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My Parents Give Me $28k a Year

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Re: My Parents Give Me $28k a Year

#221

Post by balaksakrionon »

sidlls wrote: post #213
merpnderp wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet if you even dare to open up the argument that government should try to encourage the types of families and behavior that show the best results for this type of childhood, you'll immediately be drowned out in ad hominem attacks. Even Obama took a lot of heat for saying dad's should help raise their kids. Never mind more seriously statically relevant approaches like waiting until after high school and marriage…

Most of the arguments you refer to are actually thinly veiled racism ("black dads don't care about their kids") and that is the source of antagonism against them. There is more than a little classism behind Obama's remarks, though: he wasn't exactly raised impoverished or by family who were constantly running afoul of a racist, classist "justice" system.

That seems like the most uncharitable interpretation possible of the above person's comment.

Re: My Parents Give Me $28k a Year

#223

Post by [deleted] »

sidlls wrote: post #213
merpnderp wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet if you even dare to open up the argument that government should try to encourage the types of families and behavior that show the best results for this type of childhood, you'll immediately be drowned out in ad hominem attacks. Even Obama took a lot of heat for saying dad's should help raise their kids. Never mind more seriously statically relevant approaches like waiting until after high school and marriage…

Most of the arguments you refer to are actually thinly veiled racism ("black dads don't care about their kids") and that is the source of antagonism against them. There is more than a little classism behind Obama's remarks, though: he wasn't exactly raised impoverished or by family who were constantly running afoul of a racist, classist "justice" system.

[deleted]

Re: My Parents Give Me $28k a Year

#224

Post by underpand »

lordnacho wrote: post #202
soared wrote: post #71

Does anyone have recommendations on how to overcome the resentment I feel against people like the author? I am jealous and frustrated by their advantage, but that opinion is purely negative and doesn't help me at all.

> Does anyone have recommendations on how to overcome the resentment I feel against people like the author? I am jealous and frustrated by their advantage, but that opinion is purely negative and doesn't help me at all. I grew up with a number of people who were far more well off than me. One kid made more interest on his inheritance -most of it hadn't even arrived yet- than my parents made all year. There's pros and…

How are they doing now?

I think that the experiences diverge the most as adults actually. Kids don't have many responsibilities and most go to school. Minimum wage jobs as a teen can actually be fun. You're surrounded by coworkers your age and everyone slacks off. It's low pressure in the sense that you and your coworkers don't care about getting promoted or fired.

As adults, rich kids can choose fulfilling, fun careers (or none at all). The non-rich slave in unfulfilling, soul sucking jobs, constantly worrying about money and retirement.

It's not the cool toys or expensive experiences that make wealth attractive. It's the ability to not work a 9-5 job without the fear of starvation or poverty.

Re: My Parents Give Me $28k a Year

#225

Post by ngngngng »

maerF0x0 wrote: post #144

> With the arts, a student may be accepted to an arts program without a scholarship and find herself $200,000 in debt before realizing she isn’t going to be able to get a real paycheck with her arts degree—at least in the next decade. We need the government to stop backing these bad loans. Any bank that makes enough bad loans will eventually fail, so they try and avoid it. I'd rather see someone say "Well, you can bo…

Exactly, there are millions of dollars in the arts, but it's all in selling art degrees.

Re: My Parents Give Me $28k a Year

#226

Post by darawk »

InitialLastName wrote: post #192
darawk wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Serious question, I'm wondering, why you, personally, value other people getting MBA/Engineering degrees over arts? Because they increase GDP, and thereby pay back their education in the form of income taxes, and increase the available wealth for everyone.

Alternatively, GDP Or no, I value their artistic output over your ability to target ads on a CRUD app.

I guess you don't care about the millions of people living in poverty, then?

Re: My Parents Give Me $28k a Year

#227

Post by forapurpose »

frgtpsswrdlame wrote: post #66
crooked-v wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 h…

It's true that other people have problems, but that doesn't reduce the amount of discrimination against African-Americans and other minorities, or help the problem. An assumption behind the parent's "bet" (no evidence is given) is that discrimination against African-Americans isn't especially problematic. I think that needs to be supported against the mountains of evidence that say otherwise; IMHO, it is like claims of climate change denial - it's easy to make the claims, but the evidence is overwhelmingly otherwise.

