[icedchai]

Those things are obviously unfortunate, but relatively rare. It is also rare to win the lottery, or actually make a profit on startup stock options. I am not talking about these cases.

The average person in this industry makes good money, and should have the ability to save and invest some of their income.

[tejtm]

I would urge us all to not associate the odds of becoming genetically broken with the odds of winning the lottery. Being a mammal more or less assures that if we live long enough (4x to 5x reproductive age) we will accumulate enough damage to have adverse events. This is multiple orders of magnitude more like than a life altering lottery win in the same time span.

[grosjona]

There aren't many good investment options available these days.

Real estate is too expensive, interest rates on cash are too low and VCs have a monopoly on the startup space and the media.

The most rational option seems to be to invest in stocks... To fuel corporations which inflate real estate prices by forcing their employees to relocate to major urban centers. The same corporations which are responsible for the low interest rate environment (through their lobbying and corruption of government agencies). The same corporations which are responsible for monopolizing the startup space by only funding and acquiring incubator and VC-backed startups.

So yeah there aren't many ethical options. That's why I invest in cryptocurrency. I'd rather risk losing all the money than fund my own (and everyone else's) enslavement.

[gazarsgo]

I can't decide whether this is noble or simply pragmatic. Kudos, either way.

I wonder if there will be a trend towards bootstrapping?

[clumsysmurf]

> Those things are obviously unfortunate, but relatively rare

Not rare at all, 1 in 5 Americans is being pursued by collection agencies for being unable to pay medical bills.

[icedchai]

That's good news. Since they're not paying their bills, they actually have more money to invest instead. ;)

You know what they say about lies and statistics... In all seriousness, even if this dubious statistic is true, most of those are not due to terminal or debilitating illnesses. "Unable to pay medical bills" can be for a variety of reasons, ranging from the obvious (not having the money), to confusion, to billing errors or insurance problems.

[ceejayoz]

In the US, it needn't be terminal nor debilitating to bankrupt you.

[ams6110]

Bankruptcy is not the end of the world. It's an inconvenience for a few years.

[lazyasciiart]

It's certainly the end of the "hey I have so much money I don't even need to work" feeling of financial independence, though.

[goodpass]

I can tell you’ve never been bankrupt.

[philsnow]

wow, do you have a citation for that ?

[pkaye]

Its not as rare as you think. Maybe 10% of cancer by your 40s. Much more likely than winning a lottery or making a ton in stock options.