45 mintues on a bus each way. University was bus bus skytrain bus for about an hour and 45 minutes and work now is bus bus train skytrain taking about 80 minutes. Honestly I would rather spend 80 minutes on transit than 45 minutes diving since I can sleep on the train i…

It depends. For me, I prioritize it because a long commute adds zero value to my life, just costs (monetary, mental and time). I moved years ago to where mass transit could cover anywhere I needed to go, and could often get me there in 20 minutes or less. Granted, everyone's priorities are different, so for some they'll take a longer commute to facilitate other things.

Most of my early jobs were 15-25 minutes each way via car. Later on as I moved towards increasingly urban areas it did increase to around 45-60 minutes each way. Then I moved, and shrunk it to 15-20 minutes again via mass transit. Then I started working for myself, and that's anywhere from 0 minutes (remote) to 35-40 minutes each way -- with a few extreme cases being 90-100 minutes each way because I choose not to drive (I have a car, but it exists for fun, not commuting, though I'll use it for a commute or meeting in a pinch) and to minimize cost.

Re: Millennial men with different incomes

#52

Post by lusen »

tuna-piano wrote: post #26

I assume many people here are earning amazing incomes, >$100k. Does anyone else feel extremely guilty about this? When I read about the guy who takes two trains a bus and walks a mile to get to work, while trying his best to save just $1100 for a car, my heart breaks. The work I do is easy - I sit in front of a screen in my own house. When I go to a fast food restaurant and order from a woman in her 40s, who likely h…

The important thing is to be awareness of this disparity. It's often set up as a false dichotomy: you either have to feel guilty, or you have to ignore and forget poverty and privilege.

It's ok to observe differences and then keep that in mind when relating to other people. Use this knowledge to be more empathetic. Be kinder. Be grounded. Be connected. You can lead your best life earning tons of money while also understanding your relationship to the world and the diversity it contains. You can let this understanding inform your responses and intentions.

Processing the world isn't simple. But you can continue to evolve how you relate to differences and different people, and that can guide your overall goals as well as your decisions in specific interactions.

Re: Millennial men with different incomes

#53

Post by buzzybee »

tuna-piano wrote: post #26

I assume many people here are earning amazing incomes, >$100k. Does anyone else feel extremely guilty about this? When I read about the guy who takes two trains a bus and walks a mile to get to work, while trying his best to save just $1100 for a car, my heart breaks. The work I do is easy - I sit in front of a screen in my own house. When I go to a fast food restaurant and order from a woman in her 40s, who likely h…

It's not wrong to notice how unfair it all is. I've seen several sides of it. But in terms of "what do I do about it," self-flagellation is probably not correct.

My answer has become: Attempt to set some business idea of your own in motion. That doesn't mean that you are going to be good or motivated at business or have any worthwhile plans, of course. That is the curse of being in that position, and a lot of people do run away from such a responsibility. But it's a concrete way in which you can make things less broken - build people's careers, sell useful products or services, market new ideas, etc. It makes me feel OK with myself.

And most crucially, it really doesn't have to be a brave "save the world with VC backing" plan - it can be a totally selfish idea like "a cool gadget for me and my friends", accomplished by employing a handful of contractors for a few months part-time. The saving comes in via the attention to social responsibility you take in implementing it - whom you employ, how you employ them, adapting the product to a marketing strategy, what manufacturing processes you use, etc. All of that creates an atmosphere around the business, and the atmosphere itself changes the way in which the world works. The final product is just one tiny part of it.

Re: Millennial men with different incomes

#55

Post by antisthenes »

paulcole wrote: post #33
antisthenes wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should feel somewhat lucky, because your parents made a substantially bigger investment in you than you realize, through which you were allowed free time to acquire the technical aptitude to become a developer (or whatever else allowed you to become a high earner). Whether you want to keep feeling guilty is up to you, but you should definitely go thank your parents again! > When I read about the guy who takes two…

You mention parents twice when the comment you replied to never did. Why? You're projecting that the commenter succeeded because of their parents, not in spite of them.

I'm projecting it because it is by far the most likely outcome.