A sad fact of HN is that there are no voices of African-Americans, or at least very few and they don't share their experiences (not that I blame them; it's a hostile place). Other people with no experience like to share their opinions, but that is as valuable as me talking about what it's like to work at Microsoft - I've never worked there so my opinion isn't worth a lot. The lack of people experienced in this subject is both an outcome of generations of discrimination - African-American families often lack the wealth, income, and educational history associated with higher education and SV jobs - and a cause of it: We don't understand the problems. We're just BSing in the dark.

Re: My Parents Give Me $28k a Year

#228

Post by madengr »

astrodust wrote: post #194
maerF0x0 wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>You're creating a class of people with indestructible inherited wealth that never have to work, that only have to collect interest and rent on the backs of everyone else. That wealth is invested in profitable ventures that either create benefits in the system (assuming rational actors) or 2) lose value due to poor choices. Capital is rewarded because the investors are taking opportunity cost risks that advance the s…

I think you have a profound misunderstanding of what someone with billions of dollars in inherited wealth does with their money. It's not investing in "profitable ventures" that "create benefits", it's tied up in businesses they inherited, it's squirreled away in tax havens, it's spent on lavish properties, club memberships, expensive cars, and tuition for their children. If you're lucky a tiny fraction of that trick…

Tuition pays teacher salaries. Expensive cars employee engineers and mechanics. Club membership employees the service sector.

Do you realize the backlash against private jets 10 years ago cost the aviation industry jobs. If a billionaire flys coach, vs a private jet, which creates more jobs? Same can be said of yachts.

Re: My Parents Give Me $28k a Year

#229

Post by ric2b »

maerF0x0 wrote: post #144

> With the arts, a student may be accepted to an arts program without a scholarship and find herself $200,000 in debt before realizing she isn’t going to be able to get a real paycheck with her arts degree—at least in the next decade. We need the government to stop backing these bad loans. Any bank that makes enough bad loans will eventually fail, so they try and avoid it. I'd rather see someone say "Well, you can bo…

> Any bank that makes enough bad loans will eventually fail, so they try and avoid it.

I wouldn't be so sure, these days (post 2008). _Especially_ if it's a big bank.

Re: My Parents Give Me $28k a Year

#230

Post by 013a »

noonespecial wrote: post #76
soared wrote: post #71

Does anyone have recommendations on how to overcome the resentment I feel against people like the author? I am jealous and frustrated by their advantage, but that opinion is purely negative and doesn't help me at all.

I have none of those advantages either but I am fantastically lucky to be basically perfectly healthy. I can only imagine what someone in chronic lifelong pain must feel about me. I can just jump up and run whenever, wherever I feel like and my prescription drug bill each month is zero . Talk about an unfair advantage in life!

This is it right here.

My teeth are horrible. A combination of genetics and an adolescence/pre-college diet of soda, I'd imagine. We're talking trips to the dentist every month or two for fillings, replacing fillings, the odd root canal here and there.

This year was the first year I've ever "used up" all of my dental insurance. Let's count my blessings, first of all: Holy shit am I lucky to have a world class dentist a few blocks away. Holy shit am I lucky to even have dental insurance at all, provided by my employer.

I recently scheduled a root canal for a tooth that's been causing tremendous pain. Crippling, anything touches the tooth and I black out for a couple seconds, creeping into a constant stabbing headache, barely kept under control by OTC pain meds, kind of pain. Without dental insurance, it'll be $600. Can I afford to do this every month? Heck no, this will be the last time I go to the dentist until insurance comes back in 2019.

But how fortunate am I that I can afford to pay for this once? Imagine being told it would cost even a few hundred at a cheaper dentist, you don't have insurance, and you're already counting dollars to make ends meet. Imagine being born in a third world country and you've got this problem; at best you'd just pull the tooth, which is going to create more problems, hopefully better problems.

During one dental procedure in the past I was prescribed Vicodin, 30 pills. I went to the pharmacist; that'll be $3 with insurance. What?!

Pain is a universal human feeling that, if you take a moment, offers an amazing moment of reflection and humility about how lucky most of us are that it's temporary. If you have chronic migraines, or joint pain, or diabetes, or anything like that: it affects everything you can do in life. You can't think clearly. You can't work as hard as your potential. This impacts all the future earnings you'll ever earn.

If you're generally healthy, generally pain free, and have access to healthcare when you're not, you're literally among the luckiest people on the planet.

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