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Annual note to self: most of the world exists outside the tech bubble

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Re: Annual note to self: most of the world exists outside the tech bubble

#221

Post by subatomic »

josiahpeters wrote: post #200
lotsofpulp wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using a credit card is not the same as going into debt to make your purchase. In the US, you can easily get 1% to 4% back from the credit card company by using your credit card, and so you actually save money by paying with your credit card. Whether or not you want to pay off the balance at the end of your credit card's billing cycle decides whether or not you are going into debt, but many, many people pay it off. It…

Its not like you're just pulling free money out of thin air by using a credit card. And it seems likely that the finance institutions behind the credit cards are offering them as a product that makes money and not as an act of goodwill. If everyone paid their credit cards off at the end of the month like they say they do, do you think credit cards would be advertised or pushed as hard as they are? The finance institu…

> i'm sure there are some people are responsible enough to never incur a finance charge from a credit card by always paying their monthly balance. I've never actually met one of those people.

Hi, I'm one of those people. Nice to meet you!

We use our (no fee) credit card for everything we can and pay it off at the end of the month. Initially we did this to allow as much of our own money, for the longest possible time to sit in our mortgage. We've never paid a cent in charges, fees or penalties.

You can save incredible amounts over the years just by shifting the time at which your money sits where.

Re: Annual note to self: most of the world exists outside the tech bubble

#222

Post by mcguire »

nether wrote: post #136
bmwe30is wrote: post #30

>Some are rooted, embedded in their communities; and some are trapped — because housing is unaffordable where the better paying jobs are. And the jobs that are high paying are not the jobs they built their lives on. There's some texture and nuance to this statement. I remember on NPR, they interviewed a lady whom mentioned similar sentiments; her and her husband had built a family, worked in the blue-collar industry…

These people don't want to move because they value community and social support over economics. This attitude is baffling to HN because it defies quantifiable metrics unlike money. Seeing everything as an economic problem is the essence of greed.

Not to mention that many on HN seem to be single, asocial loners with no significant responsibilities outside work.

Re: Annual note to self: most of the world exists outside the tech bubble

#223

Post by speeder »

wott wrote: post #116
maxxxxx wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We get paid ok but most of us barely have one home. There is no common bond between the regular tech guy and a successful VC. Different worlds.

> We get paid ok but most of us barely have one home. If the average 'tech' worker is 28 and single, that's normal, not a sign of 'squeezing'.

I think you got it the other way around.

I am 29, and single...

But I am single BECAUSE I am nowhere near owning a home, in fact I don't own a home, or a car, or anything, to the point I stopped looking for a girlfriend because... why bother? It is not like I can even take her to a cinema.

Re: Annual note to self: most of the world exists outside the tech bubble

#224

Post by int_19h »

jansho wrote: post #93
isostatic wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But this is a good thing. In our Delhi office, each elevator has an attendant who's sole job is to push the button of the floor you want. This means less space in the lift for passengers, and lifts being taken out of commission because there's nobody to push the button. Removing this job (by having the technology to allow passengers to select their floor themselves) means improvement for the users. The same applies t…

The button pusher I think is a bad example. There are not many button pushers, for one, and secondly when we talk about the current industrial revolution, it's about machines replacing humans who are doing jobs with some skills . And there are many such jobs, like operating machinery in factories, and consequently many livelihoods depending on them. Arguably replacing these jobs with machines is also too fast for any…

The root of the problem is the idea that you must be productively employed. It's a fallacy, and everything else that follows from it (like this notion that optimizations are bad because they result in fewer skilled jobs) are wrong for the same reasons.

Unfortunately, it's a fallacy with very strong social support. Including, ironically, these very people who are hurt most by it.

Re: Annual note to self: most of the world exists outside the tech bubble

#225

Post by int_19h »

darod wrote: post #81
bsaunder wrote: post #51

This is the use case for universal basic income. Its largely not their fault for their current economic situation. They played by the rules. They worked hard. If we could only remove the "necessity" of a job and the puritan shame of unemployment to live a moderate life of meager means. People should be encouraged to contribute to society not to simply "get a job".

I think UBI would be unsustainable without additional investments in education. If you are going to be taking public monies, that time should be used to educate oneself or provide some form of public service.

