After the check is gone: The underground economy of rural America • Hacker News Board

Re: After the check is gone: The underground economy of rural America

#291

Post by yahna » Fri, Oct 06, 2017, 10:07 PM UTC

toomuchtodo wrote: post #230

curun1r wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Blue Blood Democrats pushed Bernie off the national stage attempting to elect Hillary Clinton What the DNC did in last year's primary was shameful, but... > leaving the disadvantaged to only vote for the candidate who offered to champion their cause (Donald Trump) Laughs...he never championed their cause. He told them all their problems were because of minorities and that he'd return the country to a time of bigotr…

> Laughs...he never championed their cause. This stance is part of the problem. https://www.google.com/search?q=bring+jobs+back+trump+youtub... https://www.google.com/search?q=trump+coal+jobs+youtube https://www.google.com/search?q=trump+carrier+jobs+youtube He promised the disadvantaged he'd get their jobs back from Mexico and China, he promised to bring coal jobs back. Whether he did those things or not doesn't mat…

I blame the poor who continue to vote republican.

They deserve every hardship that gets them. Get screwed out of health care. Deserve it. Billionaires pocket tax breaks and then still get rid of jobs. Totally deserve it. Shitty schools for your kid, and you can't afford the nice private school even with the vouchers. I feel sorry for the kid, but the blame lies with the parents. Get fired for no reason and your union is gone. Well you wanted that right?

There is a lot of people who didn't choose this, and that is sad. The rest, they can shut up and enjoy the world they built.

Re: After the check is gone: The underground economy of rural America

#292

Post by fencepost » Fri, Oct 06, 2017, 10:11 PM UTC

24gttghh wrote: post #139

thaumaturgy wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This kind of sentiment is exactly why more liberals need to read more articles like this one. If you've never lived that life, it's easy to sit back and proclaim for someone else how much better things might be for them if only they didn't do things the way they do. It makes it easy to dismiss their problems as entirely their own fault while we get to feel good about giving out some solid advice. Those cigarettes and…

Smoking makes you feel better in the short term because your body is jonesing for that nicotine, and dopamine gets released when you give your body the nicotine. Then you don't smoke, and you feel shitty until the next nicotine hit. You give a poor justification for an addiction, and the happiness is merely a result of the feedback loop of nicotine > dopamine > no nicotine > dopamine crash > nicotine > dopamine > etc…

> I'm pretty sure medical science would say she is smoking because she's addicted.

Maybe. How many cigarettes a week would be needed for that assessment? Because I'm pretty sure she's not nursing a pack-a-day habit.

I suspect that avoiding heavy labor is just as likely to reduce her heart attack chances. For that matter, a healthy balanced diet would likely do even more to help.

And where is she supposed to work? Let's see, poor education, limited access to bathing facilities, history of health problems, well into the age range where the college educated tech industry folks on HN complain about ageism and the difficulty of getting hired. Oh, and in a region of the country that's suffered from massive job and industry loss. I'm sure things will improve as soon as she stops smoking.

Re: After the check is gone: The underground economy of rural America

#293

Post by bzbarsky » Fri, Oct 06, 2017, 10:14 PM UTC

amigoingtodie wrote: post #277

bzbarsky wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Minumum wage in the US is $7.25/hr. In West Virginia specifically it's $8.75/hr. That means that a full-time minimum-wage employee in West Virginia costs about $1460/month (assuming they get paid for 50 weeks a year and take 2 weeks of unpaid vacation; if they get paid for 40 hours every week, that's $1517/month). That's just for their salary. Employers also have to pay half of the FICA tax (7.65%), unemployment taxe…

So, why would anybody want a call center in WV if bandwidth and minimum wage are more expensive than Florida, for instance? ...and all employees would pay state income tax

How do the real estate prices compare?

But yes, in general the answer may be that they wouldn't put such a thing in WV.

Re: After the check is gone: The underground economy of rural America

#294

Post by fencepost » Fri, Oct 06, 2017, 10:19 PM UTC

hestipod wrote: post #218

24gttghh wrote: post #6

> She lit a home-rolled cigarette and, getting to work with a mattock, tried to ignore the weather. She had lately been telling herself that she had to stop taking these risks. They were more than an hour from the nearest hospital, and what if she had another heart attack? Yeah...she seems to be ignoring the heart-attack risk she is pumping into her lungs while she says that. I get that it's an addiction that is hard…

This is probably the last post I will make lest I be accused of spamming...and I am probably wasting my breath...but I want to put a human face on this. I am middle aged. I was strong and healthy and worked multiple jobs serving the community. I paid taxes and believed that if I needed help it would be there. I was ruined by unneeded and poorly done surgery I was scared into having and since then everything had rotte…

If you can, drop me a line (email in profile) - if nothing else I may be able to hook you up with an old but functional laptop or two.

Re: After the check is gone: The underground economy of rural America

#295

Post by occultist_throw » Fri, Oct 06, 2017, 10:29 PM UTC

m777z wrote: post #270

occultist_throw wrote: post #195

Ive been there. Years ago. Back in '07 got laid off. Company shut down. Lots of us tried to scramble to get jobs, and all the quick low paying jobs filled up. I got into unemployment and started collecting the $207/week. And this, obviously, wasn't enough. It certainly didn't equal to the part that was taken out of my paycheck for "unemployment insurance". 2 weeks turned into a month. Which turned into months, then i…

>It certainly didn't equal to the part that was taken out of my paycheck for "unemployment insurance". You were getting more than $207/week taken out of your paycheck for unemployment insurance? That's highway robbery!

