Why are diapers so expensive? • Hacker News Board

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#301

Post by scarface74 » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 12:14 PM UTC

lulmerchant wrote: post #223

mercer wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My point is that with the correct effort, people can generally break free of most of the poverty traps they find themselves in. I find 'correct effort' to rather deceptive term, because part of the problem is defining what that would be (and your example failed as a 'correct' one). Furthermore, I'd say a cursory glance at history shows that what you're saying is not true. Slaves did not just free themselves, the wo…

People aren’t property any more, we all have equal protection under the law, we have mostly reliable social welfare programs, and private charitable programs are bigger than they’ve ever been. Your analogy doesn’t hold any water at all. The correct effort is simply whatever a person can do to make incremental improvements to their lives. It’s going to be different for everybody. Psychologically, part of the reason th…

we all have equal protection under the law, we have mostly reliable social welfare programs, and private charitable programs are bigger than they’ve ever been. Your analogy doesn’t hold any water at all.

Reality is that minorities get charged more harshly for the same crime than Whites and once you have a criminal record, it's harder to get a job.

Studies have also shown that all other things being equal, when a person has a resume that signals "blackness", they get fewer calls back.

Not to mention that because of overzealous prosecutions, poorly funded public defenders offices, and the prominence of plea deals, poor people don't get the same breaks as someone who can afford their own lawyer.

Then let's not even mention the poor state of some school districts since schools are funded by property taxes leading to a cycle of poor schools.

As far as just because you were able to come out of poverty means anyone can is just like saying that because I won the lottery, why can't anyone? Statistically, income mobility is rare.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#302

Post by GordonS » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 12:14 PM UTC

war1025 wrote: post #50

mantas wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$30 is big upfront costs? Seriously? Of course, that may be a bigger sum in 3rd world countries. But they don't have Amazon there at all and probably don't use diapers either.

When you are making minimum wage, which I believe is ~$7.50/hr, and are most likely not working full time, that is a good chunk of a day's pay. Granted, if you are in that situation, you are probably getting some government assistance. Also, some people are just terrible at managing money.

I think the latter is the bigger of the issues.

360 nappies will generally last for 2 months. If you can't afford a mere $30 for that, then it's a case of your priorities being wrong (e.g. buying alcohol, tobacco, Netflix etc before thinking about your kids' needs) - in which case you should probably give serious consideration over whether you should bring kids into the world.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#303

Post by GordonS » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 12:16 PM UTC

war1025 wrote: post #50

mantas wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$30 is big upfront costs? Seriously? Of course, that may be a bigger sum in 3rd world countries. But they don't have Amazon there at all and probably don't use diapers either.

When you are making minimum wage, which I believe is ~$7.50/hr, and are most likely not working full time, that is a good chunk of a day's pay. Granted, if you are in that situation, you are probably getting some government assistance. Also, some people are just terrible at managing money.

It's not $30/day, it's $30 for 360 nappies that will last around 2 months. Even if you're making minimum wage, you can afford that if you've got your priorities right.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#304

Post by Game_Ender » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 12:21 PM UTC

spaceandshit wrote: post #256

Just to provide some perspective, I have worked on the structural analysis (FEA) of diapers for P&G, when I was working at an engineering consulting firm. As the article states, these companies pour millions into R&D, and for me that included running simulations to determine if the diaper's material properties were appropriate. To do this, I was running simulations of a diaper being wrapped onto a baby, the baby walk…

As a parent thank you! It is amazing the things a diaper managed to neatly contain. I always imagined there was a group dedicated to design things the elastic catch on the edge of the diaper.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#305

Post by fizgig » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 12:23 PM UTC

robert_foss wrote: post #282

c22 wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I realized in my thirties that if I had just dropped $1000 on a pallet of razor blades when I turned 18 I'd have saved a couple times that. Way better returns than the actual "investment" that money ended up in.

I switched to a safety razor 10 years ago, and ordered 250 science (not shaving) grade blades. I still have about 150 blades left. The pack cost me EU.

Got a link, brand, or model number for these "science" grade blades? I've been an on-and-off DE shaver for some years, and I've never heard of this option. I settled on Feather blades myself.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#306

Post by milesvp » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 12:30 PM UTC

dancek wrote: post #72

war1025 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We cloth diaper too (3 kids, a two and a half year old potty trained for about a year now, and 5 month old twins). Personally, I find disposable diapers to be way more disgusting than cloth. With cloth, you rinse it out and the majority of the gross stuff is down the drain. With disposables, you end up with a garbage can literally full of poop. Its like having a mini pit toilet in your house. We have also noticed, li…

Props for doing that. We tried with our twins, but eventually decided cloth diapers are for people with single kids that aren't burnt out.

