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Poverty is the base case. It's the default state. How does prosperity increase at all?
For the individual, the answer is Debt. And servicing repayments of debt. Eg, that on the typical mortgage you repay ~3 times what you borrowed.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Poverty is the base case. It's the default state. How does prosperity increase at all?
There are a number of interesting responses to the idea that poverty is the base case or default in some way here: https://www.reddit.com/r/samharris/comments/f12rl0/poverty_i... What do we mean by default? Would we say that the default state of a child is surviving without their mother? Is a lack of breast milk or shelter the default? I can easily imagine a situation (I.e. a functioning society) in which poverty is…
You're imagining a society that has overcome the default state and maintains their progress. They haven't changed the default. A machine's default state isn't being powered, but if you power up a machine and keep feeding it power and maintain it well, you can rely on it being powered. Once you stop maintaining it, or stop providing power, it will go back to the default state of not being powered.
> Do we mean absolute or relative poverty?
Absolute if you want to get anywhere. Unless you distribute everything perfectly equal, you'll always have one half that makes less than the median.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This sort of perspective is very important, especially here on HN where I see plenty of ignorance on this topic. When you work these jobs, often the local cost of living is pinned to these minimum wages, where you stagnate and are unable to save. How can you possible afford to move when your rent increases? You have no savings to rent a vehicle to move your things, nothing to put down up front for a new apartment, an…
Yeah I didn't have a car for a while, I didn't get a job back in 2015 or so for PHP because of that ha. First in office web developer job after restaurant, I had to bike 30 miles a day lol [1] round trip, that was brutal. On the plus side, 3 hrs of podcasts. I listened to the book Eccentric Orbits then that was good. Uber was like $60/day so yeah... although I only made it 4 days straight, never 5 days of bike riding…
Without making the jump from washing plates/factory work to software I don't know how I would have escaped(still haven't) considering my pay increased 4 times. Just brutal when you trade hours for money directly at a low rate, I was doing 70hrs washing plates before and it was nothing ha. Edit: there is the thought of living within your means, personally with a roommate I could live on $10-$20K a year which you can m…
What language/s did you teach yourself during that several year learning time? What did you choose to focus on? (I noticed this: ReactJS/Node-Express/MySQL/Python in your profile, but I'm not sure if that's what you started with)
Engineers, Lawyers, and other similar professions tend to earn 2x-3x of what the absolute minimum wage jobs earn. That's quite the difference compared to other countries, where Engineers can earn 5x-20x.
People here are still motivated to seek higher education and better paid jobs, even though they could live normal lives off those lowest paid jobs that don't require any education.
Without making the jump from washing plates/factory work to software I don't know how I would have escaped(still haven't) considering my pay increased 4 times. Just brutal when you trade hours for money directly at a low rate, I was doing 70hrs washing plates before and it was nothing ha. Edit: there is the thought of living within your means, personally with a roommate I could live on $10-$20K a year which you can m…
What language/s did you teach yourself during that several year learning time? What did you choose to focus on? (I noticed this: ReactJS/Node-Express/MySQL/Python in your profile, but I'm not sure if that's what you started with)
I wasn't learning specifically to get hired. My first stuff was trying to build high traffic websites/make money through ads but my ideas were dumb. But I still learned in the process how to build websites.
Full answer https://i.imgur.com/uAGMHkQ.png
First full time in-office job 2018
This is something I enjoy about our jobs up in Scandinavia - the salaries are very compressed around the mean. Engineers, Lawyers, and other similar professions tend to earn 2x-3x of what the absolute minimum wage jobs earn. That's quite the difference compared to other countries, where Engineers can earn 5x-20x. People here are still motivated to seek higher education and better paid jobs, even though they could liv…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are a number of interesting responses to the idea that poverty is the base case or default in some way here: https://www.reddit.com/r/samharris/comments/f12rl0/poverty_i... What do we mean by default? Would we say that the default state of a child is surviving without their mother? Is a lack of breast milk or shelter the default? I can easily imagine a situation (I.e. a functioning society) in which poverty is…
> I can easily imagine a situation (I.e. a functioning society) in which poverty is not the default. You're imagining a society that has overcome the default state and maintains their progress. They haven't changed the default. A machine's default state isn't being powered, but if you power up a machine and keep feeding it power and maintain it well, you can rely on it being powered. Once you stop maintaining it, or…
They have changed the default from the perspective of an individual in that society, or if the society is large enough to encompass the majority of people, they have changed the default even more. The default state in the abstract sense is not only poverty, but the struggle against a state of non-privation through human labour.
>Unless you distribute everything perfectly equal, you'll always have one half that makes less than the median.
Nobody is denying this fact, and no serious philosopher (with the exception of Barbon in the 18th century) contends that "distributing everything perfectly equal" is possible or even desirable.
What is "poverty is the default" supposed to be telling us? What is its rhetorical function?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What language/s did you teach yourself during that several year learning time? What did you choose to focus on? (I noticed this: ReactJS/Node-Express/MySQL/Python in your profile, but I'm not sure if that's what you started with)
His stack indicates web dev, which is the typical path for self taught programmers. Plenty of work available that pays more than minimum wage.
Closest thing for "native" is using the wrappers for JS which for my needs works. I did have to force myself to figure out how to get a basic Android widget (Java) to work that was tough.
