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by las_cases 4199 days ago
No disrespect, I have something that is pressing on my heart.

I am absolutely mind blown by reading the comments here. You are afraid of what will happen to your job when you reach 40? Ask yourself this: how do you think people managed to live and have a job a hundred years ago when they hit 40 or 50?

OK, perhaps this is a cultural thing. I am from eastern Europe where a "normal" annual income, for a single person, can be $12,000. So a couple can bring $24,000 I assume this would be devastating in US. Just like the news the other day with the president of a university (in UK?) where he was complaining of having to deal with an €220,000 annual income.

But of course, you are aware of this discrepancy. Otherwise why would these kind of job offerings exist: https://www.elance.com/j/wordpress-plugin-theme-developer-mo...

$300 / month "FULL-TIME wordpress plugin and theme developer from Pakistan and India only."

Please, if you are being laid off at 40 and in the case you are not suffering from a company downsizing, bankruptcy or you don't have medical issues (another interesting topic to talk about) it means that you are either an incompetent or a lazy individual.

No disrespect, please just wake up from your dream.

EDIT: I just realized from the feedback to this message how completely and utterly naive I am to not taking into account that HN is in no way representative of the average worker in US. Here, the absolute majority seems to be only people from IT which don't quite appreciate the opportunity and privilege actually to be able to code and think that only > $60,000 salaries are worth their time and effort.

Good luck then!

1 comments

If we take the global perspective the quality of the state funded safety nets combined with the local culture and job market greatly affect what the implications of a lay-off are. And they can vary drastically.

For instance in the USA the economically worse off are in relative terms considerably more worse off than in countries with lower income inequality.

I just cannot believe you are arguing that in US you have a more hard time finding a job then in a less developed country like in Eastern Europe.

> You seem rather ignorant of the U.S. then.

To this type of a comment you can easily answer the same way. You madam or sir seem to be equally ignorant of Europe as well.

I don't think I argued that - but that the amount of economic options available to individuals should not be deduced from comparing GDP or such. I think in eastern europe most countries are still civilized enough to offer basic medical care without insurance?

Any way, I have no local knowledge of either issue ... I'm located in northern europe.

You seem rather ignorant of the U.S. then.