Ugh. Yeah, I regret deeply buying cloth diapers for my twins. The economics looks better for twins, since you only need like 50% more, but the time premium is higher than expected with twins, so it ended up eating into too much prescious downtime. Worse is we couldn't get them to stop drinking the majority of their fluid intake before bed, and the pee at night required us to use absorbant disposables anyways. In the end I'm not sure they were a net positive investment, even ignoring the higher than expected opportunity cost of havings twins.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#307

Post by darkerside » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 12:31 PM UTC

nostrademons wrote: post #149

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 just had a kid 2 months ago, and 12 changes a day doesn't seem all that unreasonable for a newborn. At our one-month checkup he was averaging 9 pees & 5 poops per day - several of the poops were doubled-up where he also peed, so a dozen per day is about right. It's dropped a bit since, but instances where a single changing results in multiple diapers used (eg. he shits the table right as I'm getting the new diaper…

10 a day may be right for the first month or so, but it doesn't make sense to extrapolate that out for a year.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#308

Post by tallanvor » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 12:31 PM UTC

hycaria wrote: post #248

tallanvor wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Birth control fails. Approximately 8% of women still end up pregnant during their first year on birth control, and even after the first year the percentage doesn't fall to 0. There are many reasons that it fails, although missing a dose is the largest reason. Other reasons can be improper storage, using certain drugs (prescription or otherwise), or even consuming an unusual amount of some foods or supplements. Even i…

IUD anyone ?

They're more effective, yes, but carry more risks since you're keeping a foreign object in you for up to 10 years at a time.

You can see the various options and pregnancy rates (both based on the typical use and the perfect use case) for the first year: http://www.arhp.org/Publications-and-Resources/Quick-Referen...

Personally, rates like these makes me glad to be a gay male.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#309

Post by dpark » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 12:32 PM UTC

perakojotgenije wrote: post #293

nostrademons wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just had a kid 2 months ago, and 12 changes a day doesn't seem all that unreasonable for a newborn. At our one-month checkup he was averaging 9 pees & 5 poops per day - several of the poops were doubled-up where he also peed, so a dozen per day is about right. It's dropped a bit since, but instances where a single changing results in multiple diapers used (eg. he shits the table right as I'm getting the new diaper…

> or he pees all over the table including the diaper that's waiting to be put on) Now, that's just you being n00b :-). Source: father of 3.5 years old and 4 month old kids. And yes, I also think 12 is too many. 8-9 diapers a day was max for a newborn, now 4 months later it's around 6-7.

12 doesn't seem that strange to me. That's every 2 hours on average. 8 a day is every 3 hours like clockwork to keep a fresh/dry diaper on. Add in the unexpected poops that don't land on 3-hour boundaries and it's not hard to do 12. It seems like the upper end of normal but not an outlier.

Re: Why are diapers so expensive?

#310

Post by jaclaz » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 12:33 PM UTC

adrianN wrote: post #281

m_eiman wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try one of the poverty simulators, here's one: http://playspent.org/html/

Are there realistic poverty simulators? This one has a catastrophe happen every day, cars breaking down, teeth needing treatment, plumbing problems, traffic fines, credit card bills for expenses that happen before the game starts... You're set up to fail.

>This one has a catastrophe happen every day, cars breaking down, teeth needing treatment, plumbing problems, traffic fines, credit card bills for expenses that happen before the game starts...

I see the issue more about it being a moralistic simulator. (or if you prefer a simulator with a political agenda behind)

The kid needs $15 to go with a school excursion, I don't have them, the kid remains in school and the stupid simulator doesn't miss the occasion to remark this.

And surely my kid won't get them $100 sneakers!

And my family pet is not going to suffer, because I have NO family pets, I can't afford them.

By behaving as a total bastard, including having my pet suffering, having the kid become hungry because he is too proud to get the free lunch and deciding to ignore everything else including the medical check for chest pain, I can get to the end of the month.

But a number of questions and answers are clearly targeted to inducing the player into anti-consummerism (which maybe is a good thing) while on the other hand hard pressing on completely senseless society stigmas.

This: "You chose to live farther away from your job, so your rent is lower. But your gas costs are higher. In fact, for every dollar a working family saves on housing, they spend an additional 77 cents on transportation."

could have been written as:

"Congratulations, you know how to move a slider left and right, and choose the combination that costs less, between $855 living nearer and $760 living further you chose to save $95 per month or around 8% of your net income"