331–340 of 817 posts
I agree that her coworkers are mostly jerks, but it sounds like she too may not be the most pleasant person to keep around.
The trick to being the only poor person is to not let on. Once people know, they exploit the hell out of you. They don't seem to do it consciously; somehow it just happens. I made that mistake a few times during my time in SF.
> I knew I was the only poor person at my tech startup because I was the only person who would say hello to the cleaning lady as she meekly made her rounds around us when we worked late. Everyone else had a long habit of ignoring anyone like her. That's IMO the worst behaviour of the rich listed in this article. I've heard stories that at Google, the non-engineering workers at campus may not socialize with engineers…
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Plenty of people fly to New York or Vegas for a long weekend from Europe
Bullshit. I know my share of wealthy people and nobody does that. Especially when you have plenty of vacation days to use anyway. Las Vegas is 14-15h away from most European hubs. NYC is 8h. Even the best case scenario (first class and the airline staff walks you through immigration) means 10h door-to-door.
> Gym membership was included in my benefits. I went half a dozen times before it was made crystal clear to me that I did not belong. I would be curious about this one. What did happened in the gym? Not really doubting, some people in gyms are quite unfriendly when you dont look fit. But I am still curious what happened there.
in my experience at the gym, you don't need to communicate with anyone at all. you take the free equipment, you lift, you make sure to put everything in its place, you shower and go home. wtf?
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No, the solution is to acknowledge that they are dumb and therefore focus resources with the assumption that they are dumb. USA assumes that poor people are smart, Europe assumes poor people are dumb. The European way is much better, and yes poor people in American are dumb, just like they are in Europe.
What an absolutely dumb comment.
> Elison is a high school dropout, a graduate of UC Berkeley > Meg Elison is a California Bay Area author and essayist So basically she went to one of the better universities in the country, but choose to follow her dream and become an author rather than an engineer. That is a rich person choice, a poor person would choose the career with high pay. She can only blame herself here.
I read the whole thing trying to find something I could relate to, as I grew up in a place that was a proper third world country as recently as in the 90s. This appears to be American poor - which I think is in its own category, because comparing to American rich it's just so much worse off. It's not that she's necessarily materially poor. It's just that there's no one around who can even begin to understand her pred…
Nothing like a good glass of Chateau de Chassilier wine, ay Gessiah?
You're right there Obediah.
Who'd a thought thirty years ago we'd all be sittin' here drinking Chateau de Chassilier wine?
Aye. In them days, we'd a' been glad to have the price of a cup o' tea.
A cup ' COLD tea.
Without milk or sugar.
OR tea!
In a filthy, cracked cup.
We never used to have a cup. We used to have to drink out of a rolled up newspaper.
The best WE could manage was to suck on a piece of damp cloth.
But you know, we were happy in those days, though we were poor.
Aye. BECAUSE we were poor. My old Dad used to say to me, 'Money doesn't buy you happiness.'
'E was right. I was happier then and I had NOTHIN'. We used to live in this tiiiny old house, with greaaaaat big holes in the roof.
House? You were lucky to have a HOUSE! We used to live in one room, all hundred and twenty-six of us, no furniture. Half the floor was missing; we were all huddled together in one corner for fear of FALLING!
You were lucky to have a ROOM! We used to have to live in a corridor!
Ohhhh we used to DREAM of livin' in a corridor! Woulda' been a palace to us. We used to live in an old water tank on a rubbish tip. We got woken up every morning by having a load of rotting fish dumped all over us! House!? Hmph.
Well when I say 'house' it was only a hole in the ground covered by a piece of tarpolin, but it was a house to US.
We were evicted from our hole in the ground; we had to go and live in a lake!
You were lucky to have a LAKE! There were a hundred and sixty of us living in a small shoebox in the middle of the road.
Cardboard box?
Aye.
You were lucky. We lived for three months in a brown paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six o'clock in the morning, clean the bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down mill for fourteen hours a day week in-week out. When we got home, our Dad would thrash us to sleep with his belt!
Luxury. We used to have to get out of the lake at three o'clock in the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of hot gravel, go to work at the mill every day for tuppence a month, come home, and Dad would beat us around the head and neck with a broken bottle, if we were LUCKY!
Well we had it tough. We used to have to get up out of the shoebox at twelve o'clock at night, and LICK the road clean with our tongues. We had half a handful of freezing cold gravel, worked twenty-four hours a day at the mill for fourpence every six years, and when we got home, our Dad would slice us in two with a bread knife.
Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us, and dance about on our graves singing 'Hallelujah.'
But you try and tell the young people today that... and they won't believe ya'.
Nope, nope..
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Tl;dr Poor people (and racial and ethnic minorities, and women, and queer folk) are not dumb. They just have to turn their equal cognitive resources towards things other (and more fundamental to survival) than their magnum opus/business idea/etc. Those who overcome this are HIGHLY effective, but it's not fair that we ask it of them. That's not how an effective or efficient or just society runs, and we leave money on…
No, the solution is to acknowledge that they are dumb and therefore focus resources with the assumption that they are dumb. USA assumes that poor people are smart, Europe assumes poor people are dumb. The European way is much better, and yes poor people in American are dumb, just like they are in Europe.