7 ms·

> We’re already there. Your individual labor isn’t enough to make a living unless you subscribe to the altar of a feudal FAANG. This is preposterous. You think

by jmye 7mo ago

> We’re already there. Your individual labor isn’t enough to make a living unless you subscribe to the altar of a feudal FAANG. This is preposterous. You think you already can't "make a living" without working at a FAANG? Is this a serious post?

estimator7292 7mo ago
Yes. That tends to happen when you don't increase the minimum wage for multiple decades.
- senordevnyc 7mo ago
  Damn, I hope no one tells the hundreds of millions of global middle class and upper middle class households who don't work for FAANG that they don't exist!
underlipton 7mo ago
He's right. It's not just FAANG, but if you're not within about 2 or 3 degrees of separation from FAANG or a subset (not even the whole thing) of SP500, you're hosed. Even then, it's not a panacea. McDonald's employees can confirm. And it's because only those companies are big enough to cut deals to shield themselves and their subjects from the massive amounts of debt the world economy is being forced to service; everyone else is dumping a double-digit percentage of their labor into covering the bad bets of our banks.
- scottyah 7mo ago
  Except for all the small business owners that are doing just fine, and many are more than fine. You just don't want to be a corpo who is competing with FAANG, or anywhere where you have to "share" any margins with them.
  - underlipton 7mo ago
    2 or 3 degrees of separation If money is trickling down to you from FAANG, you're benefiting from their largesse - or, rather, being exploited by the control they have over your source of income, as both an individual and an business owner. FAANG throwing their weight around to force-underpay suppliers becomes the problem of the retail worker whose wages are paid by underpaid consumers. And so on.
ceejayoz 7mo ago
I had to drop off my health insurance when the bill hit $4,850.24/month. Millions did the same. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/19/aca-enrollees-uninsured.html https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/19/aca-enrollees-uninsured.html
- bloppe 7mo ago
  That sucks and I hope congress gets their shit together soon, but there are a lot of non-FAANG companies that offer insurance.
  - ceejayoz 7mo ago
    That money black hole hits companies too. A $50k/year job typically can't throw in $60k in healthcare benefits.
    - raw_anon_1111 7mo ago
      It’s not that much. https://www.peoplekeep.com/blog/cost-of-employer-sponsored-health-insurance https://www.peoplekeep.com/blog/cost-of-employer-sponsored-h... A small company can use a PEO like Rippling (a YC company) where employees are “co employed” with the actual company and for taxes/HR/benefits with for Rippling. It’s not like contracting. Everyone from the CEO down is “co employed”
      - deleted 7mo ago
        [deleted]
      - ceejayoz 7mo ago
        It really is. The US saw an average of $14,885 per-capita healthcare costs in 2024. Higher now.
        raw_anon_1111 7mo ago
        I’m never going to defend the American health care system as I sit in a country now for six weeks where I fully plan to become a resident of post retirement mainly because of the healthcare even if I don’t live here full time.
bloppe 7mo ago
For a lot of people on HN, "making a living" means owning property in a VHCOL area.
- WarcrimeActual 7mo ago
  Correct. This is a space occupied disproportionately by spoiled rich nepo or otherwise kept silver spooned babies.
  - deleted 7mo ago
    [deleted]
- anigbrowl 7mo ago
  Those used to be quite reasonable cost of living areas. We're not talking about owning a mansion in the Hamptons, but a decent-sized apartment in a downtown area or a nice single family home in a pleasant neighborhood.
- _DeadFred_ 7mo ago
  For a lot of people on HN, they grew up in VHCOL places that used to be affordable and are trying to keep the lives they've had since birth. I was forced to move, lost connection to my friends and half my family, all the places I knew and had memories/attachment to, habits/hobbies. I understand why they are fighting to keep their lives and not give up and in a way die and start a new, lonelier, much different life. I don't understand how that is nepo/spoiled/rich behavior, it's just basic normal human behavior. Thinking it's totally cool to displace people is also normal human behavior, just to me the shittier less justifiable of the two.
  - bloppe 7mo ago
    I agree with all of that, but it's not representative of everybody that grew up in the VHCOL area. A slight majority of residents in the Bay Area (used as an example) own their own home. If you grew up there, and your parents owned their own home, your family has benefited enormously from the meteoric rise in house prices. Those people (long-time residents) are thrilled by the influx of tech cash and actively pursue NIMBY policies to restrict the housing supply to keep prices as high as possible. Most of the tech workers actually moving to the Bay Area and renting would much prefer a massive increase in the housing supply to bring prices down. California is an especially egregious example because none of the inherited familial homes are taxed appropriately, which lowers liquidity and drives up market rates further. If you wanted to create a landed gentry, California Article XIII A is the gold standard for a policy to do that [1] Of course, a lot of families never end up owning a home in an area that will experience that kind of appreciation. But the idea that it's "newcomers vs. life-long-residents" is wrong. It's actually more about the tension between the life-long-residents who own property and pursue NIMBYism vs. everyone else. [1]: https://law.justia.com/constitution/california/article-xiii-a/section-2/ https://law.justia.com/constitution/california/article-xiii-...
commandlinefan 7mo ago
When I was 8 or so (early 80's), I read a news article that said something like "in the near future, robots will do all work and humans won't have to work at all". The news article made it sound like it would happen before I reached adulthood and even then I could see the problem there: "who decides who gets to live in the big house at the top of the hill and who decided who has to live where I live?" Communism/socialism/wealth distribution/planned economies is one potential solution, but it's an awfully ham-fisted one and definitely not one to put into place until it's absolutely necessary. I kind of suspect that a lot of people, like OP, are kind of hoping that now is the time, but it definitely isn't, at least not yet.
deleted 7mo ago
[deleted]

by jmye 7mo ago

estimator7292 7mo ago

Yes. That tends to happen when you don't increase the minimum wage for multiple decades.

