Wandering Adventure Party

@xgranade I'll say as well: In conversations with working-class people I meet, as soon as I say I work in tech, the dynamic of our conversation subtly changes. Anyone who lives in a high-cost-of-living city dominated by the tech sector should know this feeling even better.

@xgranade The issue I always have with this discussion is that the people making 100 000 - 300 000 dollars per year (myself included) don't actually meaningfully engage with the material problems of the far less fortunate people, presumably in the same class as them, that do not. People simply stop at "we are all part of the same class" without engaging with the basic reality that making that much money unlocks a great deal of privilege:

1) One month of my salary would be a debt-destroying, life-stabilizing, unfathomable amount for many people.

2) Jobs which offer this much money are not only privileged due to money, but due to being much less precarious. Some people here may say "ah but I'm at risk of layoffs all the time" but being laid off from a full-time, professional, 9-5 job with benefits is not the same as working 3 jobs with no benefits and variable hours.

3) People making this salary have a greater opportunity to put money into investments and retirement savings. As a basic example, people in Canada have the opportunity to open a Registered Retirement Savings Account (this is a tax-free savings account you contribute your own money to, not a pension). Every one of my professional friends has one, but across Canadian society, the participation rate in this contribution program has hovered at 30% for years.

4) People living in high-cost-of-living areas who make closer to that 300 000 dollar income say that a large part of their income is spent on essentials such as housing, so really the income does not stretch that far. But the natural next question to ask is: What are the people who don't even make close to 300 000 in your city doing for housing? (The answer, often, is that they can't live in your city.)

5) It is much, much easier for people making this amount to become a part of the owner class, by accumulating the capital required to do so.

6) The sense of alienation when someone is talking about engaging in an experience or purchase that you could never afford, as if it's a normal thing, is indescribable. I always come back to this article from an organizer describing very frankly her experience working with well-meaning people who are much more economically privileged than her: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2016/jun/08/burnout-activism-working-class-organising-with-middle-class-comrades

Without acknowledging this, you end with up with political movements that are vaguely leftist but that are dominated by people who are far more privileged than the people they purport to serve, not least because only certain people have the time and capital to politically participate in the first place.