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Comment by dscrd | Hacker News Reader

"Poor people today have it easy because they can get government benefits without doing anything in return" vs "Poor people today have hard lives because government benefits don't go far enough to help them live decently".

If you focus on the latter part of the sentences, I can see how it's easy to be a bit confused about which is the correct answer.

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It bothers me that the entire premise of this poll seems to be that someone ought to be able to live comfortably on government benefits. Living at somebody else's expense* should be uncomfortable.

* Note - in the case of private charities, where the funds to provide benefits are not collected by force/with threat of imprisonment, I'm perfectly OK with providing higher levels of support.

"Living at somebody else's expense* should be uncomfortable"

Better stop automating things than.

>"Better stop automating things than."

Well, then stop preferring cheaper products/services.

I think that the proliferation of the service industry is a natural response to (and possibly a solution to) the increased automation of manual labor. If I thought it were possible I'd say that the solution was for an increase in knowledge workers (since the automated factories still need them), but many people do not want and/or can't do that type of work.

>"a bit confused about which is the correct answer."

Correct answer to what question? I'm a bit confused as to what you're trying to say.

FTFY:

"Poor people today have it easy because they can get government benefits without having the possiblities to do anything in return"

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