But for the tons of unskilled craigslist jobs, in these depressed areas, they will get hundreds of resumes. In most places around the US, the reality is multipointed:
* Nobody who would want to hire someone has the capital to do so, or the resources to handle the absurd regulation surrounding hiring an employee.
* The economic cycles in a lot of these areas are not producer ones, so they don't see job growth even when people need basic necessities. The kinds of work in most areas of the US is dwindling, and often specialized and requiring either a degree, or no need to be self sustaining (ie, walmart clerks or mcdonalds staff, because you don't earn a living wage on minimum wage).
* Anyone with money has better, less risky options (usually created through law and false economics) that investing in small town startups that would hire the millions of unemployed as service workers. Because we already know they will never be hired as producers, because we already optimized production into factory farms and automated warehouses. The capital holders get plenty of returns on their investments by operating in an economic cycle outside most of the US, and they do so not for missed opportunity - everyone understands not utilizing the human capital of some 60 million people is wasteful - but because it is much safer to keep playing wal-street with federal bailouts than to try entrepreneurship.
I can't help but feel sorry for all these chaps that are arguing. Do you all live in a fantasy land? I feel like almost nobody here has truly started from the bottom, but rather like to observe from the tower they were born in.
Why is it that I was able to live on part-time minimum wage ($10/hr) that covered rent (rented a room for $500), food ($100 a month and I ate like a king, never ate outside, always home cooked), and my drinking? I was living fine. If you can't manage your money, that's your problem. Sure I couldn't buy the latest boots or iphone, but who gives a fuck? Buy a book, it'll cost ya $5 and last you for far longer than that stupid phone you slaved a month away working for.
If you manage your money well you will save little, by little, and you will invest that capital into bettering yourself and moving up. I saved money for online courses.
If you don't get out into the real world and hustle, you will get nowhere. Reading a lot of HN I can't help but feel that most HN'ers want their computer to be their absolute portal into real life.
It isn't. It's like, 1% of real life. Real life is face to face. Real life is personal relationships with people, it's respect, it's keeping your word, it's keeping calm, it's keeping your mind in a good state, it's building relationships that benefit both people, it's not being a bitch. It's not about you. It's about them, and when you enforce that attitude, that attitude spreads and starts to work in your favour. You start meeting people, and keeping those people. Nothing has ever changed anything for me than buckling down, making myself presentable, and being confident. It's hard, but it needs to get done.
I invested PURELY IN KNOWLEDGE. I then sold that knowledge. That's how you make money. You trade knowledge, for cash. I buy gourmet food now, because I can't cook it myself. I pay for university, because it's far easier to learn something from a professional in 4 years than ripping through books my entire life. This entire world is built upon this foundation.
I fucking hate seeing people argue this shit like it's black and white. The problem isn't the money, it's the people and the decisions they make. If you play your cards right you'll get to where you want to be.
I could have acted like a cynical poor ass like the world was working against me, and it was, but you need to rise above the victim mentality.
> Why is it that I was able to live on part-time minimum wage ($10/hr) that covered rent (rented a room for $500), food ($100 a month and I ate like a king, never ate outside, always home cooked), and my drinking? I was living fine.
Were you supporting a family at the time? If not, you might consider the possibility that what was a living income for you might not be sufficient for everyone else.
But then that brings me to the question, why are you packing on more than you can handle.
Disclaimer: I'm not talking about people who developed their lives in a different class, then lost everything. I'm talking about people that time and time again make dumb decisions, don't realize it, then blame their problems on either the system, or some other scapegoat when 90% of the time it's you that screws you.
Poor people want to have kids just like most of the rest of us. The idea that only people with means have the right to have kids goes beyond unreasonable and is actually inhumane.
And women often make decisions without realizing that the men in their lives are going to run away from responsibility, get arrested, develop a drinking or drug problem, crumble under the stress of trying to raise a family, or any number of other things. So they end up getting stuck with the necessity of raising their kids on their own in poverty.
Except in the case of medical problems and disabilities, poor two-parent families are typically the working poor, and they tend to have houses and such, and work multiple jobs if those jobs are available, since the jobs available to the working poor typically cap out at 30-35 hours a week with no benefits. And if they're not working, it's generally because they, just like middle class families, made decisions when they expected there would be jobs, and lost those jobs.
Yeah, the notion of personal responsibility in the current form has to go. Genetics and environment is absolutely huge influence and I cant blame a person for poor money management skills if he or she was in a toxic environment all his life.
* Nobody who would want to hire someone has the capital to do so, or the resources to handle the absurd regulation surrounding hiring an employee.
* The economic cycles in a lot of these areas are not producer ones, so they don't see job growth even when people need basic necessities. The kinds of work in most areas of the US is dwindling, and often specialized and requiring either a degree, or no need to be self sustaining (ie, walmart clerks or mcdonalds staff, because you don't earn a living wage on minimum wage).
* Anyone with money has better, less risky options (usually created through law and false economics) that investing in small town startups that would hire the millions of unemployed as service workers. Because we already know they will never be hired as producers, because we already optimized production into factory farms and automated warehouses. The capital holders get plenty of returns on their investments by operating in an economic cycle outside most of the US, and they do so not for missed opportunity - everyone understands not utilizing the human capital of some 60 million people is wasteful - but because it is much safer to keep playing wal-street with federal bailouts than to try entrepreneurship.