When you work for 5 years at a place, and unemployment law only recognizes the last 2 years as history, yes, I am getting cheated.

The point of unemployment insurance is to cover things like this. And when the govt's law intentionaly blinds them to your previous payments, there definitely is something wrong.

Did I calculate exactly how much I paid in? No. But do 5 years of being paid reasonably well; I paid in plenty.

Re: After the check is gone: The underground economy of rural America

#296

Post by simonsarris » Fri, Oct 06, 2017, 10:33 PM UTC

pavel_lishin wrote: post #266

simonsarris wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hm. http://heyjackass.com/ Certainly not millions, but that's not something I'd be proud of. Nowhere in New Hampshire do people say "don't worry, its just certain parts that have all the violence."

I mean, yes, murder is bad - but are the 58 people dead during September random strangers who got shot? Or is this the result of mostly gang/organized crime violence? You're not likely to die in a car crash if you don't drive a car.

Minor nit at this point but NHTSA just released their 2016 data.

37,641 die on US roads in 2016, including 5,987 pedestrians, 840 cyclists, for 18% of deaths.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DLejbNAWsAMmDOO.jpg

Re: After the check is gone: The underground economy of rural America

#297

Post by philipkglass » Fri, Oct 06, 2017, 10:51 PM UTC

forkandwait wrote: post #45

gph wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes you think these people wouldn't already have jobs as engineers and technicians if they were capable of that? It even mentions in the article that the one lady lives down the road from her nephew who has a nice house with trucks and a boat. He was pulling down 100k at a coal related job, that might mean in a labor role but there's a good chance he's the type of person you're talking about; someone capable o…

I am amazed by the pervasiveness of the assumption that most of the human race is inherently just too stupid to become upper middle like us.

If every low-wage worker could start writing software, then writing software for an employer would also become a low-wage job. We're not paid well just because we have useful skills. We're paid well because the demand for our kind of skills hasn't been swamped by supply.

Re: After the check is gone: The underground economy of rural America

#298

Post by toomuchtodo » Fri, Oct 06, 2017, 10:57 PM UTC

curun1r wrote: post #289

toomuchtodo wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You'd probably see a lot more compassion among big-city liberals if these communities had embraced Bernie Sanders' agenda which would have redistributed a lot of wealth into their communities. Blue Blood Democrats pushed Bernie off the national stage attempting to elect Hillary Clinton, leaving the disadvantaged to only vote for the candidate who offered to champion their cause (Donald Trump). I don't fault most Tr…

> "Undocumented immigrants" are not citizens being oppressed They're not citizens being oppressed, but they are human beings being oppressed. They're often fleeing war-torn countries and, by definition, have taken a proactive action to try to escape their circumstances and the poverty that they were born into. Your lack of compassion for them whilst simultaneously descrying people's lack of compassion for similarly i…

Pragmatism is not a lack of compassion. There are limits to everything.

Re: After the check is gone: The underground economy of rural America

#299

Post by marak830 » Fri, Oct 06, 2017, 11:14 PM UTC

hestipod wrote: post #255

marak830 wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about anyone else here, but I'd like to hear your story. I cant help you in any way, much to my own discredit, but if you want someone to speak to, or if you ever feel like sharing publicly, I'd be interested. Side note, where are you moving to?

I don't even see most of my posts so I think something is still filtered or else I am being downvoted so they don't show? A mod said the new account spam thing was released Don't understand HN well as I have always lurked and never participated. I have told my story in forums many times and it never got me anywhere but more exposed and depressed so I don't feel comfortable giving too many details...though I sort of l…

I understand not wanting to give details nor wishing to rehash painful memories. All I can hope for is the best of luck for you, andy sincerest hope that things change.

Re: After the check is gone: The underground economy of rural America

#300

Post by fencepost » Fri, Oct 06, 2017, 11:20 PM UTC

toomuchtodo wrote: post #230

curun1r wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Blue Blood Democrats pushed Bernie off the national stage attempting to elect Hillary Clinton What the DNC did in last year's primary was shameful, but... > leaving the disadvantaged to only vote for the candidate who offered to champion their cause (Donald Trump) Laughs...he never championed their cause. He told them all their problems were because of minorities and that he'd return the country to a time of bigotr…

> Laughs...he never championed their cause. This stance is part of the problem. https://www.google.com/search?q=bring+jobs+back+trump+youtub... https://www.google.com/search?q=trump+coal+jobs+youtube https://www.google.com/search?q=trump+carrier+jobs+youtube He promised the disadvantaged he'd get their jobs back from Mexico and China, he promised to bring coal jobs back. Whether he did those things or not doesn't mat…

> Hillary Clinton is nowhere to be found after her crushing defeat, and Bernie Sanders is still out there every day fighting for universal healthcare and other pro-citizen policies

At least in modern times most losing presidential candidates stay pretty quiet for some time. Also, while I guess you can call it a crushing defeat in that she lost, I will note that she did win the popular vote by a margin of several million.

As for Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren it may be relevant that both are still in office.