[HN Gopher] Tell HN: I'm Afraid We're Shutting Down
___________________________________________________________________
Tell HN: I'm Afraid We're Shutting Down
So it's with deep professional and personal sadness that I must
announce my plans to shut down 70 Million Resources, Inc., the
parent company of 70 Million Jobs (the 1st national, for-profit
employment platform for people with criminal records) and
Commissary Club (the first mobile social network for this
population). When I launched 70MR in 2016, I was motivated to
build a company that could short circuit the pernicious cycles of
recidivism in this country--cycles that destroy lives, tear apart
families and decimate communities. I sought to disrupt the sleepy
reentry industry by applying technology, focusing on data,
employing an aggressive, accountable team, and moving with some
urgency. And for the first time, approaching the challenge as a
national, for-profit venture. This approach, which I named "RaaS,"
(Reentry as a Service), turned out to be wildly effective, and by
the beginning of 2020, we were delivering on our mission of driving
"double bottom line returns": build a big, successful business and
do massive social good. With the help of Y Combinator and nearly
1,500 investors, I assembled a team and got to work. We succeeded
in facilitating employment for thousands of deserving men and women
and became operationally profitable. However, the pandemic had
other plans for us. When it hit in force in March 2020, companies
made wholesale terminations of nearly all our people, and continued
their halt in hiring for two years. Our revenue dropped like a
rock to almost nothing. I immediately responded by paring our
expenses to the bone and began letting team members go. There was
no opportunity to raise additional funding, so I began injecting my
own money into the company--money I barely have--just to keep the
lights on. When the economy and job market began storming back, we
were inundated with inbound requests for our services. Our
perseverance seemed to be paying off. Except now we were hit with a
new gut punch: "The Great Resignation." Now our workers were
reticent to come back to work. And if they did accept a job, they'd
often leave after only a few days. It became obvious that we
lacked the resources to weather this new storm while hoping and
praying the world would normalize soon. (It still hasn't.) Our
coffers are empty. We've incurred a relatively small amount of debt
(that I personally guaranteed) that I hope to negotiate down. All
employees have been paid what they were owed (except for me). I
will explore sale of assets we hold. On a personal note, I can't
tell you how grateful and humbled I've been that many would entrust
their investment or business with me. For a person who's done time
in prison (me), it's almost impossible to ask for someone's trust.
I have not yet forgiven myself for things I did which ultimately
got me into trouble. But I will be eternally grateful to those that
assisted me in my efforts to settle the score and win back my
karma. From the beginning I was blessed by an unbelievable team of
smart, funny, passionate young people who shared my ambition to
cause change. They stuck with me/us until the very end. I'm most
saddened by the millions of formerly incarcerated men and women who
we won't be able to help. These are some of the most sincere,
honest, and heroic people I've ever met. It was my life's honor to
work with them. I'm pretty sure I'll continue my reentry work.
Several prominent organizations have indicated their interests in
me assuming a leadership role. I need to work, and I need to
continue my work. I'm so sorry for this outcome, despite the good
we've done. I'm not sure we could have done anything differently or
better, but ultimately, I take full responsibility. Needless to
say, if you have any thoughts or suggestions, please don't hesitate
to reach out, here or at Richard@70MillionJobs.com. This has been
the greatest experience of my life; it couldn't have happened
without my getting a second chance. Richard
Author : RBBronson123
Score : 893 points
Date : 2022-06-02 18:47 UTC (4 hours ago)
| PragmaticPulp wrote:
| > we were inundated with inbound requests for our services. Our
| perseverance seemed to be paying off. Except now we were hit with
| a new gut punch: "The Great Resignation." Now our workers were
| reticent to come back to work. And if they did accept a job,
| they'd often leave after only a few days.
|
| Can you clarify: Were the employees of your 70MR organization
| hesitant to return to work and quitting after a few days? Or were
| the people who requested your services quitting jobs several days
| after placement?
| markkat wrote:
| It really saddens me to hear this. It was an honor to get to know
| you as batchmates. Your passion and drive for 70MR made a mark
| upon me.
|
| I know that this is just another beginning for you, full of new
| opportunities, and that you will continue to help and inspire
| people. Godspeed!
| jsiaajdsdaa wrote:
| Congrats to you Richard for what you achieved, and I wish you the
| best in finding a role that will help you stabilize and continue.
|
| There are very strange earthquakes and disconnects happening in
| the labor market right now and I appreciate seeing this honest
| perspective on the reality you were trying to change.
| logicalmonster wrote:
| > When the economy and job market began storming back, we were
| inundated with inbound requests for our services. Our
| perseverance seemed to be paying off. Except now we were hit with
| a new gut punch: "The Great Resignation." Now our workers were
| reticent to come back to work. And if they did accept a job,
| they'd often leave after only a few days.
|
| I don't know what's possible for you financially and how much
| runway you might have left, but if you can stick around a bit
| longer, the coming economic turbulence is a prime time to
| reinvigorate the business.
| RickWolter wrote:
| For anyone in the thread wondering how a felon might get ahead...
|
| Im formerly incarcerated software engineer. I now run a non-
| profit org called Underdog Devs dedicated to getting formerly
| incarcerated people into software engineering jobs.
|
| We have over 450 members. We experienced engineers from all over
| the industry that will guide you. We also have a program called
| Project Underdog were we offer a stipend to pay their bills and
| have them pair gram all week long with various mentors. Its led
| by the brilliant Jessica McKellar and has proven to be better
| than any bootcamp or CS program ive experienced.
|
| Reach out if you would like some support.
|
| https://www.underdogdevs.org
|
| and on Twitter @UnderdogDevs
| chrisweekly wrote:
| Wow. Thanks for sharing. Congrats on your personal story of
| redemption, and for all the good you've done for others. I'm
| impressed and moved. Agreed w others here, recommend hibernation
| if possible.
|
| On a recidivism-related tangent, a close friend of mine runs a
| nonprofit called "Guitars Behind Bars" --
| https://guitarsbehindbars.com -- which does like it says on the
| tin, providing instruments and a musical outlet to convicts. It's
| had profound positive effects on the inmates who've participated
| (and their jailers/wardens, too). Bringing it up here bc stories
| about helping ex-convicts don't often feature on the HN front
| page.
|
| Power to you, Richard. Keep fighting the good fight, and thank
| you for being a light for others.
| danans wrote:
| > When it hit in force in March 2020, companies made wholesale
| terminations of nearly all our people, and continued their halt
| in hiring for two years.
|
| Is this because the people you were representing were mostly in
| sectors affected by the pandemic (travel, restaurant, etc), or
| were they were mostly "contingent workforce" jobs that are first
| to be cut?
| treme wrote:
| you had a dream and gave it hella shot Richard.
|
| Respect & Gl on your next chapter in life
| djtalia wrote:
| This is truly a sad time. You were doing such good work, and I'm
| sorry you're suffering through this.
