Ask HN: What motivates you to keep working despite government bailout/theft
3 comments
Well, one reason I keep going is that I'm not you and I don't have 15 years of living expenses. I have a wife and three-year-old girl who depend on me. I still have value in my house, even at deflated prices; it makes no sense for me to walk away from it. With my education and skill set, I can probably weather the storm as merely underpaid and underemployed. As long as I can put food on the table and keep the roof over our heads, I'll be happy.
> The older generations are gonna want us to work extra hard to pay off their debt
I agree, but what hasn't played a role in the prognosis for the future is technology. Slavery used to be the only resource leverage factor. But for the last two hundred years we've had technology as well. How many "unserviced people" (people who work but are not really paid, such as slaves or machines) x does it take to do the work of y? The further we push technology, the higher we can push that x:y ratio. So, if you look at it, at current ratios, we're screwed. But if we can really push technology, we might pull out of this ok. It's not fair that we should have to, but those are our cards.
And I don't want to be one of the millions of people telling you what to do, but in a similar situation to you, I would take everything and go someplace stable, safe and quiet, such as Switzerland, and keep things liquid and diverse, such as gold, silver, Singapore Dollars, Swiss Francs. I would absolutely get out. My wife's grandmother is Czech, and she was very rich before she had it all taken away in the 40's. It's not an uncommon story in such times, and such times are coming again. Get out; get safe.
> The older generations are gonna want us to work extra hard to pay off their debt
I agree, but what hasn't played a role in the prognosis for the future is technology. Slavery used to be the only resource leverage factor. But for the last two hundred years we've had technology as well. How many "unserviced people" (people who work but are not really paid, such as slaves or machines) x does it take to do the work of y? The further we push technology, the higher we can push that x:y ratio. So, if you look at it, at current ratios, we're screwed. But if we can really push technology, we might pull out of this ok. It's not fair that we should have to, but those are our cards.
And I don't want to be one of the millions of people telling you what to do, but in a similar situation to you, I would take everything and go someplace stable, safe and quiet, such as Switzerland, and keep things liquid and diverse, such as gold, silver, Singapore Dollars, Swiss Francs. I would absolutely get out. My wife's grandmother is Czech, and she was very rich before she had it all taken away in the 40's. It's not an uncommon story in such times, and such times are coming again. Get out; get safe.
thanks for the response; what you said makes sense. I guess my question is more about why should I keep working honestly, when the whole world seems to be working dishonestly.
I understand; I think your frustration is completely justified.
There are full generations in America and elsewhere who are about to go step-by-step through the Kübler-Ross model. You're smart enough to have already gone from denial to anger. It will take a while or a bigger drop for most of these people to get there. Then comes bargaining, depression and finally acceptance.
P.S. Why is the original post dead?
There are full generations in America and elsewhere who are about to go step-by-step through the Kübler-Ross model. You're smart enough to have already gone from denial to anger. It will take a while or a bigger drop for most of these people to get there. Then comes bargaining, depression and finally acceptance.
P.S. Why is the original post dead?
While I can perfectly understand you I'd suppose that the older generation also spent some of the money for your health, education, security and relatively carefree childhood. Many of them were in an undoubtedly more desperate situation during and after WWII than we are today. They pulled up their sleeves and ... you know the rest.
I have a huge appreciation of the WWII generations. They lived through the hard times, and learned frugality/sincerity/compassion. Baby boomers...not so much. That's why the current crop of congressmen (who are mostly baby boomers) decided to give billions to the banks without getting rid of the executives, or kill the bond holders, etc.
It may be impossible to preserve much savings through the current and coming crisis.
A couple of years ago I went on a binge and read every book about the South Sea Bubble and other aspects of financial disasters that I could find. A story that stuck in my head was of a British magistrate who fought mightly against the South Sea Bubble, publishing pamphlets, launching investigations, militating in the streets and before Parlament, etc. He tried to move all his money into land, but the general inflation of the bubble caused land prices to explode, and the cost of maintance and taxes also rose; as the bubble churned on year after year and kept failing his predictions of it being about to collapse, he eventually declared that "if the world has gone mad one must at some point go with it", gave up, and put all his money into stock. Then it crashed.
I've been thinking residential real estate was abotu to crash since 1999. If I had tried to speculate on that in anyway, I would have lost year after year before the present contraction. Bubbles being figments of crowd psychology, they can go on as long as the participants want.
But, it is a bad idea to give up in disgust and walk away. While your money may not survive the next five years, business connections and experience and even whole businesses probably will. Like a woman trying to re-enter the workforce after spending some years raising children, it can be hard to re-start, so I suspect there is little advantage to being a hermit somewhere for a while. Unless you are retiring anyway.
That said, there is no reason not to hold long memories against the individuals who are doing the most damage in this nonsense, both in business and in politics.
A couple of years ago I went on a binge and read every book about the South Sea Bubble and other aspects of financial disasters that I could find. A story that stuck in my head was of a British magistrate who fought mightly against the South Sea Bubble, publishing pamphlets, launching investigations, militating in the streets and before Parlament, etc. He tried to move all his money into land, but the general inflation of the bubble caused land prices to explode, and the cost of maintance and taxes also rose; as the bubble churned on year after year and kept failing his predictions of it being about to collapse, he eventually declared that "if the world has gone mad one must at some point go with it", gave up, and put all his money into stock. Then it crashed.
I've been thinking residential real estate was abotu to crash since 1999. If I had tried to speculate on that in anyway, I would have lost year after year before the present contraction. Bubbles being figments of crowd psychology, they can go on as long as the participants want.
But, it is a bad idea to give up in disgust and walk away. While your money may not survive the next five years, business connections and experience and even whole businesses probably will. Like a woman trying to re-enter the workforce after spending some years raising children, it can be hard to re-start, so I suspect there is little advantage to being a hermit somewhere for a while. Unless you are retiring anyway.
That said, there is no reason not to hold long memories against the individuals who are doing the most damage in this nonsense, both in business and in politics.
US is 65 trillion dollars in debt (and I am not a baby boomer who mortgaged our great country away), and just spent 3 trillions. The older generations are gonna want us to work extra hard to pay off their debt, or the government is gonna inflate our money away. Why should I work so hard, slaving day and night on my project, when they're just gonna steal the end values?
That's what I want to know. What motivates you guys to keep working? Because I'm on the verge of giving up (I've got 15 years of living expenses saved up, so I can either spend it on the startup, or just live a quiet life)
I feel like John Galt and just want to say 'I will stop the motor of the world', and walk away. What keeps you guys going?