7 ms·
Using the word "wageslave" to describe 300k TC office workers is out of touch at best and downright offensive at worst.
by kaashif 3y ago
Using the word "wageslave" to describe 300k TC office workers is out of touch at best and downright offensive at worst.
- ericsoderstrom 3y agoI do think it's still true in my experience that someone with the the capabilities to build useful things on their own tend to not stay very long at these giant companies, unless for specific visa reasons
- johnnyanmac 3y agodepends entirely on the person. The startup life isn't for everyone, especially people with families that value stability and life balance over the idea of millions.
- deckard1 3y agoah, yes. The American Dream of living in a 50 year old shitbox fixer that costs $2M in the suburbs of Cupertino. If you can make that much remote out in Nebraska then sure, fine. There are people doing a lot worse. But when doing much better looks like that, what even is the point?
- pb7 3y agoLiving in Nebraska when you have the means to live in civilization is a punishment. Why would someone choose to live in a place where the nearest restaurant is a Denny’s 45 mins away?
- opan 3y agoQuiet and peaceful, cleaner air, you can play loud music and stomp around without upsetting neighbors, and for many people most of their time is spent on a computer anyway.
- pb7 3y agoThe quality of my life is not defined by stomping around or playing loud music. It’s having access to and making use of amenities. What the hell good is money to me if I have no goods and services to spend it on? Maybe most of your time is spent on a computer.
- GlassOwAter 3y agoThe quality of my life is not defined by how close I am to fast food diners or other frivolous goods and services.
- pb7 3y agoNeither is mine, which is why I live in a place that has amazing restaurants with cuisines from all around the world. There's nothing frivolous about food or any other good or service that enhances one's quality of life.
- pb7 3y agoAir quality is better in San Francisco than Omaha by the way. If you want peace and quiet, you have world class nature less than an hour’s drive away instead of the endless corn fields flat as a pancake for hours in any direction.
- slt2021 3y agodo you seriously think that tenderloin, Oakland, richmond, hunter's point, bay view is civilization?
- pb7 3y agoDo you really think your extreme examples are the average experience outside of Nebraska?
- slt2021 3y agoWell these are more affordable places in sf, not everyone is techie millionaire, you know. and Nebraska has nice places too, especially if you have a family. Try to raise a family with 5 kids in sf, and compare to Omaha. I would pick Omaha 10 out of 10 times, if I was not a millionaire
- pb7 3y ago>Try to raise a family with 5 kids What am I, a farmer? I would pick not doing that 10 out of 10 times regardless of how much money I had.
- slt2021 3y agoso we can agree that people can have their own preferences in lifestyle and critique of other people's lifestyle is not mature behavior
- pb7 3y agoLet’s see where this conversation started. >ah, yes. The American Dream of living in a 50 year old shitbox fixer that costs $2M in the suburbs of Cupertino. So you’re right, folks living outside of metropolitan areas need to work on their insecurities and learn to be nicer to people that prioritize other things in life.
- 3y ago
- mcmcmc 3y agoLincoln and Omaha would like a word
- slt2021 3y agopeople choose to live in bay area not because its housing situation, but despite of it. mainly because cutting edge R&D type technology has been developed in the area and alternatives to SV have not developed yet. its not even pay - I would say bay area pay is bad, because of cost of living & taxation. But opportunities for growth are unmatched in bay area
- ryandrake 3y agoThe point is you can't adequately judge whether a job counts as "wageslave" just from the salary. A $300K job where houses cost $2M is like a $30K job where houses cost $200K.
- slt2021 3y agoyou are more than right, it is actually objectively worse. because $300K will demand much much more than 30k job. 300k job leads to stress, anxiety, performance calibrations, mental breakdowns, overwork, competition, lack of job security etc. 30k job could be very relaxed, could be part-time gig where you work few hours in a week. so work-life balance is really tilted worse for higher paying jobs
- kaashif 3y agoI mean, not necessarily. A 300k job at a tech company may be less stressful than e.g. a 150k job at a non tech company with a toxic culture. To be clear, it can be true, there are lots of stressful high paying jobs, my point is that it's not necessarily true. I know low paid people with stressful jobs and highly paid people with less stress.
