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Comment by refurb | Hacker News Reader

You should spend some time with immigrants and learn about their experiences. I get it, you grow up in the US and you just take everything for granted, it's just human nature. "It's not special here."

Then you talk to people who came to the country with literally nothing (refugees) and now they have a comfortable middle class existence, own a home, their kids are American citizens going to prestigious colleges.

It's really eye opening.

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I am a US white guy, live in Ecuador, and work remote in tech. At the salary I can pull in doing this, I can buy a nice house here about every 2 years. I work maybe a few hours a week for this. Please keep telling people about how awesome the US and its lifestyle are, it is amazing how good these stories are at clearing out my competition. They go up north, work 40+ a week, rent forever. I feel like I'm literally watching modern day slavery happen, and it is all through hearing stories, they don't even need chains and ships anymore.

This feels like satire. Do you work in the Ecuadorian tech sector?

Nope, international company paying international wages. It's not satire, just go check out what such a wage will buy down here. I can retire in a few years if I want.

Sorry for being so short, but my point is that what your doing is not accessible to a local Ecuadorian, so isn’t really relevant to this discussion.

It absolutely is, they just need to know how to write code. Same applies to H1B holders. They get sold on stories of the US, move there, and then they are on the 40+ hour treadmill. They get paid probably twice what I get paid, but the US is extremely expensive, so they give most of it right back by the end of the month. Most stay renters forever, especially if they live in a big city. If they just got my job, they could play my game and never leave home.

All the poor people in the US should just learn to program too then?

Do you think the fact you're a "US white guy" has any impact on your ability to land such a role? Or the fact you're qualified for it (i.e. access to quality education in the US)?

Actually, I learned every bit of tech I currently live off of on my own and outside of the US, I haven't lived there in over a decade. So I recommend that poor people start doing projects like I did until they can pass a coding test, get their first job, and move up from there. It will take a year or two, like it did for me. I mention I am a US white guy so people can see that it makes more sense to live outside the US and work remote than to live in the US and work anywhere (the economics are better by far and I have the option to do either and choose this route because it makes way more sense). The US sells a false narrative of success but is really a trap. You can have much more working outside of it if you do it right. People keep shilling that narrative and it gets people right into the trap though.

You seem incredibly blind to your own privilege.

Explain it to me them oh wise one. Tell me about my privilege and how I was able to do all I have done because it was given to me. Show me how I earned nothing and learned nothing and life has been a magical journey. tell me that I could never do any of this if I were not born in a poor US family in a shithole town in the south. I'm all ears.

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