| RBBronson123 wrote:
| When I announced the launch of 70 Million Jobs on HN back in
| 2017, it proved to be one of the most widely read and discussed
| posts ever on the site. I was totally blown away. Once again, I
| am struck by the incredibly sensitive and supportive tenor of the
| reactions to my news here.
|
| For some context, besides having a criminal record, I was/am a
| solo founder who somehow talked his way into Y Comb. Perhaps most
| surprising is my age: I'm 68. To my friends I grew up with, I'm
| f'-ing Steve Jobs. To you guys, you'd no doubt see me as the
| bumbling great uncle at Thanksgiving that isn't allowed to touch
| the TV remote control.
|
| So it's all been pretty weird. (wanna see it get weirder? google
| me and check out my past)
|
| As you all know, doing a 2-sided marketplace is always tough. But
| imagine if neither side of your marketplace was convinced they
| wanted your product. Chances are you keep your distance from such
| an undertaking ("Build something people want," my YC t-shirt
| says). I build something arguably no one wanted, but I knew they
| needed. Does that make me a schmuck? Probably.
|
| But to those who've never gotten close to someone with as record
| --particularly someone with a different color than you, who was
| brought into an unfair world from Day One, someone who wanted the
| same things as you, but never quite figured out how to get there,
| I'm here to say that some of these folks are the most honorable,
| humble, appreciate, hard-working people you could imagine. They
| just want a peaceful life, to take care of their family and get a
| good night sleep.
|
| So that's where the mission comes in, and that's when zealots are
| born. The truth is, I have nothing in my life other than my work.
| No wife, no kids, no home, nothing. But the satisfaction I got
| from helping these heroic folks, and the smiles I'd see on their
| kids' faces when they were reunited, meant/means the world to me.
| If you don't have something like this in your life, I urge you to
| find it. Your karma will thank you for it.
|
| I invite you all to ask your questions and continue to opine. If
| you have something to share that isn't merely an attempt to win
| an argument, I'd appreciate your taking the time to email me.
| More importantly, if you're ever in a position to hire someone
| with a record, take the chance. Life is too short not to take
| chances. Richard
| ManuelKiessling wrote:
| This might really be a stupid question and I can imagine you
| have other things to do right now, so zero hard feelings if you
| don't answer: But regarding this whole Great Resignation thing,
| not only in this specific context but in general -- there is
| one thing that I just don't get: What on earth are these
| Resignators doing? Where do they go? I mean all those people
| have to end up SOMEWHERE in the job market, don't they?
| spencerflem wrote:
| my spitballed guess is that it really is nowhere. anyone out
| of work for the pandemic and able to survive by living with
| parents etc. is just still doing that. Why put in 40hr/week
| when the pay barely even makes rent
| nikanj wrote:
| My sample size is very small, but they just undo the whole
| adulthood thing and become children again. Live with parents,
| eat out of their fridge, hang out with friends and enjoy life
| SamoyedFurFluff wrote:
| Maybe they have to end up somewhere in the job market,
| _later_. Maybe they got long Covid and are recovering. Maybe
| the isolation made them decide they needed to take time to
| consider what they want in life and to pivot /re-train. Even
| a small portion of the workforce on each reason to resign
| work, collectively at the same time, looks indistinguishable
| from a wave.
| atentaten wrote:
| This is a pertinent question that deserves to be answered by
| anyone who can shed some insight.
| gremlinsinc wrote:
| This sounds awesome, I want to do something similar, only with
| housing for people with bad credit, or records, or anything
| really that makes keeping housing rough.
|
| My grand idea is creating an intentional community with some
| glamping areas for cashflow, a community garden, shared tools
| and worker space with 3d printers, recreational vehicles,
| brooms, rakes, etc...things you really don't need to 'own', and
| cut back on too much consumerism. The idea being if you had 2
| city blocks and everyone was related or at least friendly and
| built a huge garage to share items they maybe use infrequently,
| how much space would that free up for more people to live, or
| to work on a hobby or something?
|
| My idea is build a homestead, in an area where zoning and
| building codes allow, maybe use some earth-friendly building
| methods like earth bag homes, there's an awesome youtube
| channel called My Little Homestead where they basically built
| free standing buildings as 'rooms' for each of their kids and
| it's basically like their own studio apartment. Each one cost <
| 10k, and is something you can live in any time of year.
|
| If you could build like 50 of these things, you could maybe
| house 50-100+ people and maybe just charge like 300/person 100
| per child, and build bigger buildings as needed for larger
| families, etc. Rinse and repeat across the USA and bring rent
| and home prices down because you'd flood the market with cheap
| homes anyone can afford. The glamping section might have 5-10
| spots each bringing in 50-200 per night throughout the year.
|
| The community would be gated, and protected well, and work best
| probably for those who could work online or from home, or
| willing to commute as it'll probably be in a rural area.
|
| They might not even be places you'd want to stay in forever,
| but great starter homes to live in while you save up money for
| something bigger or build up some investments or passive income
| sources.
|
| Alternate to earth bags, we also could use tiny-homes which are
| roughly 50k per pop, possibly less if we manufacture them from
| kits.
|
| I just have no idea how or where to begin to launch something
| like this, or if the brilliance is just in my own head, or if
| people/communities would actually find it valuable.
| prawn wrote:
| A friend is working on tiny housing for homeless. There is a
| premium tier of the tiny houses that I think helps to
| fundraise for the Calyx pods. https://foragebuilt.com.au/
|
| But I think ultimately you'd be building a trailer park for
| the more troubled parts of society and that might cause it to
| be less idyllic than you envisage.
|
| I've previously done some marketing work for an apartment
| building that focuses on mixing previously homeless in with
| other tenants plus support services on site.
| jupp0r wrote:
| Isn't this basically a trailer park?
| clairity wrote:
| been there, can commiserate. i had to shut down my startup in a
| similar space a few years ago after we failed to round out our
| post-seed raise. literally had to let everyone go one day, then
| my co-founder left, and then, packing boxes and walking out the
| door for the last time.
|
| it sucks, no two ways about it. hope you can find the next
| thing quickly.
| codeenlightener wrote:
| What are the operational costs of 70MR? What prevents you from
| scaling to zero employees?
| agsamek wrote:
| Richard, could you elaborate on the number one question in the
| comments - what do you mean by the great resignation and how
| specifically this affected you and the people using your
| service to find jobs?
| itake wrote:
| He responded here:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31600686
| buf wrote:
| This really bums me out.
|
| I was a convicted felon at 18 years old, poor, living on the
| street.
|
| It wasn't any government re-integration program that helped me,
| it was a random person I met in highschool.
|
| I worked my way through everything -> college -> jobs -> startups
| -> lucky windfalls -> owning my own company. I've immigrated to
| Europe (3 times in the last 10 years technically), beating the
| legal issues each time.
|
| And finally, after 17 years, I'm no longer a felon thanks to a
| pardon and expungement.
|
| I really wish something like 70MR would stay up. Not everyone can
| be as lucky as me. Is there some place I can donate?
