Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

itsmevox.substack.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 528 posts

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

#151

Post by giov4 »

It's simple, what is written here should be part of basic education for every human being/worker.

For all who mis-interprent the post and focus only on the anti capitalistic view of it, don't worry your body will tell you soon!

Keep an eye for the signals, gut and digestive issues, back stuck and oain, sleeping problems, light sensitivity and irritability. When this will start remember that the problem is probably your work or your working environment not you! And you should react to it!

This article should be eye opening, and support for disabilities should be always there. The abandonment of human beings is the biggest failure of societes.

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

#152

Post by zbentley »

butlike wrote: post #115
disgruntledphd2 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My reading of this is that the threshhold for the USA government to withdraw financial (and other?) support for disabled people is too low, is that right? In general, step functions (earn 200 get benefits, 201 no benefits) are really really bad from a public policy perspective. If you want to get people out of these dependency traps then you need to taper them more effectively. Even tapering them is problematic as…

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 income, asset/gift valuation, and so on. But that second category are, at least, tractable problems as evidenced by most countries' tax codes having contingencies to deal with them.

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

#153

Post by giov4 »

giov4 wrote: post #128
Telaneo wrote: post #5

> If your worth is not determined by your productivity, then what remains of you underneath it all? Everything else. You are worth so much more than your productivity. I'm glad I never got sucked into the protestant work ethic, since defining yourself based on your labour and the value you generate from that sounds woefully narrow-minded (this doesn't feel like quite the right word, but close enough). It's probably h…

could you please summarize in short what you meant here as keypoint? I'm not sure we are interpreting this right,based also on reactions and troll references in clear contrast to your other comment.

also the comment

"I've considered suicide because I was unable to make ends meet. I don't want others to experience that. Is that too much to ask?"

was important and extremely insightful, wanted to ask what you meant with "was unable to nake ends meet" which type of ends?

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

#154

Post by Telaneo »

bko wrote: post #134
Telaneo wrote: post #5

> If your worth is not determined by your productivity, then what remains of you underneath it all? Everything else. You are worth so much more than your productivity. I'm glad I never got sucked into the protestant work ethic, since defining yourself based on your labour and the value you generate from that sounds woefully narrow-minded (this doesn't feel like quite the right word, but close enough). It's probably h…

> Reading the classics is productive because it's enjoyable, even though it doesn't help with your work It's productive in that it is hard and a sign of high intelligence. Don't believe me and swap it out with Candy Crush. Is playing Candy Crush productive? This obsession about people with disabilities is weird. Yes, people with real disabilities exist. But focusing on pathologizing every day life is extremely harmfu…

> Is playing Candy Crush productive?

If you enjoy it, then yes.

> Hard work is a good in it of itself. People pay lip service to the idea that we shouldn't be productive or measure our "worth" (whatever that is) by productivity but they don't live it. For instance, I don't know any parent that doesn't push or at least hope their children work hard at something. Anything. Do something hard. Play a sport. Learn an instrument. Study math. This is common sense.

Hard work is good insofar as you enjoy it or it leads you to things that you do enjoy. Do those things if you enjoy them. Hard things are enjoyable too. I stopped doing most of them because I didn't enjoy them.

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

#155

Post by avalys »

astral_drama wrote: post #111
avalys wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who produces the food you eat, the clothes you wear, the house you live in, the energy you use, the medicine you consume, etc. while you airily define ‘productivity’ as reading the classics and spending time with friends?

> Who produces the food you eat, the clothes you wear, the house you live in, the energy you use, the medicine you consume, etc. The able do. The disabled would love to work hard and earn a nice paycheck. It's a privilege to be able to work and be in good health. Hopefully you don't have to learn that the hard way.

A privilege, really? Who bestows that privilege?

I am certainly sympathetic to people who are genuinely disabled.

That doesn’t mean we have to lie to ourselves that they are being productive by sitting around reading books.

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

#156

Post by throwaway173738 »

meta_gunslinger wrote: post #72
jckahn wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For someone who has been born disabled, the conversation should be moved to the people who brought them to life and are responsible for their survival. Please explain exactly what you are suggesting or advocating for here.

I mean that the people who brought the person to life are responsible to make choice that will ensure theirs long term survival. e.g my grandmother had a brother who their brain stopped developing at a very young age (afaik 5), the parents ensured and my grandmother ensured that my uncle lived a full (but sadly difficult) life living and been taken care of by them and then my grandma after they passed.

Have you ever asked them what it was like to financially support him like that? Do you actually want the world to work that way?

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

#157

Post by gus_massa »

jplrssn wrote: post #69
avalys wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who produces the food you eat, the clothes you wear, the house you live in, the energy you use, the medicine you consume, etc. while you airily define ‘productivity’ as reading the classics and spending time with friends?

> Who produces the food you eat, the clothes you wear, the house you live in, the energy you use, the medicine you consume, etc You could say the same thing about software engineers. But someone spending their days just creating JS frameworks is oh-so-productive and paid enough money every month to buy several years’ worth of food and shelter.

When I was young, to buy a tee shirts for the kids you have to walk like 10 block to visit like 5 shops and compare prices. Let's say 1 or 2 hour and the choices were quite limited and you must keep a mental list of the location and quality of each shop. [The cheap ones may open only at the same time you have to be in the office.]

Now you can go to Mercado Libre (the local version of Amazon) compare prices and see the reviews and buy them in 15 minutes. There are a lot of more choices and the prices are lower (or higher if you like fancy stuff). It arrives home at the afternoon.

Some software engineer has to program it. Does s/he deserve a few bucks for the time s/he saved all of us?

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

#158

Post by Telaneo »

pj_mukh wrote: post #149
Telaneo wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Housing is clearly the biggest problem, yes, and I doubt you'll find anyone who'll disagree that it's not a big problem. But it's a big problem for political reasons. If we all woke up tomorrow and thought 'we need 10 million new homes', I'm sure it could happen. It's just not in the short-term (and long-term?) interests of the economy as it is now. Maybe we should do something about that? Or maybe, just maybe, we sh…

>If we all woke up tomorrow and thought 'we need 10 million new homes The cost (no profit) of 1 Million homes where people want to live (where your community is), would be roughly 0.5 Trillion to 1 Trillion USD [1]. So, I don't think this is true :(. We simply don't have the construction workers and the supply-chains to make it happen. Again, these are fixable problems and I want this to be true. But it is not today.…

> The cost (no profit) of 1 Million homes where people want to live (where your community is), would be roughly 0.5 Trillion to 1 Trillion USD [1].

That sounds worth it to me.

> We simply don't have the construction workers and the supply-chains to make it happen. Again, these are fixable problems and I want this to be true. But it is not today.

Sounds like something we need to fix then.

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

#159

Post by adamtaylor_13 »

I think part of the lie is that we live for and unto ourselves. We instinctively know it's not true, yet for much of our lives we live as if it is. Until one day we find out what we knew all along.

When you suddenly become unable to "give anything" to others and become the one who must be given to, you feel a disconcerting sense of loss and powerlessness.

I don't think it really has anything to do with capitalism.

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

#160

Post by HelloUsername »

> Everytime you meet someone new and they ask “What do you do?” they’re not asking about your passions, hobbies, or the mundane human tasks that take up most of your time; but how you make money, how you turn yourself into income.

1. That's your assumption. They could really ask out of interest. They couldn't care less if that's your main source of income.

2. In some cultures this question will never be asked.

3. If they do ask and judge; what does that matter? If you dislike such personalities, avoid them.

Post reply on HN