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The Rise of Men Who Don’t Work – And What They Do Instead

nytimes.com

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Re: The Rise of Men Who Don’t Work – And What They Do Instead

#21

Post by NicoJuicy »

stdbrouw wrote: post #19
[deleted] wrote: post #17

[deleted]

HN is not the place for contentless whining.

It was perhaps written to long and you probably have a different opinion than mine. Noticing you are a Belgian ;)

TLDR;

To much people just strike against the current governement and unwillingness to work (longer) here in Belgium.

Because you're a Belgian and probably have a personal opinion: Jean Luc Dehaene did 3 step-indexes and he was a hero. Now, they want to do 1 without the socialists and it's like Belgium is on fire.

The strikers get 30 € / day and unions get 313 € / month for every unemployed person... Do you think that's normal/good?

I'm not claiming "right" os good, nor do i claim "left" is good. A combination of both would be good, without the extremism! But most of all, i'd love to see some common sense in unions and some radical politicians.

Re: The Rise of Men Who Don’t Work – And What They Do Instead

#22

Post by shutupalready »

rtpg wrote: post #14
marcell wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is great that you are able to do this, but not that your situation is not the one described in the article. The article discusses men who only qualify for low/no skill jobs paying $10-15/hr. That is markedly different from a tech startup cofounder who could get a software engineering job paying $100k+ with benefits.

yeah, a big problem with the whole "Don't need BigCo's job cuz I'm running a SV startup!" narrative is that it's really only accessible for people who already belonged to pretty privileged classes (exceptions exist, obviously.) A portion of the population does not get opportunities to develop these skills and were once allowed low-skilled jobs that paid "decently" but have now found themselves squeezed due to inflati…

> companies hoarding cash instead of spending it

I've heard this sentiment many times but I've wondered if there's an economic fallacy there. Would the economy be better off if lots of companies stopped hoarding cash and hired lots of new employees? Or would there be side-effects like inflation, or some effect of pulling out cash from whatever it was invested in, etc.?

Serious question.

Re: The Rise of Men Who Don’t Work – And What They Do Instead

#23

Post by tluyben2 »

MCRed wrote: post #2

Look ma, that's me! Free of a soul crushing corporate job, back to doing a "startup", I may not have the cash rolling in, but at least I'm in control of my destiny. Hey Ma, I'm moving in! I think there are a lot of people out there like me. I have some money coming from side projects, several opportunities to grow that, and several opportunities for new side projects. And quite a long personal runway before I have to…

I have never had 'a job' and had startups (and later mature companies) since I was 15 (I am 40 now). I am not sure what age you are, but you need to know this thing for sure if you are past, I think, around 30 as running a life like this can be very painful. There simply is a tiny chance of 'big success' while most just live in almost poverty the first 20-30 years of doing this. That's also why I think you are probably young and haven't seen that yet ; most give up and tell stories to their kids later about it.

Not to squash your enthusiasm; just saying that 'control of my destiny' is mostly not true at all; you are being lived by actual constraints of life. If you get a mortgage, kids, spouse, investors etc these constraints can easily 'live' you instead of you controlling anything. I was lucky, but just saying to be careful in thinking this and keep tabs on the 'do I actually still like this' factor. A regular job, for most of my friends who started out with me, was a blessing.

Re: The Rise of Men Who Don’t Work – And What They Do Instead

#24

Post by jsilva »

rtpg wrote: post #14
marcell wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is great that you are able to do this, but not that your situation is not the one described in the article. The article discusses men who only qualify for low/no skill jobs paying $10-15/hr. That is markedly different from a tech startup cofounder who could get a software engineering job paying $100k+ with benefits.

yeah, a big problem with the whole "Don't need BigCo's job cuz I'm running a SV startup!" narrative is that it's really only accessible for people who already belonged to pretty privileged classes (exceptions exist, obviously.) A portion of the population does not get opportunities to develop these skills and were once allowed low-skilled jobs that paid "decently" but have now found themselves squeezed due to inflati…

What do you mean by "privileged classes", not sure i understood your idea ?

