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I'll get downvoted, but if I'm a father with no opportunity in rural India. This is exactly what I'd be doing. You might be a better man to allow your children
by cmdrfred 10y ago
I'll get downvoted, but if I'm a father with no opportunity in rural India. This is exactly what I'd be doing. You might be a better man to allow your children starve in a pile of there own filth, but I'm not him.
- jscheel 10y agoExcept the article states that they were living in a "posh" downtown apartment.
- pavel_lishin 10y agoPresumably their call center employees weren't.
- pavel_lishin 10y agoI agree - if my only option to make money was to work for someplace like that, I'd take it - but at the same time, I have no love for someone trying to steal my money - which I'm using to feed my child and mostly keep her out of filthpiles.
- setum 10y agoif I'm a father with no opportunity in rural India "if I'm a father with no opportunity" suffices.
- ohstopitu 10y agoI have to agree with you on this one. But not as a "father with no opportunity". While I am not advocating or condoning what scammers in India do, I do have to add the following: 1) 1 USD is around 66 INR, so almost everyone is ingrained that people in USA are richer. Furthermore, the fact that stuff is perceived as "cheaper" in USA has not helped (even those who earn minimum wage in USA, can afford the latest iPhone, can't say the same about those in India). 2) Scammers can't see the damage they cause. 3) Some scammers don't even know they are scammers. (Especially the ones in IT that try to sell you anti-virus software claiming that your computer is infected). 4) personal note: I wonder what the sentence would be, if say it were US scammers, scamming Indians.
- inputcoffee 10y agoSidenote: For some reason, a lot of people confuse the exchange rate with purchasing power, but these are distinct. For example, 1 INR is 1.5 Yen, but the Japanese aren't 1.5 times as poor as the Indians (on average).
- it_learnses 10y agosorry why did you decide to father children if you can't afford to raise them?
- cmdrfred 10y agoLack of sex education / social expectations and arranged marriages / lack of access to birth control.
- kylehotchkiss 10y agoIf you work hard in India, it's still pretty likely you can feed your kids. It might not be good work, good food, or a good house, but being a scammer is not the only way to take care of your family. I just saw an photo this week on the People of Nepal Facebook page, and it was of a man who wanted a better life for his kids so he slaved over a little tea shop in a small city/town, and was able to send his kids to school and he talks about how he can wear their expensive watches and mingle with people at parties. (https://www.facebook.com/StoriesNepal/photos/a.478380932260397.1073741826.478371942261296/1033831160048702/?type=3&theater https://www.facebook.com/StoriesNepal/photos/a.4783809322603...)
- cmdrfred 10y ago1 out of 10 workers in India are unemployed. They simply do no have the options we have in the first world. If you are offered a call center job, you take it. A single success story does not invalidate the data, India has a massive poverty problem.
- bdcravens 10y agoYou're on Hacker News, so I'll assume some degree of technical acumen, and have Internet access obviously. Is this the best opportunity you have? Is it more financially rewarding than low-end development work?
- drakonandor 10y agoLeave the country? Don't have children if you can't legitimately take care of them? There's so many things a 'better man' father would have done before it got to this point.
- jitix 10y agoI'm from India and I strongly disagree. You are not supposed to have kids if you can't afford them.