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All Hollowed Out: The lonely poverty of America’s white working class

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Re: All Hollowed Out: The lonely poverty of America’s white working class

#271

Post by JoeAltmaier »

FussyZeus wrote: post #167
smt88 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me clarify that excellence in college is expensive, even if tuition is waived, at least the way it's currently structured. It's very, very hard to get good grades while working enough hours to support yourself, especially if you have no skills (and even affluent college students rarely have marketable skills).

That's because the way it's structured sucks. It's more or less a requirement now (or will be very soon) to earn a decent living, it shouldn't cost you half of your lifetime income to attend. You can't make something that important to a life and then charge such asinine amounts for it, especially when there's ample precedent showing that college grads on the whole improve our society by stimulating more economic acti…

Hm. Depends upon your area of study I guess. My middle son is now earning more per year than his entire education cost. However, he's a (CMU) CS/EE grad working at a startup in Silicon Valley.

Re: All Hollowed Out: The lonely poverty of America’s white working class

#273

Post by FireBeyond »

flubert wrote: post #251
winter_blue wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow! It's crazy how cheap that house is. I'm simply at a loss for words...

If that mortgage is too much for you, here is a house for one tenth that ($6/month): http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/12169-Findlay-St-Detroit-M... ...1029 sq. ft. for $1700. But if you are looking for real rock bottom prices, it is hard to beat $500: http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/14421-Wilfred-St-Detroit-M... ...There are photos of the interior, and it looks like it is in a good neighborhood on Google Street Vi…

I can guarantee you that any house for sale in Detroit with only an external picture is destroyed inside, by arson, foreclosure, vagrants, or any combination of the above, and you're going to be paying $100K+ to make it livable.

Re: All Hollowed Out: The lonely poverty of America’s white working class

#274

Post by taurath »

kamaal wrote: post #260
taurath wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope when all the software and entrepreneurial people on this forum are going through hard times instead of good as we are now we are not judged as harshly as you judge those going through harder times now.

>>software and entrepreneurial people on this forum are going through hard times instead of good as we are now we are not judged as harshly as you judge those going through harder times now. If all the software guys going through a party now, make the same mistakes they will end up with the same problems. I'm not sure what this is considered harsh. You end up the consequences of your actions, is this concept really t…

Sometimes the ground shakes from under everyone at once, and no amount of planning, advice or even clear-minded thought can prevent disaster. Its called life, and sometimes its hard. Some people deal with it better than others, but its hard for ANYONE to give up all that they know. Some people have obligations they can't give up without going against their hard-earned principles.

We need to create dignified, repeatable and reasonable paths out of misery for those people. Right now, I don't see many that exist. Those who peddle and profit off of peoples resentment and fear are reigning over them, but I don't see many people offering alternatives.

Re: All Hollowed Out: The lonely poverty of America’s white working class

#275

Post by meric »

CPLX wrote: post #109
meric wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's backwards. Are the stable jobs don't require higher education what they want in and of itself, or purpose, love, acceptance and belonging you perceive they will be able to get with such a job? If they want what you think a job would give them, why not aim to make available what they actually want? Yes, these days it may be true without a job you lose purpose, love, acceptance and you lose belonging, due to the…

> Yes, these days it may be true without a job you lose purpose, love, acceptance and you lose belonging Without a job you lose food, shelter, and medical care. Worry about those things first, look up Maslow, etc.

A 60 year old in lonely poverty because they just lost their job. The retirement fund they had with their former manufacturing employer is gone because the company became bankrupt. The person have 3 adult children who are working. They've all moved out long ago, they live in cities far away, and the person is afraid of bothering them.

Is that the ideal situation? Will finding this man a job solve his problems?

Re: All Hollowed Out: The lonely poverty of America’s white working class

#276

Post by danieltillett »

noir_lord wrote: post #237
danieltillett wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might enjoy reading A Farewell to Alms [1]. More importantly your two positions are not excludable. It is possible that the elite of the past were wrong and some segment of the population is incapable of being raised any higher. I personally doubt this is the case, but it has not been ruled out. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Farewell_to_Alms

Given the variance in intelligence I think there probably is an upper limit to how you can "raise" someone. I also suspect that we are a long way off that, hell who knows what the future looks like, we could end up with neural implants that allow everyone to boost their intelligence/recall. I'm not stupid but I know there is an upper bound on my intelligence that is lower than many other peoples, not everyone can be…

Yes it is pretty unlikely that everyone is right at their maximum potential. The bigger problem of course is that a large section of the population is not wanted even if they achieve the best they can.

