Why are diapers so expensive? • Hacker News Board

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#171

Post by sanbor » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 7:40 AM UTC

eljimmy wrote: post #161

s4vi0r wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jesus, your comment and the other replies just straight up reek of privilege/ignorance. What you're suggesting is obviously the pragmatic choice - obviously, if she's poor as shit and can't afford regular diapers, using reusable cloth ones is a great solution. But that's not the fucking point of the article - its $CURRENT_YEAR in the richest country in the world, this absolutely shouldn't be a thing that happens in t…

You seem to think first world means everyone is happy, content, and without struggle. No country such as that has ever existed. The common concept of first world is so misconstrued by people who live in it that those from second and third world countries would ridicule you for your comment. Perspective, don't forget it.

It would bebizarre If you would be billionaire and your brother don't have enough money for diapers. A month of diapers would cost the same than Whole Foods fancy meal.

That's how bizarre this things looks.

I live in Argentina, not first world by any means, and we have a lots welfare programs.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#172

Post by Nition » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 7:40 AM UTC

epicureanideal wrote: post #131

FuckOffNeemo wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You and I both. How many of us would have to chip in another $10-$20 in taxes to cover those without, so a parent and his/her children can take a shit and dispose of it in a way that meats their commitments as appropriate?

As others have said, it's not a question of "having diapers" vs "not having diapers". It's a question of convenience for the parents to not use another cheap alternative -- cloth diapers. Also, we already have many assistance programs and I would like to understand the specifics of a situation that leaves someone without enough money to buy even disposable diapers if they're already on assistance. Further, where does…

> It's a question of convenience for the parents to not use another cheap alternative -- cloth diapers.

I wouldn't mind a subsidy on cloth diapers to be honest. The landfill waste from disposables is insane.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#173

Post by toomanybeersies » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 7:40 AM UTC

s4vi0r wrote: post #82

chrissnell wrote: post #54

This article is so frustrating. The helplessness and dependence are just sad. Cloth diapers cost less than $1.50 each in a 10-pack. If you are poor enough, you can wash them in a bucket with bar soap. That's what virtually everyone did before washers were invented. I'm saddened that this girl didn't figure this out. I know first-hand, when you're poor and desperate, you figure shit out. Unless, of course, you have a…

Jesus, your comment and the other replies just straight up reek of privilege/ignorance. What you're suggesting is obviously the pragmatic choice - obviously, if she's poor as shit and can't afford regular diapers, using reusable cloth ones is a great solution. But that's not the fucking point of the article - its $CURRENT_YEAR in the richest country in the world, this absolutely shouldn't be a thing that happens in t…

My parents used cloth nappies with my oldest brother in 1990, we weren't poor, and we lived in a developed nation.

Disposable nappies are horrible for the environment.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#174

Post by thanksgiving » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 7:40 AM UTC

bkovacev wrote: post #134

rokhayakebe wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The OP was commenting that certain people leech and do not want to find a job and help themselves, but rather want more help from the government. I do not see how you got that from OP. Your sentence is very loaded. You are reading this with your own filters, it seems. What I got from OP is the government is not helping people become self reliant. Instead it is helping them financially, but also hurting them long term…

I don't blame this woman. I'm not pissed at her. I'm pissed, however, at the politicians who have created this dependency web to trap people like this woman and ensure that there will always be a need for do-gooder politicians. unless, of course, you have a system that encourages dependence on public assistance and actually ends up hurting a woman's self-sufficiency and puts her little boy at a high risk of being hel…

I want to get rid of income qualifications for any and all government program. In fact, I want to make it illegal to ask for income information when providing government services. If Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos want their kids to get free lunch at school, the school shouldn't be able to say you make too much money to qualify.

It is disgusting that we create these perverse incentives and demonize people for dancing to our tune.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#175

Post by OwlsParliament » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 7:42 AM UTC

chrissnell wrote: post #54

This article is so frustrating. The helplessness and dependence are just sad. Cloth diapers cost less than $1.50 each in a 10-pack. If you are poor enough, you can wash them in a bucket with bar soap. That's what virtually everyone did before washers were invented. I'm saddened that this girl didn't figure this out. I know first-hand, when you're poor and desperate, you figure shit out. Unless, of course, you have a…

As someone from a country with a decent welfare system, this comment is utterly repugnant to me. Welfare should not be viewed as a "dependency web" that trap people. It should be a safety net for when people have no other choice.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#176

Post by avar » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 7:42 AM UTC

s4vi0r wrote: post #82

chrissnell wrote: post #54

This article is so frustrating. The helplessness and dependence are just sad. Cloth diapers cost less than $1.50 each in a 10-pack. If you are poor enough, you can wash them in a bucket with bar soap. That's what virtually everyone did before washers were invented. I'm saddened that this girl didn't figure this out. I know first-hand, when you're poor and desperate, you figure shit out. Unless, of course, you have a…

Jesus, your comment and the other replies just straight up reek of privilege/ignorance. What you're suggesting is obviously the pragmatic choice - obviously, if she's poor as shit and can't afford regular diapers, using reusable cloth ones is a great solution. But that's not the fucking point of the article - its $CURRENT_YEAR in the richest country in the world, this absolutely shouldn't be a thing that happens in t…

    > Do you think that back in the 50s and 60s
    > when your parents or grandparents were
    > buying the first mass produced disposable
    > diapers, they would have expected 60 years
    > later people would be forced to go back to
    > washable cloth diapers because they couldn't
    > afford regular diapers?

