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Comment by monero-xmr | Hacker News Reader

I’m wealthy but I wasnt always. When I was 22 through 30 I didn’t take a single vacation that wasn’t driving to a long weekend. My wife and I both pulled 60 to 70 hour weeks for our entire 20s (I still do).

No one “deserves” free time. If you don’t want to work 70 hours a week and want to watch Netflix instead, go for it, but don’t bitch to me

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> No one “deserves” free time

Careful. It sounds an awful lot like you feel you "deserve" to be wealthy from your hard work, but in reality it was the type of work you were doing that got you there, because there are a whole lot of people working 60 to 70 hour weeks decades out of their 20s and will never be secure monetarily.

(leaving aside the pricklier philosophical aspect that a particular type of work being valued so much more than another type of work is also fairly arbitrary in a very similar way to whether or not a human "deserves" free time)

This is an excellent point. Especially because we often ascribe morality to hard work.

I'm not sure what this contributes? Not being rich and experiencing absolute poverty are radically different things. Of course, in America as everywhere else, there are millions who work sixty hour weeks and remain in poverty, often extreme poverty. Especially those undocumented, incarcerated or working in circumstances where minimum wages do not apply.

I wonder if you've examined your own evident anger and defensiveness and why you've responded in that way?

Some people suffer and think "I had to go through this and I hope no one else does."

Some people suffer and think "I had to go through this so everyone else should too."

No they think "its bullshit that you can't get out of it, since I did it myself". The argument from the left is not "we should help poor people since they are miserable" its that "its impossible for poor people to help themselves", why do left wing people try to make that bullshit claim that will just create more oponents?

I think we should help poor people, but I also think that its not hard for poor people to work hard and stop being poor today. If you want my support just say you wanna help poor people, don't try to tell me that its impossible for poor people to help themselves because then I will argue against you.

Like, why equate the two opinions "you can work yourself out of poverty" and "we shouldn't help poor people", those are two entirely different kinds of opinions.

>No one "deserves" free time.

I do! So does everyone I like.

I'm confused because the comment you're replying to didn't mention free time or Netflix.

If you had actually been impoverished, you'd have worked 60 hour weeks, and still be working 60 hour weeks with nothing to show for it. If you think "didn't take a vacation that wasn't a long weekend" is poverty, you're delusional.

The "prosperity bible" turn that America has taken is truly saddening.

Such bullshit. Don't continue to glamorize the mentally and physically harmful hustle culture that invades this country, and ignores the very real factor of both luck and privilege that not everyone is blessed with.

What's the point of society if everyone needs to bust their ass 70+ hours a week to get by? Might as well go homestead in the woods and be a subsistence farmer and do it on your own at that point.

Just fuck having time for creative pursuits and hobbies outside of working and making someone else rich?

What was your job at the time?

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