On the Experience of Being Poor-Ish, for People Who Aren't • Hacker News Board

Re: On the Experience of Being Poor-Ish, for People Who Aren't

#201

Post by blackbrokkoli » Mon, Mar 01, 2021, 3:02 PM UTC

lastofthemojito wrote: post #165

EliRivers wrote: post #69

The car. As he says, the car. The goddamned car. Every time you get into it, hoping that it will start. And not just when it's been sat outside your house for a while. When you stop for petrol (gas), or in the car park after buying food, sitting behind the wheel and hoping it starts again. The restrictions that get placed on you when you just can't rely on the car always starting. For your life, a mostly-starts car i…

I'm really curious to see how electric cars work for the poor (maybe 25 years from now, not presently). One of the big selling points of electric cars is simplicity - with far fewer moving parts, less can go wrong and you can hopefully expect a car to last longer. That's the hope anyways, but the big maintenance item in an electric car is the battery, and of course that's an expensive thing to replace. Will folks be…

Maybe in 25 years.

As is, electrical car means new car and new car means an inane amount of software components that break all the time. Just pick any specific model, say, the Tesla S: You can find people being confused how to turn it off, the car not starting due to software updates, the car being hacked, the being bricked by broken software or lacking connectivity, erroneous warnings, the car only driving backwards due to low battery.

The simplest car is something like a 1998 Corolla and given the current trends in automotive, that will stay that way for a long time.

Re: On the Experience of Being Poor-Ish, for People Who Aren't

#202

Post by aembleton » Mon, Mar 01, 2021, 3:02 PM UTC

lastofthemojito wrote: post #165

EliRivers wrote: post #69

The car. As he says, the car. The goddamned car. Every time you get into it, hoping that it will start. And not just when it's been sat outside your house for a while. When you stop for petrol (gas), or in the car park after buying food, sitting behind the wheel and hoping it starts again. The restrictions that get placed on you when you just can't rely on the car always starting. For your life, a mostly-starts car i…

I'm really curious to see how electric cars work for the poor (maybe 25 years from now, not presently). One of the big selling points of electric cars is simplicity - with far fewer moving parts, less can go wrong and you can hopefully expect a car to last longer. That's the hope anyways, but the big maintenance item in an electric car is the battery, and of course that's an expensive thing to replace. Will folks be…

The downside is needing somewhere to charge them. The poor don't tend to live in houses that you can easily plug an EV into.

They'll have to go somewhere else to charge up, that will charge a premium.

Re: On the Experience of Being Poor-Ish, for People Who Aren't

#203

Post by paxys » Mon, Mar 01, 2021, 3:03 PM UTC

lotsofpulp wrote: post #8

ImaCake wrote: post #7

>while it’s normal to put down a month or two worth of rent as a security deposit, it’s much less normal to get it back This looks insane to an Australian. I have moved house 4 times in the past 5 years and I have never not got all of my bond back. Some states here have a rule that the bond money is held by the state so that the landowner doesn't just take that money for themselves. How can the poor ever break the cy…

I don’t know the statistics, but I live in the US, and had rented for 10+ years with 5 of 6 different landlords in 3 cities, and I always got my deposit back, and I don’t know anyone who was stiffed either. But I wasn’t staying in the worst places, but not the best either. One was an informal cash transaction rental from a Craigslist ad and it worked out.

A lot depends on state and local laws. In San Francisco, for example, I get interest on the security deposit my landlord is holding credited to my rent every year. They cannot charge for reasonable wear and tear. So even though the deposit is large, I expect ~100% of it back when I leave. If not, there is a strong tenants union that will support my case.

Re: On the Experience of Being Poor-Ish, for People Who Aren't

#204

Post by a_bonobo » Mon, Mar 01, 2021, 3:04 PM UTC

ImaCake wrote: post #7

>while it’s normal to put down a month or two worth of rent as a security deposit, it’s much less normal to get it back This looks insane to an Australian. I have moved house 4 times in the past 5 years and I have never not got all of my bond back. Some states here have a rule that the bond money is held by the state so that the landowner doesn't just take that money for themselves. How can the poor ever break the cy…

>I have never not got all of my bond back.

Then you're lucky - I've had enough friends in QLD and WA who have had their bond partially kept back because the landlord company thought they could get a few hundred or thousand for free. Usually the trick is to say that pre-existing damage was caused by my friends. It's impossible to defend from if you don't claim the damage when you move in!

I've personally only had one huge battle with the company as they thought our place was dirty when we moved out, despite spending two full days cleaning it (townhouse). I now always pay a cleaning company to avoid the hassle, but that's $100-200 not everyone can afford.

I found these 2018 numbers that say that 30% of bonds are not returned in Australia; https://www.finder.com.au/30-of-aussie-tenants-dont-get-thei...