| omginternets wrote:
| I really hope you, or someone else, takes another stab at this
| project when the economic winds shift. It's a worthwhile
| endeavor.
| WheelsAtLarge wrote:
| It's your type of understanding and fervor that's needed for a
| 70MR to move forward. Have you considered taking it over? Think
| about it. Sometimes you're the solution.
| samstave wrote:
| buf wrote:
| I haven't considered taking it over until your comment just
| now. I've always told myself I'd write a book and do some
| talks at some point in my life, but I've been heads down
| either trying to survive or building companies that I put it
| off.
|
| Thanks for the idea.
|
| Richard, I'll shoot you an email.
| mousetree wrote:
| Email is in the original post: Richard@70MillionJobs.com.
| sebastianconcpt wrote:
| Definitively sounds like you have one of the bests existing
| opportunities to implement the 2.0 of that idea.
| diydsp wrote:
| just a suggestion, but another option is to make a high-
| quality archive of the business - contacts, software
| packages used, consultants who worked with them, etc., in
| order to revive it efficiently if/when the day comes.
| notch656a wrote:
| Emigration honestly is the most logical option for a felon. A
| few nations will accept local background checks in the
| immigration process, so if you move to a state where you don't
| have a record you can just get your police report from a place
| where your record is clean.
|
| Another option is to go live in a Compact of Free Association
| nations such as Micronesia or Marshall Islands. US citizens are
| authorized to live and work there without a visa, so once you
| live overseas there for a few years you can immigrate to most
| other nations using the background check from your country of
| prior residence, which is now a country where you have a clear
| background.
| upupandup wrote:
| I can't say if emigration is a solution here since most
| developed countries, especially East Asia, automatically
| denies entry if you are a felon. Seems like there is a
| limited pool of countries that are willing to look the other
| way.
|
| We are talking island states, perhaps Thailand, Eastern
| Europe.
| notch656a wrote:
| OP said he immigrated to 3 different European countries
| with a felony record.
|
| East Asia would not be my choice for legal residency as a
| felon. Although I would note if you're not applying for a
| visa, they rarely actually have mechanisms to check your
| criminal record unless someone influential takes a specific
| liking to you.
|
| As I mentioned there are a number of nations that only
| require background check from countries you've lived in for
| the past X years. Therefore if you live somewhere else for
| X years you can then leapfrog to that country.
| comprev wrote:
| It also opens up an opportunity to hit the big reset button
| of life. A new country, new culture, new friends and even new
| languages in many cases.
|
| People have the opportunity to become a new person, and it's
| not just those with a criminal past either. Perhaps those who
| have experienced persecution can also start a new chapter in
| a safer environment.
| kingcharles wrote:
| It's sad. It shouldn't have to be radical solutions like
| that. Poster above is very luck he had his record expunged
| (although it's possible his record lives on in Google). Most
| convicted persons are never able to clear their record, even
| decades later.
| btilly wrote:
| How is a person with a criminal record, no job, no support
| network, and no savings supposed to move to another country?
| notch656a wrote:
| Several options
|
| 1) Marshall islands or Micronesia. Buy flight on credit, do
| farm or whatever labor you can to eat while you get booted.
| No visa needed to live or work.
|
| 2) Some nations such as Argentina have effectively no
| immigration enforcement. Once you're in the country you're
| good and you can file a court case to become a citizen
| immediately (you'll have to wait 2+ year for it to be
| granted). In the meantime the legal system in Argentina has
| to treat you as a citizen while you're waiting on your
| case.
|
| If you truly have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING and no access to
| credit you may be able to hitchhike and/or work on
| boats/yachts to get to any nation in the Americas.
|
| 3) Or, not recommending it, but you can be like the illegal
| immigrants. Enter somewhere on a tourist visa and take
| informal jobs like illegal immigrants do. Seems to work for
| some of them in a variety of European and South American
| countries.
|
| 4) Join a foreign militia/military. French foreign legion,
| Ukraine. Also YPG and some Kurdish militias I think still
| accepts recruits and they don't require anything past your
| flight which you could buy on credit. French foreign legion
| will grant you citizenship after two contracts and will
| feed you in the meanwhile, even while you're trying out.
|
| 5) Work with an English teaching organization that does not
| perform FBI background check. Some exist but they may not
| be plentiful. They may help you get a job in a new nation.
|
| 6) Marry a Brazilian (or few other nations). Many
| jurisdictions in Brazil will issue a permanent residence
| visa without much scrutiny if you are married or have a
| Brazilian child. Believe Cape Verde also gives instant
| citizenship for marriage.
|
| 7) IF you can enter Philippines on 'Balakbayan' visa
| (married to Filipino) then you'll be issued a 1 year visa
| without scrutiny. After 6 months in the country they don't
| require background checks from anywhere but Philippines.
| Wait 7 months after entering, use your spouse to apply for
| work and permanent visa.
| btilly wrote:
| Most of these are bad advice.
|
| First, flying on credit isn't nearly as easy as you make
| it out to be. Yes, a bunch of companies are buy now, pay
| later. They fall into two groups. The first does it based
| on your credit. The second is a layaway plan - by the
| time you get on the plane you've managed to pay in full.
| Ex-cons struggling to get a job usually have neither.
| Nobody wants to give money to a person who looks like
| they are trying to disappear. (Because you just know your
| money is going to disappear with them...)
|
| Second, a lot of your plans require going to countries
| where you need another language. That's going to be a
| challenge for most ex-cons.
|
| Third, while the French Foreign Legion is romantic and
| all, they won't take you if they find you have a criminal
| record. Other foreign legions are similar. They might not
| find out, but do you want to spend your life savings
| betting on that?
|
| Fourth, marrying someone from another country is an
| uphill battle for someone who lacks a job. Particularly
| when most of the women from those countries looking to
| marry an American would like to wind up in the USA rather
| than the reverse.
|
| These are all amazing plans, and I'm sure that some
| succeed with each. But they're going to work out poorly
| for most ex-cons who try them.
| notch656a wrote:
| If you simply look for ways to fail, you'll never
| succeed.
|
| My statement is direct towards goal oriented people who
| want to succeed and are willing to iteratively test their
| options until something works. Not failures who are
| unwilling to take a risk or work for a reward. If you
| can't get a credit card, then hitchhike and/or volunteer
| on a yacht or just be homeless and work day labor that
| doesn't check your record until you've saved up a chunk.
|
| An individual who is capable of success is capable of
| tirelessly executing options until they find one that
| works. And that is possible. Staying in the US means you
| will never fully regain your civil rights if convicted of
| a federal crime. Leaving means you have the chance of
| having the full civil rights of a citizen, somewhere.
| yarrel wrote:
| Which of these options worked for you?
| notch656a wrote:
| When I was homeless I have hitchhiked without using
| money, then slept in a ditch for weeks in Williston North
| Dakota where the oil industry was booming and no one
| performed background checks. After a few weeks of day
| labor (part time sleeping in a ditch, part time crashing
| with a generous but drunk ex-felon in a trailor) I had
| enough money for a train ticket to an extremely cheap
| midwestern city where I used my wages to buy a month in
| an AirBnB which allowed me to have a residence to do
| local factory work.
