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Comment by isoskeles | Hacker News Reader

It was said in a different direction. People who hold political opinion X must be from this background because they don’t understand the issue like I do.

I’m from a working class background and arrived at a different conclusion in my own experience. But I get lumped in with people raised upper middle class just because I couldn’t possibly have such opinions. Granted, this is why I try not to be defensive about it: who I am doesn’t really matter (nor should it for anyone else) when we’re discussing ideas.

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OP wasn't talking about a working class background - they were talking about extreme poverty. There are obvious differences.

Can you confirm whether you grew up in an environment of extreme poverty?

I don't think there is much dispute that developers tend to come from upper middle class families, which is exactly what the parent said.

He didn't say they must come from there.

> I don't think there is much dispute that developers tend to come from upper middle class families, which is exactly what the parent said.

I’d love to see some data.

Of course if you work at the kind of companies that only hire people with a top CS degree then you might be led to believe that.

In my experience though it’s not the case. The majority of people in my office grew up lower middle class.

which still isn't extreme poverty.

The OP was talking about working class families. That’s a far cry from extreme poverty.

My parents were cleaners and although we were often tight on money we were miles away from extreme poverty.

Can you define 'working class family'? Because for me, my definition of working class was living in deep poverty as the result of my family working an incredibly hard yet unrewarding career path that physically and mentally destroyed them.

As I bring up often, my parents were fishermen. They could hardly afford a home and hardly afford to put food on the table or the immense medical bills we were saddled with.

Why is working class defined by this specific definition of deep poverty? And why do we need that term if we can just say deep poverty?

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