The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Mar 23, 2017, 10:40 PM UTC

rubber_duck wrote: post #248

alkonaut wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Salaries for professionals are markedly lower, we live in much smaller houses etc. This is an age old debate, and it's very hard to compare one vast continent to another. Regional differences between US cities and European cities are at least as large or larger than the difference between the avereages of US and European salaries/living standards etc. The difference between central manhattan and rural Apalachia is…

>is just like the difference between the fancy parts of Stockholm and rural eastern Europe It's really not - in the EU the difference between median net income in say Norway 41 483€ or Denmark 28 364€ and Romania 2 315€ and Bulgaria 3 332€ - that is over 10x differences between poorest and richest countries. US doesn't have that level of disparity between states even if you count Puerto Rico. http://ec.europa.eu/euro…

Post by redwood » Fri, Mar 24, 2017, 1:31 AM UTC

conanbatt wrote: post #190

alkonaut wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Salaries for professionals are markedly lower, we live in much smaller houses etc. This is an age old debate, and it's very hard to compare one vast continent to another. Regional differences between US cities and European cities are at least as large or larger than the difference between the avereages of US and European salaries/living standards etc. The difference between central manhattan and rural Apalachia is…

A software engineer in a startup in berlin earns maybe a median salary of 60k euros ayear at a 40% tax rate. Thats less of what interns make in the us at a 30% tax rate. An experienced engineer at google or facebook make 200k with a sizable signup bonus. As far as I know, theres no comparison between what a soft dev makes in the us and what he makes in europe. This is from someone that lives in south america, and is…

Post by yummyfajitas » Fri, Mar 24, 2017, 3:02 AM UTC

coldtea wrote: post #289

yummyfajitas wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Inflation adjustment doesn't take into account costs that are prevalent in an era but totally absent in another: like internet access, cellphone bills, and such. I'm glad you've agreed with me that life has done nothing but get better. We're all winners, whereas by modern standards our parents were all losers. As for the other things you bring up, basically none of the facts fit your story. Homeownership has ranged f…

> I'm glad you've agreed with me that life has done nothing but get better. We're all winners, whereas by modern standards our parents were all losers. Only in the sense that being a loser with a cellphone makes you a winner over a winner in the 60s without a cellphone. But I don't think "availability/access to gadgets and avocados" is of primary concern when one considers whether "life getting better" over access to…

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Mar 24, 2017, 3:43 AM UTC

coldtea wrote: post #420

prolly_a_moron wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Inflation adjustment doesn't take into account costs that are prevalent in an era but totally absent in another: like internet access, cellphone bills, and such. Nor how much one not puts into their retirement account / savings to spend on daily needs. Yes it does. Have you looked at how the BLS calculates the market-basket they use for CPI calculations? It's determined by actual spending by actual people on actual…

> Yes it does. Have you looked at how the BLS calculates the market-basket they use for CPI calculations? It's determined by actual spending by actual people on actual goods. The CPI calculation does take into account "new expenses", but in a backwards way from what I asked for above and for the reverse purpose (to hide the negative changes). Instead of just adding something like a cell contract into the "new necessi…

Post by paulddraper » Fri, Mar 24, 2017, 6:52 AM UTC

rmc wrote: post #65

seanhandley wrote: post #59

As a European (used to free healthcare, statutory maternity leave, and 25 days paid leave per year) it shocked me on first visiting America how third-world it actually feels regarding what people consider a "normal" work/life balance. People work incredibly hard, long hours and often with very little to show for it. It's surreal.

And many of them think that people in Europe have it worse. That the economy would just collapse into African-levels of poverty if there was mandatory paid holidays. This is a danger of American TV shows and movie studios remaking shows for the American audiences. They don't get to see that Europe is mostly a developed place.