I'm 38 and I Can't Support Myself Anymore • Hacker News Board

Re: I'm 38 and I Can't Support Myself Anymore

#121

Post by avalys » Tue, Jul 28, 2026, 1:27 PM UTC

jplrssn wrote: post #69

avalys wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who produces the food you eat, the clothes you wear, the house you live in, the energy you use, the medicine you consume, etc. while you airily define ‘productivity’ as reading the classics and spending time with friends?

> Who produces the food you eat, the clothes you wear, the house you live in, the energy you use, the medicine you consume, etc You could say the same thing about software engineers. But someone spending their days just creating JS frameworks is oh-so-productive and paid enough money every month to buy several years’ worth of food and shelter.

If they are JS frameworks that enable other engineers to build applications that support farms, and banks, and taxi services and insurance companies and mines and factories, etc. then obviously that is productive.

If someone is willingly paying money for their labor then I see little point in questioning the worth of that exchange.

When JS engineers start asking for public money to support them writing JS frameworks that no one wants to pay for, we can revisit this topic.

Re: I'm 38 and I Can't Support Myself Anymore

#122

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jul 28, 2026, 1:27 PM UTC

meta_gunslinger wrote: post #96

esseph wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Moreover, actions have consequences. Instead of traveling and having fun when you are able bodied, you can work more, save and invest your money for the future and safe-guarding against situations like these. Other people have chosen to do that. In the end of the day, all that outcry about capitalism is the classic "I made the wrong decisions and I want society to bail me out of them". People don't choose to be bor…

> instead of traveling and having fun when you are able bodied Are you having trouble with reading comprehension? Jesus.

[deleted]

Re: I'm 38 and I Can't Support Myself Anymore

#123

Post by inigyou » Tue, Jul 28, 2026, 1:27 PM UTC

b3lvedere wrote: post #59

meta_gunslinger wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The wrong decision is not being insured for disaster and not saving enough when you were able to work, electing to spend the money instead. Not being unlucky with your health or having an accident. That's clearly stated in my original response if you care to read and not knee-jekingly respond. For someone who has been born disabled, the conversation should be moved to the people who brought them to life and are respo…

Almost everything in this universe wants you dead, including the species you belong to yourself, including the oxygen you so desperately need. The sooner you realise that the living time you have left is a careful balance of sheer luck and some preparations (money, food, shelter, love, the whole Maslov pyramid) the sooner you realise a standard job or labor is just a tool.

The universe doesn't "want" you dead. It just happens that life is always on a precipice, a little bubble carved out from an endless sea of unlife. But when you live underwater in an air dome, the sea doesn't "want" to flood your dome - that implies malice. The sea will flood your dome if you aren't careful, but you can maintain this air pocket as long as you want.

Sadly (arguably this is the greatest possible sadness) biology doesn't work that way. I think at our current rate of advancement we'll have practical immortality within the next 500 years, which is far too late for any of us alive right now, but it's not like a 90-year lifespan is an irreducible fact of reality. We've already found several genes that control certain aspects of aging and death. Interestingly, it seems to have evolved on purpose, and there are other animal species with indefinite lifespans.

Re: I'm 38 and I Can't Support Myself Anymore

#124

Post by AnimalMuppet » Tue, Jul 28, 2026, 1:27 PM UTC

Telaneo wrote: post #5

> If your worth is not determined by your productivity, then what remains of you underneath it all? Everything else. You are worth so much more than your productivity. I'm glad I never got sucked into the protestant work ethic, since defining yourself based on your labour and the value you generate from that sounds woefully narrow-minded (this doesn't feel like quite the right word, but close enough). It's probably h…

Related: "Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." (Jesus, in Luke 12:15).

Life is not about how much you make or how much you're worth. It's about being worth something to someone. It's about having meaningful relationships.

As a typical software nerd, it took me decades to get that.

Re: I'm 38 and I Can't Support Myself Anymore

#125

Post by slibhb » Tue, Jul 28, 2026, 1:28 PM UTC

The claim that the link between human value and productivity originated in capitalist societies (or via Protestant work ethic) is such bullshit. You think hunter-gatherers valued each other for their "inner worth"? Keep dreaming.

