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Comment by adenozine | Hacker News Reader

Of the young people I've talked to, I think income inequality is more the barring factor. I'm biased, as most of the young people I've "sampled" so to speak are either researchers or students of some kind, and so are generally more risk-averse and financially savvy.

If I was 18-20ish today, is be VERY concerned about my possible earnings potential in the next, say 15-20 years. So much work will be automated, further consolidating wealth unto those fortunate enough to have some already, and the mythical "entry-level" bar leaps higher and higher.

I've seen some of the preferred requirements for entry level programming jobs and it's already completely psychotic, I'd be scared shitless getting started in a market that looks like this, and will almost certainly get worse in the near future.

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Absolute poverty has never been lower. And I would rather have kids now than in a more equal, but poorer on average, society. For the important things (health and safety) it's never been a better time to have kids.

According to what average? In the US, it’s harder than ever to afford a family if you live in a big city. And the best jobs are in big cities.

Edit: Growing up lots of kids had a stay at home parent. That doesn’t seem to exist anymore, which isn’t just bad for kids but for communities.

> the best jobs are in big cities.

Will that still be true in 5 years after work from home is even more commonplace?

That's an absurd gamble.

If it's true in 5 years then you potentially maximise your misery.

If it's not then you might be happier, but the dynamics of things will have shifted greatly.

When betting it's usually best to bet on the status quo continuing, that's why the odds on incumbents keeping power is always higher.

yes but you also need to be able to afford nice house for kids

> For the important things (health and safety) it's never been a better time to have kids.

Last night I walked into a supermarket and in front they told me to wear a mask because of Covid delta. Then I went to a restaurant and they asked to see my vaccination card. 700,000 dead of Covid in the past 18 months in the US.

For the important things (health and safety) it's never been a better time to have kids!

Agreed, I even saw a “full stack” role that required the person to do testing with a 65k salary

I think that's crazy too but I'd like to offer a counterpoint.

People with better options (most people with the skills to do it...) won't take those jobs.

But as someone from a "non standard" background (no qualifications on paper but could do the job), low paid jobs demanding relatively high skills were actually really useful for me in terms of building work experience and a network.

The environments tended to be chaotic and high turnover but proved to be a useful stepping stone rather than a dead end.

Whether or not that's too little depends on where you live. In large swaths of the US, 65k lets you live as comfortably as a 6 figure salary in the big cities.

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