Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A Victoria man has gone two decades without money

capitaldaily.ca

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–220 of 390 posts

Re: A Victoria man has gone two decades without money

#211

Post by leephillips »

aunty_helen wrote: post #179
noduerme wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard the nobility of homelessness and joblessness expressed as an ethos countless times by people who wouldn't care for the work of living off-grid. I happen to work in a town with some of the highest taxes in the country that's also one of the most attractive places for indigent campers. The park across from where I live has become a tent city. I get the pleasure of paying for its "upkeep" while also having to…

>At best as a society itself, it's a drum circle, getting high, talking about the universe without doing anything much, and escaping. People have different values. Long ago we forgot that if it's not shown on mtv as something to aspire towards it's not the best pursuit of our time. All the best chasing that lambo you'll never afford whilst looking over your shoulder at others smart enough not to get into that game.

“People have different values.”

That’s for sure. The values of the poster you’re replying to are better than the values of a professional parasite.

Re: A Victoria man has gone two decades without money

#212

Post by birdyrooster »

watwut wrote: post #201
birdyrooster wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My source is https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/why-men-often-die-earlie... What is yours?

The article you sent literally confirms what I said. It lists multiple reasons, more dangerous jobs being only one. The rest are mix of lifestyle and genetics. As for smoking and alcohol, those statistics are easy to find too. Both contemporary and past ones. Also, article starts with premise that author expects to live shorter then his wife - but he has extraordinary safe job.

The smoking and alcohol are copes for stress that they wouldn’t have without the added risk to their health and emotional well being.

Re: A Victoria man has gone two decades without money

#213

Post by Retric »

leephillips wrote: post #211
aunty_helen wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>At best as a society itself, it's a drum circle, getting high, talking about the universe without doing anything much, and escaping. People have different values. Long ago we forgot that if it's not shown on mtv as something to aspire towards it's not the best pursuit of our time. All the best chasing that lambo you'll never afford whilst looking over your shoulder at others smart enough not to get into that game.

“People have different values.” That’s for sure. The values of the poster you’re replying to are better than the values of a professional parasite.

A parasite he may be, but people can do a lot more harm as part of the economy than that.

It’s simply a question of leverage, even something as seemingly pleasant as Disney World causes significant direct and indirect ecological harm in ways a homeless person doesn’t. And frankly you can find plenty of far worse examples than Disney World.

Re: A Victoria man has gone two decades without money

#214

Post by aunty_helen »

willhinsa wrote: post #186
aunty_helen wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>At best as a society itself, it's a drum circle, getting high, talking about the universe without doing anything much, and escaping. People have different values. Long ago we forgot that if it's not shown on mtv as something to aspire towards it's not the best pursuit of our time. All the best chasing that lambo you'll never afford whilst looking over your shoulder at others smart enough not to get into that game.

There's a huge difference between "chasing that lambo" and working to build and keep a stable environment for your family, community, and society.

Please don't think I meant literally saving money to buy a lambo. More a general trend towards unhealthy materialism that is seen as only being a positive. ie my bank account is bigger than yours beause I'm better than you.

Re: A Victoria man has gone two decades without money

#215

Post by mikem170 »

belugacat wrote: post #191
mikem170 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Before money people traded favors. You help me butcher my cow, I help you rebuild your house (which was more work then the cow), so maybe later on your brother helps fix my plow knowing he'll eventually get something in return, and now I am trading favors with you and your brother, etc. This bonded people. It would have been insulting to say "here are two chickens for your lamb, we are now even, I owe you nothing eve…

“No example of a barter economy, pure and simple, has ever been described, let alone the emergence from it of money,” wrote the Cambridge anthropology professor Caroline Humphrey in a 1985 paper. “All available ethnography suggests that there never has been such a thing.” https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/02/barter-...

The source I quoted agrees, saying favors, not barter.

People did something before money was invented, right? Parent's raised kids, kids helped parent's when they were older, families banded together, items were traded between villages, across continents, etc.

Re: A Victoria man has gone two decades without money

#217

Post by srvmshr »

* Intentional destruction of currency tenders is a criminal offense in most countries. There is nothing worthy of hero-worship here.

* The guy leeches off the goodwill of others. He doesn't internalize that the amenities offered to him as charity, are being bought with someone's money. Food & coffee doesn't grow on trees. Heaters in winters don't work on magic spells. He doesn't spend his money. It is someone else's. Public money mostly, and the charity of sympathetic Samaritans

The glamorous-pious/moral-homeless trope is BS. If he wants to do better, then live in one of the BC forests. Into the wild, all the way in. Seriously, if you take out these nutcase views/agenda, he is no different from garden variety homeless. Most people I have seen are destitute by their bad luck or lack of opportunity & education. This guy is a wreck by his parasitic fetishes.

Re: A Victoria man has gone two decades without money

#218

Post by shkkmo »

noduerme wrote: post #184
aunty_helen wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>At best as a society itself, it's a drum circle, getting high, talking about the universe without doing anything much, and escaping. People have different values. Long ago we forgot that if it's not shown on mtv as something to aspire towards it's not the best pursuit of our time. All the best chasing that lambo you'll never afford whilst looking over your shoulder at others smart enough not to get into that game.

You're talking to someone who lived on the road for 10+ years and spent plenty of time in music circles on beaches discussing the nature of the universe. All of which came to very little. I don't work and earn to chase a new car. I do it to give my life meaning and to afford a good future for myself and my family. And yeah, I have every right to look down at the people who think they're being so smart by "not getting…

It is realy easy to look down on people for all kinds of reasons. It is much harder to empathize with the challenges and point of views that are alien to your perspective.

Our society needs more people willing to take on that challenge instead of allowing their own insecurities to drive them into contempt.

Re: A Victoria man has gone two decades without money

#219

Post by shkkmo »

saltdoo wrote: post #142
an_opabinia wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We could probably 10x the number of “handouts” as you call them, at least in the US, and nothing would change. We’ve auditioned it already: $4T in stimulus, the $600/wk employment checks, etc. What negative negative impact really did that have on an average person’s day to day life? “Handouts” made pay rise for the first time in decades. Even the landlords. I don’t know any landlords who are on the street because of…

Rising inflation says otherwise. Worst effects may be yet to come.

And a great deal of that inflation is due to supply chain issues from the pandemic so it wasn't really an ideal experiment.

Re: A Victoria man has gone two decades without money

#220

Post by pbourke »

willhinsa wrote: post #187
imtringued wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Inflation is bad for lenders (i.e. people keeping deposits in USD). People who work get paid based on their real value which means their pay rises if inflation rises. Of course it maybe difficult to get a raise for your current job but switching jobs will get you a raise that catches up to inflation. Here is a chart: https://imgur.com/a/eOXF0UO Note that there has been a shift in bargaining power since 1980 that is c…

It's also incredibly bad for pensioners, and often there's a lag between cost of living increasing and wages increasing that can be quite painful until things equalize, which sometime never happen.

I think pensioners would be covered as “lenders”. I interpreted lenders to mean those who have savings or are the beneficiaries of savings, such as pensioners, in addition to the obvious meaning of entities that hold fixed-rate debt as an asset.
Post reply on HN