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What does “shitty job” mean in the low-skill, low-pay world?

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Re: What does “shitty job” mean in the low-skill, low-pay world?

#241

Post by TeaDrunk »

rnikander wrote: post #124
abxytg wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cynically untrue. Amazon is not even close to bottom of the barrel. And it's clear you haven't paid market rent in a major city since you bought that starter home back in the 90s - 42k is a joke when your rent is close to $2500 and you get no benefits.

So rent a room and/or don’t live in the best part of the city. That’s what I did near Boston a few years ago. My rent was well under $1000. Do people think they’re entitled to private apartments in the most expensive cities in the world?

Renting a room comes with its own logistical nightmares, fwiw. Navigating the entire roomate interview process sucks. More than once I've had friends who deal with roomates have months at a time too stressed to advance their other career goals because roomates stealing their shit, playing loud music, refusing to leave, not paying on time, etc etc. When you don't have "fuck you" money, there is surprisingly little necessary to royally fuck up your plans to get out of the bad situation you're in.

Re: What does “shitty job” mean in the low-skill, low-pay world?

#242

Post by jasonladuke0311 »

My wife and I met working retail many years ago. We both had a string of shit jobs for years and as such, feel tremendously fortunate to be where we are (she’s an accountant and I’m a security engineer).

Reading Team Blind or /r/cscareerquestions makes me want to smack some of these entitled little shits for their pathetic whining. No perspective whatsoever.

Re: What does “shitty job” mean in the low-skill, low-pay world?

#243

Post by throwawayHN378 »

As a former drug addict with a DWI felony I often wonder what my life would be like if I hadn’t gotten into tech at a young age and somehow managed to graduate from university. At 200k a year in a medium COL city I can just barely afford a house, car, and girlfriend while adding some money to savings every week. I don’t understand how people can live on 45k a year let alone 30k a year

Re: What does “shitty job” mean in the low-skill, low-pay world?

#244

Post by lazide »

iamdbtoo wrote: post #160
rnikander wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So rent a room and/or don’t live in the best part of the city. That’s what I did near Boston a few years ago. My rent was well under $1000. Do people think they’re entitled to private apartments in the most expensive cities in the world?

Yeah, that's kind of how this country markets itself. Being able to afford a home and a family on a regular worker's pay is literally part of "The American Dream."

Uh no. The American Dream has been about the ability to work hard to better oneself, and work UP TO that after education or doing something unique (like making their own business work and be profitable). Not that anyone could move here and just get it everything by doing the minimum.

Re: What does “shitty job” mean in the low-skill, low-pay world?

#245

Post by gurumeditations »

pempem wrote: post #213
iamdbtoo wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, that's kind of how this country markets itself. Being able to afford a home and a family on a regular worker's pay is literally part of "The American Dream."

I've thought a lot about this, esp as someone who was born here and whose parents immigrated here for the American Dream. They've done great. We lived in a rural area. It was possible because one of them came highly skilled and solicited to immigrate. That being said I shudder when I hear "just move to rural blah blah blah ". My life was horrible there. I was considered black, egytian, non-english speaking, to come f…

Same with gays especially, you have to live in a city or live in hiding in most places.

Re: What does “shitty job” mean in the low-skill, low-pay world?

#246

Post by lazide »

antifa wrote: post #200
pc86 wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Do people think they’re entitled to private apartments in the most expensive cities in the world? Yes, they do. Read any thread on a vaguely left-leaning subreddit that even starts approaching discussions of renting, or landlords, or landlord-tenant relations, and you'll get flooded with comments so detached from reality it will stun you.

I can't believe people are so detached from reality that they feel entitled to live within driving distance of their job...

Within a specific, ideal job they always wanted and got without having to make hard tradeoffs somewhere, or do a ton of searching?

This is what folks are talking about. Expecting things to just fall into place 'just because' without having to do the legwork to actually make/find something workable.

Re: What does “shitty job” mean in the low-skill, low-pay world?

#247

Post by Jensson »

Spivak wrote: post #197
pc86 wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Do people think they’re entitled to private apartments in the most expensive cities in the world? Yes, they do. Read any thread on a vaguely left-leaning subreddit that even starts approaching discussions of renting, or landlords, or landlord-tenant relations, and you'll get flooded with comments so detached from reality it will stun you.

If you can’t afford to live in the city where you work then it’s pretty much the definition of “not a living wage.” Like are we really at the point where we’re totally fine with people commuting an hour one way every workday to a shitty minimum wage job instead of just building affordable modest housing reserved for people working in the city.

If a city has 1 million jobs but only homes for 800k workers, then you will always have 200k workers who are priced out of homes. Or if you do it the communist way and assign homes with arbitrary price ceilings, you still have 200k people without homes although now it is the 200k most recent immigrants and not the 200k poorest, but the problem is still there.

So what do you suggest we do about that except build more homes?

Re: What does “shitty job” mean in the low-skill, low-pay world?

#248

Post by betwixthewires »

abxytg wrote: post #102
mrjangles wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>how modern work for a lot of jobs has become de facto indentured servitude...The average worker can't afford anything without taking on debt. For people from other countries wondering about the veracity of these claims, let's take an example: The typical shitty job everyone on here complains about is working at an amazon warehouse. This is a job people with no skills take on. They pay 15 USD an hour. In other curren…

Cynically untrue. Amazon is not even close to bottom of the barrel. And it's clear you haven't paid market rent in a major city since you bought that starter home back in the 90s - 42k is a joke when your rent is close to $2500 and you get no benefits.

Not that I disagree with you, but when these discussions come up I always see "major city" as the baseline, as if they're the only places in the world that are worth living in.

Re: What does “shitty job” mean in the low-skill, low-pay world?

#249

Post by chefandy »

t-3 wrote: post #138
mrjangles wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>how modern work for a lot of jobs has become de facto indentured servitude...The average worker can't afford anything without taking on debt. For people from other countries wondering about the veracity of these claims, let's take an example: The typical shitty job everyone on here complains about is working at an amazon warehouse. This is a job people with no skills take on. They pay 15 USD an hour. In other curren…

Amazon is good job though. A shitty job would pay $10 an hour, lack the benefits, and still just get rid of you on a whim. Also, multiply by .8 to get the takehome pay - $15/hr isn't netting 40k without overtime.

The existence of worse doesn't make something good.

Re: What does “shitty job” mean in the low-skill, low-pay world?

#250

Post by protomyth »

EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK wrote: post #237
protomyth wrote: post #88

I will say that I would rather pick cans in the ditches (did that as a kid in summer) or dig ditches than do a fast food / customer service job like my brother in his youth. There seems to be a large concentration of entitled a-holes in a food service line or at a store. My one brush with customer service was being the score board kid at a softball tournament. Drunk middle aged softball players cannot count. I do say…

Unfortunately, if you pick cans, you quite probably will have an a-hole boss, and, unlike an a-hole customer, she will not go anywhere.

Didn't really have a boss. By and large, I've met more a-hole bosses in enterprise than vocational.
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