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

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

#501

Post by inigyou »

yunnpp wrote: post #282
avalys wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Do you really believe that nonsense? By that logic, we should legalize all drugs and optimize that LSD supply chain.

LSD is one of the safest drugs FYI. Could've used crystal meth or heroin as an example instead.

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

#502

Post by inigyou »

Tade0 wrote: post #102

> Much of modern Western culture, particularly in the United States, was shaped by what sociologist Max Weber called the Protestant work ethic: the belief that hard work, discipline, frugality, and productivity were signs of virtue. I hail from a culture that's decidedly Catholic, but at the same time shares this mindset. To me it has more to do with farming and the culture around it. On a farm you have to earn your…

Yeah, but also on a farm, it's pretty clear what the work is. In our new, much more abstract society, people spend years and years finding what the work is. (Startup founders call it "finding PMF"). In this kind of environment we can't just exile all the people who haven't found work yet - we kind of have to support everyone who's doing something that might become work or might lead to something that becomes work. And that's almost everything. There are even people who play video games for an internet audience as their day job. In other cases, even if you know what the work is, you might have to spend years and years training for it, like doctors.

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

#503

Post by inigyou »

jfil wrote: post #487
inigyou wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They may not feel ashamed, but they'll still feel dead when they have no food and shelter.

This thought pattern of "I will die if I don't work" comes up so often. The streets are not filled with bodies. There are people who are chronically unemployed, and women who left the workforce to care for their children and never returned/returned after 15 years, and they're not dead... There are a lot more ways of living in the world than our main story here in the West.

We do tend to take away the bodies from the streets.

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

#504

Post by inigyou »

zbentley wrote: post #152
butlike wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But at a certain level, you'll need a step function to go from 0 (none; no taper) to 1 (taper).

I'm not sure that's true, though most policies are implemented that way. If you get, say, a basic income payout that's a function of the income you make, that function scales all the way from 0 income/max UBI to >= max UBI income/0 UBI. Not that that's like ... a policy slam-dunk or anything. Even putting aside the massive hurdle of getting UBI enacted into law, you'd still have to cope with sources of unreported inc…

The U in UBI is that you give the same amount to everyone to avoid all that bullshit work of deciding who should get it. Then you raise income tax percentages so that people with a certain income are paying zero net and people with more income are paying into the system.

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

#505

Post by inigyou »

Havoc wrote: post #352

The current climate does seem quite unforgiving for anyone that didn’t make good choices along the way. Even a sub optimal career choice or something has rough outcomes.

It's also extremely unclear what constitutes a good choice, even long after the choice and its consequence.

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

#506

Post by inigyou »

impossiblefork wrote: post #413
paulryanrogers wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Democratic socialism. The US has quite a few such experiments like the New Deal. And they've been quite a bit better than the grinding, unbridled industrialism that consumed and spat out young and old alike.

I think what you want is a welfare state, not socialism. Socialism is not necessarily cuddly. "To each according to his contribution" is the one sentence description of it after all. I want socialism, because it's "to each according to his contribution" but "to each according to his contribution" isn't obviously this nice cuddly we-take-care-of-everybody type thing. I'd call the New Deal an attempt to bring disciplin…

Socialism isn't really well defined. The only thing everyone agrees is that it's less capitalist than capitalism. But even Hitler called himself a socialist.

"Democratic socialism" is a bit better defined because less people use it, and does mean something like today's world but with more welfare.

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

#507

Post by inigyou »

nephihaha wrote: post #410

This is a very sad story, especially on the health side. But rhe fact they keep going on about capitalism demonstrates their main problem. In reality we don't live in capitalism or neoliberalism, but a space where government legislation and taxation determines most things, and if you think more of the same is going to magically solve things, you've been sold a pup. It's hard to start a business (capitalism) mainly be…

Corporations owning the government is a part of capitalism.

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

#508

Post by inigyou »

83642736392 wrote: post #278
aogaili wrote: post #204

The site is full of people, who believe in capitalism like a religion, slave their life to labour while being paid enough to feel good and better than others.

[flagged]

I haven't seen a single tankie on HN, possibly ever. They're abundant in some subreddits and some Lemmy servers, but not HN.

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

#509

Post by meta_gunslinger »

ModernMech wrote: post #496
meta_gunslinger wrote: post #494

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know man, if your position is that the only point of society is to bail you out of bad decisions, you are too far gone for me to have the energy to get into a discussion. You are entitled to your opinion I'm not going to attempt changing that.

You're avoiding saying what you actually think society is for while saying I'm selfish, and then bailing on a discussion you started by calling people you don't know psychopaths. I didn't say anything about you personally, so that seems exceptionally rude to me. Although it must be nice being able to make only good decisions in your life, wish I knew how to do that. Were you born with that ability or was it taught to…

I make, have made, and will most definitely make plenty of bad decisions. The difference is that accept responsibility for their consequences rather than electing to yell at the clouds.

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

#510

Post by cindyllm »

meta_gunslinger wrote: post #509
ModernMech wrote: post #496

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're avoiding saying what you actually think society is for while saying I'm selfish, and then bailing on a discussion you started by calling people you don't know psychopaths. I didn't say anything about you personally, so that seems exceptionally rude to me. Although it must be nice being able to make only good decisions in your life, wish I knew how to do that. Were you born with that ability or was it taught to…

I make, have made, and will most definitely make plenty of bad decisions. The difference is that accept responsibility for their consequences rather than electing to yell at the clouds.

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