What's the point, if the jobs keep getting automated? Why should we force people to do "public service" that robots can and will do better?

Re: Annual note to self: most of the world exists outside the tech bubble

#226

Post by epx »

I do this regularly - go to the countryside, sleep in a hotel of a very small city, take pictures of abandoned buildings in once-thriving communities that died because the railroad station no longer has passenger service, or because most people migrated to cities. I don't live in SV, but it does help to put life into perspective the same.

Re: Annual note to self: most of the world exists outside the tech bubble

#227

Post by jpindar »

nnd wrote: post #144
darod wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think UBI would be unsustainable without additional investments in education. If you are going to be taking public monies, that time should be used to educate oneself or provide some form of public service.

In this case that won't be UBI, but rather a scholarship grant.

Which is itself a rather interesting idea.

Re: Annual note to self: most of the world exists outside the tech bubble

#228

Post by PeanutCurry »

subatomic wrote: post #221
josiahpeters wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its not like you're just pulling free money out of thin air by using a credit card. And it seems likely that the finance institutions behind the credit cards are offering them as a product that makes money and not as an act of goodwill. If everyone paid their credit cards off at the end of the month like they say they do, do you think credit cards would be advertised or pushed as hard as they are? The finance institu…

> i'm sure there are some people are responsible enough to never incur a finance charge from a credit card by always paying their monthly balance. I've never actually met one of those people. Hi, I'm one of those people. Nice to meet you! We use our (no fee) credit card for everything we can and pay it off at the end of the month. Initially we did this to allow as much of our own money, for the longest possible time…

I've been doing similar. I realize that some people prefer to spend their money, including grocery shopping, somewhat spontaneously and for those people credit cards are probably a bad idea. But if you plan a monthly budget ahead of time there's almost no reason not to be using a credit card with a good rewards program. Different people value different things so what rewards program is the best is a more complicated issue. But purchasing via credit is only detrimental if you're spending more than you can pay back.

Re: Annual note to self: most of the world exists outside the tech bubble

#229

Post by slackingoff2017 »

danielvf wrote: post #211
slackingoff2017 wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had no idea that 12% of the population makes top one percent income for at least a year of their life. What causes so many of these people to fail? How could there possibly be so many jobs that offer that kind of income. Or maybe it's that most jobs offering high income have short tenure..

The 1% for the most part aren't billionaires. Last year in the US, the threshold was just under $285,000. Ignoring professionals, plenty of small business owners can hit that on a lucky year. (And get hammered other years). There are a lot of jobs in the US with companies with fewer than 50 people. Confiscating the assets of the 1% to create economic prosperity has been tried a few times before, and usually turns out…

As much as I like the idea of wealth redistribution I have the same doubts it will work. A similar phenomenon happened in South Africa when it was tried. The initial wealth distribution worked okay but it got rid of owners that knew how to run a business and replaced them with corrupt politicians.

As much as many of the 1% don't deserve it... A lot of them have that much money for a reason. The ones I knew, the "new money", were generally extremely intelligent and hard working before they made their millions. A lot of them are on permanent vacation now but if all of us had that much brains, charm, and grit it would be a lot easier to get rich.

Re: Annual note to self: most of the world exists outside the tech bubble

#230

Post by closeparen »

josiahpeters wrote: post #200
lotsofpulp wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using a credit card is not the same as going into debt to make your purchase. In the US, you can easily get 1% to 4% back from the credit card company by using your credit card, and so you actually save money by paying with your credit card. Whether or not you want to pay off the balance at the end of your credit card's billing cycle decides whether or not you are going into debt, but many, many people pay it off. It…

Its not like you're just pulling free money out of thin air by using a credit card. And it seems likely that the finance institutions behind the credit cards are offering them as a product that makes money and not as an act of goodwill. If everyone paid their credit cards off at the end of the month like they say they do, do you think credit cards would be advertised or pushed as hard as they are? The finance institu…

>And it seems likely that the finance institutions behind the credit cards are offering them as a product that makes money and not as an act of goodwill.

Correct, credit card companies take a fee on the transaction, which is in turn baked into the prices of all consumer goods.

To pay the normal price with something other than a credit card is to miss out on what you're already paying for.

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