|
| Regarding going out of country, I have joined a foreign
| militia prior that had some ex-cons in it, that did not
| require anything other than a plane ticket to join. I did
| not know the language, but learned (some of it) along the
| way. Travelling extensively you learn to communicate
| without knowing much of the language. I believe I paid
| for that ticket with a credit card.
|
| So out of my "Several Options" I can personally say (5)
| would work and been tested by me. Domestically I can say
| hitch-hiking to an oil field and sleeping in a ditch
| until you can afford better would work (met lots of
| felons that did same). I also married a filipino while I
| was completely broke, so (7) would work as well although
| I haven't personally done it, it would be trivial for me
| to execute it.
| gspr wrote:
| God, are you a walking self-help book? I feel sad and
| disgusted just reading this comment.
| [deleted]
| rmbyrro wrote:
| Please, please be very cautious, read this comment
| critically, consult a friend or anyone minimally smart
| before doing any of this stuff.
| clamprecht wrote:
| Have you actually done any of the 7 options you mention?
| (If you have, I'd love to hear details). I think you may
| be going on bad information on at least some of them. For
| the record, I have a federal conviction in the US. I got
| out of prison at age 28, finished my degrees (CS & math),
| and succeeded as an early employee at a startup, so it is
| possible. Then in 2014 I went to Argentina for the
| supposed "2 year citizenship", which ended up taking 6
| years, and a good amount of money to pursue it. I lived
| on money generated entirely in the US - the economy of
| Argentina is much, much worse than the US. If you're
| basing your research on the baexpats forum and
| specifically bajo_cero2's comments, that may have been
| true before 2013, but not anymore.
|
| I'm not saying your suggestions are 100% impossible, but
| they're more for people who are on the run (i.e. very
| desperate) rather than those with a conviction.
| throwaway92394 wrote:
| Add no degree. Many especially in CS might even be highly
| skilled but have no degree to show for it.
|
| EDIT: And only speak english a single language.
| hyperbovine wrote:
| They're not. Even by Internet forum standards this is
| absolutely terrible advice.
| bitcoinmoney wrote:
| What crime were you convicted of?
| scardycat wrote:
| Have you considered switching to a non-profit? I am not saying
| for-profit is bad but you may have more avenues for fund raising
| as a non-profit.
|
| Alternatively, gofundme for this would be very successful I would
| assume. You could also think of a some sort of corporate
| sponsorship. Corporates can write off for supporting program like
| this. Again, non-profit here would help a lot.
| RBBronson123 wrote:
| There seems to be some confusion here over my use of the
| expression, "The Great Resignation."
| https://www.investopedia.com/the-great-resignation-5199074 This
| is a economic/workforce phenomenon that began amidst the pandemic
| and continues. (The NY Times reported today that there are 11.4
| million unfilled jobs. That's historically off the charts.)
|
| My company operates/ed a job board and a staffing business. Both
| ran like traditional job boards (Indeed, Zip Recruiter, etc) and
| staffing companies (Kelly, Adecco, etc.), except being focused
| entirely on the formerly incarcerated. This is how large
| employers source many, many employees.
|
| The staffing business was much larger. In this model, we serve as
| the hirer-of-record, and essentially lease out the workers to our
| client employers, who cover all our costs (wages, unemployment
| insurance, taxes, etc.) plus our mark-up (profit). It's a high
| volume, low margin business.
|
| During the Great Resignation, we found it took 10x the time and
| effort to get someone placed, eroding our already thin margins.
| Plus, if a worker left (which they began doing at a great rate),
| we're obligated to replace them. All of this made it pretty much
| impossible for us to make money. (Again, we're a for-profit
| business). I hope this clarifies things.
| donthellbanme wrote:
| UnpossibleJim wrote:
| I know this is a bit off topic, but even during the "Great
| Resignation", as I always do I keep my eyes open on the job
| market (non-felon with a good work history, so this is a
| departure from the conversation, I apologize). With all of the
| complaints from employers about "We can't find people to work
| for us!", even in the software industry (which is well payed,
| compared to a lot of my friends), I didn't see the expected
| raise in the offering salaries for such claimed desperation.
| Especially when inflation is pushing from the bottom and
| housing prices (at least in the Seattle area, my area) are
| still nuts. The expectations of experience are laughable and,
| frankly, to be to be ignored at this point. I'm not even sure
| who writes the spec sheets for positions.
| dan-robertson wrote:
| https://www.atlantafed.org/chcs/wage-growth-tracker
|
| If you click the 'wage level' button you can see that workers
| everywhere are seeing growth but workers in the lowest
| quartile are seeing higher growth.
|
| A few explanations other than the one you don't see evidence
| for:
|
| - the growth is in nominal dollars, inflation explains the
| spike and everyone is down in real terms, so even though the
| lowest-paid are doing better, they still aren't seeing wage
| growth (but you are also observing nominal pay with your open
| eyes...)
|
| - the lowest-paid are quitting, or the number of workers is
| decreasing in the higher quartile such that the average
| individual chosen from the first quartile would not have seen
| wage growth but rather higher-paid people are now counting as
| part of their quartile and pushing up the averages
| danans wrote:
| > During the Great Resignation, we found it took 10x the time
| and effort to get someone placed, eroding our already thin
| margins. Plus, if a worker left (which they began doing at a
| great rate)
|
| Where do you think they went? If they mostly went to work
| elsewhere because as part of the "Great Resignation" because
| they found better opportunities, then perhaps you accomplished
| your social mission (which was presumably giving them a foot in
| the door of gainful work), even if it was at the price of the
| business.
|
| Maybe structural impediments to employment for felons came down
| due to a tightening labor market?
|
| For example, in CA, laws are being passed to allow formerly
| incarcerated wildlands firefighters to work in that job after
| release:
|
| https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtm...
|
| If they resigned instead due to hopelessness and falling back
| through the proverbial cracks of society, that's a terrible
| result.
| v1l wrote:
| Respect
| dingleberry420 wrote:
| Can the title be changed to be less clickbaity? Reads like HN is
| shutting down
| formerkrogemp wrote:
| > Reads like HN is shutting down.
|
| That'll be the day. I wonder what poor Dan G. and company would
| do with their lives then?
| [deleted]
| kingcharles wrote:
| As a current prisoner who is yet to be released, let me say thank
| you for everything you've done.
|
| I've spent the last 9 years around felons and it is sad as most
| of them never had a chance in life, being born either into an
| environment that practically guaranteed incarceration, or being
| born with mental health issues that this nation fails to treat
| and instead incarcerates.
| weinr0ck wrote:
| Just a question, when you do get released, what do you plan on
| doing? Are there government programs to train in certain areas?
