The boss who put everyone on 70K

Dan Price really is like what is presented in this article. He actually cares about his employees and is being genuine here. He's a good person, making a private business decision to increase the pay of frankly his lowest paid workers.

In a city where the average tech worker earns $275k a year, he believes its the right thing to do to make sure everyone that works for him at Gravity can earn enough to afford rent, food, and some fun.

Say what you will about the merits of decision, but it takes real leadership to make it and stand by it. I happen to think he's doing the right thing and I hope other companies choose to follow suit.

But then again, we will never know about extremely creative yet poor people who are struggling to make ends meet and wasting their precious mental energy on things others take for granted.

But that does not discredit the original point (to which I was agreeing), that being poor is not an impediment to creativity.

To me that's the main benefit of earning more. Sure, it's nice to be able to buy more expensive things overall, and e.g. be able to travel more, but I find more value in the many tiny day to day improvements that individually sound trivial, such as not having to budget when at the grocery store. It's a few minutes here and a few minutes there extra where my mind is free to relax or focus on more interesting things, and it really adds up.

There was a year in my youth when I had a big economic setback, and suddenly had to budget my day to day expenses again, and frankly, the time I lost that I had to spend thinking about money, from the small things like how much I could afford to spend for lunch to how to cover rent, was exhausting, and a very stark reminder of how easy my life had become prior to that. And I've never experienced true poverty - I always had multiple safety nets; I'd never have starved, for example.

I think the mental exhaustion from dealing with a strained economy is one of those things people who haven't experienced it tend to don't get when trying to imagine what life is like for people who have little money.

There are low-paying jobs for a variety of reasons, including in large part, corporate welfare for the largest employers, like Wal-Mart, which the government subsidies at taxpayer expense to facilitate the payment of starvation wages.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2014/04/15/report-...

As far having everything you need for your products due your internet research, I hope you will enjoy the coronavirus (or whatever other communicable disease you acquire) as an added bonus from low-wage workers who are unable to call in sick. The people who brew your coffee, make your sandwich, park your car or do a million other things that allow our society to function. Perhaps when your mother, your aunt or child dies because they were needlessly infected by a low-wage worker who couldn't afford to seek treatment or call in sick to work you will factor that "worth" into their perceived value.