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Poor in Tech

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Re: Poor in Tech

#461

Post by gammarator »

zozbot234 wrote: post #420
domador wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only other implicit criticism toward her coworkers was ignoring and not greeting the cleaning staff. For the most part, her coworkers come across as privileged, rather than mean or otherwise morally deficient.

I'm not sure I see anything wrong with not bothering the cleaning staff while they're at work. The whole reason they've been hired is to spare everyone else the time and effort involved in cleaning, so to have everyone waste time on greetings would just be demeaning their work.

There is a difference between “not bothering the cleaning staff” and not acknowledging that they exist and are human and are standing right in front of you.

Author is describing the second, and it happens pervasively in the upper classes.

Re: Poor in Tech

#462

Post by pnutjam »

Applejinx wrote: post #155

"Three paychecks is a month and a half of income (rent and two car payments by my fevered calculations, which never stop)" Pay attention to those last three words. This is very important. I've been on both sides too, and to me those words are like a slap in the face: stark reality. If you're poor enough (relative to the costs of your life) you are at a constant exhausting deficit because you CANNOT stop calculating a…

I noticed where the writer found out they were the lowest paid person.

This is how the wealthy class really keep people from moving up. Your pay is forever tied to what you used to make. It's hard enough to break the circuit in your mind, it's near impossible to do so with your employer.

At my current employer, they offered me a 10% paycut to convert from contract to FTE. I could not afford that, but I also can't afford to be out of work. I pushed back gently and eventually agreed to converting at the same rate. I knew other people in the same job were making at least $10k more.

The next guy to convert, was able to negotiate harder and I believe he ended up with a higher rate, despite making less then me as a contractor. He used the knowledge of my pay (and my name) to negotiate, which I would never do to someone, since I started at the bottom. This impacted my relationship with my boss.

The company did later give me a pay correction of about 5%, after 2 other team members quit for higher paying jobs. One of whom was making more then me and one who was probably making less.

Re: Poor in Tech

#463

Post by pentagrama »

domador wrote: post #310
oaiey wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also do not read this article that way. I think she does not complain about them. Most of them are most likely nice people (ignoring the gym paragraph). She reflect that "she realizes" that she is "poor compared to them". She does not imply that they are bad people or that she feels miserable about her "poorness" (she seems to earn much more than before .. and quit ... and probably got something better ... and ...…

The only other implicit criticism toward her coworkers was ignoring and not greeting the cleaning staff. For the most part, her coworkers come across as privileged, rather than mean or otherwise morally deficient.

> her coworkers come across as privileged, rather than mean or otherwise morally deficient.

Yes, I find a parallel with the representation of the rich/privileged on the movie Parasite.

Re: Poor in Tech

#464

Post by emteycz »

8fGTBjZxBcHq wrote: post #281
username90 wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are getting fatter and fatter. It is much worse now than 20 years ago, and even much much worse than 40 years ago. Any explanation you can come up with needs to be able to explain this as well. Does poor people have worse access to food today? Do they have less money for food today? If we put poor people in the same conditions they had 40 years ago they would be slimmer than rich people today.

Yes I know where you stand on this, I don't need more information about your opinion. I asked if you see the conclusion of this view, and if you endorse it. To be very very clear it goes like this: if poor are fat because they make bad choices and for no other reasons, then you can reasonably conclude that that is also why they are poor. That they deserve to be poor for that reason. Is that a fair summary of your vie…

> That they deserve to be poor for that reason.

Where are they saying that? This entire conversation has no relevance to what one deserves. Causality is not changed by one deserving something.

Re: Poor in Tech

#465

Post by pnutjam »

swader999 wrote: post #444
_underfl0w_ wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Easier to do in some places than others. Public transport is nonexistent in several places here in Texas for example - you have to have a car (or know someone who does) to get to your job in the first place. But commuting puts wear and tear on the car, especially if you can't find work particularly close to where you live.

I read a book once on extreme early retirement that advised to pick your place of work and house so that they were within walking distance of each other and also walking distance to a grocery store. The quality of the work and even your income weren't as critical as this. The idea being the goal was to finish work as soon as possible in your life when investment income could take over. Live in a one room rental, have…

That's rich people advice. Poor people know that wages can vary so much from place to place.

