Comment by gexla | Hacker News Reader

Comment by gexla | Hacker News Reader

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This could be describing the Philippines. A large number of people don't work because they don't really have to. OFW remittances send enough money back in some cases that the local economy makes it seem pointless to work (unskilled workers here might make $3 - $4 per day.) In other cases, the family has built a compound and everyone can live super cheap there. Maybe there is enough money flowing into the family that nobody has to work.

I see a lot of drinking, fiesta's and festivals here. Given the idle time, it seems that most don't pursue education or other things which could further them. I suppose many of these people would choose to go to school if they could afford to do so.

This may be a decent end goal, but I can't help but think there is always something that someone could be doing to make money. There is always more that needs to be done. I can see the "suck" all around us. Things which could be improved.

If we were to ever be able to get large numbers of people off this planet then there will always be much more things for people to do. We could explore further and expand outward.

For the foreseeable future. If you are in the U.S. you either work or you collect food stamps which barely cover you. It would be great for one person to support 10K, but for now, the less fortunate have to ask from people who are far less able to provide (family who is getting by, but not doing great otherwise.)

The Philippines did not come to mind when I read the article. What I took from the article was that the human race can invent a system that would provide for their basic needs so that humans don't have to worry about it and they can spend their time on their hobbies.

(I'm from the Philippines.)

It seems to me like there are still lots of problems to solve. Many STEM jobs still go unfilled even though they tend to pay more. If you want to build the next Android or iPhone, you need large teams of people, for instance. Some people will choose tennis while others choose medical research? I don't think anyone has mentioned the fact that there aren't enough hours in the day for people who do research or creative work.

Personally, I image that if we could put 7 billion people to work on the more important problems, we'd still need a lot more fall short on resources.

Yeah but to fill the STEM jobs you need educated people to do so. To get educated people you need to make the process of education far less expensive and risky for the individual, only then you will get more people through the STEM education.

I'm kind of old (35) and a CS student, I started fairly late in my 39ies. But I only was able to do so because I payed a high price for that. Nearly everybody else at my age has a family with kids, many of them even have bought their first house. Not me, I'm studying, I'm one of the very fiew 35 years old students at the university.

And yes there are legitimate reasons why I couldn't start to study earlier (which I won't get into right now). What I want to say is that education is _very_ expensive for the student, even if here in Sweden I don't even have to pay for the university myself. Many people who would be able to learn and do the STEM jobs can't because they're stuck in survival mode earning a living at a job which doesn't help humanity, instead it is only there to keep someone ocupied.

How are trends like online learning and online work afect the situation there? surely you can make reasonable money using those.

The Philippines does have a large presence on Odesk, Elance and similar services. I hear often from people that they are interested in giving in a try.

Only the relatively well off have a computer and internet connection in the home. In the Philippines, even the increased electrical usage from a computer could be a significant cost. Cheap tablets and smart phones bring more computers into homes, but those are limited for doing work and you still don't have an internet connection.

The relatively well off increasingly have more options as well. Wages are creeping up. Entry level call center work can pay nearly half the minimum wage in the U.S. Again, this is in a country for an unskilled laborer might work for a few dollars a day for an 8 - 10 hour day. So, the world opens up even more for the middle class while the poor get left behind (sound familiar?)

I don't know how much these sorts of services could help the poor anyways. Imagine having to rely on someone to do work for you who is constantly having a difficult time paying bills and has little money to deal with problems in general. Maybe a low end co-working space could help out with this. There are internet cafes all over the place for around 30 cents an hour, but that's really expensive for internet.

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