Don’t have kids. Don’t buy a house. Spend significantly less than you earn.
Or just earn a shitload of money.
Ask HN: Delivery guy is a chemist with 2 teenage kids. Can this happen to me?
31–40 of 65 posts
Re: Ask HN: Delivery guy is a chemist with 2 teenage kids. Can this happen to me?
#32Was he happy doing what he's doing though?
Don't get so caught up with money. And don't judge people based on your perception of what their income might be.
Re: Ask HN: Delivery guy is a chemist with 2 teenage kids. Can this happen to me?
#33Of course it can. Fancy advanced degrees aren't worth anything - that's just the lie colleges tell you so you'll part with more money. You're supposed to be the valuable part. If you aren't valuable, no matter what that means in your modern market, then you could be living in the streets.
And so the truth is laid bare.
Capital > humanity
This is why people is not free to move where they can find the most benefit, but capital is.
Priorities.
Re: Ask HN: Delivery guy is a chemist with 2 teenage kids. Can this happen to me?
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or, perhaps the added stress (both to them and home life) was more than they wanted and they decided to stop running and go for a nice easy walk in the park.
That'd be nice, but but raising a family on a package delivery driver's income doesn't seem like a walk in the park either. I don't want to go off on a political tangent but I've always been struck by how capitalism is presented as both the great multiplier of wealth and the remorseless driver of competition and unyielding bottom lines.
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Re: Ask HN: Delivery guy is a chemist with 2 teenage kids. Can this happen to me?
#35Make wise decisions with your money. Save some, put in in index funds. Make FU money. Learn to manage the stock market.
Re: Ask HN: Delivery guy is a chemist with 2 teenage kids. Can this happen to me?
#36> How is this possible, in fact common, that the lowest paid people in society often have advanced degrees?
I assure you, this is not the case in the US. The lowest paid people in society don't often have advanced degrees. They often have no degree or even high school education. Do some people with advanced degrees have low paying jobs? Yes. But I wouldn't say it's 'often' compared to low paid people as a whole.
Re: Ask HN: Delivery guy is a chemist with 2 teenage kids. Can this happen to me?
#37Intelligence is wonderful but it alone does not make one well-off.
The short answer is that you get rich by leading, not by following. So unless that intelligence comes with a disposition to build a business or at least lead others then you don't get rich. Going with the flow and getting a delivery job like everyone else keeps people poor.
Re: Ask HN: Delivery guy is a chemist with 2 teenage kids. Can this happen to me?
#38Producting things that make people willing to pay you money can be very different than the skills emphasized in advanced degrees.
As long as you understand how you bring value to others, you’ll probably be fine. Conversely if you don’t, one job loss could knock you out.
Re: Ask HN: Delivery guy is a chemist with 2 teenage kids. Can this happen to me?
#39Start of my junior year in chemistry at Alabama, went in to talk to my adviser (his fifth year teaching there). He was sweating over paperwork, said it was the first time he made enough to file a tax return. I said, "Excuse me, I've got to go change my major." And I did. Never looked back.
That doesn't make sense. I thought the IRS required tax returns to be filed for any amount of income over $600.
Re: Ask HN: Delivery guy is a chemist with 2 teenage kids. Can this happen to me?
#40Start of my junior year in chemistry at Alabama, went in to talk to my adviser (his fifth year teaching there). He was sweating over paperwork, said it was the first time he made enough to file a tax return. I said, "Excuse me, I've got to go change my major." And I did. Never looked back.
That doesn't make sense. I thought the IRS required tax returns to be filed for any amount of income over $600.
I believe if you make under ~5,000 a year you can claim exempt from federal taxes and then there is no point in filing a return because you never payed any federal taxes. But I’m not really sure on that.