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I'd like to provide my anecdotal evidence from a 26 year old American white male making $37,000 per year in NYC: It's not income inequality that drives my depr

I'd like to provide my anecdotal evidence from a 26 year old American white male making $37,000 per year in NYC: It's not income inequality that drives my depression. I'm happy as a clam at my job and I'm able to pay my food, rent, car, and make a little savings. It is the "bullshit" factor that comes with nearly everything in life these days. Parking tickets, identity thieves, regulations that hurt small businesses, crowding in cities, crazy drivers on the road, being taken to court for nearly anything... ... everyone is out here just trying to exploit the common citizen and it really, really needs to stop.

xxpor 8y ago
>Parking tickets,... crowding in cities, crazy drivers on the road, I'd posit you just don't like living in a city.
- anoncoward111 8y ago
  I'm one hour outside the city, nearly rural burbs surrounded by farms. Parking ticket junta knows no bounds my friend. Also your logic is a bit scary. "I'm tired of seeing extra-judicial killings." "Sounds like you're just tired of living in Manila"
  - adventured 8y ago
    An HN member suggests that someone may just not enjoy urban living, and your response is to relate that suggestion to lawlessness and wanton murder. Their logic isn't scary at all, it's not even the slightest bit unusual; your response however, is extremely bizarre and off kilter.
    - ben_w 8y ago
      While I do not regard it as an accurate view of cities, I also do not regard it as “extremely bizarre and off kilter” — I have noticed similar patterns of hyperbolic anti-city thoughts amongst many people who prefer rural areas to cities.
    - anoncoward111 8y ago
      Their logic is wrong. I don't live in a city. We should strive to reform the parking ticket system, not spite ourselves and move out of cities.
      - xxpor 8y ago
        The real way to reform the parking ticket system is to remove cars from cities.
  - maxerickson 8y ago
    In this town here there almost isn't even parking enforcement and it's rarely the case that you are looking for an open spot. When there is a big event at the park, the nearby streets can be full for a couple of blocks.
moonka 8y ago
>It is the "bullshit" factor that comes with nearly everything in life these days. Parking tickets, identity thieves, regulations that hurt small businesses, crowding in cities, crazy drivers on the road, being taken to court for nearly anything... A lot of these (though not all) become easier to deal with as your income goes up, either because it has a minimal impact on you, or you can have people deal with it.
- anoncoward111 8y ago
  Yeah I agree with this but the problem is that it exists, period. It's extortion. If left unchecked, they'll just raise the price of the fine. That's why a speeding ticket used to be $25 in North Dakota with no court date, compared to $400 in NY with a mandatory court date and points without reaching a plea.
  - StudentStuff 8y ago
    15MPH over in Seattle will run you $159 iirc, with the option of a deferment every 7 years. Or, they'll often bump it down to ~$50 if you go to the pre-trial meeting. No mandatory court though!
    - anoncoward111 8y ago
      Dammnnnn Seattle the land of speeding protections!! Doing 72 in a 55 (17mph over limit) came with a sticker price of $400 fine, 6 points on the license, plead guilty by mail or in person pre-trial hearing in the absolute middle of nowhere in NY. Plea bargained to $225 "parking violation" that went straight to the town's budget. Sickening considering most roads in MA have a 70 mph speed limit
      - StudentStuff 8y ago
        I've seen Too Fast For Conditions (a ticket for crashing basically) plea bargained to a parking violation (without much of a discount), but yet to see the same for a speeding ticket. No points or counter for accidents that may affect your license here in WA State tho.
jackgolding 8y ago
Lately I've been thinking of moving to a country town to get away from a lot of these problems that are systematic in cities (traffic, crime, office politics.) I don't know what its like in America, but in Australia most towns are also expensive (people take 1+ hour commutes to the city) which creates inequality and problems with methamphetamine.
- anoncoward111 8y ago
  Everything is expensive and the junkies are everywhere and the town government is inefficient and semi-corrupt and yeah it just all around sucks unless you are a multi-millionaire and can pay your way through all of this and set up your own private castle in the woods. Tbh I pay like $650 to rent a room in a reasonably quiet town and I just spend my time meditating and doing free hobbies outside of work. The most liberated I ever felt was basically living on a mountain in Chile at 14,000 feet for a week but then you run out of food and water and the -10c nights are pretty bone chilling and you start to wonder why you had to go to such a remote and physically demanding place to feel unencumbered by society for a moment
  - barrow-rider 8y ago
    > the -10c nights are pretty bone chilling and you start to wonder why you had to go to such a remote and physically demanding place to feel unencumbered by society for a moment Because there are 8 Billion people in the world -- wrap your head around that, seriously, like think on just how many people there are -- and understand that there is a LOT of demand for nice places, from all over the world. If you (the broad you, I mean) want it your way you need to climb to the top of the heap, retreat to the fringes, or learn to live with all of the bullshit.
- megaremote 8y ago
  Australia was one of the few countries that reversed the trend. I think Australia cities are great, for some reason everyone things they need a huge house with a block of land and a car. And they can't figure out why their life sucks.
TaylorAlexander 8y ago
David Graeber talks a lot about this. What would you think would help? I personally feel like more voluntary collectives could help protect people from these things, and help make life more worth living. What do you think?
- anoncoward111 8y ago
  I hope some day the most corrupt and restrictive people and businesses in society just leave us alone and find some other profitable thing to do. A mafia is defined as a group of people who create a problem and then ask victims to pay for protection from that problem. End the mafias in this world and we'll have a lot more happiness and entrepreneurship
  - TaylorAlexander 8y ago
    I agree. I feel like the only way we can rid ourselves of those people is by building a system where those people cannot benefit. A challenge worth taking on, I think.
    - anoncoward111 8y ago
      If I could live somewhere extremely rural and remote, like the deep woods of Maine, and a drone could cheaply drop me supplies every week or something, I could get a good little set up going outside of extortionary forces. But, once that technology exists, the extortionary forces will just move in to the now-inhabitable-area. Tbh, it's much better to just make peace with it and try to avoid thinking about it unless you have so much power and influence that you can root out corruption somehow. I aint got that tho
- contingencies 8y ago
  Vote with your feet and change environment. It's never been easier, especially for people from high income countries with tech or other white collar professional skills.
riffraff 8y ago
Why do you say "these days"? Most of those things have existed for a long time.
- anoncoward111 8y ago
  Maybe I'm wrong but the Internet, expanded government powers, cars, and frivolous litigation are definitely all things that occurred post-1914 aka after Woodrow Wilson's presidency roughly, when the executive branch began to expand massively and set a precedent for state and local governments to do the same. Our ancestors from the 1800s weren't harassed like this unless they were Puritans maybe
  - riffraff 8y ago
    well, sure, but the article is about a drop of life expectancy in 2015, not since the 19th century.
qubax 8y ago
> I'd like to provide my anecdotal evidence from a 26 year old American white male making $37,000 per year in NYC: Man. My starting salary after college was $75K and I felt like a peasant. I don't know how you survive on $37K. But NYC is a big place. A dollar goes a lot further in Jamaica or Yonkers than in Manhattan. > Parking tickets, identity thieves, regulations that hurt small businesses, crowding in cities, crazy drivers on the road, being taken to court for nearly anything... The worst is dog feces everywhere. Nothing ruins my day more than a large pile of dog feces and a trail of dog feces shoeprints.