I tried looking up the real price of diapers since the 50s until modern day, and the only thing I could find suggests that this statement is outlandishly inaccurate.

Here's a document that quotes prices from the 50s in the US[1]:

    [...]Prices typically ran above—sometimes well
    above—ten cents per diaper, while cloth
    diapers sold for 1-2 cents each and diaper
    services typically charged 3-5 cents per
    diaper.

According to http://www.usinflationcalculator.com 10 cents per diaper in Today's money would be $1.03. I don't live in the US (although I do buy diapers), but looking at Amazon for even small packages you've got prices like $15 for a 40-pack of Pampers, which is $0.40 per diaper. It looks like you can easily get that price down to half of that if you buy bigger packages, buy non-brand etc.

So I think you can tell your grandparents in the 50s that accounting for the price of soap etc. their grandchildren are going to live in a country where disposable diapers are as cheap as cloth diapers. That doesn't sound so bad.

1. https://www.edana.org/docs/default-source/default-document-l...

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#177

Post by dahdum » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 7:43 AM UTC

boobsbr wrote: post #168

cm2012 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, real talk. My time, according to society, is worth $300ish per hour. Hers is probably worth $10 an hour. I didn't do anything special to earn this and I'm a very lazy person. I would much rather have people like me pay more taxes and this lady not have to spend her whole day cleaning diapers.

> I would much rather have people like me pay more taxes Then pay more taxes if you will, or donate to some charity, just don't force other people to do so.

Taxes are just the minimum required, always free to send the government more if you think that’s the best use of your money.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#178

Post by nielsbot » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 7:44 AM UTC

nielsbot wrote: post #35

zik wrote: post #7

I feel like this article was an extended ad for Huggies. Particularly with the happy ending being "Tonight, she was bringing home Huggies".

advertorial? I mean, it happens all the time, right? e.g. https://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/13/weekinreview/13goodman.ht... (although that article is from 7 years ago...) Sorry, I read more articles about this recently... blogs doing paid mentioning/sponsorships and not disclosing it.

I meant to say, read more articles about this more recently, but don't remember where and a very quick Google search didn't return anything that seemed familiar..

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#179

Post by Cthulhu_ » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 7:45 AM UTC

eljimmy wrote: post #161

s4vi0r wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jesus, your comment and the other replies just straight up reek of privilege/ignorance. What you're suggesting is obviously the pragmatic choice - obviously, if she's poor as shit and can't afford regular diapers, using reusable cloth ones is a great solution. But that's not the fucking point of the article - its $CURRENT_YEAR in the richest country in the world, this absolutely shouldn't be a thing that happens in t…

You seem to think first world means everyone is happy, content, and without struggle. No country such as that has ever existed. The common concept of first world is so misconstrued by people who live in it that those from second and third world countries would ridicule you for your comment. Perspective, don't forget it.

No, but there's a lot that the US (which, remember, is THE RICHEST AND MOST POWERFUL COUNTRY IN THE WORLD (caps for the people in the back)) can do as a country to improve the basic standards of living. Basic things like affordable health care for everyone (and free health care for those that can't afford it), education and equal opportunities for everyone (so that kids whose parents are poor can still go to university if they have that drive / intelligence - I'm saying that because I had that opportunity), etc.

The cost of disposable nappies is not the issue here. Neither is happiness or contentness. It's being the richest country in the world while 13.5% of its population is living below the poverty line, while people are literally dying on the streets due to being neglected by both the government, their neighbours, and a lack of acceptable health care. With the poor staying poor due to no social mobility, access to education, or normal jobs that don't involve having to scrounge the bottom of the barrel looking for e.g. passengers to drive around.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#180

Post by z3t4 » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 7:46 AM UTC

djrogers wrote: post #28

There are a couple of ‘facts’ listed here that don’t line up with my current reality and very recent knowledge (3 kids, most recent is 18mo). First off, 12 changes a day is a huge outlier - even for a newborn. 8 would be a more reasonable number, and it drops down to the 4-6 range in the first year, and by now we’re at 3 if we don’t go swimming. Second item that sounds waaay off is $1000/yr for diapers. Again, that h…

I called doctors as I was worried my kid only pooped once every second day, he said the normal range was around 20 times per day to once every 10 day (don't remember exactly).

The price of diapers also have a very large range from a few cent to a several dollar per diaper. So it's worth checking several markets. Poor people usually don't have much free time though. Especially when you have 3-5 small kids to take care of. Taking the buss around the city with all your kids is very impractical. Add the sleep deprecation and you wont have much patience either, and make stupid decisions. It is really hard to imagine the life of a poor family mother/father when you have a nanny that takes care of dressing, feeding, diapers, cleaning, washing, etc. It's basically a full time job.