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John Scalzi: Being Poor (2005)

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Re: John Scalzi: Being Poor (2005)

#111

Post by Inconel »

jachee wrote: post #102
philovivero wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for the inventory of my life. I remember those months as a kid when the cupboards were bare, and so I'd just shrug and go to bed without dinner. Thank goodness for government-sponsored low-income lunch program. That was my only meal many days. Naturally I was surprised when recently I got informed I have white privilege by a bunch of spoiled children who've never known a day of hardship in their lives. I'm…

Don't think for a minute that our white privilege isn't the major reason we can reflect on having been poor, rather than continuing to live that reality.

While I think it's a very good idea to take stock of one's privileges relative to others, and how these privileges impact the outcomes of our lives, I'm a big proponent of the notion that privilege lies on a spectrum, it isn't binary. The distinction isn't between those with privilege and those without, but instead between different levels of privilege. Certainly whiteness, in a white dominated society, is one example of privilege that gives you a head ups, all else being equal, but usually all else isn't equal. I think it can often be a mistake to focus on white privilege being the major reason for an outcome when it was most likely the result of a number of intersecting privileges, whiteness being one of them, but not necessarily the most important.

I also think the parent comment does address something important, namely that while many people may not be particularly comfortable with introspection or the notion of privilege, there are likely many who would be more receptive to these ideas if the people labelling them privileged, often along rather one dimensional attributes without taking in to consideration areas in which they are decidedly underprivileged, didn't hail from some of the most privileged demographics in the US.

Posters in this thread have shared a number of feelings that hit very close to home regarding my own experience growing up impoverished in this country, and I make a very conscious effort to try and remain aware of the incredible number of unearned privileges and good fortune that I've been the recipient of, but even someone like me often can't help but recoil when I hear some of the most privileged people in SV, and consequently probably the country and world, so confidently label and denigrate others as privileged.

Re: John Scalzi: Being Poor (2005)

#113

Post by SimonPStevens »

amagumori wrote: post #57

for anyone who has grown up poor or working class, how do i claw my way out of this? i come from a single parent household, my mom is an elementary school teacher with 4 kids in an expensive city. she barely makes ends meet and cannot support me. i was homeless and addicted to drugs for most of my teenage years, before getting sober and going to college, but dropping out after 2 years - my mom's child support put me…

> so i try to work on things like a compiler and a real-time rendering engine

Even unfinished this sounds like a cut above the average entry level dev. Make sure these projects are on github or whatever so people can see the code, even unfinished, it's good to see the progression.

Apply for a dozen junior dev jobs and see what happens. You'll probably get a bunch of rejections, but if you can write coherently and talk clearly you've got a chance.

And even if you don't get one you will probably discover something about what it is you are missing that businesses want and you can work on that specifically.

Re: John Scalzi: Being Poor (2005)

#114

Post by tudorconstantin »

amagumori wrote: post #57

for anyone who has grown up poor or working class, how do i claw my way out of this? i come from a single parent household, my mom is an elementary school teacher with 4 kids in an expensive city. she barely makes ends meet and cannot support me. i was homeless and addicted to drugs for most of my teenage years, before getting sober and going to college, but dropping out after 2 years - my mom's child support put me…

My personal estimate (after 11 years of professional fullstack web development) is that about 80% of web development is doing some variations of CRUD screens. Create that CRUD app, publish it on github and let the possible employers know that you can do at least the 80% of the daily tasks. With a github repo and a project on your cv, you'll be in the top 5% candidates that don't have any work experience. There's a much bigger need in the market for devs who can do CRUD apps than for devs who can architect and implement rendering engines.

Change jobs. There are jobs that pay similarly to a bike messenger, or maybe even more, but are less demanding, like a night shift security agent at auto dealerships. You could even take your laptop with you and work on your projects.

Re: John Scalzi: Being Poor (2005)

#115

Post by babesh »

peterburkimsher wrote: post #34

Being rich is having a car. Even a scooter. Being rich is being able to visit your family. Being rich is having insurance. Being rich is paying for a monthly phone subscription. Being rich is hot lunches. Being rich is risking losing your job in order to negotiate a better contract with your boss. Being rich is considering having children at all. Being rich is buying alcohol. Being rich is looking at house prices. Be…

Yup, haircuts given by mother or sister and then even after a little money, trying to give yourself a haircut. Not knowing how to ask for a haircut.

Travel circumscribed by how far you can walk.

Being ashamed that your mother sewed up holes in her clothes.

Holes in the ceiling with water coming out of them.

No health insurance.

Being lucky to take one bath a week. Giving yourself washcloth baths.

Saving water by flushing the toilet with saved bath water.

Re: John Scalzi: Being Poor (2005)

#117

Post by dang »

gragas wrote: post #76
gruez wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You obviously missed the point of the GP

Yeah, didn't read it. Came straight to the comments to see all the righteous, selfless technocrats on HN tonight.

You're basically trolling this thread. Would please not do that, and please stop posting unsubstantive comments to HN? We're hoping for a higher quality of discussion than that, and need all the help we can get.

Re: John Scalzi: Being Poor (2005)

#118

Post by dang »

ice109 wrote: post #40
Mz wrote: post #31

Being poor is deciding that it’s all right to base a relationship on shelter. I sleep in a tent. I have turned down such offers. I am literally homeless, yet can't identify with a lot that is in this article. This likely explains 90% of my social friction.

congrats on being an unempathetic ubermensch. I'm sure that's worth a lot.

We've banned this account for repeatedly violating the site guidelines.

Re: John Scalzi: Being Poor (2005)

#119

Post by chrischen »

inostia wrote: post #12

Thanks for posting. "Being poor is knowing how hard it is to stop being poor." hit me hard. I didn't grow up poor, but I can understand this sentiment. It's unfortunate that so many people don't take the time to think about societal conditions before placing "blame" on the disadvantaged.

This is probably the #1 reason that we don't help the poor enough. It's the belief that the rich deserve to be rich and the poor deserve to be poor.

Re: John Scalzi: Being Poor (2005)

#120

Post by vacri »

noncoml wrote: post #58
peterburkimsher wrote: post #34

Being rich is having a car. Even a scooter. Being rich is being able to visit your family. Being rich is having insurance. Being rich is paying for a monthly phone subscription. Being rich is hot lunches. Being rich is risking losing your job in order to negotiate a better contract with your boss. Being rich is considering having children at all. Being rich is buying alcohol. Being rich is looking at house prices. Be…

Not being poor is not the same as being rich. Being rich I having enough money/income to not need to work. In between is the middle class. There are middle class people who can afford to buy some of the stuff rich people buy, but if they lose their job they’ll be broke in a month or two.

You don't have to be independently wealthy to be rich. Most middle-class people are neither poor nor rich, though they'll usually tell you that they're poor as fuck if the topic of money comes up. Very few of them have any perspective on where their income lies with respect to the median, and what a median lifestyle provides.
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