| FpUser wrote:
| I am usually very cynical when I hear about companies with good
| intentions. This however touched every string of my heart. You do
| not have to be so humble as you've done an amazing and honorable
| job. You helped people to get out of that death spiral where
| fucked-up Government on par with some big corporations are trying
| to keep them in.
|
| To them - rot in hell fucking vultures.
|
| To you - thanks and praise for what you've done and best luck for
| whatever you do in the future.
| xbar wrote:
| Thank you for your efforts Richard.
| asimpleusecase wrote:
| What you have done, take on a seriously hard problem that has
| real benefits for marginalised people and society as a whole, is
| exactly the type of risky innovation that we need more of. Pause,
| heal, and come back again.
| adultSwim wrote:
| The larger fight continues, to treat people who have been to
| prison with dignity and respect.
| worik wrote:
| Perhaps put fewer people in prison to start with
| ushakov wrote:
| Perhaps build a social system so that people won't have to
| resort to crime in order to survive and progress in life
| quadcore wrote:
| You have as rare a courage as Steve Jobs and others if you'd ask
| me. The only startup I remembered in a long time if that count. I
| sincerely hope you've had fun and that you'll keep enjoying your
| life. Speaking of which Id recommend to laugh it a good time and
| move on. Dont play what if and Cluedo because you are exactly
| where you should be, in a positive way.
|
| The past doesnt matter, only the present moment does and it's
| wonderful.
| jdoliner wrote:
| Very sad this didn't work out. This story rings of the old
| saying: no good deed goes unpunished.
| sara-NPF wrote:
| I just sent you an email from sara@northpinefoundation.ca in case
| it goes to your junk folder
| f0e4c2f7 wrote:
| Richard it is better to have failed at this than to succeed at a
| lot of easier things.
|
| I found 70 million jobs inspirational and I'm proud of the work
| you did.
|
| Someday someone else will move this idea a little further down
| the field.
| janejeon wrote:
| Could the title please be changed to something that doesn't sound
| like HN _itself_ is shutting down? This is incredibly misleading.
| milesdyson_phd wrote:
| Yeah, even just adding the domain to the end of the title would
| clarify
| kulix425 wrote:
| ayewo wrote:
| Adding a "Tell HN:" prefix should do the trick.
| hkgjjgjfjfjfjf wrote:
| tptacek wrote:
| You gotta mail hn@ycombinator.com with stuff like this; there's
| no magic that causes admins to get alerts when comments like
| these are posted.
| GekkePrutser wrote:
| Yeah I got a big shock lol.. I'm not sure what 70MR is. Sounds
| like a parole thing? But it won't affect me. Sorry for those
| whom it does though!
| sara-NPF wrote:
| I sent you an email from sara@northpinefoundation.ca in case it
| went to your junk folder
| f38zf5vdt wrote:
| Just chiming in to say I really hope this gets rescued. Everyone
| deserves a second chance.
| torbTurret wrote:
| "These are some of the most sincere, honest, and heroic people
| I've ever met."
|
| Yeah, I think we're too hard as a nation on ex-cons. But they're
| not heroes because they went through self-imposed hardships (and
| almost always at the expense of someone innocent). And they're
| certainly among the lower rungs of honesty by categorization.
| Nowhere near the top.
|
| If this sounds harsh, just act their victims.
| giraffe_lady wrote:
| fuck offffff seriously.
|
| The hardships aren't self-imposed, our justice system is
| specifically and intentionally _retributive_ , imposing
| punishment for its own sake rather than imposing consequences
| with the goal of rehabilitation. And we're talking here of
| additional ad-hoc social punishments _beyond_ the terms of the
| sentence that make finding a job harder.
|
| The level of personal discipline it takes to get released and
| stay "good" on probation is far beyond what we expect from
| workers in general and almost certainly stricter than either of
| us requires for ourselves. The level of humility and, frankly,
| debasement it takes to find a willing employer with a felony
| conviction is if not heroic at least saintly.
| RickWolter wrote:
| we are always looking for folks such as yourself to help with
| underdog devs.
|
| https://www.underdogdevs.org
|
| and on Twitter @UnderdogDevs
| mynameishere wrote:
| _The level of personal discipline it takes to get released
| and stay "good" on probation is far beyond what we expect
| from workers in general and almost certainly stricter than
| either of us requires for ourselves._
|
| Yeah, it's part of the corrections system. You go on
| probation or parole and they keep you on a leash. It's
| intentional. If you don't like it, you can serve out the
| whole term.
|
| "Saintly". For god's sake people. Listen to yourselves. How
| many cars I gotta jack before people start calling me a
| saint, anyway?
| oceanplexian wrote:
| > The hardships aren't self-imposed, our justice system is
| specifically and intentionally retributive
|
| If you want to know why this is, I would recommend Discipline
| and Punish by Foucault. Our present systems of justice go
| back hundreds of years, when a crime was considered an attack
| on the sovereign, aka the King, or the Prince. Back then
| crimes were punished by Hanging, or Torture, and it was done
| as an exercise of terror. The primary purpose of this wasn't
| the prevention of crime (Do you really think royalty cared if
| peasants killed each-other?), but rather punishment for
| disobeying the King.
|
| All modern systems of Law are essentially still medieval
| systems, and it's why crimes that happen exclusively between
| two people are prosecuted as Person v. State of Whatever. The
| process of justice isn't for the criminal, it's to remind the
| rest of us of the total power of the State.
| orthecreedence wrote:
| That's a very interesting historical viewpoint of the
| justice system. I've often wondered what in our culture (in
| the US at least) lead to such a draconian system. I think
| the thing I take issue with most isn't even the system
| _proper_ itself as much as the culture around it: stripping
| felons of voting rights (in a country billing itself as the
| "Land of the Free"), using prisoners as slave labor (we
| have protected slavery in the bill of rghts!), and treating
| them almost like lepers after they have served their
| sentence/punishment. It's sickening.
| floxy wrote:
| >it's why crimes that happen exclusively between two people
| are prosecuted as Person v. State
|
| That's to eliminate the inter-generational blood feud's
| that were previously common when it wasn't the case that
| violent crimes were crimes against the state.
| javajosh wrote:
| America is so strange. On one hand, nearly everyone thinks the
| system doesn't work. And yet, they tacitly assume the justice
| system works. They think it works just like on TV - innocent
| until proven guilty, detail-oriented public defenders and
| judges, and scrupulously honest prosecutors and police.
|
| It's nothing like that. The justice system is a machine that
| chews people up, and spits out convicts, and it operates with
| impunity precisely because of ignorant views like yours.
| Getting arrested or convicted is like winning a shit lottery,
| and all you need to win is to be around a cop having a bad day.
| Since very few people are "winners", so the knowledge of the
| real system is minimized, and the knowledgeable ones are
| marginalized and ignored because they are, after all, convicts.
|
| People break the law and do so with impunity all day long. In
| fact, they get paid well to do it. Your typical family law
| attorney should be arrested, tried and convicted, and they've
| destroyed countless families, harmed countless children. But
| they are pillars of the community. So just because someone got
| punished by these corrupt people doesn't make them evil, it
| makes them unlucky.
