Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by pydry 1068 days ago
Me too. My parents made significantly more in their entire lifetime from the appreciation of a house they bought in the 1980s than they ever did earning a lower middle class wage. It's quite common, but not talked about in polite conversation.

If you have even a half hearted belief in meritocracy that represents a failure of epic proportions.

As a top 10%-er wouldn't qualify for a mortgage to buy the house I grew up in.

This wasn't an accident. The country has been on the road to serfdom and ever since Thatcher violently crushed the Labour unions.
2 comments
flatline 1068 days ago
I am in the top 10% and live quite comfortably in a house I own, provide for two children, and have some disposable income. I would say I live a similar quality of life that my art professor father did, who was making ~$35/yr over most of his career, which was a comfortable but lower middle class income at the time.

Part of the difference may be that none of us have lived in HCOL areas.

link
pydry 1068 days ago
The most desperate people ive met in the UK are those that grew up in a HCOL area to lower middle class/poor parents, went to university and did average jobs and paid 60% of their take home on renting a bedroom.

They would tell me that their retirement plan was a bullet.

I'm glad you're doing well though.

link
gruez 1068 days ago
>If you have even a half hearted belief in meritocracy that represents a failure of epic proportions.

I'm curious, what do you think "half hearted belief in meritocracy" consist of? From the rest of your comment, it sounds like any sort of economic system where you can earn money without the effort of yourself (ie. investment) isn't meritocratic?

link
pydry 1068 days ago
Pretty much. If that type of income dominates your economic system it murders the incentive to actually create value.

Doing well in your career means nothing because the benefits are a rounding error on the rewards of having wealthy parents or getting into bitcoin early or whatever.

Quite apart from being grossly unfair it's grossly inefficient to structure the economy so that unearned income is privileged and dominates.

link