senordevnyc 7mo ago
Damn, I hope no one tells the hundreds of millions of global middle class and upper middle class households who don't work for FAANG that they don't exist!

underlipton 7mo ago

He's right. It's not just FAANG, but if you're not within about 2 or 3 degrees of separation from FAANG or a subset (not even the whole thing) of SP500, you're hosed. Even then, it's not a panacea. McDonald's employees can confirm. And it's because only those companies are big enough to cut deals to shield themselves and their subjects from the massive amounts of debt the world economy is being forced to service; everyone else is dumping a double-digit percentage of their labor into covering the bad bets of our banks.

scottyah 7mo ago
Except for all the small business owners that are doing just fine, and many are more than fine. You just don't want to be a corpo who is competing with FAANG, or anywhere where you have to "share" any margins with them.
- underlipton 7mo ago
  2 or 3 degrees of separation If money is trickling down to you from FAANG, you're benefiting from their largesse - or, rather, being exploited by the control they have over your source of income, as both an individual and an business owner. FAANG throwing their weight around to force-underpay suppliers becomes the problem of the retail worker whose wages are paid by underpaid consumers. And so on.

ceejayoz 7mo ago

I had to drop off my health insurance when the bill hit $4,850.24/month. Millions did the same. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/19/aca-enrollees-uninsured.html https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/19/aca-enrollees-uninsured.html

bloppe 7mo ago
That sucks and I hope congress gets their shit together soon, but there are a lot of non-FAANG companies that offer insurance.
- ceejayoz 7mo ago
  That money black hole hits companies too. A $50k/year job typically can't throw in $60k in healthcare benefits.
  - raw_anon_1111 7mo ago
    It’s not that much. https://www.peoplekeep.com/blog/cost-of-employer-sponsored-health-insurance https://www.peoplekeep.com/blog/cost-of-employer-sponsored-h... A small company can use a PEO like Rippling (a YC company) where employees are “co employed” with the actual company and for taxes/HR/benefits with for Rippling. It’s not like contracting. Everyone from the CEO down is “co employed”
    - deleted 7mo ago
      [deleted]
    - ceejayoz 7mo ago
      It really is. The US saw an average of $14,885 per-capita healthcare costs in 2024. Higher now.
      - raw_anon_1111 7mo ago
        I’m never going to defend the American health care system as I sit in a country now for six weeks where I fully plan to become a resident of post retirement mainly because of the healthcare even if I don’t live here full time.

bloppe 7mo ago

For a lot of people on HN, "making a living" means owning property in a VHCOL area.

WarcrimeActual 7mo ago
Correct. This is a space occupied disproportionately by spoiled rich nepo or otherwise kept silver spooned babies.
- deleted 7mo ago
  [deleted]
anigbrowl 7mo ago
Those used to be quite reasonable cost of living areas. We're not talking about owning a mansion in the Hamptons, but a decent-sized apartment in a downtown area or a nice single family home in a pleasant neighborhood.
_DeadFred_ 7mo ago
For a lot of people on HN, they grew up in VHCOL places that used to be affordable and are trying to keep the lives they've had since birth. I was forced to move, lost connection to my friends and half my family, all the places I knew and had memories/attachment to, habits/hobbies. I understand why they are fighting to keep their lives and not give up and in a way die and start a new, lonelier, much different life. I don't understand how that is nepo/spoiled/rich behavior, it's just basic normal human behavior. Thinking it's totally cool to displace people is also normal human behavior, just to me the shittier less justifiable of the two.
- bloppe 7mo ago
  I agree with all of that, but it's not representative of everybody that grew up in the VHCOL area. A slight majority of residents in the Bay Area (used as an example) own their own home. If you grew up there, and your parents owned their own home, your family has benefited enormously from the meteoric rise in house prices. Those people (long-time residents) are thrilled by the influx of tech cash and actively pursue NIMBY policies to restrict the housing supply to keep prices as high as possible. Most of the tech workers actually moving to the Bay Area and renting would much prefer a massive increase in the housing supply to bring prices down. California is an especially egregious example because none of the inherited familial homes are taxed appropriately, which lowers liquidity and drives up market rates further. If you wanted to create a landed gentry, California Article XIII A is the gold standard for a policy to do that [1] Of course, a lot of families never end up owning a home in an area that will experience that kind of appreciation. But the idea that it's "newcomers vs. life-long-residents" is wrong. It's actually more about the tension between the life-long-residents who own property and pursue NIMBYism vs. everyone else. [1]: https://law.justia.com/constitution/california/article-xiii-a/section-2/ https://law.justia.com/constitution/california/article-xiii-...

commandlinefan 7mo ago

When I was 8 or so (early 80's), I read a news article that said something like "in the near future, robots will do all work and humans won't have to work at all". The news article made it sound like it would happen before I reached adulthood and even then I could see the problem there: "who decides who gets to live in the big house at the top of the hill and who decided who has to live where I live?" Communism/socialism/wealth distribution/planned economies is one potential solution, but it's an awfully ham-fisted one and definitely not one to put into place until it's absolutely necessary. I kind of suspect that a lot of people, like OP, are kind of hoping that now is the time, but it definitely isn't, at least not yet.

deleted 7mo ago

[deleted]