The boss who put everyone on 70K • Hacker News Board

Re: The boss who put everyone on 70K

#161

Post by Pfhreak » Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 2:18 PM UTC

eru wrote: post #41

WalterBright wrote: post #34

Since it's working for Dan and his company, great! > in Seattle that wasn't enough to afford a decent home. Because the population in Seattle has grown by leaps and bounds, if everyone could afford one of the supply of homes, the prices would go up until demand equals supply.

Well, they could also build more homes. But Seattle has somehow decided they don't want that.

Citation on this? Seattle has added tens of thousands of units and upzoned many neighborhoods. At one point I could look out my window and see 21 cranes building high rises, both mixed use and office buildings. The population influx has been massive.

Re: The boss who put everyone on 70K

#162

Post by Pfhreak » Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 2:21 PM UTC

WalterBright wrote: post #34

Since it's working for Dan and his company, great! > in Seattle that wasn't enough to afford a decent home. Because the population in Seattle has grown by leaps and bounds, if everyone could afford one of the supply of homes, the prices would go up until demand equals supply.

Alternatively, we could push to make housing not a commodity. Build more public housing, upzone and regulate what gets rebuilt to ensure more units, put laws in place to advantage renters, make building affordable units a higher roi than building luxury units, etc.

Re: The boss who put everyone on 70K

#163

Post by buzzkillington » Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 2:22 PM UTC

conjectures wrote: post #75

angarg12 wrote: post #47

> "When money is not at the forefront of your mind when you're doing your job, it allows you to be more passionate about what motivates you," she says. I spent the first several years of my career working in academia for a poverty level wage. I can confirm from my own experience that when you worry about not being able to pay rent and all the bills, it's very difficult to be productive, much less in a job that requir…

“Intellectual freedom depends upon material things. (...) Women have had less intellectual freedom than the sons of Athenian slaves. Women, then, have not had a dog's chance of writing poetry. That is why I have laid so much stress on money and a room of one's own” ― Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own

What upper class tripe. The only freedom sons of Athenian slaves had was to die in the Athenian silver mines.

>Shafts were driven down into the ground and galleries opened where slaves, chained, naked, and branded, worked the seams illuminated only by guttering oil lamps. An unrecorded number were children. It was a miserable, dangerous, and brief life. [0]

It is always the most comfortable that consume the most vivid persecution porn. Feminists seem to have been doing this for a century longer than the The Handmaid's Tale, which was my introduction to that brand of mental illness.

[0] The Rise of Athens: The Story of the World’s Greatest Civilisation

Re: The boss who put everyone on 70K

#164

Post by pjmorris » Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 2:23 PM UTC

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #149

angarg12 wrote: post #47

> "When money is not at the forefront of your mind when you're doing your job, it allows you to be more passionate about what motivates you," she says. I spent the first several years of my career working in academia for a poverty level wage. I can confirm from my own experience that when you worry about not being able to pay rent and all the bills, it's very difficult to be productive, much less in a job that requir…

I worked sub-minimum wage for a decade or so; I don't think poverty is an impediment to creativity. It is an impediment to using that creativity (particularly to generate value and/or income), however. Not disagreeing, just trying to add some complexion.

Humans are creative, and they apply that creativity to their present circumstances. I'm reminded of John Adams here:

"I must study politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. Our sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain.”

Re: The boss who put everyone on 70K

#165

Post by michaelgrafl » Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 2:24 PM UTC

angarg12 wrote: post #47

> "When money is not at the forefront of your mind when you're doing your job, it allows you to be more passionate about what motivates you," she says. I spent the first several years of my career working in academia for a poverty level wage. I can confirm from my own experience that when you worry about not being able to pay rent and all the bills, it's very difficult to be productive, much less in a job that requir…

Anything that seriously stresses you out will have a negative impact on your performance.

It's a shame that so often that thing seems to be how to pay rent on time, or being able to provide for your familiy financially.

