I’m not saving ninety percent of my income for myself • Hacker News Board

Re: I’m not saving ninety percent of my income for myself

#11

Post by momokoko » Sat, Jun 08, 2019, 3:53 PM UTC

double0jimb0 wrote: post #7

cercatrova wrote: post #3

When I read stories like this, I always think of the systemic factors that are creating this behavior; that America, and indeed many countries in the world, do not have the social safety nets to take care of its own people when they can't work anymore. It would be better and more efficient for a nation as a whole to take care of its children so that they can choose their own avenues of success rather than needing to…

Point to evidence that free time leads people to do these wonderful things. In a macro sense, biological life/evolution, economics, and production of goods points to innovation and efficiency gains being made by risking one’s time/enengy/resources in hope of creating a new local efficient outcome. Free time has nothing do with that.

The entire open source software ecosystem?

Re: I’m not saving ninety percent of my income for myself

#12

Post by xenihn » Sat, Jun 08, 2019, 3:54 PM UTC

I'm honestly so jealous of the husband's situation. 7-figure networth before hitting 30, a 4-bedroom home in a major tech hub, and a compulsively frugal wife who is obsessed with financial planning and amplifying your shared incomes/networths. The dream.

This article just feels like a vector to drive traffic towards her sites, though.

Re: I’m not saving ninety percent of my income for myself

#13

Post by lucb1e » Sat, Jun 08, 2019, 3:54 PM UTC

Answer: it's to support her parents' retirement.

Re: I’m not saving ninety percent of my income for myself

#14

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jun 08, 2019, 3:57 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: I’m not saving ninety percent of my income for myself

#15

Post by vmlinuz » Sat, Jun 08, 2019, 3:57 PM UTC

Just to be clear, this is a story of a person who has been traumatised by a combination of the worse parts of US and Chinese poverty. It's not a nice story, at all...

Also, the two websites she runs, as linked at the bottom of the page - one of them is a blog/content site about living frugally, one is about making money any way you can. They're part of the same problem that the article (probably inadvertently?) illustrates.

Re: I’m not saving ninety percent of my income for myself

#16

Post by jmpman » Sat, Jun 08, 2019, 3:58 PM UTC

She could buy her parents a condo in some nice retirement city for well under $200k, set them up with an annuity to pay for their food/clothing/etc, and easily have $1M left in the bank. But to each their own.

Re: I’m not saving ninety percent of my income for myself

#17

Post by SolaceQuantum » Sat, Jun 08, 2019, 3:58 PM UTC

double0jimb0 wrote: post #7

cercatrova wrote: post #3

When I read stories like this, I always think of the systemic factors that are creating this behavior; that America, and indeed many countries in the world, do not have the social safety nets to take care of its own people when they can't work anymore. It would be better and more efficient for a nation as a whole to take care of its children so that they can choose their own avenues of success rather than needing to…

Point to evidence that free time leads people to do these wonderful things. In a macro sense, biological life/evolution, economics, and production of goods points to innovation and efficiency gains being made by risking one’s time/enengy/resources in hope of creating a new local efficient outcome. Free time has nothing do with that.

Arguably, the advances we have now in modern day is because we have generally decided that everyone should be able to read, write, do arithmetic. Now we have a massive funnel (the entire generation) to do innovation. This is a much larger pool than was possible with a very narrow subset of the population capable of these things.

We also know that stress and poverty actually reduce the brain's capacity to think, and even moreso, a child who suffers from stress/hunger/general poverty has a stunted brain development due to exposure to stress in their formative years. So, naturally, we can say that not having systematic stressors like hunger, economic insecurity, health concerns, etc. would lead people to have greater capacity for wonderful things.

Re: I’m not saving ninety percent of my income for myself

#18

Post by SteveClement » Sat, Jun 08, 2019, 3:58 PM UTC

cercatrova wrote: post #3

When I read stories like this, I always think of the systemic factors that are creating this behavior; that America, and indeed many countries in the world, do not have the social safety nets to take care of its own people when they can't work anymore. It would be better and more efficient for a nation as a whole to take care of its children so that they can choose their own avenues of success rather than needing to…

Inclusive vs. Exclusive systems. A good (and comprehensible/relatable) overview can be found in this book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12158480-why-nations-fai...

Re: I’m not saving ninety percent of my income for myself

#19

Post by isoprophlex » Sat, Jun 08, 2019, 3:58 PM UTC

flexie wrote: post #5

cercatrova wrote: post #3

When I read stories like this, I always think of the systemic factors that are creating this behavior; that America, and indeed many countries in the world, do not have the social safety nets to take care of its own people when they can't work anymore. It would be better and more efficient for a nation as a whole to take care of its children so that they can choose their own avenues of success rather than needing to…

And you are being downvoted for what is basically a well articulated version of a fairly uncontroversial view, and not far from a reality in many developed countries :-)

Maybe HN isn't really the target audience. Americans and/or rich people, in my experience, tend to get very knee-jerkily nervous around anything that reeks of centralised, socialized income/benefits/healthcare.

Re: I’m not saving ninety percent of my income for myself

#20

Post by isoskeles » Sat, Jun 08, 2019, 3:59 PM UTC

cercatrova wrote: post #3

When I read stories like this, I always think of the systemic factors that are creating this behavior; that America, and indeed many countries in the world, do not have the social safety nets to take care of its own people when they can't work anymore. It would be better and more efficient for a nation as a whole to take care of its children so that they can choose their own avenues of success rather than needing to…

What does it mean for a nation as a whole to "take care of" its children? Or specifically, what is it beyond public schools that we'd want to satisfy that?

Is it simply better public schools where they're doing poorly, or something else I am missing?