JDubbleu

All fair points, and I'm definitely leaning more towards your viewpoint having read them.

I guess I've just never felt the need for them given I've been treated and paid well so far, and I really like the ability to just walk next door at a moment's notice if I so desire. Not that I've ever not given two weeks, but the option to do so, and not feeling like I'm gonna be compensated less due to short tenure is nice. Not that unions have to operate that way, but historically that's the case.

I'm glad it has worked well for you! I'll definitely be more open to joining one in the future, and strongly consider it if the opportunity arises. Thanks for your perspective.

I live in the California bay area (not going to get more specific than that), and split rent of a townhouse 50/50 with my partner. I live in a stupid bougie area too, so I'm not doing myself any favors there pricewise.

You cannot get a SFH here for under $2 mil, and our townhouse we rent is worth well over $1 mil. I could easily afford the whole place by myself, but that would be financially irresponsible. I was very fortunate to be taught at a young age that being able to afford something does not make it a good or okay use of money.

If I weren't living with my partner, I'd get a one bed or studio apartment for ~$2200 a month, or an extra $6400 a year. Unless someone took on a mortgage way larger than they could actually afford (again, a financial literacy issue), or has an extremely expensive medical condition, I have 0 idea how anyone could be paycheck to paycheck on $150k a year and unable to massively cut back. The world is expensive, but it ain't THAT expensive.

My salary is $160k in the most expensive region in the country. My total yearly expenses don't exceed $50k, $20k of which is rent. The rest maxes out my 401k and goes towards a house down payment fund. I have a $30k emergency fund in case I lose my job which gives me 9 months of runway.

I'm not a nomad by any means. I have very nice things and I spend a grand a month on wants (eating out, my hobbies, whatever else I impulse order from Amazon), but I'm extremely aware of all my purchases and budget out every transaction at the end of every week. Hell, I just spent $2k on Christmas to get my family very nice gifts, but I've been spending less and sacrificing wants the past few months to offset that to prevent lifestyle creep.

This is a financial literacy problem, not a $150k is not a lot of money problem.

ETA: I split rent 50/50 with my partner in the California Bay area for a decent-sized 2b2.5b townhouse. My friends who do have 5 housemates, as so many of you seem to think I do, pay $1050 a month in rent, or $12.6k a year.

Wholely agree. I live in the most expensive region in the US on $160k base salary. My total annual expenses (including vacations, wants, gifts) don't exceed $50k, and of that $20k is rent.

Use a brokerage like Fidelity as your bank instead of these fuckers at Chase and BofA who don't respect you despite you giving them your money.

Doesn't have to be Fidelity, but in the current day if you're not getting the following from your bank you're getting fucked:

• $0 minimum balance, $0 in account fees
• No overdraft fees
• Minimum 4% APY on savings, minimum 2% APY on checking
• ATM fee reimbursement
• Instant transfers between your own accounts
• Access to direct deposits even while they're still pending

Same. I play the same 5 games throughout the year and rarely buy anything, but a few games I'd been looking at went on sale. I could've pirated them, but it was just so much easier to click buy on my Steam Deck and instantly download and play them. Not to mention cloud saves for free, remote play, and the ability to dock the thing to my 65" 4k TV.

Steam has robbed me of more money than any streaming service ever could, and I'm not even mad because they provide the best service I've ever received no matter how many or few games I buy. They recently identified one of the biggest reasons for refunds and piracy being people who want to validate games will run well on their system, especially on Steam Deck. As a result they're working on a demo feature so you can test a game before buying it.

Unions can't really prevent layoffs unfortunately, but can guarantee severances. However most tech employees already receive generous severance packages.

Software engineers also still sit at half the unemployment rate of the rest of the US despite the layoffs throughout this past year.

I'm very pro-union, I just don't think they belong in tech given how much power engineers already have, and that power being entirely dictated by the ability to jump ship yesterday.

Couldn't agree more as a software engineer who recently switched jobs. Unions are fucking amazing in most industries, but I can't help but feel it would hurt workers more than it would benefit us in tech. You could guarantee 5% a year raises indefinitely and it still wouldn't be enough. Even at companies where you consistently get 10% raises per year + bonus you can just jump and hit 20%+.

Software engineers can also have insane risk tolerance career-wise because we make enough money to build massive emergency funds and investment portfolios to fall back on if things go south. This is all without considering that sometimes you just don't vibe with a team, or you stop learning and want to go elsewhere to expand your skill set. Under a union, which usually awards people based on tenure, you'd be punished for making these sorts of moves despite them making you a better software engineer.

I think this is just a case of correlation doesn't equal causation.

People in higher socioeconomic groups tend to consume mind-altering substances in smaller quantities, and often don't consume the more harmful ones (i.e. cigarettes) at all. Largely because higher socioeconomic status is correlated with higher quality of life and less need to "cope". As a result the negative affects are seen as less of a downside since the short-term positive mental effects are more impactful to those who have a lower quality of life.

In lesser words, people who have shitty lives are more likely to opt for less healthy habits to lessen suffering in the short term, despite increased risk of long term side effects.

Most people couldn't care less if the person smoking on the corner is wealthy or poor. It's gross either way.

Ended up with a similar issue in SideBerry. The option there is "Show titles of pinned tabs". Turning it on is the fix.

Idk man cigarettes smell fucking awful. Vapes at least don't smell awful and aren't as bad for you.