Re: The boss who put everyone on 70K

#166

Post by Pfhreak » Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 2:26 PM UTC

lotsofpulp wrote: post #157

StanislavPetrov wrote: post #138

Anyone who was worked a job where low wages are paid (either as a worker receiving low wages or in a managerial position) knows that there is an extremely tangible effect on work quality and productivity. Workers who feel they aren't being fairly compensated for their labor don't work as hard. They don't show as much attention to detail. They don't have any loyalty to their employers, who they perceive as exploiting…

> Its no surprise to me that paying workers a living wage (or even something close) results in measurable benefits for a business, in a variety of ways (not to mention immeasurably improving the lives of employees). Not if their work doesn’t really differentiate the product. I have all the research I need about products from the internet, so I don’t need a store employee to sell me anything. Same with many other low…

Except the staff at a store also ensure the store is well maintained, stocked, the register is operated quickly, theft is minimal, and provide customer service to those customers who do need it.

As someone who worked retail in a music store, there's a whole lot of people who have no idea how to even begin finding what they like. Efficient customers like you are a minority.

Re: The boss who put everyone on 70K

#167

Post by rebelrexx858 » Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 2:27 PM UTC

ailideex wrote: post #159

angarg12 wrote: post #47

> "When money is not at the forefront of your mind when you're doing your job, it allows you to be more passionate about what motivates you," she says. I spent the first several years of my career working in academia for a poverty level wage. I can confirm from my own experience that when you worry about not being able to pay rent and all the bills, it's very difficult to be productive, much less in a job that requir…

> I can confirm from my own experience that when you worry about not being able to pay rent and all the bills, it's very difficult to be productive, much less in a job that requires any kind of focus or creative thinking. Who was paying you and could you not go do something else for money?

In some ways, that mindset comes from a place of privilege. In true poverty-esque situations, you often couldn't get the time off of work to find another job, or even afford the transition between one job and another. It can be a pretty vicious cycle.

Re: The boss who put everyone on 70K

#168

Post by michaelgrafl » Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 2:28 PM UTC

pritovido wrote: post #73

angarg12 wrote: post #47

> "When money is not at the forefront of your mind when you're doing your job, it allows you to be more passionate about what motivates you," she says. I spent the first several years of my career working in academia for a poverty level wage. I can confirm from my own experience that when you worry about not being able to pay rent and all the bills, it's very difficult to be productive, much less in a job that requir…

That is a consequence of procrastination, which is the consequence of anxiety, which is the consequence of barely meeting ends. Basically in order to be productive under those circumstances you have to ignore reality, which can be problematic for the people around you. But at the same time everything is relative on your perception of reality. We spend today 50-100 times more energy per person that people 100 years ag…

I don't think I ever feel dissatisfied because of Ads. I'm pretty cool with what I have.

I am scared of losing my job though, because of a lapse in mental health or whatever. Not because my expectations are high, but because I'm afraid of having to sell my house in a hurry and move into a small apartment with my wife and my 3 children, as well as the feelings of failure and shame.

Re: The boss who put everyone on 70K

#169

Post by thebean11 » Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 2:30 PM UTC

ghaff wrote: post #112

eru wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> [...] built today are crappy Chinese junk compared to things built 70 years ago, if they existed 70 years ago [...] Ignoring the big 'if': most goods today are better than what we had in 1950. Especially if you compare the quality of goods that required the median worker to work the same amount of hours. The 'junk' you talk about takes minutes of work to earn enough to buy. And most of the time, that's good enough.…

I mostly agree. >cars need much less maintenance these days. And, especially if you lived somewhere with snow and salt on the roads, they mostly lasted about 50K miles before they rusted out. Growing up, it was an unusual car that made it to 100K. That said, minor repairs of otherwise functional gear can make sense. I'm generally in agreement on electronics. But I fairly commonly repair or have repaired hiking or cam…

There still seems to be a market for repairing high end stuff. Shoe repair and clothing alteration stores haven't really gone anywhere

Re: The boss who put everyone on 70K

#170

Post by Pfhreak » Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 2:31 PM UTC

golemotron wrote: post #113

The things you can do when you're in a high margin non-competitive market.

Amazon is low margin, Bezos could give up more wealth. Grocery stores are low margin, but I'm sure you could reduce the pay of Kroger's ceo. I'm trying to think of a company whose ceo makes millions that couldn't take similar steps to increase worker pay at the ceos expense and coming up with nothing.