Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

And yet, we have a positive unemployment rate!


True but that’s inevitable. A certain % of people are always going to be in the process of switching jobs.


Which is why I reponded to the commenter who said

>Dumb comparison. Losing a job is not the same as losing a legal action. You can’t just go get a different life if you’re convicted of robbery.

Because, as you just admitted, you can't just go get a different job if you're unfairly fired.


I admitted no such thing. Read again.

- in a thriving environment, lots of companies are hiring

- some people quit or get fired, and it takes a couple of months to get a new job. This is no biggie in a country where the median individual has a net worth of 192k. [0] (yet another argument in favour of a thriving business environment).

- so some % of people will always be temporarily unemployed.

[0] https://www.investopedia.com/average-americans-net-worth-871....


>no biggie

Loll, youre a pretty funny person. No biggie, ill just sell my house to feed myself.

You conveniently ignore the fact that this is the median family net worth, not individual net worth. Further, this will include retired families, who will have access to social security, medicare, and mature 401k/pension plans. This is not anywherenearthe median net worth of a working individual.

If youre going to quote statistics, please at least do so responsibly.


[flagged]


Yes, if by "game of adding asterisks" you mean honest representation of statistics, we will never find common ground.


You’re the one interpreting a stat in a motivated way.

Middle class Americans have high net worths; some in stocks, some in cash, some in home equity.

All of the above can be leveraged when cash is needed.


Beyond complete misrepresentation of basic statistics, you have also failed to contextualize the statistics in a way that is useful for the conversation.

A better number would be: the median time an american in the labor force would be able to live off their net worth, something like net worth divided by annual salary. What's the median of that? We could then compare it to the amount of time the median job search takes, and have a fact-based discussion around the policy implications of that number.

But I expect no such intellectual honesty from you; you've already shown your cards.


When you run up against a fact (see? we’re being fact-based) that doesn’t fit your worldview, that doesn’t mean someone had to “completely misrepresent basic statistics”.

It could simply mean that you are wrong.

A possibility you no doubt spend a great deal of time thinking about, oh even-handed one.


I have yet to come across a fact in your comments! You are literally calling median family net worth median individual net worth, and then making arguments on the basis of that misrepresentation.

Further, this thread is about the labor force, not retirees, who generally have more assets, all else equal.

Stop making clownish claims and you wont be treated like a clown.


>Middle class Americans have high net worths; some in stocks, some in cash, some in home equity.

>All of the above can be leveraged when cash is needed.

And what percentage of Americans are working middle class? What percentage of those could liquidate their home equity or retirement portfolio (what you actually mean by "stocks") without causing a huge change in life plans?




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: