[wincy]

Geez man just relax a bit and move to a smaller city. I make 100k and live in a 2200 square foot house with 3 grocery stores within walking distance and a 10 minute commute. Life is pretty easy, I make websites for my companies marketing team. I don’t even have a high school diploma. Nobody is pressuring me to work as many hours a day as possible.

California and New York are not the whole world, and things are really great for raising a family in the Midwest. Both of those places seem like a dystopia borne of the city councils own design and people’s willingness to live in a bad environment.

And billionaires aren’t going to treat everyone super terrible because any billionaire knows if the peasants aren’t getting their bread instead they want the riches heads. That’s not really a great gambit if you’re ultra rich.

[HumanDrivenDev]

Geez man just relax a bit and move to a smaller city. I make 100k and live in a 2200 square foot house with 3 grocery stores within walking distance and a 10 minute commute. Life is pretty easy, I make websites for my companies marketing team.

Unfortunately not all of us live in America :( 100k USD for a run of the mill web-developer is just not going to happen where I am (New Zealand), and housing is much more expensive too.

[nisten]

If you're ultra-rich you can just go to your backup home in New Zealand and comfortably watch all your peasants starve.

[voltagex_]

100k is far, far beyond what a lot of people earn.

[adamsea]

The problem is your 100K income is exception not the rule. Many if not most people are struggling.

And, history shows pretty conclusively the supremely rich have no problem keeping the peasants from their bread, so to speak. The rich either crack the whip and the peasants knuckle under, or, the wealthy delude themselves in thinking all is well right up to the guillotine.

[LandR]

A mid-level web developer where I live might make $50-55k a year.

US $100k a year salaries are not the norm world wide.

[vertexFarm]

It's not about me, it's about statistics. About how these situations are affecting steadily larger amount of people, and percentages of them are affected very badly. If you think that it won't eventually affect the midwest, you haven't checked your history. If you think industry won't treat us so badly for fear of revolution, you haven't checked your history.

I know it's pretty ridiculous for me to run out in the street and start chanting the end is nigh over a little change in our culture. But it's not just one little change. It's a sum of many changes which have added up over the last few decades and the trend that it represents. It's not about now, it's about where that trend is going in the near future. Believe it or not, things will not remain this good if we are apathetic about it. That is not the default state of society.

If you have read up on the history of what people have been through in this country and the world as a result of the first industrial revolution, you would also be wary of the second which is coming about right now due to automation. It's worth extreme vigilance.

For the record, I don't live in New York or California either. I'm in an industry which was once full of steady salaried jobs, but now it's entirely shifted over to gig-economy contracting. Getting insurance is a nightmare and eats up my margins. What was once a very livable job now hardly pays for an apartment. It's specialized work that requires technical skills. I work very long hours and practically every weekend. I am not proud of that, and I know I need a change of career, but once again--it's not about me, it's about statistics. It's naive to expect that everyone can change their career to whatever the best career is at the moment. You are being obtuse if you think everyone can get your job and be in your living situation, which I am happy for by the way. That's fantastic.

The United States was once a country about building physical things, manufacturing and construction and mining. People made a good, dignified living off that for a while. That time is obviously gone, and contrary to what certain political parties think, it just won't be coming back. You can't put the toothpaste back in the tube as they say--or rather you could if you had a toothpaste packing machine, but they're on the other side of the world and they're automated now anyway, so it wouldn't matter if we did bring them back. That work is gone.

I think what people don't often consider is that making software, networks, apps, content, websites, etc. is our new labor. A huge portion of our society is now doing this, as everyone here knows. A few decades ago, it was super-specialized, highly educated, protected work. That is changing.

We are the new labor, and our work is the weft and warp of the middle class in several cities and communities in this country. But that shouldn't be taken for granted. We are soon going to be treated as laborers are traditionally treated if we don't take steps to secure a dignified living.