Being poor changes your thinking about everything • Hacker News Board

Re: Being poor changes your thinking about everything

#81

Post by waps » Sat, Sep 14, 2013, 2:15 AM UTC

superuser2 wrote: post #75

wolfgke wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having read these articles, there's one thing that I don't appreciate: in these articles kids of poor people are mentioned. Why in the hell are these people "producing" children, if they aren't 100% certain that they'll be able to support them for the years until they are old enough to stand on their own feet? Strokes of fate that lead to poverty are one side, but the side is reproding if you are poor: I consider thi…

The prevalence of pro-early marriage, pro-birth, anti-condom social and religious values probably has something to do with this, as well as the fact that it's an evolutionary given that everyone wants to have children (or at least sex). Hard to argue with biology.

Do you think those values are wrong ?

Look at the fertility numbers : if the rich were made responsible for producing the nation's offspring ... well there wouldn't be a future for America.

Furthermore, there is nothing that increases happiness half as much as having a child.

Re: Being poor changes your thinking about everything

#82

Post by waps » Sat, Sep 14, 2013, 2:21 AM UTC

Raphmedia wrote: post #31

Raphmedia wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The answer is "love", you robots.

This is an answer to "Why in the hell are these people "producing" children, if they aren't 100% certain that they'll be able to support them for the years until they are old enough to stand on their own feet?" No, lack of contraception is not the issue here either. What, do you think that because you have low monetary gain you are perpetually unhappy and would not want to have children? That all procreation coming t…

+1

Plus. Having a marriage and children, and getting all financial assistance needed to achieve that is a human right.

The US has signed the treaty enshrining that principle into law ... case closed.

Re: Being poor changes your thinking about everything

#83

Post by unono » Sat, Sep 14, 2013, 2:26 AM UTC

poppysan wrote: post #76

unono wrote: post #51

The root cause of poverty is the incompetent government education system - The Teacher's Union. Most public school teachers I've come across have contempt for the businessmen (people who create the wealth) and for poor people (teachers tend to be limousine liberals). The first country or state to disband the current teaching system and replace with a competitive system will skyrocket to success. This is a no-brainer,…

Wow... The root cause of poverty is incompetent education? What about the college educated poor? What about the failure of the voucher program in Milwaukee? Why are public schools with the same "limousine liberals" operating them more successful than poor schools? I think your theory has a few holes.

What are the successes. Are they successful in taking children from the socioeconomic group and turning them into high earning 30 year old adults?

Teaching metrics should be about how successful people turn out as adults, not some test scores at year end.

Until the government education system can show it's success in that, I'd hold off funding them.

What has shown success are private schools http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405270230382220457746...

Re: Being poor changes your thinking about everything

#84

Post by superuser2 » Sat, Sep 14, 2013, 2:31 AM UTC

unono wrote: post #51

The root cause of poverty is the incompetent government education system - The Teacher's Union. Most public school teachers I've come across have contempt for the businessmen (people who create the wealth) and for poor people (teachers tend to be limousine liberals). The first country or state to disband the current teaching system and replace with a competitive system will skyrocket to success. This is a no-brainer,…

The root of all poverty is that children aren't taught to worship the businessmen who choose to value their time at "as little as the government allows" and avoid employing them and their parents at all if possible. What?

Re: Being poor changes your thinking about everything

#85

Post by unono » Sat, Sep 14, 2013, 2:36 AM UTC

superuser2 wrote: post #84

unono wrote: post #51

The root cause of poverty is the incompetent government education system - The Teacher's Union. Most public school teachers I've come across have contempt for the businessmen (people who create the wealth) and for poor people (teachers tend to be limousine liberals). The first country or state to disband the current teaching system and replace with a competitive system will skyrocket to success. This is a no-brainer,…

The root of all poverty is that children aren't taught to worship the businessmen who choose to value their time at "as little as the government allows" and avoid employing them and their parents at all if possible. What?

