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Wait, if the bad influence of riff raff is kept out, what's to explain the staggering teen suicide rate in Palo Alto? It's the best place in the world! Our high
by scurvy 11y ago
Wait, if the bad influence of riff raff is kept out, what's to explain the staggering teen suicide rate in Palo Alto? It's the best place in the world! Our high cost of living dictates it!
- lisper 11y agoI was being a little bit ironic about the riff-raff. (I was hoping this would be obvious in the context of a discussion of how firefighters and teachers can't afford to live here, but HN tends to be a little humor-impaired.) But I don't see why you would think that the teen suicide rate would have anything to do with how desirable it is to live in Palo Alto. People get depressed for all kinds of reasons, but how nice your neighborhood is is very rarely one of them. The high suicide rate in PA is tragic. But it doesn't change the fact that PA is a nice place to live if you can afford it, and one of the things that makes it a nice place to live is that the density is low but the wealth concentration is high.
- scurvy 11y agoAnd all the money in the world can't buy you happiness, so stop turning communities into country clubs.
- lisper 11y agoMoney is neither necessary nor sufficient for happiness, but that doesn't mean that it can't help tilt the odds heavily in your favor. Money is a tool. If you use it right you can get a lot of leverage out of it, and if you use it wrong you can do a lot of damage. But it's very rarely a no-op. And what's wrong with turning communities into country clubs? Country clubs are very pleasant places to be. Why not make your community like one if you can?
- username223 11y ago> Wait, if the bad influence of riff raff is kept out, what's to explain the staggering teen suicide rate in Palo Alto? Natural selection?