I disagree. From my experience our best minds tend to work on the most important problems. And in America most people living paycheck to paycheck are doing so by choice, so that’s really more of a cultural problem as opposed to economic.

You could disagree but “people are living paycheck to paycheck by choice” makes everything else you say sound as wrong as your disagreement.

> living paycheck to paycheck by choice

Hmmmmmmm

> From my experience the best minds tend to work on important problems

My experience is that you're incorrect.

Or actual taxation of the wealthy, universal health care, and housing policy change.

The top 10% of taxpayers pay 70% of the tax. That we do not tax the wealthy is simply false. Whether we should tax them more is a separate issue.

"They we're technically taxed" is just pedantry. What is the effective tax rate compared to the 1950s-1970s when the economy actually worked for the middle class?

That's borderline negative view. I never sold an ad in my life, yet I have pretty good life, very very far from the need for a second job. I assume most of people here are in similar spot.

What I see is tons of people living the same template: pick secure, well paid job, no matter how meaningless. Even when they take a risk to spin some startup, very often goal is to sell off and retire, with little interest in what they actually do.

Then these people get depressed and complain how life is bleak, capitalism cruel and everything should collapse.

What percentage of the population do you think lives like you do?

Personal experiences is anecdotal. There's hard stat's that say that a majority of this country does not live like you do.

I never said that, there aren't people with bigger issues than mine. Sure there are. I argue that you don't have to go to silicon Valley or wall street to have decent life, which was stated by OP.

Btw I'm not from USA and reading HN recently, I'm kinda happy about it, because it seems only options on your side are: starving, prisoner of job, sell-off with guilt trips/existential crisis, demoralized billionaire. Is there anyone left in the US, who simply enjoys life as it is?

I obviously dramatize here a bit, but literally a few comments earlier someone wrote to me, that, he/she didn't consent to be alive. Really dystopian thread.

The world is a borderline negative place. I just read an article about journalists being beheaded in some country.

I notice financially privileged people tend to advocate for a 'dont worry be happy' 'everythings going to be alright' mode of living life because theyre shielded from the brutality of the world by their money or their families money.

It's the same reason financially privileged people never admit that they had help from their family and always claim that they made their money themselves.

Because they're completely unaware of what it really takes to make it in life without any help from anyone and I suspect feel a little guilty how easy their life has been compared to others and want to connect with, and associate with people who actually made it on their own.

If you have ever been poor or financially struggling, you would realize 'don't worry be happy' is not a functional way of living life if you don't have family money....at least in America.

The real advice is to fight tooth and nail to try to get oneself and family to financial safety.

My parents were factory workers in socialist eastern block. Recently my father recalled that Wrangler bag, he received when he finally had money to buy branded jeans was status symbol on par with the jeans itself. Currently I'm earning maybe a half of what's advertised as average dev salary in US (which admittedly takes me much further, where I live - maybe you guys should consider relocation?).

May I have my happiness-pass now please? :-)

> The real advice is to fight tooth and nail to try to get oneself and family to financial safety.

It is. My parents surely did and I'm also going to (btw calling this privilege and guilt tripping over fact, that somebody's parents are decent human beings is kinda weird).

This is how life works. No reason to obsess over some places being shitty. There's less of them than a few generations ago (fun fact - my city still has its old beheading stone. Thankfully not used for couple hundreds of years).

> were factory workers in socialist eastern block

That's a rough start. Did they retire? What do they do now?

They did, quite recently(with some twists in the meantime due to fall of socialism and later privatization). Currently they renovate what's left from grandparents house to settle in countryside - mostly by hand as they enjoy the process. Honestly pretty lovely & tranquil place.

What's funny, they will tell you, that factory wasn't bad compared to work in the field they did with their own parents. It also got them place in block of flats - objectively kinda crappy, but everything was crappy back then.

There's something really satisfying about working in the country and working with your hands to build your own house and grow your own food after working hard in the system your whole life.

What happened to them after the fall of socialism?

Not that much. Factory went private which was sometimes better (more reasonable investment, tech progress), sometimes worse (high unemployment levels meant people were treated shitty sometimes). It was closed maybe 15 years later. Dad's pretty good welder/mechanic (spends a lot of time on this even now), so was hired in company providing, let's say, maintenence outsourcing for various business.

Nothing exciting, but they always provided for the family and helped us to start adult life however they could.