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What young workers are doing to AI-proof themselves

wsj.com

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Re: What young workers are doing to AI-proof themselves

#411

Post by trollbridge »

alistairSH wrote: post #341
trollbridge wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. It’s relatively straightforward to work on a fixer upper house during which time you are drawing no salary relative to that, and then you can turn around and sell it (or just enjoy being in a nice house which otherwise would have cost hundreds of thousands).

But if you're not drawing a salary/wages, how the heck are you buying groceries or paying the mortgage? You'd need to turn houses over very quickly/regularly for this to work...? I'm not debating that tradespeople can make good money - that absolutely can. But, that's the exception not the norm... The average plumber or electrician in the US earns about $65k/year... that's about 2/3 (or less) of an entry level progra…

Live off of savings and then sell the house for a profit, thereby acquiring more savings. Then do it again.

(I know some people who basically do this - buy a non-habitable house, do a few weeks of work to make it habitable, live in it 2 years, do an entire house remodel themselves, then resell it. Up to $500,000 of profit is tax free.)

$200k mid career developer jobs are very hard to find and basically don’t exist outside of a few major cities.

Re: What young workers are doing to AI-proof themselves

#412

Post by trollbridge »

notrustincloud wrote: post #389
bloppe wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone with savings could take advantage. Medicaid is not actually means-based. It's income-based. In many states like California, so is SNAP. So a multi-millionaire can actually get free health care and $300/mo for food as long as they don't have income that year. Spend that time working on something that won't pay off for a few years, and you get a ton of benefits, even though you're already rich. It's pretty bonk…

Except for the fact that the application paperwork requires disclosure of assets, even an insurable collection qualifies against a 'lack of income', and will need to be declared. Failure to disclose risks committing fraud, subject to recovery of assistance and prosecution. So, no, not really.

No, it doesn’t. You can have a million dollar home and it doesn’t count.

Passive interest income needs to be declare, or dividends, but just owning a depreciating asset doesn’t count. The one exception is qualifying for Medicaid nursing care in old age - that does require liquidating assets except for 1 car and a primary residence.

Re: What young workers are doing to AI-proof themselves

#413

Post by trollbridge »

bloppe wrote: post #379
alistairSH wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But if you're not drawing a salary/wages, how the heck are you buying groceries or paying the mortgage? You'd need to turn houses over very quickly/regularly for this to work...? I'm not debating that tradespeople can make good money - that absolutely can. But, that's the exception not the norm... The average plumber or electrician in the US earns about $65k/year... that's about 2/3 (or less) of an entry level progra…

Someone with savings could take advantage. Medicaid is not actually means-based. It's income-based. In many states like California, so is SNAP. So a multi-millionaire can actually get free health care and $300/mo for food as long as they don't have income that year. Spend that time working on something that won't pay off for a few years, and you get a ton of benefits, even though you're already rich. It's pretty bonk…

Someone who had a business which is producing little or no income gets full coverage from the Medicaid, snap, etc safety net.

I don’t see a problem with this. I know people whose businesses produce a small profit or no profit at all and pay themselves a small salary. They also employer other people, who make a lot more than they do in wages. The government wants to strongly incentivise this kind of activity.

Re: What young workers are doing to AI-proof themselves

#414

Post by trollbridge »

xhkkffbf wrote: post #305
trollbridge wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. It’s relatively straightforward to work on a fixer upper house during which time you are drawing no salary relative to that, and then you can turn around and sell it (or just enjoy being in a nice house which otherwise would have cost hundreds of thousands).

And this is often taxed at capital gains rates which can be lower.

Yes, up to $125k per year per person excluded from capital gains.

Re: What young workers are doing to AI-proof themselves

#415

Post by sevennull »

margorczynski wrote: post #33

The "go into trades" thing has two major flaws: 1) The supply of work will skyrocket when everyone will flock there for work 2) Demand will plummet as the white collar people who bought these services will loose their jobs and income And of course if robotics will get solved to an acceptable degree most of those jobs will also get mostly automated.

welders saw this happen... everyone went into welding because of great salary due to demand. Now there are too many welders or jobs went away (oil fields etc)

Re: What young workers are doing to AI-proof themselves

#416

Post by squeaky-clean »

BrenBarn wrote: post #383
squeaky-clean wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This would destroy every retirement investment vehicle for the middle class more than it would affect the 1%

That can be mitigated by setting high thresholds on the whole process (e.g., the tax doesn't apply if your total net worth is under $10 million).

Now no one has a billion dollars but they have 100 companies they control each worth 10 million.

These lawsuits have to be designed with the idea that the people with the most resources will try to exploit them, and the people with the least resources will be unable to.

Re: What young workers are doing to AI-proof themselves

#417

Post by BrenBarn »

squeaky-clean wrote: post #416
BrenBarn wrote: post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That can be mitigated by setting high thresholds on the whole process (e.g., the tax doesn't apply if your total net worth is under $10 million).

Now no one has a billion dollars but they have 100 companies they control each worth 10 million. These lawsuits have to be designed with the idea that the people with the most resources will try to exploit them, and the people with the least resources will be unable to.

I said tax it on the total net worth. Splitting your wealth among different companies shouldn't affect anything.

> These lawsuits have to be designed with the idea that the people with the most resources will try to exploit them, and the people with the least resources will be unable to.

Agreed! That is why the goal needs to be to just directly and explicitly reduce the wealth of those with the most.

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