Re: Poor in Tech

#466

Post by Grustaf »

SamoyedFurFluff wrote: post #451
Grustaf wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the point of the "nobody thought I would steal their stuff" comment then? It only makes sense if you assume poor people are thieves. In this case it was correct, but I don't think it's true in general.

No, she’s point out that no one treated her like a thief. Previous workplaces treated her like a thief because she was poor.

OK, if it was me my reaction to that would just be relief and gratitude.

"Oh how nice middle class life is, I will do my best to remain here. I probably shouldn't steal."

Re: Poor in Tech

#467

Post by teachingassist »

proxyon wrote: post #456
teachingassist wrote: post #409

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You're better off being relatively slim on junk food than being fat on good quality good. This has consistently proved false. Being 'underweight' is associated with significant excess death; being 'overweight' is associated with a lower death rate than 'normal' BMI: e.g. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/20073... (many other sources are available)

> Being 'underweight' is associated with significant excess death; being 'overweight' is associated with a lower death rate than 'normal' BMI: This is nonsense. In many medical deaths such as cancer (and especially since euthanasia isn't available) the person dies by slowly withering away. One of the first things that happens is that they become skinny and frail. That doesn't associate underweightedness with mortalit…

This criticism is apparently quite reasonable. You can also observe that being underweight is correlated with smoking.

[Edited to add: this article explicitly considers the link to cancer, and rejects it, https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1... ]

However, it doesn't explain why being 'overweight' BMI consistently proves to be protective against death, despite it being so stigmatised that it affects quality of medical care.

Re: Poor in Tech

#468

Post by kingsuper20 »

ecshafer wrote: post #437
giantg2 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"if you live in a remote area or small town away from a large city, your access to fresh and non-processed foods is heavily reduced." This simply isn't true. Most food deserts are in the poorer areas of the cities because nobody is bringing fresh produce in there to sell. If you live in the country or small town, many of these places have farm stands, farmers markets, and local farmers providing seasonal produce to t…

I grew up in a rural area and I think I can count on 1 hand how many times I saw a farm stand. People do not shop at farm stands and farmers markets in rural areas that often.

I'm in a very small town right now and it's a reasonable driving distance from farms. It looks to me like the average farm stand is simply some clever person buying crates of produce at the wholesaler.

No shortage of healthy food at the local grocery stores of course.

I expect that people who wave their arms about 'food deserts' could probably stand to visit either small towns or urban areas and form an opinion based on actual experience.

Re: Poor in Tech

#469

Post by ClumsyPilot »

giantg2 wrote: post #358
ClumsyPilot wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah if we are talking about lunches and people on 6 figure salary this is a fairytale

A lunch between $15-20 every day is about $4k per year. That's still a large percentage of a person's after tax income even making $100k. You might want to correct Warren Buffett since he recommends packing your lunch at least 3 days per week.

If you make £100,000 then an hour of your time is worth ~£48.

You can get lunch for £10 or less, and cooking at home doesn't cost £0, so unless you are replacing a fancy two course lunch with a made at home sandwith, I dont see you saving over £2k a year.

Warren Buffet is cool and all, but he is not the world's lunch expert

Re: Poor in Tech

#470

Post by kyawzazaw »

Haruiko wrote: post #415
throwaway0a5e wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's another side of this which is that you and the janitor have very little common ground so while you can say hi to each other anything beyond the most basic small-talk is going to get very uncomfortable for both parties very fast. I'm not going to post my credentials on HN but I have it on good authority that these jobs suck enough without having to pretend to relate to your customer. Hello is fine but beyond t…

I'm not following your argument. You share the same space. How distant are you with other people that you can't just say hi? Does it matter if you don't discuss politics after it? When i was a kid, i had to take the bus and i forgot my bus ticket (a pupil, on one bus stop, everyday, the same bus stop the same bus driver on a school route...) and he put a lot of energy into telling me off. A few days/weeks later i tho…

I say hi only and came from a fairly well-off family.

Every additional complaints about my life or happenings in my life that I would have would be unrelatable to the maids and the drivers at our house and it might make them feel uncomfortable.

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