Re: All Hollowed Out: The lonely poverty of America’s white working class

#277

Post by rawTruthHurts »

theworstshill wrote: post #233
rawTruthHurts wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But of course! Let me cater to those of your kind: Those low class lads working for less than the minimum wage without any means nor family support don't have much of an opening in the world either. I'm sure they don't work hard enough to deserve it. Refer to wikipedia for any futher clarifications on "poverty" or "poverty in the First World" in general.

Very funny. Solutions to relative poverty in the first world are different from solutions to absolute poverty everywhere else.

The comment I was replying to wasn't talking about solutions, nor does the article, not in depth.

Re: All Hollowed Out: The lonely poverty of America’s white working class

#278

Post by LogicX »

brightball wrote: post #173
randycupertino wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel you. My brother is a restaurant manager in the middle of Kansas making 30k a year. And he is a smart guy who was a MATH MAJOR at a state school! He could come out here and get a job at a startup and make 80k easily. But he won't leave his inlaws family, so he's stuck in Kansas. There is some strain and resentment in our relationship over our income differential, sure... especially when I want to complain that…

Yea, cost of living is a big deal. I live just outside of Greenville, SC in a little town called Easley. When graduated from college I had an 1100 square foot, 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment with a washer and dryer for $500 / month that was 10 minutes from downtown Greenville (beautiful, booming area - http://www.visitgreenvillesc.com/ ). Also have some of the cleanest water in the country, which I never really appr…

Greetings from Myrtle Beach, SC!

I moved here from Boston three years ago. I love taking advantage of the remote work environment, living in a lower cost area, and I feel Myrtle Beach is a gem, to have such low living cost, and big city amenities, due to all the summer tourists.

I was able to buy a detached single family home, 2400sqft for half the cost of my 1000 sqft Condo in Cambridge, MA - just outside Boston.

I maintain a list of remote job sites at http://LX.tc/positions - so that I can share with those I bump into, about the prospects of working remotely.

Re: All Hollowed Out: The lonely poverty of America’s white working class

#279

Post by brightball »

LogicX wrote: post #278
brightball wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea, cost of living is a big deal. I live just outside of Greenville, SC in a little town called Easley. When graduated from college I had an 1100 square foot, 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment with a washer and dryer for $500 / month that was 10 minutes from downtown Greenville (beautiful, booming area - http://www.visitgreenvillesc.com/ ). Also have some of the cleanest water in the country, which I never really appr…

Greetings from Myrtle Beach, SC! I moved here from Boston three years ago. I love taking advantage of the remote work environment, living in a lower cost area, and I feel Myrtle Beach is a gem, to have such low living cost, and big city amenities, due to all the summer tourists. I was able to buy a detached single family home, 2400sqft for half the cost of my 1000 sqft Condo in Cambridge, MA - just outside Boston. I…

Very nice. I actually grew up just down the road from you in Florence. If you're in the Myrtle Beach area, trek down to Murrells Inlet sometime. Great seafood with an inlet boardwalk connecting a bunch of the spots to the Crazy Sister marina. The inlet walk they setup down there now has bars with local bands almost every night during the summer.

Been going down to Murrells Inlet/Garden City my whole life.

Re: All Hollowed Out: The lonely poverty of America’s white working class

#280

Post by collyw »

lmm wrote: post #206
collyw wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So I guess every street around you is perfectly clean, you never have to wait for a doctor appointment and your life works with 100% efficiency? Of course there is plenty of work that needs done. The resources to pay for it are misallocated.

My streets are clean enough. I see a doctor quickly enough in terms of the problems I have. I wouldn't pay for improvements in either. Many people simply don't have the skills or ability to contribute real value to the modern economy. 50 years ago simple physical labour was a valuable economic contribution and remunerated accordingly; today there's a constantly shrinking pool of minimum-wage jobs.

At the same time public services get worse and worse.

The problem is a shrinking amount of money to pay for these work that needs to be done, as its all being filtered into CEO's pockets rather than corporations paying taxes.

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