|
| (In fairness I'd estimate that 90% of arrests/convictions/plea
| deals are straightforward, valid and basically fair, and those
| convicts often are repeat offenders, low intelligence,
| struggling with addiction and mental health. They deserve a
| chance too, but it's the 10% who get swept up for breaking no
| law, or breaking needlessly punitive laws, that I particularly
| feel for. You know, the Aaron Swartz's of the world.)
| throwaway92394 wrote:
| > In fact, they get paid well to do it. Your typical family
| law attorney should be arrested, tried and convicted, and
| they've destroyed countless families, harmed countless
| children.
|
| I was with you up until this. While I understand the view
| that what many attorneys do is immoral or wrong - generally
| speaking to my knowledge there isn't widespread illegal
| behavior?
|
| I understand but don't fully agree with the view that laywers
| are "evil" - but the way I see it is they are skilled at
| playing by the rules of the law. This makes them incredibly
| powerful (for both sides of people that can afford it), but
| if they are generally playing by the law - thus not
| arrestable. Tearing a family apart because the mother is an A
| hole and lies about things the father does might be immoral -
| but it's not illegal for an attorney to represent them.
| torbTurret wrote:
| I agree with this. The justice system is fucked up. I've been
| arrested myself, so this isn't some punitive viewpoint
| looking in from outside.
|
| My point is that I don't agree with labeling someone
| convicted of a crime as being among society's most heroic or
| honest. That's just a laughably ridiculous statement.
| lgessler wrote:
| There are many, many victimless crimes that people are
| unreasonably incarcerated for.
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
| 999900000999 wrote:
| Please add a donation link, even if it just goes to your debts,
| you did God's work.
|
| One could imagine if we didn't scar people with lifelong records
| how many would integrate back into society.
| supersync wrote:
| Richard - thank you for sharing your journey with us.
|
| Your work and achievements are an inspiration, even now.
|
| Sometimes progress really is one person at a time. You & your
| team changed the lives of millions.
|
| My own social startup failed. It is so hard to watch your dream,
| all that you are, die.
|
| All I can pass on is that your journey is not done & taking good
| care of yourself is how you'll be able to take it.
|
| My sincere wish is that you allow your karma balance to settle.
|
| You deserve to enjoy life, to do work you find meaningful, and to
| be remembered for your contributions.
|
| You overcame incredible odds time & again. If anyone has proven
| investment in second chances make a difference, you have.
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| Hi Richard, I'd like to donate towards retiring the debt you've
| personally guaranteed. How can I do this?
|
| Thanks for trying, it's more than most do. My genuine condolences
| you were unable to maintain traction due to the macro.
|
| (agree with 0des' sibling comment, hibernate the effort vs this
| being the death of it)
| lief79 wrote:
| Just to state the obvious, do this after he's negotiated down
| any debts if possible.
| [deleted]
| mikekij wrote:
| Same. GoFundMe?
| JustARandomGuy wrote:
| +1. Would strongly encourage a gofundme for this. I know many
| HNers including myself would be happy to pitch in to help
| retire any debt you have remaining from this.
| seehafer wrote:
| Same. Richard, you & your startup were one of the most
| memorable from our batch. So sorry to hear this news. I
| suspect there are other founders that feel the way Mike and I
| do.
| ericskiff wrote:
| I'd be up for helping with this as well
| polio wrote:
| Does advertising your willingness publicly make it harder for
| him to negotiate?
| [deleted]
| hutzlibu wrote:
| In anice world, it it could also serve as an example and
| _help_ with negotiating.
|
| Depends who gave the money.
| TimTheTinker wrote:
| ^ Good question. I'm wondering this as well. Curiosity is a
| good thing, especially on HN.
| arionhardison wrote:
| Have you considered contacting "Homeboy Industries". It seems
| like what you have would be a good fit to help them scale their
| org. https://homeboyindustries.org/
| fnordpiglet wrote:
| This ruined my whole day. What a tragedy.
| newfonewhodis wrote:
| > Now our workers were reticent to come back to work. And if they
| did accept a job, they'd often leave after only a few days.
|
| I don't know enough about your business. Why does employee
| mobility hurt you?
| 0des wrote:
| > Several prominent organizations have indicated their interests
| in me assuming a leadership role. I need to work, and I need to
| continue my work.
|
| Take the job so you dont starve, and so you can begin to rebuild.
| It's not time to shut the doors, it's just time to take a knee
| and get your game plan together. It ain't over yet, it's just
| halftime.
|
| This will help: https://marker.medium.com/reflecting-on-my-
| failure-to-build-...
| EarthLaunch wrote:
| Not OP but is exactly what I needed to read for my own project,
| thank you. I've been searching for this.
|
| It's hard to find discussions about the real downsides of using
| VC money. For instance, what happens when growth fails? Do you
| lose ownership of the business? From reading this, the answer
| seems to be: Kind of, yeah. You have to buy your way back.
|
| Another one: What happens if you want to do something extremely
| risky? My project is a game; what if an asteroid impact seems
| best for the design, but runs the risk of literally destroying
| the player base? I can't imagine that would receive creative
| encouragement.
|
| So as the author said, it depends on how value is to be
| measured.
| 0des wrote:
| Well funny you should say that, I have some expertise in this
| area.
|
| > For instance, what happens when growth fails?
|
| C level purge, or outright shuttering the business. This is
| more of a question of, when will my benefactors tire of
| gambling on this concept I am building.
|
| > Do you lose ownership of the business?
|
| Usually, in most cases, you give up part of the business to
| attain the funding, sometimes a board seat. When this
| happens, if you no longer hold the majority of the voting
| shares and seats, you can lose the business. If you have
| cofounders or partners, they may be pressured or persuaded to
| sell their share, so one VC not being the majority doesnt
| entirely mean you are safe. The only true safety is being a
| solo founder, which is why solo founders are encouraged to
| find a cofounder. Not only can most people not do everything
| themselves, but a solo founder is not easily broken once
| theyve made up their mind. There is no "mom" to play against
| "dad" when a CEO doesn't want to "play ball" with a VC's
| inane growth plan.
|
| Your assessment is correct, in most cases, unless you are
| gumroad, you will have to buy back any stake you have
| sold/bequeathed.
|
| > What happens if you want to do something extremely risky?
|
| If you think it makes sense, do it. If you have a board you
| have to run it through first, this may not be as
| straightforward, because youll have to repitch a LOT and
| revalidate "feelings" and other nonsense.
|
| > My project is a game;
|
| That's awesome, you probably wont have to worry about any of
| this because most VC, unless theyre in this arena already,
| will not fund or even entertain a game. Theyll say "go to a
| publisher" or just outright ignore you. Im not trying to be
| mean, I love games, I love money.
|
| > what if an asteroid impact seems best for the design, but
| runs the risk of literally destroying the player base? I
| can't imagine that would receive creative encouragement.