Re: Millennial men with different incomes

#56

Post by rm_-rf_slash »

Mystrl wrote: post #45
MrFoof wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My first job was at a Wal-Mart. My second job was at a meatpacking plant, because it simply paid better. My third job after busting my ass at home was doing web dev, back in the late 90s, in which I was hilariously underpaid. Today I'm a self-employed data warehousing and database performance consultant with no shortage of work and paying myself about what the Junkluggers guy does. There's a way out if you bust your…

Do most people actually have short commutes? I think I've grown so used to commuting an hour + each way doesn't faze me at all. In high school it was 45 mintues on a bus each way. University was bus bus skytrain bus for about an hour and 45 minutes and work now is bus bus train skytrain taking about 80 minutes. Honestly I would rather spend 80 minutes on transit than 45 minutes diving since I can sleep on the train i…

I walk 30 minutes up a steep hill every day. Walking out of my apartment to the garage, driving to the parking lot, and walking from there to my office actually takes closer to 40 minutes.

I love every step of my daily uphill walk, especially in the winter. I love the endorphins boosting my start to the day, and I love knowing I can pretty much eat as I please (excluding alcohol) and end the day at a caloric balance.

Side note: I previously lived further than practical for walking, but with my car in a driveway it was much faster to drive. Wouldn't go back for any reason.

Re: Millennial men with different incomes

#57

Post by bertiewhykovich »

lusen wrote: post #52
tuna-piano wrote: post #26

I assume many people here are earning amazing incomes, >$100k. Does anyone else feel extremely guilty about this? When I read about the guy who takes two trains a bus and walks a mile to get to work, while trying his best to save just $1100 for a car, my heart breaks. The work I do is easy - I sit in front of a screen in my own house. When I go to a fast food restaurant and order from a woman in her 40s, who likely h…

The important thing is to be awareness of this disparity. It's often set up as a false dichotomy: you either have to feel guilty, or you have to ignore and forget poverty and privilege. It's ok to observe differences and then keep that in mind when relating to other people. Use this knowledge to be more empathetic. Be kinder. Be grounded. Be connected. You can lead your best life earning tons of money while also unde…

While I appreciate the good intentions behind this ethos, and the value it may contain, I gotta ask: what real good does this awareness accomplish? I can be as aware as I want of the vast extent to which the system from which I've reaped such rewards has crushed the life from others -- what of it? What good does it do them?

Re: Millennial men with different incomes

#58

Post by greenshackle »

weberc2 wrote: post #54
greenshackle wrote: post #2

3 'more or less' typical millenials? 3 CEOs and one poor guy? Really?

To be fair, one of the CEOs was staunchly in the middle class ($55K/yr).

Granted, but it's still a decent margin above the median millenial at $33k/yr. I would have liked to see at least one closer to the median.

Re: Millennial men with different incomes

#59

Post by riboflava »

tuna-piano wrote: post #26

I assume many people here are earning amazing incomes, >$100k. Does anyone else feel extremely guilty about this? When I read about the guy who takes two trains a bus and walks a mile to get to work, while trying his best to save just $1100 for a car, my heart breaks. The work I do is easy - I sit in front of a screen in my own house. When I go to a fast food restaurant and order from a woman in her 40s, who likely h…

Here's why I don't feel guilty:

https://www.stilldrinking.org/programming-sucks

> So no, I'm not required to be able to lift objects weighing up to fifty pounds. I traded that for the opportunity to trim Satan's pubic hair while he dines out of my open skull so a few bits of the internet will continue to work for a few more days.

Oh sure I'm not typically over-the-top like the article. I do enjoy the act of programming much of the time, and camel-y jokes. But I don't feel bad that I'm getting paid a lot of money for what I much-of-the-time consider work that a bright high schooler could also do. Having worked with some not-so-bright college interns recently I feel even less guilty, if that's possible. To some extent we all make our own choices, mine led me here, why should I agonize over where other people's led them? I'm not interested in controlling their lives.

Re: Millennial men with different incomes

#60

Post by drewrv »

michaelchisari wrote: post #17
bryanlarsen wrote: post #8

> We have more opportunity, but the price of living is unbearable. The cost of basic groceries & clothing is down dramatically over the last 50 years. The price of housing could be too, but we've decided that it's more important to keep prices rising and supplies limited.

Cost of healthcare has skyrocketed. As has housing, as you've mentioned. Those are much bigger expenses than groceries and clothing, so those lowered costs are not offsetting the biggest jumps.

Education as well. Healthcare, education, and housing (near a good job) are the tickets to a stable middle class life and they're out of reach for many.
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