5 ms·

A family of 4 making 60k a year that has to carefully budget all expenditures should VERY CLEARLY not be lumped together with a single dude in his 20s pulling i

by harryh 7y ago

A family of 4 making 60k a year that has to carefully budget all expenditures should VERY CLEARLY not be lumped together with a single dude in his 20s pulling in 200k a year at a tech job. That guy might not have quite the fancy apartment he wants but can pretty much pay for anything else he wants (a tesla, fancy vacations, every electronic gadget he wants). This whole thread is full of rich tech people trying to lump themselves in with people in far different economic circumstances because they are uncomfortable with the fact they they are rich. It's gross.

cannonedhamster 7y ago
As someone who has been in that lower income bracket and is now comfortably upper-middle/lower-upper class, yeah its' definitely way easier now than when I was working a factory job. It's certainly not easy. I can't buy a Tesla and don't make 200K, but we're not worrying most months about putting food on the table like we were when we had nothing. I don't know that I would call anyone who still has to work to make ends meet rich, we'd lose everything with a few months of me being unemployed because we still haven't made enough to pay off our pre-existing debt. Is that still rich in your eyes? I've never made 200k myself, but I do pretty well for the area I'm in.
jasode 7y ago
>they are uncomfortable with the fact they they are rich. The issue you're overlooking is that many $200k earners truly don't believe they are rich. It's not that they "secretly" think they're wealthy upper class and just want to lie to you. It's not unusual for an employee earning $200k as salary from FAANG to feel like it's a middle class living. However, if that same person earns $200k/year purely as capital gains interest income from US Treasury Bills and therefore never has to work at a job for the rest of his life, that's the magic threshold to feel "rich". I.e. "FU money" means "rich". (Yes, you can certainly disagree with those boundaries but I'm just trying to explain how people think.) It's the necessity of working at a job that makes them feel like they are in the "middle class". It doesn't matter if it's a white-collar office job instead of a blue-collar factory gig. They can't be "uncomfortable with being rich" if they don't think they're rich in the first place. I don't see how we can have productive discussions on social progress if we poison the well by slapping labels on $200k workers that they themselves don't actually believe.
- tptacek 7y ago
  I don't understand this argument. I agree that they don't believe they're rich, and they're not intentionally deceiving themselves. But they are also wrong.
  - viklove 7y ago
    If I have to work a job to keep a roof over my head, I'm definitely not rich.
    - tptacek 7y ago
      That's something an investment banker can say as well.
closeparen 7y ago
The family of four has a house in a reasonable school district with bedrooms for the two children it felt comfortable enough to have; the tech guy is living with three roommates so that he can afford that life in 10 years. On the other hand, take 2/3rds of my rent payment from me and all my neighbors. Please, take it! We'll all get to live in the same apartments, but the money will benefit society instead of our landlord. The vast majority of my spending is not on what things really cost, but on out-competing others for space in San Francisco. If you hobble us all equally we are no worse off.

by harryh 7y ago

cannonedhamster 7y ago

As someone who has been in that lower income bracket and is now comfortably upper-middle/lower-upper class, yeah its' definitely way easier now than when I was working a factory job. It's certainly not easy. I can't buy a Tesla and don't make 200K, but we're not worrying most months about putting food on the table like we were when we had nothing. I don't know that I would call anyone who still has to work to make ends meet rich, we'd lose everything with a few months of me being unemployed because we still haven't made enough to pay off our pre-existing debt. Is that still rich in your eyes? I've never made 200k myself, but I do pretty well for the area I'm in.

jasode 7y ago

>they are uncomfortable with the fact they they are rich. The issue you're overlooking is that many $200k earners truly don't believe they are rich. It's not that they "secretly" think they're wealthy upper class and just want to lie to you. It's not unusual for an employee earning $200k as salary from FAANG to feel like it's a middle class living. However, if that same person earns $200k/year purely as capital gains interest income from US Treasury Bills and therefore never has to work at a job for the rest of his life, that's the magic threshold to feel "rich". I.e. "FU money" means "rich". (Yes, you can certainly disagree with those boundaries but I'm just trying to explain how people think.) It's the necessity of working at a job that makes them feel like they are in the "middle class". It doesn't matter if it's a white-collar office job instead of a blue-collar factory gig. They can't be "uncomfortable with being rich" if they don't think they're rich in the first place. I don't see how we can have productive discussions on social progress if we poison the well by slapping labels on $200k workers that they themselves don't actually believe.

tptacek 7y ago
I don't understand this argument. I agree that they don't believe they're rich, and they're not intentionally deceiving themselves. But they are also wrong.
- viklove 7y ago
  If I have to work a job to keep a roof over my head, I'm definitely not rich.
  - tptacek 7y ago
    That's something an investment banker can say as well.

closeparen 7y ago

The family of four has a house in a reasonable school district with bedrooms for the two children it felt comfortable enough to have; the tech guy is living with three roommates so that he can afford that life in 10 years. On the other hand, take 2/3rds of my rent payment from me and all my neighbors. Please, take it! We'll all get to live in the same apartments, but the money will benefit society instead of our landlord. The vast majority of my spending is not on what things really cost, but on out-competing others for space in San Francisco. If you hobble us all equally we are no worse off.