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The cost of hand-to-mouth living

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Re: The cost of hand-to-mouth living

#51

Post by LogicX »

protomyth wrote: post #35
gruseom wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is why I like Costco better: the people who work there don't seem as downtrodden. Either I've been fooled by corporate propaganda or they really have figured out a way to make money, lower prices, and treat people relatively well. Walmarts feel like places of despair to me and Costcos like places of hope. I know how ludicrous that sounds, but the feeling is real. I often chat with workers at checkout counters to…

The membership is the too steep part for Costco.

One can shop at Costco for a 5% premium on purchases

Re: The cost of hand-to-mouth living

#52

Post by ilaksh »

I consider myself to have some pretty useful development skills. I keep up to date with things like HTML5, CoffeeScript, AngularJS, AWS, Node.JS etc. However, I don't know what my problem is, if its lack of social or business skills or no degree or what, but I have been living hand-to-mouth doing freelance software development for years.

A lot of my projects have been from outsourcing sites. But some of them have been from small companies that weren't trying to outsource, just didn't have the biggest budgets. There seem to be quite a lot of software projects that have fairly restricted budgets, and unfortunately those are the ones I know how to get. Sometimes things are good for a few months and I don't have to worry, but oftentimes I need to complete some aspect of a project and get a PayPal from the client right away or I won't be able to pay bills.

Maybe I am the exception, but I doubt I am really alone in this, and thought I should admit it in case anyone else is struggling.

Re: The cost of hand-to-mouth living

#53

Post by rbehrends »

daeken wrote: post #10
alxp wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obligatory Vimes quote: The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Thos…

That's a great quote, but this all really just boils down to short- versus long-term thinking. When you're poor, your long-term thinking goes out the window in exchange for making it to next week. Getting out of that is hard -- harder than you can imagine until you're in it -- because it's like your long-term thought center just atrophies in survival mode.

It's not a question of long-term vs. short-term thinking.

It's a question of cash flow.

It's a vicious cycle, too; the lower your cash flow is, the less you can exploit economies of scale, and the less you can save, keeping your cash flow limited. Catastrophic events (such as an unexpected illness) are more likely to create debt, and debt service (interest and repayment of principal) reduces your cash flow further.

While wealth, at some point, becomes self-sustaining.

Re: The cost of hand-to-mouth living

#54

Post by tptacek »

w1ntermute wrote: post #42
gruseom wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is why I like Costco better: the people who work there don't seem as downtrodden. Either I've been fooled by corporate propaganda or they really have figured out a way to make money, lower prices, and treat people relatively well. Walmarts feel like places of despair to me and Costcos like places of hope. I know how ludicrous that sounds, but the feeling is real. I often chat with workers at checkout counters to…

> there's one big difference, though. To shop at Costco you have to buy twice as much (plus typically pay membership fees). That step could be too steep for the people most living hand-to-mouth, even though it would save them money within weeks. So there could be sample bias here too. See the article Why Can’t Walmart Be More Like Costco? [0] for more on this. 0: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/11/26/why-c…

You can often sift through McArdle's post to find the Yglesias or Salmon post she's citing and just read that instead. Here, the analysis seems to boil down to "sure, Walmart could pay every worker $3000/yr more and have Costco's margins, but who cares about a paltry $3000?".

The rest of her argument appears to be "I don't know if that would work for Walmart". Neither do I, but "I don't know" isn't a persuasive argument. :)

Re: The cost of hand-to-mouth living

#55

Post by dools »

ilaksh wrote: post #52

I consider myself to have some pretty useful development skills. I keep up to date with things like HTML5, CoffeeScript, AngularJS, AWS, Node.JS etc. However, I don't know what my problem is, if its lack of social or business skills or no degree or what, but I have been living hand-to-mouth doing freelance software development for years. A lot of my projects have been from outsourcing sites. But some of them have bee…

You probably aren't charging enough. I have been through this so feel free to email me iain@workingsoftware.com.au if you'd like to discuss it.

Re: The cost of hand-to-mouth living

#57

Post by coldtea »

ilaksh wrote: post #52

I consider myself to have some pretty useful development skills. I keep up to date with things like HTML5, CoffeeScript, AngularJS, AWS, Node.JS etc. However, I don't know what my problem is, if its lack of social or business skills or no degree or what, but I have been living hand-to-mouth doing freelance software development for years. A lot of my projects have been from outsourcing sites. But some of them have bee…

You're not the exception.

The big shot web devs in HN and in blogging forums are the exception -- and, through survivorship bias et al, they make it sound like it was just their "hard work and persistence" that got them there.

Re: The cost of hand-to-mouth living

#58

Post by aerique »

protomyth wrote: post #35
gruseom wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is why I like Costco better: the people who work there don't seem as downtrodden. Either I've been fooled by corporate propaganda or they really have figured out a way to make money, lower prices, and treat people relatively well. Walmarts feel like places of despair to me and Costcos like places of hope. I know how ludicrous that sounds, but the feeling is real. I often chat with workers at checkout counters to…

The membership is the too steep part for Costco.

What is this membership thing one needs to buy at, what sounds like, a supermarket?

Honest question, I've never heard of such a construction.

Re: The cost of hand-to-mouth living

#59

Post by rdouble »

aerique wrote: post #58
protomyth wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The membership is the too steep part for Costco.

What is this membership thing one needs to buy at, what sounds like, a supermarket? Honest question, I've never heard of such a construction.

Costco is like what Makro is in the Netherlands.
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