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My Parents Give Me $28k a Year

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Re: My Parents Give Me $28k a Year

#61

Post by antpls »

underpand wrote: post #51

I disagree with her premise that the government should fund people to have fulfilling creative careers. That's not how the world works. Creative outputs generally do not have 'efficienciecy' increases like other fields. Creative outputs are zero sum: people only have a constant amount of time to use to consume creative outputs and consumption time has already been saturated. Efficiency upgrades for entertainment are…

True, but what if being creative, or the act of creation, even if not consumed, leads to more happiness and self-fulfillment?

Edit : as an example, the explosion of lines of code accessible on the internet is a new form of expression for some people. They are not paid to do it, yet they do it anyway, because they enjoy it. Not all that code is consumed, however.

Re: My Parents Give Me $28k a Year

#62

Post by [deleted] »

vorpalhex wrote: post #53
clint wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since we're using bad analogies I would argue its more like being offered a piece of delicious candy and its great and you continue to eat the candy and its fine. Eventually you wake up one day and decide you've been gaining too much weight and you try to stop eating the candy but to your surprise, over the past several months or years your brain chemistry has been subtly changed and now your physical well-being and…

Except most people know that heroin isn't like candy. The side effects and consequences of snorting a few lines of cocaine isn't some secret.

[deleted]

Re: My Parents Give Me $28k a Year

#63

Post by DoreenMichele »

Plus, the parents apparently paid at least $250k in college tuition for her. So she has world class education, zero debt from it, and then this stipend on top of that. The stipend wouldn't go anywhere near as far if she were saddled with crushing student loans.

I come from a more privileged background than I realized and that included better educational opportunities. I was in gifted programs as early as second grade and had several college-equivalent math classes through my high school by the time I graduated high school. I took more math in high school for free than a lot of people with (non STEM) bachelor's degrees take.

As a homemaker in my twenties, I kept running tallies in my head for every single item that went into my shopping cart. I never bothered to carry a calculator. I could run the numbers in my head faster than other people could punch it into a calculator.

So much knowledge and training makes sparse material resources stretch a lot further than people stumbling their way forward with limited finances and less education, fewer solid mental models to inform their decisions, etc.

I mean, I appreciate that she wrote the article and she's not wrong, but I think the issue runs so much deeper than she's indicating. Just because I had smart parents who knew a lot, I had a leg up before I ever started school at age five. And the gulf between me and most of my age mates only grew the older I got.

Re: My Parents Give Me $28k a Year

#64

Post by subpixel »

Small sample size, but I happen to know multiple people in their thirties and forties whose parents continue to fund their 'creative' lives. I can assure you they are not as happy as you think free money might make you.

Re: My Parents Give Me $28k a Year

#65

Post by soared »

underpand wrote: post #51

I disagree with her premise that the government should fund people to have fulfilling creative careers. That's not how the world works. Creative outputs generally do not have 'efficienciecy' increases like other fields. Creative outputs are zero sum: people only have a constant amount of time to use to consume creative outputs and consumption time has already been saturated. Efficiency upgrades for entertainment are…

The "creative" part of that sentence is purely from her (super biased) viewpoint. The idea is letting people pursue /a career of their choosing/ rather than being stuck at a low-paying job with no opportunity to change that. She wants people to choose arts, but many would choose a real-world job that interests them. (Ex. a housekeeper has a passion for political issues and wants to work in the government, but has no time/energy/money to pursue it).

Re: My Parents Give Me $28k a Year

#66

Post by frgtpsswrdlame »

crooked-v wrote: post #45
mobileexpert wrote: post #27

A refrain that is very true in NYC. It is a bit off-putting (and just wrong) to read the author talk about white male privilege being a comparable head start to her half a million dollars of family money she’s received. (And 28,000/yr still coming!) For an essay centered on owning up to personal privilege it still has some serious short comings in recognizing how extreme her wealth privilege is versus almost all intr…

Consider that even well-known black movie stars occasionally get the "shopping while black" treatment. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/19/forest-whitaker-fa... Having even absurd amounts of money doesn't make bias just go away.

And yet I bet that 95%+ of American white males would easily, easily, easily make the trade between 'shopping while black' and $28,000/year. I actually wonder if you took the poorest 50% of white males and asked them what poor treatment they would suffer for $28,000/year tax-free - how much would they willing endure? I dare to say quite a lot.

>Having even absurd amounts of money doesn't make bias just go away.

And having white skin and a penis doesn't make inequality go away either.

Re: My Parents Give Me $28k a Year

#67

Post by soared »

ydnaclementine wrote: post #42

Boy, does reading this make me a bit frustrated/jealous. Some people are just incredibly lucky (at no fault of their own!). I would write more, but it would be more therapeutic for me than entertaining to read for you. I also found the author referencing gender/race distracting(?), this situation could happen to anyone. If you do find this type of stuff about what the wealthy do with their wealth interesting, I highl…

I am consistently frustrated/annoyed/jealous by most of my friends whose parents paid tuition, rent, etc. I am more annoyed that I hold that opinion though; its something I wish I could let go and forget but I can't seem to do it.

Re: My Parents Give Me $28k a Year

#68

Post by pkaye »

ntumlin wrote: post #21

Maybe this isn't the right place to ask, but could someone explain the rationale for taxing gifts within a family? Ignoring the possibility of using it to circumvent an income tax, etc., my initial thought is that if my dad wants to give me $30,001 this year, or even $300,000 this year, that he's already paid taxes on it and it's not the government's business. I feel the same way about inheritance taxes, although tho…

The yearly gift tax exclusion is $15K to each recipient. When it exceeds that, it will count against the lifetime estate tax exclusion which is $5.6M. Only then would they have to worry about the extra taxes. So for an average person they will never reach that limit.

And there are clever tricks to bump up the limits. The two parents can gift to the child/spouse separately to give 4x the gift tax limit.

Re: My Parents Give Me $28k a Year

#69

Post by soared »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #63

Plus, the parents apparently paid at least $250k in college tuition for her. So she has world class education, zero debt from it, and then this stipend on top of that . The stipend wouldn't go anywhere near as far if she were saddled with crushing student loans. I come from a more privileged background than I realized and that included better educational opportunities. I was in gifted programs as early as second grad…

Your point becomes even more true when you think about kids who grew up with not enough or even unhealthy foods. Their brains didn't have the resources to develop, so they are hamstrung from the start. Even more true when you see poorer neighborhoods near polluting factories and industrial zones.

Re: My Parents Give Me $28k a Year

#70

Post by rtkwe »

underpand wrote: post #51

I disagree with her premise that the government should fund people to have fulfilling creative careers. That's not how the world works. Creative outputs generally do not have 'efficienciecy' increases like other fields. Creative outputs are zero sum: people only have a constant amount of time to use to consume creative outputs and consumption time has already been saturated. Efficiency upgrades for entertainment are…

I disagree heavily with this. There's been a lot of improvement in the quality and variety of entertainment too over the years not just the technology used to deliver them. If restricted to media from say mid century America post TV most people would be bored stiff by the material available.

It's REALLY easy to wind up with a dismissive attitude towards the arts growing up and working in tech but never forget how much there's a feedback loop between artistic exploration and technological advances and how even a modern 'clean' design encodes a lot of artistic choice behind the scenes.

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