The problem is that most people that left comments on that story basically jumped on the "I won't hire a woman" comment at the beginning and only focused on tha

The problem is that most people that left comments on that story basically jumped on the "I won't hire a woman" comment at the beginning and only focused on that. The article was really not about that. What the author was trying to express is how the laws in Hungary make it very difficult for an entrepreneur to start a company. He goes on, at length and in much detail, to clearly express the many ways that its un-economical for him to go down the route of trying to start a company or to hire more employees if he is running a company now. So to your question about being downvoted, I might be able to provide an answer. I responded to a similar comment as your original, http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3436365 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3436365. It got 16 upvotes. To me, that indicates that lots of people who read my comment agreed with me and my understanding of the article, i.e. not being about women but about over-reaching laws in Hungary. Your comment was in the vein of talking about the women/older person angle. Seeing that many similar comments were also being downvoted, it seems logical that is partly why yours was too. Also, your comment asks an open-ended question that isn't directly related to the intent of the original article. Questions in comments are fine, but its best if they stay oriented towards points related to the topic. In this case, work/life balance versus the effects of extensive government regulation on business.