Re: The Rise of Men Who Don’t Work – And What They Do Instead

#25

Post by dwaltrip »

jsilva wrote: post #24
rtpg wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yeah, a big problem with the whole "Don't need BigCo's job cuz I'm running a SV startup!" narrative is that it's really only accessible for people who already belonged to pretty privileged classes (exceptions exist, obviously.) A portion of the population does not get opportunities to develop these skills and were once allowed low-skilled jobs that paid "decently" but have now found themselves squeezed due to inflati…

What do you mean by "privileged classes", not sure i understood your idea ?

The people who have had more good things happen to them (money, smarts, education, favorable societal position, supportive family) than most other people. It is easier for these people to not get a regular job and try to build something on their own.

Re: The Rise of Men Who Don’t Work – And What They Do Instead

#26

Post by LargeCompanies »

MCRed wrote: post #2

Look ma, that's me! Free of a soul crushing corporate job, back to doing a "startup", I may not have the cash rolling in, but at least I'm in control of my destiny. Hey Ma, I'm moving in! I think there are a lot of people out there like me. I have some money coming from side projects, several opportunities to grow that, and several opportunities for new side projects. And quite a long personal runway before I have to…

I've lived with a parent (it's a big house they'd alone otherwise here) for I guess too many years then I've should. Also I'm old and my g/f who is similar age of five years also lives with a parent. Though she is getting antsy and wants kids and she only has a few years left. I want a family too but have been holding off for that big moment when my team and I start generating money and or sell our work. Ugh will that happen I don't know but I need to get back into the workforce and do our startup on the side. This what I was doing for the last year and half until I lost yet another developer job because of my incessant need to startup. I've lost two jobs in the two and half years because my bosses found out about my startup or we become friendly and I talk about it a lot.

Ugh I'm sorta feeling stuck professionally and tomorrow I start my 3rd incubator yet im unemployed.

You might want to reconsider startup pursuits after your early to mid 30s.

Re: The Rise of Men Who Don’t Work – And What They Do Instead

#28

Post by barry-cotter »

shutupalready wrote: post #22
rtpg wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yeah, a big problem with the whole "Don't need BigCo's job cuz I'm running a SV startup!" narrative is that it's really only accessible for people who already belonged to pretty privileged classes (exceptions exist, obviously.) A portion of the population does not get opportunities to develop these skills and were once allowed low-skilled jobs that paid "decently" but have now found themselves squeezed due to inflati…

> companies hoarding cash instead of spending it I've heard this sentiment many times but I've wondered if there's an economic fallacy there. Would the economy be better off if lots of companies stopped hoarding cash and hired lots of new employees? Or would there be side-effects like inflation, or some effect of pulling out cash from whatever it was invested in, etc.? Serious question.

> I've heard this sentiment many times but I've wondered if there's an economic fallacy there.

There is, it's a confusion between money and capacity. That money is an option, the possibility of getting people to do things for you. Unused money is paper.

> Would the economy be better off if lots of companies stopped hoarding cash and hired lots of new employees?

The economy is an abstraction. It can't be better off. But if the companies that have the money had productive ways to spend it they would be doing so. The fact that there aren't that many productive ways to use the money is why the interest rate is so low. The interest rate is the cost of renting money.

Re: The Rise of Men Who Don’t Work – And What They Do Instead

#29

Post by jahnu »

shutupalready wrote: post #22
rtpg wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yeah, a big problem with the whole "Don't need BigCo's job cuz I'm running a SV startup!" narrative is that it's really only accessible for people who already belonged to pretty privileged classes (exceptions exist, obviously.) A portion of the population does not get opportunities to develop these skills and were once allowed low-skilled jobs that paid "decently" but have now found themselves squeezed due to inflati…

> companies hoarding cash instead of spending it I've heard this sentiment many times but I've wondered if there's an economic fallacy there. Would the economy be better off if lots of companies stopped hoarding cash and hired lots of new employees? Or would there be side-effects like inflation, or some effect of pulling out cash from whatever it was invested in, etc.? Serious question.

Very little down side. People with more income spend more which grows the economy. In a two person economy, your expenditure is my income and my expenditure is your income. If one of us hoards then both of us lose eventually. Also moderate inflation is a good thing. It disincentivises hoarding of cash.

Re: The Rise of Men Who Don’t Work – And What They Do Instead

#30

Post by hessenwolf »

That's an awesome graph. I mean, we could say some things like that the thickness of the gray bit is not so clear, or that it might be better if smoothed, perhaps the legend would be better elsewhere than in the coloured areas, but... it is still a totally expressive and elegant graphic.
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