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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 11th, 2023

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  • You think that way because they’ve taught you to think that way. Instead, you should be very plain about your pay expectations. If someone starts getting on your case for being “pay motivated” or some other horseshit HR wageyganda idea, here’s what you say.

    “I hear what you’re saying, and certainly the main drivers in my career goals are broadening my skillset and achieving excellence. However, my life and family goals operate in a capitalist society reliant on me growing my compensation year over year. If this job is unprepared to meet my life goals, then let’s be explicit about that so I can reevaluate my plan for my household and decide whether this position is a fit.”




  • It’s not a matter of amount, it’s a matter of allocation. You have water shortages in a lot of places because agriculture uses massive amounts of potable water to irrigate (and can afford to do so- because water is and should be cheap). If agriculture were more efficient, we would have a lot more potable water- but making it more efficient takes money, resources, work, and ongoing maintenance. Similarly, the existence of vacant housing and homeless people doesn’t imply that we have enough housing to go around. A lot of vacant housing is vacant for a reason- it’s not ok to be shoving homeless people into collapsing apartments, unsafe buildings, a sixth-floor walkup when they’re in a wheelchair, etc. Food also is way more than the production cost, it’s also transporting the food to a place where it can be made available, keeping the food fresh and safe, and preparing it. For a lot of countries with an unstable food supply, the problem is much less that they don’t have enough food and more that it’s difficult or unsafe to get food to the tables of people who are hungry.

    This might have been implied in your comment but it’s far more nuanced than “we just need to care more about feeding everybody”- there are real tradeoffs and real commitment of real work and resources, and important sacrifices both known and unknown to any system you design.