We (the HN audience) have disposable income for that type of thing, I don’t see ...

officeplant · 2026-09-09T19:59:04

I can't even afford the 17e, who is this we?

dgellow · 2026-09-09T20:02:11

The audience at large. It’s obviously not every single individual

yesitcan · 2026-09-10T02:48:29

That’s a roundabout way of saying “you’re unusually broke.”

paganel · 2026-09-10T06:27:56

I also can't fathom paying $2,200 for a phone, which is to say that we're not all working for US big tech companies in here.

dgellow · 2026-09-10T07:37:50

I have the disposable income and would still not pay 2k USD for a phone a FWIW. But I spend that on other hobbies (just ordered a programmable power supply and an oscilloscope earlier this week, close to that price when taken together)

justinator · 2026-09-09T20:07:51

>We (the HN audience) have disposable income

Ah the fallacy of thinking a collection of individuals as being a homogeneity.

dgellow · 2026-09-09T20:16:43

See the sibling response, not sure how you missed it before commenting. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49633340

justinator · 2026-09-09T20:37:43

I cannot with good faith tell you the financials of every HN user to any degree of accuracy to defend a statement like you're defending.

What you have is a "guess".

Maybe one data point is that this forum is open to all, without any gatekeeping based on salary?

dgellow · 2026-09-09T20:40:06

It’s of course a guess, I don’t know how else you would read such a large generalization. Most of the HN audience is based in the US, most people here work in software. It’s not a crazy stretch

justinator · 2026-09-09T20:41:49

[flagged]

dgellow · 2026-09-09T21:06:19

I intended to generalize, which is what I’ve done. There is nothing wrong with that. You can skip the patronizing tone

shepherdjerred · 2026-09-09T20:12:40

The typical HN user likely has more disposable income than most people

justinator · 2026-09-09T20:40:27

Doesn't ycombinator run a business where they let people borrow money with a high degree of likelihood that the venture will be a complete failure?

If I was the receiver of such a loan, am I just going to give myself a huge salary, or what it is that you do, here?

groundzeros2015 · 2026-09-10T01:04:22

Work in a white collar job instead of for example part time retail. That will put you well above average earnings.

nik282000 · 2026-09-10T02:12:54

Blue collar maintenance worker here. I will have a yearly average income much higher than most of my peers because I'll likely die before I can retire and spend it ;)

let_rec · 2026-09-11T12:24:12

No, VC investment is rarely a loan. It's typically a purchase of stock.