At any rate, judging by the author's 4.3k subscribers, he is doing fine. Whether you react with a heart emoji or revulsion, broadcasting sob stories into the internet is productivity -- in the attention economy, something that only exists in rich, capitalist societies.

Re: I'm 38 and I Can't Support Myself Anymore

#126

Post by QuadmasterXLII » Tue, Jul 28, 2026, 1:28 PM UTC

We could provide food for the poor and disabled who lack or are not using family support with a tiny fraction of our industrial output. We wouldn’t even notice this expenditure, let alone whine about it. But what we are providing is actually “Healthcare. Specialists. Medications. Supplements. Mobility aids. Physical therapy. Accessible housing. Delivery fees when you cannot physically shop for yourself. Ride shares when public transportation is inaccessible. Caregiving.” and this turns out to be enough effort to make society groan and strain.

It’s good that our society is doing this, and we could do better! but why do we have to characterize this existing herculean effort as “fundamentally hostile to bodies that cannot produce consistently”

Re: I'm 38 and I Can't Support Myself Anymore

#127

Post by AnimalMuppet » Tue, Jul 28, 2026, 1:29 PM UTC

ghusto wrote: post #42

> Earn slightly too much, and vital support disappears My reading of this is that the threshhold for the USA government to withdraw financial (and other?) support for disabled people is too low, is that right?

Perhaps too low. Definitely too much of a step function.

Re: I'm 38 and I Can't Support Myself Anymore

#128

Post by giov4 » Tue, Jul 28, 2026, 1:29 PM UTC

Telaneo wrote: post #5

> If your worth is not determined by your productivity, then what remains of you underneath it all? Everything else. You are worth so much more than your productivity. I'm glad I never got sucked into the protestant work ethic, since defining yourself based on your labour and the value you generate from that sounds woefully narrow-minded (this doesn't feel like quite the right word, but close enough). It's probably h…

could you please summarize in short what you meant here as keypoint?

I'm not sure we are interpreting this right,based also on reactions and troll references in clear contrast to your other comment.

Re: I'm 38 and I Can't Support Myself Anymore

#129

Post by Telaneo » Tue, Jul 28, 2026, 1:29 PM UTC

pj_mukh wrote: post #85

Telaneo wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The other commentor mentioned food and clothes to you. I'll add that I can get food for free locally (soup kitchen style, although I don't think they actually serve soup) if I really need it. Around 10% of houses in the US are vacant, although I'm sure a fair amount are that for good reasons (shitty locations, old and worn to high hell). This to me sounds like a resource allocation problem and not a lack-of-resources…

Yes to all of this, and want to double stress the Housing theory of everything [1]. Most of the "scarcity" people feel today in the North American context is driven by housing. And there simply isn't enough of it. And citing badly measured vacancy stats does a huge disservice to the effort to fix this. I agree we can do a lot better. And I have no moral qualms about giving the excess away to everyone who needs it. Bu…

Housing is clearly the biggest problem, yes, and I doubt you'll find anyone who'll disagree that it's not a big problem. But it's a big problem for political reasons. If we all woke up tomorrow and thought 'we need 10 million new homes', I'm sure it could happen. It's just not in the short-term (and long-term?) interests of the economy as it is now. Maybe we should do something about that?

Or maybe, just maybe, we should do it because it's a thing that raises people's quality of life? I only care about the economy insofar as it helps actual people on the ground, so I'll be happy to ignore it for things like this, assuming that doesn't put us in an even worse rut than we are in now.

Re: I'm 38 and I Can't Support Myself Anymore

#130

Post by swed420 » Tue, Jul 28, 2026, 1:31 PM UTC

Telaneo wrote: post #5

> If your worth is not determined by your productivity, then what remains of you underneath it all? Everything else. You are worth so much more than your productivity. I'm glad I never got sucked into the protestant work ethic, since defining yourself based on your labour and the value you generate from that sounds woefully narrow-minded (this doesn't feel like quite the right word, but close enough). It's probably h…

Relevant:

In Praise of Idleness

https://ia801002.us.archive.org/27/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.4...