How Bad Are Things? (2015) • Hacker News Board

Re: How Bad Are Things? (2015)

#141

Post by flycaliguy » Fri, Jun 28, 2019, 3:09 AM UTC

equalarrow wrote: post #108

WhompingWindows wrote: post #25

I loved the 20 person simulation the author used. His point about universal suffering reminds me of another point by Sam Harris: "Everyone you know is practically drowning in suffering" SH brings up this point to contextualize our own suffering. It's hard for us to socialize with others and make connections, but if we consider other peoples' plights and struggles, it gives us more perspective and may aid us to talk,…

Driving, for me, is a massive exercise in being mindful. My goal, however, is not to mind the suffering of others but instead, to take those inputs, not associate with them, and let them go. For instance, some driver doesn't want to get in the queue at the back, so they drive up and cut over in front of me or a car or two up. There are a lot of thoughts on that that could go through your mind. These range from "no fa…

Oh yeah, I’m all about being a detached driver. I don’t even look into their window to see the driver. I just leave it at “red SUV” and don’t allow myself to develop a picture of the driver.

Re: How Bad Are Things? (2015)

#142

Post by aidenn0 » Fri, Jun 28, 2019, 3:47 AM UTC

threwawasy1228 wrote: post #135

aidenn0 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting turned into the authorities often doesn't really accomplish anything. Here's a typical case: Meth addicted neglectful mother has dozens of reports from several sources of varying credibility (e.g. reports from an ex-boyfriend are immediately discounted as likely retribution). Each time, Child Welfare Services shows up checks that there are no bruises on kid, food in the cabinet ,and a bed for the kid and then…

CPS are often terribly trained and sometimes downright horrible people. They do all sorts of large scale scrutiny on perfectly fine homes, and then will turn a blind eye on children who are being horribly neglected. They tear families apart and force parents to fight for years in court to get their children back, irrevocably messing up the childs psychology in the process. Here is a former CPS agent talking about the…

This probably varies greatly in different areas (in California almost all of how it works is specified at the county level, so even two counties in CA can be very different). Everything that follows is specific to where I live.

The actual social workers that I've interacted with are reasonably well trained people. However, they are overworked and underpaid, so a lot of the good ones move to the private sector.

Also the heavy caseload means they tend to remove based upon ease of substantiation rather than severity of the situation (i.e. if it's easy to prove a minor infraction that will get you tripped up more quickly than a hard to prove major infraction). This definitely appears to be a function of the system rather than any individual maliciousness.

That's social workers. As far as case-aids go I can't think of a single positive thing to say other than "there are a few good ones." It's a low paying job where the only prerequisite is that you can pass a criminal background check. A friend I know ended up as a case-aid by accident! She checked with the county to see if they had any job openings and they said roughly "We need someone to provide transportation" and it wasn't until she showed up to work that she learned she would be transporting foster kids to family visits, and in some cases would be supervising those visits!

Re: How Bad Are Things? (2015)

#143

Post by erichocean » Fri, Jun 28, 2019, 11:09 AM UTC

rofo1 wrote: post #82

> This is also why I am wary whenever people start boasting > about how much better we’re doing than back in the bad old > days. That precise statement seems to in fact be true. But > people have a bad tendency to follow it up with “And so > now most people have it pretty good”. I don’t think we > have any idea how many people do or don’t have it pretty good. We do have it good. Would you rather be middle class today…

> Would you rather be middle class today or a king in 18th century?

King in the 18th century. As if happiness and a life-well-lived depends on what century you were born in, rather than the available opportunities…

Re: How Bad Are Things? (2015)

#144

Post by apo » Fri, Jun 28, 2019, 2:44 PM UTC

positivejam wrote: post #88

apo wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems plausible - got a reference?

I had also heard that. This was the first source I found, which paints a slightly more complicated picture, but does seem to indicate that divorce is less common among the affluent. https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2013/article/marriage-and-divor...

That's a good study, but I'm not sure it disentangles income from education:

> Moreover, the “divorce gap” between college graduates and those with less education was larger in the NLSY79 cohort than it was for the 1950–1955 birth cohort. In the NLSY79 cohort, the divorce rate for first marriages is nearly 20 percentage points lower for those who have completed their bachelor’s degree compared with those who have completed high school, regardless of whether they have some college or not. The gap is even greater, approaching 30 percentage points, when comparing those with a college degree to those with less than a high school diploma. Just as with first marriages, college graduates were more likely to stay in a second marriage when compared with groups that have less education.

Couples that get married after degrees have waited longer to get married than couples that either drop out of high school or marry after high school. College grads tend to earn more.

So it seems any income difference must account for bachelor's degrees and the extra time before getting married that requires.