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As someone who now has a cushy tech job but grew up struggling, it’s infuriating to read a post as out of touch as yours. My main question is, as you yourself

As someone who now has a cushy tech job but grew up struggling, it’s infuriating to read a post as out of touch as yours. My main question is, as you yourself have admittedly never experienced it, why even bother commenting on it? All your comment provides is ammunition for those looking to dismiss the such wages as livable, when (if you experienced them yourself) they’re clearly not.

folkhack 6y ago
> As someone who now has a cushy tech job but grew up struggling, it’s infuriating to read a post as out of touch as yours. Makes your blood boil. Seriously - someone posited "hey - in most of the US a bike is not a viable commuting vehicle..." to which op just replies (paraphrasing) "yes it is! I jerry-rigged a plastic basket on mine to carry things!" Incredibly out-of-touch and from directly from a place of privilege. This is a person who may have had to ride their bike/budget carefully for a year or two to get on their feet, not someone who's actually experienced poverty.
- yellowapple 6y ago
  > to which op just replies (paraphrasing) "yes it is! I jerry-rigged a plastic basket on mine to carry things!" Yeah, fuck me for figuring out how to make the best of my situation, right? > This is a person who may have had to ride their bike/budget carefully for a year or two to get on their feet, not someone who's actually experienced poverty. Three years, through both the aforementioned first job and two multi-month periods of unemployment, plus a period of making less than minimum wage as a contractor. But no, apparently I'm "too privileged" to be able to talk about when I was poor. Talk about making blood boil...
  - folkhack 6y ago
    In your posts: 1. family fills your fridge 2. $12-13/hr wages 3. didn't pay for health insurance, but still had health insurance 4. have the skills to do IT work (doing it from a bike is moot) > Yeah, fuck me for figuring out how to make the best of my situation, right? In good faith, I am not trying to say "fuck you"... I just don't agree that your past self was actually poor given the above bullet points. We have differing definitions of "poor" as you had the tools to improve your situation, without experiencing food scarcity, and all while having a health insurance safety-net. As someone who's worked around extreme poverty - it's hard to not get flustered reading your posts. Sorry.
    - yellowapple 6y ago
      > family fills your fridge "stock" != "fill". We're talking, like, $50/month, tops. I could've swung that myself. Instead I put it into savings and graciously accepted the help. > $12-13/hr wages In an area with double the rent of the proposed scenario > didn't pay for health insurance, but still had health insurance No, I didn't have health insurance. I specifically said I didn't qualify for my employer's plan until I had already put in my notice. (I was also uninsured after my second job all the way up to my current job, so covering about a 4-year span; given that the ACA's individual mandate was in full effect, this effectively ate hundreds of dollars out of my tax returns, at least for the years where I actually had returns rather than owing taxes on e.g. my less-than-minimum-wage contract work). > have the skills to do IT work That's cold comfort when you're stuck working a non-IT job (as I was), or when you don't have a job at all (as I was later, on two separate occasions, hence the riding of my bike to fix computers and supplement unemployment under-the-table). Keep in mind I didn't (and still don't) have a degree. That probably helped with keeping expenses low (no student loan debt to worry about), but it also made it substantially harder to find solid work (given that even help desk positions typically required at least an Associate's; I got my first IT job specifically as a temp job that turned unexpectedly permanent). > I just don't agree that your past self was actually poor I mean, I obviously can't make you relive my working life (at least up until my current job, which does thankfully pay much better and is helping me bounce back). Nor would I want you to. Still, I definitely think I was poor, both when I was working my first job and after I lost my second job. Really boggles the mind how you'd somehow disagree with that assessment simply because of a marginal amount of support.
yellowapple 6y ago
It's bizarre that y'all are willing to discount my experience solely because I happened to make two dollars more per hour and had slight support from family, neither of which come anywhere close to offsetting having to pay $500/month more in rent than the hypothetical to which I replied. Like, I'm under no illusion whatsoever that I wasn't fortunate. I'm endlessly grateful that I had a family eager and able to help out, and I know that there are plenty of people who don't have that much. That doesn't mean I didn't still struggle. It doesn't invalidate paying that rent, or making things work. It doesn't invalidate being in that situation two more times due to extended periods of unemployment, or when I was later making less than minimum wage and living off my savings working for a startup that ended up failing. I don't care that a bunch of FAANG employees think I'm too "privileged" to be able to speak about a situation that very much is comparable. Your downvotes do not invalidate my life experiences. Begrudgingly accepting help from family (that, mind you, added up to, what, $50/month, tops? Yeah, real fuckin' luxurious) does not invalidate my life experiences.
- pphysch 6y ago
  > It's bizarre that y'all are willing to discount my experience ...Your experience of having a family or network subsidize $100s per month in various costs, which you are using to try and explain anyway the enormous and well-established economic inequality problem in the US. Why? Can't you be grateful for your privileged position and not punch down?
  - yellowapple 6y ago
    > having a family or network subsidize $100s per month As I've explained in multiple other follow-up comments now (EDIT: including, I now realize, in the exact comment to which you replied): it was not "$100s per month". It was barely $50, if that. I think the most luxurious thing was some protein shakes, and that was a box for, like, $20 (that'd be the thing in the fridge). They still give me boxes of those shakes sometimes, since my grandma likes 'em and I do, too, so why not, lol And, as I already explained in the original comment, it was a $50 that I could've still paid myself. Instead, I accepted the help. I'm grateful for that help, and recognize that even that much is a privilege a lot of people don't have. That doesn't mean I wasn't poor at the time, nor does it mean that describing my experience is somehow "punching down".