|
| Be careful of any VC that would take issue with creative
| direction decisions. It is important that you and they know
| that they are the money, you are the talent. If they had the
| talent and the idea, they'd be bootstrapping your business
| themselves. There are only so many hours in the day, and
| irons in the fire. You have all the hours of the day to spend
| on one iron in your fire. A VC has the hours outside of their
| things to focus on the myriad of irons in their fire.
|
| One last thing: I know you didnt ask, but if you start to
| circle the drain and nobody is wanting to invest, dont get
| desperate and take money from family, people you care about,
| or especially people who arent a professional VC. Youre going
| to be afraid to take the chances and leaps necessary to
| deliver a possible return on their money and success to your
| concept. Similarly, small VCs can be a hinderance in the way
| that you're their one horse, and bigger startups havent
| delivered the returns that would relax them into trusting
| their instinct and letting their investment be a catalyst
| rather than a shackle.
|
| VC money is not like kickstarter where it means they have
| input. That is what board seats are for, and the more money
| people you put there, and the less industry people you put
| there, the harder it will be to explain industry concepts
| which frankly shouldnt be your job.
|
| Dont take VC money for a game. Be broke for a while, work a
| job, grind it out in your free time. Youll thank yourself.
| Research Bay12games.
| EarthLaunch wrote:
| > The only true safety is being a solo founder, which is
| why solo founders are encouraged to find a cofounder.
|
| Aha, that's a mystery solved. Luckily no one would be crazy
| enough to cofound. And I've heard the same thing about
| games not receiving VC money. There's the metaverse pitch,
| but that's just a stampede.
|
| Thank you for taking the time to detail your advice here!
| That was tremendously helpful. Great point about creative
| decisions, family/friends, and small firms. This may all
| help people reading it more than you'll know.
|
| I'm 10 years in and could learn a lot from Dwarf Fortress.
| Including how to use composable components (most Roguelikes
| seem to).
| 0des wrote:
| As cliche as it sounds, don't beat yourself up about
| taking time to make the product that most accurately
| matches the one in your heart. The best games are the
| ones that had a vision and went for it without
| compromising on their ideals along the way for money.
| ushakov wrote:
| > It's hard to find discussions about the real downsides of
| using VC money
|
| maybe because this is a forum, that belongs to the most
| prominent VC in the world?
|
| > For instance, what happens when growth fails? Do you lose
| ownership of the business?
|
| nothing, besides losing trust in your business's ability to
| succeed, therefor not putting any more money in it
|
| consider this: VCs are typically in hundred-million ranges,
| $500k for them is a rounding error, they only care about
| those companies that can show the promised growth
|
| > What happens if you want to do something extremely risky?
|
| that'd be actually great
|
| more risk = more reward
|
| > My project is a game
|
| a thing about which no VC in the world cares
|
| unless you promise it will become a "Metaverse"
|
| > I can't imagine that would receive creative encouragement
|
| that's not what you need a VC for, you need a VC for two
| things only: their money, their connections/status
| ushakov wrote:
| you should be proud of yourselves
|
| i'm sure your company will be missed by those who you helped get
| new opportunities in life
|
| it's better to try and fail changing the world, than never try,
| live a meaningless, unfulfilling, but _comfortable_ life
|
| you gave a shot, but i'm sure you didn't run out of ammo!
|
| try again next time!
| [deleted]
| api_or_ipa wrote:
| Wish I had heard about 70million before this post. As many other
| commenters have mentioned, I too am happy to make a donation to
| keep your lights on and your mission alive. The biggest tragedy
| in America is the wholesale disenfranchisement of millions of
| people due to incarceration.
| timwaagh wrote:
| stefanvdw1 wrote:
| What is this even supposed to mean?
| daniel-cussen wrote:
| Your going out of business doesn't undo the great things you did
| for all those people who needed that second chance.
|
| Turns out, for instance, Halcyon Molecular was similar, it went
| bust losing tons of money but it let me get a decent wage after
| all the employment discrimination I suffered for standing up to
| torture (false imprisonment, so very similar, had a gap in my
| resume I couldn't explain because I didn't realize there was an
| April in 2009, it just hurt to think about that moment in my
| life). That $20-an-hour job allowed me to create abnormal
| speedups for many algorithms, leading to https://fgemm.com, which
| I'm working on now.
|
| It was my second chance. And it created the tech it was meant to,
| just not the way the investors expected.
|
| EDIT: can't reply to selimthegrim except here, at the limit of
| posts. I will get it working. I know it's not up yet, it's coming
| soon. Currently ironing out the algorithms instead.
| selimthegrim wrote:
| Your link isn't working.
| daniel-cussen wrote:
| Because I'm not a software engineer it won't work until it's
| ready. It's getting there. The algorithms are ready, though.
| In the meantime, look at https://skylinesort.com
| tyingq wrote:
| Sad to hear this, and appreciate your efforts.
| mwigdahl wrote:
| I'm really sorry to hear that your company's good work is coming
| to an end. I wish you all the best in your future career and I
| hope you are able to find new ways to help address the needs of
| this community of people.
| milesdyson_phd wrote:
| _When the economy and job market began storming back, we were
| inundated with inbound requests for our services. Our
| perseverance seemed to be paying off. Except now we were hit with
| a new gut punch: "The Great Resignation." Now our workers were
| reticent to come back to work. And if they did accept a job,
| they'd often leave after only a few days._
|
| As in the workers you placed, employees of 70MR? Why would they
| leave after a few days? Can you expand on this?
|
| _It became obvious that we lacked the resources to weather this
| new storm while hoping and praying the world would normalize
| soon. (It still hasn't.)_
|
| What does normalize mean to you (or 70MR)?
| ukyrgf wrote:
| I manage IT for an office and one of our hires said they got
| covid, took a month to join, and then when she showed up her
| manager decided to move her desk. I think maybe I got the
| desktop and a monitor moved before I was told to stop because
| she just quit. I can think of maybe 3 people in my office that
| have stayed for over a year, none on bad terms, just hopping
| jobs.
| [deleted]
| yakak wrote:
| This seems like it relates a lot to the bizarre structure of
| hiring and salaries. You need to get any job and then any
| other employer will offer you a ~20% better one but no one
| will match inflation the next year let alone give you what
| they would offer if you worked somewhere else.
| sarchertech wrote:
| I was really impressed with my employer this review period.
| I got a 17% raise. Other people I talked to got similar
| raises.
| braingenious wrote:
| I would also like more information about this phenomenon.
|
| What's the scale of this? For example, how many people accepted
| a job and then quit within a few days?
|
| How did it impact these people's lives? For example, did this
| result in increased recidivism? If so, at what scale?
| starik36 wrote:
| I had a conversation with an HR friend of mine recently.
| According to her, she is inundated with fake requests for
| unemployment from people that never worked at her employer.
| Or people join, then quit promptly and apply for
| unemployment. This is in California.
|
| I would think the state would have protections against this
| type of thing, but maybe not.
