5 ms·

I find these type of posts on HN to be curious things. Clearly, there's lots of interest in the subject and desire to change things. And, most HN readers are hi

by ap22213 10y ago

I find these type of posts on HN to be curious things. Clearly, there's lots of interest in the subject and desire to change things. And, most HN readers are highly educated and many are even high-income (i.e. have position to affect real change). But, I never see posts advertising ways to take real action. I love you guys, but making your cohorts know that you're aware and sympathetic of the cause only feels good. Let's see some posts that help organize and activate. Let's set some achievable, tangible goals and do something.

plandis 10y ago
I feel like I am educated and fairly high income (will clear $200k this year) but I honestly feel like I have no way to affect change. Contacting representatives yields nothing but form responses, protesting has had no real effect. Volunteer work and charitable donations are about all I seem to be able to do and that's not on any appreciable scale. I honestly feel like I have no way to cause anyone to make changes outside of voting. Which, to be honest even when I vote I feel like my voice is not heard.
Bartweiss 10y ago
I can appreciate the general sentiment, but at least for this post specifically I'm not sure I agree. The subtle aspects of these two charts are really interesting. Like, the only non-rich group to see income gains in the US is the ~15th percentile group? That's striking, and deserves some consideration. (At a guess, EITC and Clinton's work-for-benefits programs have helped the employed-near-minimum-wage cohort, but not the very poor.) The 2000-2014 numbers are similarly interesting - we see that the ~90th percentile (e.g. surgeons) was insulated from the crash better than the middle class or the very rich, but that the very rich have rebounded completely. So yes, signaling is different from actual action, but I'm filing this one under 'education'. For me at least, I'm interested more by the subtleties than by the basic restatement of "this is an issue".

by ap22213 10y ago

plandis 10y ago

I feel like I am educated and fairly high income (will clear $200k this year) but I honestly feel like I have no way to affect change. Contacting representatives yields nothing but form responses, protesting has had no real effect. Volunteer work and charitable donations are about all I seem to be able to do and that's not on any appreciable scale. I honestly feel like I have no way to cause anyone to make changes outside of voting. Which, to be honest even when I vote I feel like my voice is not heard.

Bartweiss 10y ago

I can appreciate the general sentiment, but at least for this post specifically I'm not sure I agree. The subtle aspects of these two charts are really interesting. Like, the only non-rich group to see income gains in the US is the ~15th percentile group? That's striking, and deserves some consideration. (At a guess, EITC and Clinton's work-for-benefits programs have helped the employed-near-minimum-wage cohort, but not the very poor.) The 2000-2014 numbers are similarly interesting - we see that the ~90th percentile (e.g. surgeons) was insulated from the crash better than the middle class or the very rich, but that the very rich have rebounded completely. So yes, signaling is different from actual action, but I'm filing this one under 'education'. For me at least, I'm interested more by the subtleties than by the basic restatement of "this is an issue".