The root cause is that the teaching system doesn't turn all children into businessmen.

If everyone was a businessman, they'd be earning more than government set minimums.

Re: Being poor changes your thinking about everything

#86

Post by teddyh » Sat, Sep 14, 2013, 2:36 AM UTC

mattmanser wrote: post #60

teddyh wrote: post #2

I'm very much reminded of these: http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-things-nobody-tells-you-about-... http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-5-stupidest-habits-you-devel... http://www.cracked.com/blog/4-things-politicians-will-never-... Especially the last one. EDIT: Fixed last link

One of the articles is making a massive deal about 'afford[ing] those grocery trips' and 'burning shitloads of gas'. As someone who comes from a country where 'gas' is a shit load more expensive than the US because of tax I call utter bullshit. It costs about 20-40p to go to a supermarket, or at most a dollar in your US terms. Over here there's also a massive competition war going on at the moment between Tesco & Sai…

Things like grocery stores tend to be further away in the US, thereby costing more fuel to get to.

Re: Being poor changes your thinking about everything

#87

Post by clarkm » Sat, Sep 14, 2013, 2:39 AM UTC

waps wrote: post #78

alexqgb wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He specifically said people should be "100% certain" that they can support their children until their children can support themselves. Given that this normally entails a span of ~25 years (assuming two kids through college), that group is both certainly and obviously limited to the richest of the rich.

Having kids is a human right. That should be the end of the discussion. Anyone, rich or poor, is * entitled to have children [1] * entitled to financial and other aid to raise those children safely and securely [2] [1] UDHR, Article 16, paragraph (1) http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/#a16 [2] UDHR, Article 25, paragraph (2) http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/#a25 Since the US has signed these treaties, and unless…

Why is calling something a "human right" and pointing to some UN declaration any different than calling something a "God-given right" and pointing to the Bible?

Re: Being poor changes your thinking about everything

#88

Post by daurnimator » Sat, Sep 14, 2013, 2:41 AM UTC

jpau wrote: post #39

teddyh wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a problem starting such a collective (which is, in effect, what you are proposing): Housing. To have many people live together, you need square footage (or m², for metric people). This necessitates a large apartment or house. Such a thing, (if not bought outright, ha, ha, just kidding), will be expensive. The landlord will need a single legal person to be responsible for the paying of this rent, and own the l…

oops! I hit the wrong reply 6ren is right, but it's not the whole story. In addition to to being able to have multiple people each entirely responsible for a single lease, we (Australia) have a very generous "student allowance" scheme for most students. This guarantees us students a fortnightly income that is almost certainly at least whatever we would be paying in rent + utilities. My situation is such an example. I…

This is very much the opposite to what I experienced in Melbourne.

Youth Allowance with Rent didn't cover my rent in a share house, or even bills. When I didn't have more than one part time job I was relying on money from my Mother to pay the rent.

Re: Being poor changes your thinking about everything

#89

Post by woofyman » Sat, Sep 14, 2013, 2:41 AM UTC

unono wrote: post #85

superuser2 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The root of all poverty is that children aren't taught to worship the businessmen who choose to value their time at "as little as the government allows" and avoid employing them and their parents at all if possible. What?

The root cause is that the teaching system doesn't turn all children into businessmen. If everyone was a businessman, they'd be earning more than government set minimums.

Yes, only businessmen add value to society.

Re: Being poor changes your thinking about everything

#90

Post by afterburner » Sat, Sep 14, 2013, 2:42 AM UTC

alan_cx wrote: post #9

And being rich doesn't? Is it the poor who have power to change things, or the rich? Which is the bigger group? The poor or the rich? If it is the poor, then isn't it relatively the rich who think differently?

"Is it the poor who have power to change things, or the rich?"

Mostly the rich. That's the point. Laws get passed to service the wants of the rich, because they have orders of magnitude more influence. These laws then screw over the poor, but the rich can't properly sympathize because they just don't understand, because their world is so different.