No hate for the middle class. I can't help but enjoy the irony of people who thought they had solidarity with capital talking like Ned Ludd all of a sudden.
this post was submitted on 28 Jan 2024
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Yes, well sometimes coworkers talk. Salary numbers may have been mentioned but I can’t remember. What I do remember is that they had another job at the time teaching web design, that they relied on medical insurance when they had an accident only to discover that the company had not been paying their insurance premium. It was around that time that I was terminated, so I didn’t keep in touch with them much after that. Suffice it to say, this company didn’t have enough money to meet payroll each month and it meant one employee would have a bounced paycheck - whomever got to the bank to cash it last.
Yes, it was ridiculous and true. Jobs in this town were slim for this talent and by and large, no companies at that time were hiring for remote work, despite it being technically possible as we were all working on the web itself.
I really don’t though. I’ve been very consistent throughout this conversation. I find it funny that you think you’ve “got me” when I’ve literally experienced this myself. I could prove all of this to you but it would cost me my and their anominimty and this convo isn’t worth it just to prove to you that YES, sometimes people (even professionals with lots of experience) end up in shitty situations.
I’m really surprised you need a conversation this detailed and need to backcheck every detail of my story just to understand that point.
But by all means, continue to do so if you really care. Just know that things aren’t going to match up 100% due to trying to recall things from memory of 23-24 or so years ago. Things which aren’t really needed as the story of people making a little bit of money in their first job and then going on to make more money in other jobs is a story that I don’t really think needs to be explained in vivid detail.
Then why say this at the start of your comment thread?
Either you knew their rough salary, or can't remember. Which was it?
I know some people making six figures with second jobs, especially if they're teaching in their field or live in a high COL area. It doesn't mean they make "minimum wage" but maybe they live paycheck to paycheck. Those are very, very different.
Sorry. The exact salary amount doesn’t matter in this case, because I know enough about their situation (which I won’t be disclosing to you) to do a rough estimate based on their quality of life and from the information they’ve given me.
FFS man, chill out. Save this energy for when you’re debating some right-wing lunatic trying to push bullshit narratives.
I can’t remember lots of things. Hence my name, Dipshit. I’m a dumb pile of shit with ADHD. I’ve had a lot of conversations over the years and I don’t remember everything from them. What got encoded in my dumb little memory was that they weren’t making much more than me.
But shit man, what you’re not seeming to understand here is that:
minimum wage x full time work ~= $A
this person’s salary at this job + this person’s salary at thier other job ~= $B
$A and $B are not very far off. Functionally, they are the same when compared to $C, what either of our salaries should’ve been, even with me being fresh out of high school, but still having a few projects under my belt.
If you don’t accept it, don’t accept it. It’s one example out of many that people can provide. I don’t really have a desire to continue trying to anonymize parts of my employment history to you in an effort to convince some stranger that the things I know happened happened.
The real conversation here which I’m trying to have with you once you stop nitpicking on my personal back story (in an effort to dox me I assume because this is getting a little much, don’t you think?) is why are you so flabbergasted by this concept?
Are you familar with the idea that people can be paid less money than what they are worth? Do you know how capitalism works? Do you understand that there will be winners and losers and because we don’t live in a meritocracy, who gets to be winners and who gets to be losers largely comes from chance?
Your entire point seems to be on disproving my experience, I assume because then that would mean that in your head your argument is sound, that everyone is paid what they are worth, and that it was just a “skill issue” from someone with “victim mentality” (both your phrases) why someone wouldn’t be paid what they are worth.
What’s your point?
That’s a good thing I didn’t say they were making minimum wage. Look, throwing out some numbers here randomly (small numbers since it’s going to be easier to calculate and I am a dipshit):
hypothetical minimum wage $10/hour. 40hr / week that’s $400/week. x 4 weeks in a month that’s $1600/month. After taxes (let’s say half - what’s advised for sole proprietors anyway - for ease of math) that’s $800/month.
This person was making salary at their teaching job so that’s $X, but what I’m saying is that the web dev agency which hired them paid them $Y. I don’t know if $X == $Y and also was married with a husband with salary $Z, but I do know that $X + $Y + $Z <= COL for that area.
This tells me that both myself and them were having trouble making ends meet in the same area. That area was a relatively low cost of living area as well. I’m no economist but i would estimate that salary ranges (in the pre-remote work boom) in an area vary depending on the COL, meaning that low cost of living area salaries may be something like fulltime work at minimum wage for a year * 2 or maybe * 3, but HCOL area salaries may be something like fulltime work at minimum wage for a year * 5 or * 10. These opinions are my own and may be very wrong but they just seem to be what I have experienced at least back then. Now with remote work it’s hard to say since high earners can move to rural areas and work for companies in HCOL areas.
I didn’t think I’d be talking to someone who’s going to try to pull apart my anonymized story to look for defects to try to win an argument. My previous answers reflect the person I once was prior to this conversation going down such a deep and personal rabbit hole.