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> Your most important asset is your ability to produce income. I think that's an incredibly sad way to view yourself and your life, albeit I bet that for many
by fredsir 8y ago
> Your most important asset is your ability to produce income.
I think that's an incredibly sad way to view yourself and your life, albeit I bet that for many people producing income is the single most important thing.
I see that as a consequence and a failure of society.
- nkassis 8y agoIt's more of an incomplete goal than a failure. Humanity has made progress towards reducing the impact of work but there is room for lots of improvement.
- kidshoulder 8y agoFitter, healthier, and more productive. A pig in a cage, on antibiotics.
- doronaviguy 8y agoOk computer
- jshevek 8y agoI simply took it as one specific use of the word "asset". They weren't necessarily using asset in the more general sense.
- MisterOctober 8y agoMay be, but most anyone who has ever been economically disadvantaged can tell you that it's damn sure the practical reality if you aim to participate in contemporary industrial civilization. When you're home-insecure, health-vulnerable, and have a family depending on you, income starts to dwarf things like ideals in one's value schema. Which is more sad, the people who debase themselves in order to provide for their family, or the ones who go run off to live in the canyon pines or in an art squat and leave their family to fend for themselves?
- enraged_camel 8y agoIncome is just a proxy (albeit an inaccurate one, and not the only one) for the value you add to your society. From this perspective, there is nothing wrong with trying to maximize it, in my opinion, as long as it is not one's only drive.
- bootlooped 8y agoI think it's just pragmatic. It shouldn't be interpreted as a statement on how things should be, or how we might want them to be. Virtually everything in my life is predicated on me having and earning money. I think it's best to just come to terms with that and try to not spend too much time dwelling on it. I don't think the statement is much different from Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs placing physiological needs at the base.
- dang 8y agoWe detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18099961 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18099961 and marked it off-topic.