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277 points cebert | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0.01s | source
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PostOnce ◴[] No.44361768[source]
Theoretically, credit should be used for one thing: to make more money. (not less)

However, instead of using it to buy or construct a machine to triple what you can produce in an hour, the average person is using it to delay having to work that hour at all, in exchange for having to work an hour and six minutes sometime later.

At some point, you run out of hours available and the house of cards collapses.

i.e., credit can buy time in the nearly literal sense, you can do an hour's work in half an hour because the money facilitates it, meaning you can now make more money. If instead of investing in work you're spending on play, then you end up with a time deficit.

or, e.g. you can buy 3 franchises in 3 months instead of 3 years (i.e. income from the 1 franchise), trading credit for time to make more money, instead of burning it. It'd have been nice had they taught me this in school.

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lm28469 ◴[] No.44364104[source]
> the average person is using

The "average person" is told from birth to consume as many things and experiences as possible as it if was the only thing that could give their life a meaning. The entire system is based on growth and consumption, I have a hard time blaming "the average person"

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darth_avocado ◴[] No.44368689[source]
> The "average person" is told from birth to consume as many things and experiences as possible as it if was the only thing that could give their life a meaning.

The “average person” doesn’t make enough money to pay rent or afford groceries. You’re blaming the poor based on your idea of what an “average person” looks like, which is a representation of middle and upper middle class. The average person doesn’t have the luxury to consume as many things and experiences as possible.

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JamesBarney ◴[] No.44369276[source]
The median household income is 80k which is plenty to afford groceries and rent.

How did you come to believe that half the people in the richest country in the world can't afford to eat or have a roof over their head?

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1. hackable_sand ◴[] No.44374047[source]
Because it is a lived experience.

I will say the exact same thing for me and 90% of the people around me.

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2. JamesBarney ◴[] No.44377776[source]
I know a few people that are really struggling on 20k a year where they can barely afford groceries and roof. But based on all the data that isn't the norm.