Re: On the Experience of Being Poor-Ish, for People Who Aren't

#205

Post by aembleton » Mon, Mar 01, 2021, 3:04 PM UTC

sethammons wrote: post #163

Queue my first truck. My uncle gave it to me. S-15. The bench seat didn’t lock, it slid forward and back when breaking or accelerating. Hard left hand turn and the keys would fly from the ignition and land on tue floorboard of the passenger seat (this did not turn off the truck). During the same hard left, some electrical thing would connect or un-short and my radio would temporarily turn on until the end of the turn…

Does the US or California not have some sort of annual check to ensure that cars on the road are roadworthy? Something like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOT_test

Re: On the Experience of Being Poor-Ish, for People Who Aren't

#206

Post by fogihujy » Mon, Mar 01, 2021, 3:06 PM UTC

ajsnigrutin wrote: post #9

deepstack wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is never about how much money you have, rather what situation you are in, what you are expecting and what others around you have.

Yep! As someone from a former socialist country, I can confirm. Situation has got a lot better in the last ~30 years, people have alot more, but since a few people got even more than that, some complain a lot. Average worker family has gone from bicicyles and maybe one yugo (or a "fico" - even smaller/cheaper) to two, maybe three european-mid-range cars + all the modern extras, but are not happy, because their neighb…

There's a local saying that in Finland, people would prefer paying €100 to the neighbour getting paid €50. I take it that's true elsewhere too? :)

Re: On the Experience of Being Poor-Ish, for People Who Aren't

#207

Post by ed_balls » Mon, Mar 01, 2021, 3:07 PM UTC

lastofthemojito wrote: post #165

EliRivers wrote: post #69

The car. As he says, the car. The goddamned car. Every time you get into it, hoping that it will start. And not just when it's been sat outside your house for a while. When you stop for petrol (gas), or in the car park after buying food, sitting behind the wheel and hoping it starts again. The restrictions that get placed on you when you just can't rely on the car always starting. For your life, a mostly-starts car i…

I'm really curious to see how electric cars work for the poor (maybe 25 years from now, not presently). One of the big selling points of electric cars is simplicity - with far fewer moving parts, less can go wrong and you can hopefully expect a car to last longer. That's the hope anyways, but the big maintenance item in an electric car is the battery, and of course that's an expensive thing to replace. Will folks be…

Looking at the current trend, it's highly unlikely e.g. single casting, structural battery packs. Car companies are for profit, so they have every incentive not to make it repairable. What is more, they are some good arguments to be made against DIY when you have autopilot in the car.

Self-driving cars may help tough, probably 15+ years after it's legal.

Re: On the Experience of Being Poor-Ish, for People Who Aren't

#208

Post by acdha » Mon, Mar 01, 2021, 3:07 PM UTC

sandworm101 wrote: post #164

offtop5 wrote: post #146

The part about cars is pretty spot on, I'm upper middle class and I've been able to save so much money by getting rid of my car. On the low end you're going to hit 300 to 500 dollars a month for the privilege of driving. The problem here is America simply isn't built for public transit. But since cars are a status symbol, people still go down to Toyota, or Honda and as long as they can make that first down payment th…

>> I'm upper middle class and I've been able to save so much money by getting rid of my car. Because you probably have job at a desk with a computer. You don't physically do much and so your per-minute presence at work isn't mandatory. If you are a few minutes late the world is not going to end and your workday rarely starts before 5am. You can handle the ins and outs of public transportation and/or you can afford to…

I think the rest of their post after the part you quoted agrees with your point. So much of the US was designed or redesigned to only work for people who own cars but we still love to talk about them as if they were voluntary expenses ignoring the number of people who are one breakdown or accident away from unemployment & lack of access to healthcare.

Re: On the Experience of Being Poor-Ish, for People Who Aren't

#209

Post by offtop5 » Mon, Mar 01, 2021, 3:08 PM UTC

sandworm101 wrote: post #198

offtop5 wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually in my area public transportation is more reliable than driving. Nothing like being able to play video games during your commute

The video game thing is interesting. If we one day get truly autodrive cars, would a long commute matter as much? If I can literally sleep as the computer does the driving I probably wouldn't care so much about a longer commute.

Wear and tear on the car would be an issue, even if you presume Tesla's can effectively drive themselves for free, Tesla still break down. I don't think I'd be okay with anything over an hour each way

Re: On the Experience of Being Poor-Ish, for People Who Aren't

#210

Post by paxys » Mon, Mar 01, 2021, 3:08 PM UTC

spaetzleesser wrote: post #179

genedan wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I become more wealthy, I have started to tackle problems that I never really thought about when I wasn't as well off, things that cropped up when I thought I'd finally have peace of mind. In retrospect, the insecurity was always there, but I had the luxury of ignoring it when I was poorer. Once I started making enough not to worry about rent, the problem was then saving enough for things like retirement, setting u…

Just remember that your anxieties are child's play compared to the anxieties of people worrying every day about paying for their place to live, food or health care. These worries are tally different.

People out there having bigger problems does not diminish your own. To me, getting my children into a good public school is a current problem which is giving me anxiety. Someone saying "that's not really a problem, at least you can afford to feed your kids" doesn't come off as helpful or ease my concerns.

Similarly, billions of poor people in developing countries would kill to swap places with the poorest American, but that doesn't mean the latter has a good life.