folkhack 6y ago

> As someone who now has a cushy tech job but grew up struggling, it’s infuriating to read a post as out of touch as yours. Makes your blood boil. Seriously - someone posited "hey - in most of the US a bike is not a viable commuting vehicle..." to which op just replies (paraphrasing) "yes it is! I jerry-rigged a plastic basket on mine to carry things!" Incredibly out-of-touch and from directly from a place of privilege. This is a person who may have had to ride their bike/budget carefully for a year or two to get on their feet, not someone who's actually experienced poverty.

yellowapple 6y ago
> to which op just replies (paraphrasing) "yes it is! I jerry-rigged a plastic basket on mine to carry things!" Yeah, fuck me for figuring out how to make the best of my situation, right? > This is a person who may have had to ride their bike/budget carefully for a year or two to get on their feet, not someone who's actually experienced poverty. Three years, through both the aforementioned first job and two multi-month periods of unemployment, plus a period of making less than minimum wage as a contractor. But no, apparently I'm "too privileged" to be able to talk about when I was poor. Talk about making blood boil...
- folkhack 6y ago
  In your posts: 1. family fills your fridge 2. $12-13/hr wages 3. didn't pay for health insurance, but still had health insurance 4. have the skills to do IT work (doing it from a bike is moot) > Yeah, fuck me for figuring out how to make the best of my situation, right? In good faith, I am not trying to say "fuck you"... I just don't agree that your past self was actually poor given the above bullet points. We have differing definitions of "poor" as you had the tools to improve your situation, without experiencing food scarcity, and all while having a health insurance safety-net. As someone who's worked around extreme poverty - it's hard to not get flustered reading your posts. Sorry.
  - yellowapple 6y ago
    > family fills your fridge "stock" != "fill". We're talking, like, $50/month, tops. I could've swung that myself. Instead I put it into savings and graciously accepted the help. > $12-13/hr wages In an area with double the rent of the proposed scenario > didn't pay for health insurance, but still had health insurance No, I didn't have health insurance. I specifically said I didn't qualify for my employer's plan until I had already put in my notice. (I was also uninsured after my second job all the way up to my current job, so covering about a 4-year span; given that the ACA's individual mandate was in full effect, this effectively ate hundreds of dollars out of my tax returns, at least for the years where I actually had returns rather than owing taxes on e.g. my less-than-minimum-wage contract work). > have the skills to do IT work That's cold comfort when you're stuck working a non-IT job (as I was), or when you don't have a job at all (as I was later, on two separate occasions, hence the riding of my bike to fix computers and supplement unemployment under-the-table). Keep in mind I didn't (and still don't) have a degree. That probably helped with keeping expenses low (no student loan debt to worry about), but it also made it substantially harder to find solid work (given that even help desk positions typically required at least an Associate's; I got my first IT job specifically as a temp job that turned unexpectedly permanent). > I just don't agree that your past self was actually poor I mean, I obviously can't make you relive my working life (at least up until my current job, which does thankfully pay much better and is helping me bounce back). Nor would I want you to. Still, I definitely think I was poor, both when I was working my first job and after I lost my second job. Really boggles the mind how you'd somehow disagree with that assessment simply because of a marginal amount of support.

yellowapple 6y ago

It's bizarre that y'all are willing to discount my experience solely because I happened to make two dollars more per hour and had slight support from family, neither of which come anywhere close to offsetting having to pay $500/month more in rent than the hypothetical to which I replied. Like, I'm under no illusion whatsoever that I wasn't fortunate. I'm endlessly grateful that I had a family eager and able to help out, and I know that there are plenty of people who don't have that much. That doesn't mean I didn't still struggle. It doesn't invalidate paying that rent, or making things work. It doesn't invalidate being in that situation two more times due to extended periods of unemployment, or when I was later making less than minimum wage and living off my savings working for a startup that ended up failing. I don't care that a bunch of FAANG employees think I'm too "privileged" to be able to speak about a situation that very much is comparable. Your downvotes do not invalidate my life experiences. Begrudgingly accepting help from family (that, mind you, added up to, what, $50/month, tops? Yeah, real fuckin' luxurious) does not invalidate my life experiences.

pphysch 6y ago
> It's bizarre that y'all are willing to discount my experience ...Your experience of having a family or network subsidize $100s per month in various costs, which you are using to try and explain anyway the enormous and well-established economic inequality problem in the US. Why? Can't you be grateful for your privileged position and not punch down?
- yellowapple 6y ago
  > having a family or network subsidize $100s per month As I've explained in multiple other follow-up comments now (EDIT: including, I now realize, in the exact comment to which you replied): it was not "$100s per month". It was barely $50, if that. I think the most luxurious thing was some protein shakes, and that was a box for, like, $20 (that'd be the thing in the fridge). They still give me boxes of those shakes sometimes, since my grandma likes 'em and I do, too, so why not, lol And, as I already explained in the original comment, it was a $50 that I could've still paid myself. Instead, I accepted the help. I'm grateful for that help, and recognize that even that much is a privilege a lot of people don't have. That doesn't mean I wasn't poor at the time, nor does it mean that describing my experience is somehow "punching down".