- kaashif 3y agoThis is incorrect. If my income and expenses both increase by 10x, my savings increase by 10x. After just a few years of saving, I have the option of moving somewhere cheaper and living like a king. It's not like your savings and investments are adjusted for the cost of living when you move. In the extreme case, you can earn as much as possible and accumulate enough to live on indefinitely in a cheap country. This is obviously better than just earning a low salary in the cheap country for the same amount of time.
- gretch 3y ago> But when doing much better looks like that, what even is the point? Cupertino is an hour away Santa Cruz beaches. 3 hours away from skiing (or boating) at lake tahoe. 1 hour away from one of the best NBA teams (GSW). 30 minutes away from Stanford. 1 hour away from Berkeley. Some of the best average temperatures in the country. Maybe they live in a "shitbox fixer", maybe they don't. You might consider that people like and care about those other properties though.
- deckard1 3y ago> Cupertino is ... a lot of hour drives away from everything? London or Tokyo it is not. > Maybe they live in a "shitbox fixer", maybe they don't. I was being rather generous at $2M on a $300k salary. Let's just assume the spouse makes that much too. Where do you place the odds of getting a nice house at, in that area? Of a similar quality that would run around $200-400k in the rest of the country. It's the suburbs. You're going to be inside your home more than you would in a city. > You might consider that people like and care about those other properties though. The point is $300k in SV isn't living large. You save more for retirement or to move out. Great. But you still have to leave to realize that benefit. You're just planning for some tomorrow that usually never comes for most people.
- kaashif 3y ago> You're just planning for some tomorrow that usually never comes for most people. That's odd, my impression is that a lot of people go to the Bay, save a lot, then leave. Do we have any statistics on this?
- smugma 3y agoMost new Apple hires are not in Cupertino. It’s “full”.
- brandall10 3y agoSeems everyday on Blind there's a few posts from mid 30s folks reporting ~$3M NW and wondering if it's enough to retire on.
- Clubber 3y ago>downright offensive at worst People are so easily offended these days. Having said that, if you work for a company and you get fired and blacklisted, you still don't eat. If you work for a wage, you HAVE to work for somebody or you starve. If you work for somebody, that somebody has a lot of sway over how your life looks. Better be good at kissin' ass. Also, if you don't think the US healthcare industry will take every penny of your life's earnings upon your eventual and inevitable deterioration, you're fooling yourself. FWIW, I'm a wage slave too.
- Eisenstein 3y ago> If you work for a wage, you HAVE to work for somebody or you starve. You really don't. There is no way you can starve in the USA unless you do it on purpose.
- jononor 3y ago5 million households in the USA constantly have poor food security. About double that had intermittently poor food security. I do not think they are doing it on purpose.
- Eisenstein 3y agoAnd if they went to any hospital starving they would get fed. Please note the literal use of the word 'starve'.
- pb7 3y agoYou’re a wage slave when you work for yourself too, probably even more so. You can’t even completely take a week or two off in most cases. Your work eats your entire life.
- Clubber 3y ago>You’re a wage slave when you work for yourself too, probably even more so. It certainly can be like that especially early on. Hopefully you would grow enough to hire good people to manage the business. If you work for somebody though, that will never happen.
- geodel 3y agoHuh, its like calling couch potato is offensive to someone is offensive who watch TV and sit in couch all day because their TV is 77" OLED, couch is full grain leather and beer artisanal. If someone with 300K+ TC gets offended by this term, playing world's smallest violin for those snowflakes would be most appropriate.
- namdnay 3y agoOffensive as in “offensive to real wage slaves”
- coeneedell 3y agoIt’s more about the people making 30k a year putting up fencing and barely scraping by watching those 300k a year SWEs complain about how they’re wage slaves.