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Personally, I don't know any working-class people who can afford a Tesla, let alone a space launch vehicle.
by dventimi 2y ago
Personally, I don't know any working-class people who can afford a Tesla, let alone a space launch vehicle.
- thaumasiotes 2y agoI do! I met a nursing student in Shanghai who ended up marrying a "driver". (For reference, the way you get into nursing school in China is by flunking the college entrance exam.) Attending Fudan University, I also met several students there and at the school across the street, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. Both are highly prestigious. Everyone's graduated by now, and the most materially successful of all the contacts I made, by far, is the nurse. She already owns a Tesla and an apartment in Shanghai. (She also has a child, which is true of only one of the university students.) What's her secret? The couple's parents bought those things for them.
- dventimi 2y agoWhat's her secret? She works in healthcare, which is very expensive in the United States and especially in the Bay Area, and tends to pay nurses very very well (especially in the Bay Area). This illustrates my point. Her high salary as a nurse comes at the cost of many people around her, in many ways: we all pay higher healthcare costs, in part because of the high pay for doctors and nurses (as well as to hospital administrators, insurance companies, drug companies, etc.), and she's yet another highly-paid professional with the ability to outcompete other people for things like housing. Is she working class? I'm not convinced that she is.
- thaumasiotes 2y agoThis is one of the worst failures of reading comprehension I've ever seen. Quick question: what is the only country mentioned in my comment above?
- dventimi 2y agoQuick question: why do you ask?
- thaumasiotes 2y agoWell, for example, you referred to my acquaintance's "high salary as a nurse" despite the fact that she doesn't have one. You strongly implied that you believe she is located in the United States, despite the fact that I mentioned her location in China in roughly every other sentence of my comment. Nothing in your comment suggested that you were able to understand any complete sentence from mine. Was that all an illusion? If so, what image were you trying to present? Why?
- dventimi 2y agoJust as I thought. You said you know a working-class person who can afford a Tesla, in a thread about homelessness in San Francisco which, last time I checked, is in the United States. You said she was a nursing student in Shanghai in the past, and does own an apartment in Shanghai now. I know people from China who are nurses in California now, and I know people who live in California who own property abroad, and nothing you wrote ruled out any of that. So, if it turns out your friend isn't a nurse, doesn't have a high salary, and doesn't live in San Francisco, or some combination thereof, I'm going to score that as a giant lapse in reading comprehension in a thread about high salaries in San Francisco.
- satvikpendem 2y agoI do, especially the cheaper ones. Many people buy F150s as well (best selling vehicle in the US), as they are about the same prices.
- johnnyanmac 2y agoGP said afford, not that they are buying them anyway despite living paycheck to paycheck.
- satvikpendem 2y agoSounds like goalpost moving for the common use of the word "afford," but even if we take it to be what you mean, that's still an assumption you're making, as they can afford it theoretically, and the fact that they do or don't buy is ancillary; I can also afford a Lamborghini, but I'm not going to buy one.
- dventimi 2y agoThe median price for a Tesla Model 3 in 2024 was ~$47k. The median price for a 4-door compact sedan in 2024 was ~$26k, or almost half as much. I'm sure some working-class people can afford a Tesla. None of these are hard and fast rules, and there are exceptions. But, which do you think is going to be more affordable to a typical working class person? The $47k car or the $26k car?
- satvikpendem 2y agoNo one said more affordable, the commenter above simply said affordable to which I rebutted.
- dventimi 2y agoThe commenter above that introduced the word affordable, that commenter was me, and I'm free to clarify what I meant, which I just did.