Grew up poor in New Zealand. Parents moved there when I was 2 and struggled with being first generation immigrants. After years of under-employment, government

Grew up poor in New Zealand. Parents moved there when I was 2 and struggled with being first generation immigrants. After years of under-employment, government assistance and scraping by, I lied my way into my first tech job and learned on the job. I hid the fact that I got one off government assistance for the new clothes I wore on the first day. The gravity of someone buying me a coffee struck me to my core. It was unlike anything I had ever experienced before to be guaranteed ~$500usd per week, every week. Living with 0 hour contracts, if you said the wrong thing you risked you next week's roster. Work on that level is fraught with petty politics and it really messes with your sense of identity to need to suck up to get by. Dealing with the government assistance office was demeaning. ~$100usd per week and you had to be in the office twice a week, attending the seminars and talking to your caseworker. With minimum wage at the time being ~$7 an hour, full time employment a dream due to labour laws favouring casual/0 hour contracts, employment was seldom worth it. It comes to a point of true apathey. I remember thinking "oh my bank account is 2k overdrawn, haha funny". I started to become politically aware when I got that first job. I, for some reason, thought people were more progressive. I was shocked when I heard my boss and colleagues complaining about taxes going to lazy people taking advantage of the system. I know the people they are talking about, and it's not like that at all but it's so outside my colleagues' bubble of understanding. As others have stated, it's not "developing nation poor" and I was given more social mobility than my family living in my country of origin - but it's not an easy thing to live through and my mother is still living like that today (though I help now) I can't appreciate enough the opportunities software engineering has opened for me. I am reminded that I didn't have a cushy upbringing from the little things that separate me from my colleagues. In some ways I am nostalgic for the times I was cold in my crappy damp house, burning treated offcuts from the local lumber mill giving off toxic fumes. I had so much drive to make it out, I started a new money making scheme every second week. One time I got access to a printer and made a bunch of flyers offering converting VHS tapes to DVDs. Another time I went to retirement villages and helped people set up Skype. I worked for a retail store (like best buy) and started selling my own "home computer installation service" to customers, billed outside of the company - I then started offering other staff cash to sell it too (which got me fired). This song really resonated with me when I was struggling https://youtu.be/8AjgWyxJAGQ?t=28 https://youtu.be/8AjgWyxJAGQ?t=28 ...that and literally any angsty song