You can't support a family catching 2-5 fishes a day. This is not prehistory. You need to catch extra to sell so you can afford to take your kid to the doctor and buy them medicine when they get sick.
You need to buy clothes unless you plan on leaving yourself and your family naked. You need to buy school supplies for your kid. These things do not come for free my friend.
The life of a fisherman is a harsh one and none, not even the poorest fisherman can live on 2-5 fish a day. You need money to buy a fridge to preserve your catch because some days or even weeks, you will catch absolutely nothing. There are fishing seasons. At the very least, you need to buy salt to dry and preserve the fish.
Have you ever watched a family wept when the rain came down while they were laying out their fishes to dry?
I think some people on HN have a tendency to romanticize poverty, and that might be because they've never been without money. Backpacking around India and SE Asia does not give you a true experience of poverty.
Sure, you'll take some pictures to show off on Fb, instagram, twitter and then eventually hop back on a plane to fly home. Try living like those people for decades. Watch your wife die from childbirth. How are you going to afford a trip to the hospital on 2-5 fish a day? People routinely give birth without an ultrasound beforehand and they do it at home.
Watch your precious kid die from malaria because you can't afford proper treatment.
I speak from experience here. There is nothing, nothing noble about poverty.
> I speak from experience here. There is nothing, nothing noble about poverty.
Your problem is with the well known allegory, not the people on hacker news romanticizing poverty.
Your position seems to distance itself from the allegory because we have no sense that this community in Mexico has first world medical care, schools, or western clothing.
The allegory also suggests this as 'simple' life, which most probably means selling the fish at market as soon as the fisherman comes in - no salting, no drying, etc.
You need to buy clothes unless you plan on leaving yourself and your family naked. You need to buy school supplies for your kid. These things do not come for free my friend.
The life of a fisherman is a harsh one and none, not even the poorest fisherman can live on 2-5 fish a day. You need money to buy a fridge to preserve your catch because some days or even weeks, you will catch absolutely nothing. There are fishing seasons. At the very least, you need to buy salt to dry and preserve the fish.
Have you ever watched a family wept when the rain came down while they were laying out their fishes to dry?
I think some people on HN have a tendency to romanticize poverty, and that might be because they've never been without money. Backpacking around India and SE Asia does not give you a true experience of poverty.
Sure, you'll take some pictures to show off on Fb, instagram, twitter and then eventually hop back on a plane to fly home. Try living like those people for decades. Watch your wife die from childbirth. How are you going to afford a trip to the hospital on 2-5 fish a day? People routinely give birth without an ultrasound beforehand and they do it at home. Watch your precious kid die from malaria because you can't afford proper treatment.
I speak from experience here. There is nothing, nothing noble about poverty.