xxpor 8y ago

>Parking tickets,... crowding in cities, crazy drivers on the road, I'd posit you just don't like living in a city.

anoncoward111 8y ago
I'm one hour outside the city, nearly rural burbs surrounded by farms. Parking ticket junta knows no bounds my friend. Also your logic is a bit scary. "I'm tired of seeing extra-judicial killings." "Sounds like you're just tired of living in Manila"
- adventured 8y ago
  An HN member suggests that someone may just not enjoy urban living, and your response is to relate that suggestion to lawlessness and wanton murder. Their logic isn't scary at all, it's not even the slightest bit unusual; your response however, is extremely bizarre and off kilter.
  - ben_w 8y ago
    While I do not regard it as an accurate view of cities, I also do not regard it as “extremely bizarre and off kilter” — I have noticed similar patterns of hyperbolic anti-city thoughts amongst many people who prefer rural areas to cities.
  - anoncoward111 8y ago
    Their logic is wrong. I don't live in a city. We should strive to reform the parking ticket system, not spite ourselves and move out of cities.
    - xxpor 8y ago
      The real way to reform the parking ticket system is to remove cars from cities.
- maxerickson 8y ago
  In this town here there almost isn't even parking enforcement and it's rarely the case that you are looking for an open spot. When there is a big event at the park, the nearby streets can be full for a couple of blocks.

moonka 8y ago

>It is the "bullshit" factor that comes with nearly everything in life these days. Parking tickets, identity thieves, regulations that hurt small businesses, crowding in cities, crazy drivers on the road, being taken to court for nearly anything... A lot of these (though not all) become easier to deal with as your income goes up, either because it has a minimal impact on you, or you can have people deal with it.

