This comment breaks the site guidelines. Please read them and follow them: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html. In particular, please edit flamebait out of your posts, don't fulminate, and don't go on about downvotes. Yes they're irritating, but there's nothing new or interesting about lashing out against them. Doing that just emits fumes.
When downvoted, the thing to do is to consider what in your comment might have legitimately attracted downvotes. If you notice something, make adjustments for next time; if you don't, chalk it up to the internet and move on. Don't forget that misclicks are also a thing.
Sorry. Frustration because I don’t understand how something can be downvoted without commentary or engagement ..sometimes..in literally seconds after posting.
Imagine if this happens in real-time conversations? When we talk to each other..as in face to face..what would happen to communication or civil discourse if we ‘verbally downvote’ before engaging or interacting?
Please consider eliminating drive-by downvotes as policy. Or at least institute a weighted system of voting wrt engagement level.
ETA: I can’t edit it now. But in my defense, English is not my first language. I don’t use any swear words in my language because that seems like it would be disrespectful/impolite but in a learned language, ‘fuck’ is just as potent as ‘lame’ because it’s all English to me. Not having come to an English speaking country until after adulthood, it’s a language whose colloquialism I picked from books and movies. Mostly books. So it kinda..flows. But will try to be mindful.
Swear words aren't a problem. In case it helps, the problems that I see in the GP comment are: (1) inflammatory over-claims like "designed to keep people poor" (emphasis added), (2) lashing out against downvotes, (3) aggressive (or passive-aggressive?) phrases like "Bite me", and (4) attacking other users or classes of user. None of this is compatible with curious conversation, which is what we're trying for here.
I certainly understand how internet comments can be frustrating and I think we all feel like responding this way sometimes, if not all the time. But it just means we all need to learn how to pause until the initial rush dies down. Then we have the freedom to either respond curiously, or not respond, which are the two modes that best fit the intended spirit of the site.
Thanks. Re 1: Use of ‘designed’ was on purpose. Minimum wage law was passed by Roosevelt in 1938. In the beginning of the 20th century, in the south, it was mostly black people who were employed by the rail road companies. They had low level of unemployment but only because they accepted low wages.
The Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen who didn’t accept black people in their union created a mandate for minimum wage for all races. Davis-bacon act in 1931 for federal jobs and national industrial recovery act later for specific industries. And finally Roosevelt passed minimum wage act in 1938.
During all this time, black people no longer enjoyed the high employment rate but continued to be employed only in sectors that paid the lowest of the minimum wage tier.
Only industries not mandated by minimum wage assured upward economic mobility.
I could explain rent control too but I think the case has been made by me and others as to why it doesn’t work. With this in mind..what other word can I use other than ‘designed’ emphasized?
I hear you re: 2 and 3. I was annoyed. But when you literally had to write a thesis on a subject and dismissed by faceless disapproval, it makes a mockery of me suffering for an education. But..point taken.
Re:4..I wasn’t addressing anyone in particular. It looks like violent communication because acronym ‘FAANG’ sounds like I am baring my teeth. If so..a very legit form of onomatopoeia for rhetoric effect.
And it was a SF/FAANG issue when ..for example: Google employees from wherever chose to live in SF rent controlled apartments and bussed them to Mountain View, the glaring problem of lack of public transport and crumbling infrastructure of a city that couldn’t handle the influx of new residents was entirely paved over.
If I sat in front of you and I waved my hands a lot, would you ask me not to do it because it’s not acceptable to others? It’s emphasis. It’s for effect. It’s cultural. I roll my eyes and speak with my hands a lot..while typing, I use other effects. In order to punctuate communication. Surely, it is not a sin?
You can't compare internet comments to in-person discussion. Internet conversation has far less bandwidth. The things that regulate in-person conversation and prevent it from turning hostile—like tone of voice and body language—aren't available here. All we have are little text blobs and those are much more subject to misinterpretation and hostility. We all have to deal with this by adapting our comments to the available medium.
When downvoted, the thing to do is to consider what in your comment might have legitimately attracted downvotes. If you notice something, make adjustments for next time; if you don't, chalk it up to the internet and move on. Don't forget that misclicks are also a thing.