Lesley Carhart 
Just a reminder that our trans industry colleagues are literally running out the clock. Life and death. If you are wondering if you should offer them a gig even at a low rate outside America, for the love of Pete, do it now. There very well might not be a later for them, even to get a passport to leave. If this is imposter syndrome about their followers, credentials, or reputation, just offer the damn job. SOC analyst. Trainer. Anything.
Matt Palmer@hacks4pancakes although, if you're just deliberately low-balling someone because they are desperate, you are a garbage person, and I hope fire ants take up residence in your colon.
@womble Oh, not my intent at all. For sure.
But sometimes work visas require a position having been open and unfilled. I took a (visa mandatory) demotion. A lot of people would by necessity right now.
cuan_knaggs@hacks4pancakes @womble or it could be in a country that simply doesn't pay that well
szakib@mensrea @hacks4pancakes @womble If one's coming from the US, every other country seems like they don't pay well.
But US jobs actually don't pay so well if you count the cost of healthcare, schooling, and other social services that you need to pay from your salary.
But US jobs actually don't pay so well if you count the cost of healthcare, schooling, and other social services that you need to pay from your salary.
William@szakib @mensrea @hacks4pancakes @womble eh, the US has *wild* inequality though so it depends.
Being poor in the US is worse than being poor most other places, but holding a 6.5-digit tech job is not something that really happens elsewhere.
Australia is about halfway - engineering salaries here are maybe 30-50% of Si-valley rates but about 2-3x much of Europe.
@phenidone @szakib @mensrea @womble and those engineer salaries are much higher than the average, but still one medical diagnostic from bankruptcy all the time.
@hacks4pancakes @szakib @mensrea @womble I can confirm that, having recently been through a really bad diagnosis with my wife. We still have a house, and the total cost of treatment so far has been about $2k/yr in prescription meds.
Fourth round of surgery then second round of radiation is in a couple of weeks and has cost us *zero* so far. And that includes replacement of several things that I previously thought came under the heading "not field-serviceable", like vertebrae.
@hacks4pancakes @szakib @mensrea @womble if we were in the USA I (and the kids) would be homeless and she would be dead by now instead of hoping to get another decade.
@phenidone @szakib @mensrea @womble my mom died of cancer and that statement is not an exaggeration. Glad you’re safe.
@hacks4pancakes @phenidone @mensrea @womble Even before Trump, the US has been a very cruel country. From here it's astonishing that the government lets its citizens suffer like this, and that the well-armed citizens don't Mangione more CEOs more often.