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People don't really choose to work, we work because we need to afford food and get health care and rent housing etc. If you live in a town where the job you can

People don't really choose to work, we work because we need to afford food and get health care and rent housing etc. If you live in a town where the job you can get is at Amazon then you don't really "voluntarily" work there, and considering it's pretty simple stuff that hires anyone this is probably the case.

ExoticPearTree 3y ago
You are always free to pack up your things and move to another place with better conditions. I would say it is worse for people in Chicago that work in the big slaughterhouses and even though they can pursue other opportunities, they still choose to work there. Using the "small town, no options" narrative doesn't really hold water.
- eddtries 3y ago
  My point is if you're working a job it isn't as easy as "find another one". These things are tough personal emotional topics. No-one wants to work at a job where they have to pee in a bottle, yet people work there.
- FireBeyond 3y ago
  > You are always free to pack up your things and move to another place with better conditions. Using all your extensive savings from a job that in many parts of the US, pays up to 20% less than the livable wage?
- bmicraft 3y ago
  > You are always free to pack up your things It's literally not "free" to move. If it were, many people would've done it a long time ago. Beside the financial cost, there are also very real social costs like losing friends and family - basically your whole support network, as well as putting all of that burden on a potential spouse and maybe kids too.
- tptacek 3y ago
  There haven't been slaughterhouses in Chicago for over 50 years.
JumpCrisscross 3y ago
> People don't really choose to work, we work because we need to afford food and get health care and rent housing Almost everyone on HN can live to standards that would have been between comfortable and luxurious a hundred years ago, possibly even in a developed country. (The median world wage--assuming a 40-hour work week with 2 weeks off, which is not the median working schedule--is $5/day [1].) This doesn't undermine the struggle. Just that there is, to varying degrees (but increasingly so among anyone in tech), a choice being made. [1] https://news.gallup.com/poll/166211/worldwide-median-household-income-000.aspx https://news.gallup.com/poll/166211/worldwide-median-househo...
- eddtries 3y ago
  Which is why I find it somewhat sickening when people argue that those who have to pee in bottles to meet KPIs for low wages are able to just go and find other work. People are out of touch on HN. I'm lucky, I can go find other work and live without working for a while. Someone on the poverty line working a warehouse job for health insurance to cover their diabetes in America is not able to "just move to a new place" like a sibling comment stated. The real goal should be to raise the bottom line up so even the poorest have a decent standard of living which is how the Nordic countries behave.

ExoticPearTree 3y ago

You are always free to pack up your things and move to another place with better conditions. I would say it is worse for people in Chicago that work in the big slaughterhouses and even though they can pursue other opportunities, they still choose to work there. Using the "small town, no options" narrative doesn't really hold water.

eddtries 3y ago
My point is if you're working a job it isn't as easy as "find another one". These things are tough personal emotional topics. No-one wants to work at a job where they have to pee in a bottle, yet people work there.
FireBeyond 3y ago
> You are always free to pack up your things and move to another place with better conditions. Using all your extensive savings from a job that in many parts of the US, pays up to 20% less than the livable wage?
bmicraft 3y ago
> You are always free to pack up your things It's literally not "free" to move. If it were, many people would've done it a long time ago. Beside the financial cost, there are also very real social costs like losing friends and family - basically your whole support network, as well as putting all of that burden on a potential spouse and maybe kids too.
tptacek 3y ago
There haven't been slaughterhouses in Chicago for over 50 years.

JumpCrisscross 3y ago

> People don't really choose to work, we work because we need to afford food and get health care and rent housing Almost everyone on HN can live to standards that would have been between comfortable and luxurious a hundred years ago, possibly even in a developed country. (The median world wage--assuming a 40-hour work week with 2 weeks off, which is not the median working schedule--is $5/day [1].) This doesn't undermine the struggle. Just that there is, to varying degrees (but increasingly so among anyone in tech), a choice being made. [1] https://news.gallup.com/poll/166211/worldwide-median-household-income-000.aspx https://news.gallup.com/poll/166211/worldwide-median-househo...

eddtries 3y ago
Which is why I find it somewhat sickening when people argue that those who have to pee in bottles to meet KPIs for low wages are able to just go and find other work. People are out of touch on HN. I'm lucky, I can go find other work and live without working for a while. Someone on the poverty line working a warehouse job for health insurance to cover their diabetes in America is not able to "just move to a new place" like a sibling comment stated. The real goal should be to raise the bottom line up so even the poorest have a decent standard of living which is how the Nordic countries behave.