anoncoward111 8y ago
Yeah I agree with this but the problem is that it exists, period. It's extortion. If left unchecked, they'll just raise the price of the fine. That's why a speeding ticket used to be $25 in North Dakota with no court date, compared to $400 in NY with a mandatory court date and points without reaching a plea.
- StudentStuff 8y ago
  15MPH over in Seattle will run you $159 iirc, with the option of a deferment every 7 years. Or, they'll often bump it down to ~$50 if you go to the pre-trial meeting. No mandatory court though!
  - anoncoward111 8y ago
    Dammnnnn Seattle the land of speeding protections!! Doing 72 in a 55 (17mph over limit) came with a sticker price of $400 fine, 6 points on the license, plead guilty by mail or in person pre-trial hearing in the absolute middle of nowhere in NY. Plea bargained to $225 "parking violation" that went straight to the town's budget. Sickening considering most roads in MA have a 70 mph speed limit
    - StudentStuff 8y ago
      I've seen Too Fast For Conditions (a ticket for crashing basically) plea bargained to a parking violation (without much of a discount), but yet to see the same for a speeding ticket. No points or counter for accidents that may affect your license here in WA State tho.

jackgolding 8y ago

Lately I've been thinking of moving to a country town to get away from a lot of these problems that are systematic in cities (traffic, crime, office politics.) I don't know what its like in America, but in Australia most towns are also expensive (people take 1+ hour commutes to the city) which creates inequality and problems with methamphetamine.

anoncoward111 8y ago
Everything is expensive and the junkies are everywhere and the town government is inefficient and semi-corrupt and yeah it just all around sucks unless you are a multi-millionaire and can pay your way through all of this and set up your own private castle in the woods. Tbh I pay like $650 to rent a room in a reasonably quiet town and I just spend my time meditating and doing free hobbies outside of work. The most liberated I ever felt was basically living on a mountain in Chile at 14,000 feet for a week but then you run out of food and water and the -10c nights are pretty bone chilling and you start to wonder why you had to go to such a remote and physically demanding place to feel unencumbered by society for a moment
- barrow-rider 8y ago
  > the -10c nights are pretty bone chilling and you start to wonder why you had to go to such a remote and physically demanding place to feel unencumbered by society for a moment Because there are 8 Billion people in the world -- wrap your head around that, seriously, like think on just how many people there are -- and understand that there is a LOT of demand for nice places, from all over the world. If you (the broad you, I mean) want it your way you need to climb to the top of the heap, retreat to the fringes, or learn to live with all of the bullshit.
megaremote 8y ago
Australia was one of the few countries that reversed the trend. I think Australia cities are great, for some reason everyone things they need a huge house with a block of land and a car. And they can't figure out why their life sucks.

TaylorAlexander 8y ago

David Graeber talks a lot about this. What would you think would help? I personally feel like more voluntary collectives could help protect people from these things, and help make life more worth living. What do you think?

anoncoward111 8y ago
I hope some day the most corrupt and restrictive people and businesses in society just leave us alone and find some other profitable thing to do. A mafia is defined as a group of people who create a problem and then ask victims to pay for protection from that problem. End the mafias in this world and we'll have a lot more happiness and entrepreneurship
- TaylorAlexander 8y ago
  I agree. I feel like the only way we can rid ourselves of those people is by building a system where those people cannot benefit. A challenge worth taking on, I think.
  - anoncoward111 8y ago
    If I could live somewhere extremely rural and remote, like the deep woods of Maine, and a drone could cheaply drop me supplies every week or something, I could get a good little set up going outside of extortionary forces. But, once that technology exists, the extortionary forces will just move in to the now-inhabitable-area. Tbh, it's much better to just make peace with it and try to avoid thinking about it unless you have so much power and influence that you can root out corruption somehow. I aint got that tho
contingencies 8y ago
Vote with your feet and change environment. It's never been easier, especially for people from high income countries with tech or other white collar professional skills.

riffraff 8y ago

Why do you say "these days"? Most of those things have existed for a long time.

anoncoward111 8y ago
Maybe I'm wrong but the Internet, expanded government powers, cars, and frivolous litigation are definitely all things that occurred post-1914 aka after Woodrow Wilson's presidency roughly, when the executive branch began to expand massively and set a precedent for state and local governments to do the same. Our ancestors from the 1800s weren't harassed like this unless they were Puritans maybe
- riffraff 8y ago
  well, sure, but the article is about a drop of life expectancy in 2015, not since the 19th century.

qubax 8y ago

> I'd like to provide my anecdotal evidence from a 26 year old American white male making $37,000 per year in NYC: Man. My starting salary after college was $75K and I felt like a peasant. I don't know how you survive on $37K. But NYC is a big place. A dollar goes a lot further in Jamaica or Yonkers than in Manhattan. > Parking tickets, identity thieves, regulations that hurt small businesses, crowding in cities, crazy drivers on the road, being taken to court for nearly anything... The worst is dog feces everywhere. Nothing ruins my day more than a large pile of dog feces and a trail of dog feces shoeprints.