A place to discuss positive changes that can make work more equitable, and to vent about current practices. We are NOT against work; we just want the fruits of our labor to be recognized better.
Our Philosophies:
Our Goals
Having to have a job just to get nourishment or a place to sleep shouldn’t be the game
If people can hoard money well beyond this need and could house an entire nation on what 1% make, capitalism as a necessity to survive is a lie.
Eat the rich.
Life doesn't have to be high stakes, there is only artificial scarcity. We have the resources to take care of everyone on the planet and live in harmony with nature.
We can split the atom, put a super computer in every pocket and build a logistics system to air freight me a bowling ball over night from anywhere to my door if I pay enough.
The stars are ours as a species if we choose, but not this way.
Eat the rich.
Despite having a degree, which shows that you can do the job, employers still ignore your application, or reject you.
Now, college students have a thing called loans. Whether or not you have a job, those loan providers still want to be paid.
If the student can't pay the loans, and their family cosigned the loans, but they can't pay it, then thats a LOT of pressure from family, and everyone involved is going to have a bad time.
My degree is in game programming. I rolled a nat 1, I guess, cause all the gaming jobs are abruptly disappearing this year, and I just graduated last year. I've given up on pursuing a job for a game company, for now.
I've been in the red a couple times. I'm barely afloat as it is. During December and January, I was thinking about either suicide, or abandoning my life. Going on the road.
But I didn't have the strength to really do it.
I'm at about $130,000 in debt. I am working minimum wage. And entry level for my field is 60-90k.
You can imagine how gutwrenching it might be to be that close to having a liveable income, when you were raised poor, and you've only had minimum wage jobs your whole life. Now I'm back at a minimum wage job, and I have to pay ~$1000 a month in just school loans.
So...I can relate.
In the USA, make sure you fill out a SAVE Plan, if you're really working minimum wage then you probably qualify for $0 Repayment and in 10 years it will be cancelled under the contract terms.
I did, but it only applies to federal loans. I'm currently paying "personal loans" which are student loans from other lenders.
I'm sure others have probably mentioned some options, like food stamps, and ai know it sucks, I was in a similar situation after graduation having been sold on the salaries my diploma would demand. One thing I wasn't aware of as an easy way to make a little bit of extra cash to help out, donating plasma. It's not something I want to do forever, but the extra quick cash can really make a difference. Best of luck, don't give up
Having a degree does not mean you can do the job!
I am not at home to check more into this, but have you looked in the Industrial Automation industry? A lot of game devs ended up being a good fit. While I am hesitant to recommend my old employer, the software guys make good money and I still have a few friends over there. My reasons for quitting had nothing to do with the software department. Check out Dematic and some similar companies. Dematic was at least good for getting experience and I learned plenty.
It may not seem super glamorous at a glance, but it is worth a shot.
Had a very similar experience, even with game dev. You should honestly just avoid game dev jobs but yeah, right now it's impossible to pivot out of game dev anyways. I wish I could say it gets better, and it will, but the game Dev job market will never be good. I graduated 4 years ago and still don't have a job in the field. They want you to be working on personal projects while working 40+ hours a week, probably because they will be working you 60 hours a week, lmao. We picked the worse major, I wish I wasn't scammed into serfdom at 19.
Game dev is extremely hard to break into. I've been in and out of the industry for some time now.
If you're dead set on working in the industry I'd strongly advise going the platform integrations route.
This also gives you a ton of job flexibility in an industry that values knowledge breadth and has waves of job stability. Automation & tooling engineering, API development, services engineering, etc.
People react to traumatic incidents within their daily lives, well after the trauma has ceased.
Losing a job, your means of survival, is traumatic.
I feel like everyone always puts trauma square within the realms of war and abuse, but trauma comes at all of us, in a multitude of ways.
People who have been recently traumatized need help. People struggling with trauma need continued help. We should help others, so that their trauma does not define them.
That means a strong social safety net, and access to health care, housing, and food. Regardless of who you are, or your circumstance.
Wtf is going on with those numbers? Why are they putting a comma after the hundred thousands place?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_numbering_system#Use_of_separators
It's a case of 2-2-3 grouping of digits
Can’t say I blame him.
It doesn’t say how long he was looking for a job and what his degrees were in.
Not that anyone deserves to feel suicide is the only option, but I’m curious.
You'd be surprised how many homeless people have hard science degrees or previously ran succesful businesses. Bad luck, ill health, medical bills, a family member who needs to be taken care of, (government) corruption, fraud, theft, builders didn't fix your roof right and you're stuck with the bill and negative equity, etc.
It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not weakness, that is life.
The idea that hard work will set you free, a slogan that historically featured above many a concentration camp gate, is a comforting lie but a lie none the less.
While that's true, I feel like sometimes people take it to the opposite extreme.
Life isn't just wholly random and you have absolutely no agency in whether you are successful or not.
While it's true there are homeless people who used to be successful or who have advanced degrees, it's a huge minority.
And while you can do "everything right" and still fail, you're wildly more likely to succeed than the person who did "everything wrong."
Is there always a chance of catastrophic failure? Sure. But you do have agency over your life, and can in fact exert heavy influence over your outcomes.
Meh.
Homelessness is heavily correlated with mental health issues, childhood (sexual) abuse, and/or childhood deprivation. A lot of these people were fucked before they even got a start in life, through no fault of their own.
It's easy to think they're in the position they're in because of some kind of moral failing. It's comforting, it allows us to pretend it couldn't happen to us. It's good for our egos, we get to pretend our relative success is a result of how great we are.
But the sad reality is that for a lot of people, especially outside the western world, life is fundamentally unfair and no amount of talent or drudgery will do much to significantly improve their situation in life. Realistically the most they can hope to improve their children's chances, and it's still a long shot.
Hell, it is almost certain that there are cleaners working at Tesla, who are both more intelligent and hardworking than Elon Musk. But they were born in the wrong place, to the wrong parents, and with the wrong skin colour and/or genitals.
It even says he was a student. At 24, he didn't give life much of a chance.
I think there's far more to this story than we know, like his mental health status, social life, etc.
Suicide is never a rational response to a lack of economic opportunity. The story here is that he was sick. The fact that he had trouble finding work maybe was the straw that broke the camel's back, but it seems misleading to imply direct causation between that and suicide.
Shhhh!! don't say it too loud or education could be more affordable and stop being a big business..