| GartzenDeHaes wrote:
| You have to be "unemployed through no fault of your own" to
| be eligible for unemployment.
|
| https://edd.ca.gov/en/unemployment/eligibility/
| PragmaticPulp wrote:
| > You have to be "unemployed through no fault of your
| own" to be eligible for unemployment.
|
| Technically, yes, but the system is so overwhelmed in
| many locations that unemployment requests are almost
| automatically approved. You have to work hard to appeal
| it after the fact and a lot of employers just give up.
| pplante wrote:
| Yes, that is the law. A nanny I employed in CA had put
| her two weeks in with us, then the last day of work she
| no-showed last minute. With two working parents you can
| imagine how well that was received. Anyhow, I told her to
| not come finish out her last day. So then she applies for
| unemployment a few weeks later. I got a notice from EDD
| and responded to it with the facts around her
| unemployment request, thinking surely they will deny her.
| There should have been two flags on her request: 1 - she
| quit, 2 - she no-showed the last day. It was processed
| and she was granted 26 weeks.
|
| I think they are so overwhelmed at EDD that her request
| was just pushed along through the process. There are so
| many stories of fraud at EDD that you have to wonder how
| much time the claims processors are spending on each
| application.
| joenathanone wrote:
| You can appeal the ruling, all the way up to presenting
| your case before a judge(at least in AZ).
| gcheong wrote:
| Probably hard to justify spending the time to pursue it
| in most cases.
| joenathanone wrote:
| I have and do, otherwise my unemployment insurance rates
| rise the following year, if that isn't a concern for you
| then sure. I also only fire for cause.
| harlanji wrote:
| That's what I thought. Turns out constructive dismissal,
| choosing to quit due to poor conditions or breach of
| contract, qualifies for unemployment. I'd have quit a
| couple jobs way sooner if I'd been aware.
|
| My claim in CA was approved in 2020; I don't recall if
| that language was on the page or not at the time.
| Although I never got paid anything due to ID verification
| failure later in the process (clogged phone lines meant I
| never learned the reason, I gave up after a few weeks and
| a couple snail mails).
|
| I was also fired in 2016 and paid out at that time,
| having told the UI interviewer that the employer didn't
| follow their dispute resolution process (breach of
| contract, in retrospect).
| inferiorhuman wrote:
| The sibling comment includes a link to the requirements,
| but UI in California looks at your total income for the
| past twelve months. Quitting after a couple days wouldn't
| help.
| netsharc wrote:
| The Great Resignation is curious, if I could speculate maybe
| it was the pandemic bailout and markets bubble (crypto too)
| making people think "I've got money now!". Now that
| everything is tumbling down, I wonder if people will start
| returning to work. Except now most businesses have seemingly
| stopped hiring yet again (even retail/hospitality?), so I
| guess whichever way it goes, OP is in trouble.
| hooande wrote:
| how large was the "pandemic bailout"? it looked like two
| checks from the govt and < 1 year of increased (doubled?)
| unemployment. seems like a total of $8,000 or less for most
| people, with a wide variance from person to person.
|
| Was this enough to make a large number of people stop
| working, even now into mid-2022? I really feel like the
| impact of several thousand dollars would be gone after a
| year, at most. yet many businesses near me are still under
| staffed and having trouble hiring.
| adam_arthur wrote:
| $4T in total spending, plus debt/rent forbearance which
| effectively adds on top of this.
|
| You're forgetting the child tax credit as well, which was
| effectively a monthly stimulus check for many, and
| student loan forbearance, which nets out to something
| like $10B/month in increased consumer spending power
| omgsean wrote:
| The idea that it's caused by "bailouts" is just a talking
| point. Personally I think it boils down to a few things:
|
| 1. Older people taking retirement early when the pandemic
| hit.
|
| 2. People in service/public-facing industries leaving for
| jobs that could be done remotely, or going back to
| school.
|
| 3. Several hundred thousand working age people dying from
| COVID.
| Terry_Roll wrote:
| 4. People have woken up to the current form of slavery
| called Capitalism. For a start, if the Govt wanted people
| to succeed they would teach law at school and update the
| public with the latest case law and legislation every few
| months, but the fact is, that doesn't happen, ergo the
| righteous can inflict their sadism on the uneducated,
| just like religion is psychological warfare on the
| uneducated.
|
| It all boils down to survival of the fittest and history
| repeatedly shows and the the US Govt & US Mil
| demonstrates, violence always wins the day.
| native_samples wrote:
| For 3:
|
| a. The official number is ~254,000 (in the USA) which is
| certainly a major over-estimate. True number is certainly
| far less.
|
| b. Employees who died or retired don't count as resigned.
| wrycoder wrote:
| For 3: the vast majority of those who died were over 60.
| mynameishere wrote:
| I often read /r/povertyfinance, and they were not hiding
| the fact that it was a damn bonanza. Most people made it
| _perfectly clear_ that they were doing very responsible
| things with the "free" money, but you know...
|
| A lot of people for various reasons have never seen more
| than a thousand or two in their checking account at once
| (typically, from tax refunds). So, 8000 is a once-in-a-
| lifetime amount of wealth. It's sad to think of what's
| happening at a higher level of course. The government was
| borrowing money on behalf of everyone and telling
| everyone to go spend it. Thanks, uncle, I wasn't stupid
| enough already.
| lovich wrote:
| What does that have to do with people no longer wanting
| to work shit jobs in 2022? If anything this should
| increase the incentive to work as that money is already
| spent and the government hasn't been handing out any more
| phpisthebest wrote:
| Direct Payments was part of the story.
|
| I saw more than a few people that when from 2 income
| house holds to 1 because of Student Loan payment defers
| and the increase cost of Child care made is possible for
| one of the parents to just stay home..
|
| We also sadly lost a lot of people to covid, and many
| older people have chosen to retire rather than return to
| the office.
|
| I think these 3 things are more impactful on the
| employment market than the direct payments
| dangrossman wrote:
| I don't know how it relates, but I feel compelled to
| mention the PPP loan program as the largest part of the
| "pandemic bailout". It was $400 billion dollars in loans
| given out and forgiven with no repayment, to individual
| business owners and self-employed persons just as much as
| corporations. The average "loan" was just under $100K.
| xienze wrote:
| > The Great Resignation is curious, if I could speculate
| maybe it was the pandemic bailout and markets bubble
| (crypto too) making people think "I've got money now!"
|
| I dunno if it's even about money. The pandemic and the way
| it was handled REALLY messed with a lot of people's heads.
| I'd say a not insignificant number of people had what
| amounts to a religious awakening of sorts. I've seen it
| myself, several people just deciding to make drastic life
| changes out of the blue.
| irrational wrote:
| Back to the way it was pre-pandemic. I work for a Fortune 100
| company with great pay and fantastic benefits (I am on a 6 week
| paid sabbatical right now). But whereas before people would
| stay with the company for 5-10 years, now they are leaving in
| droves (not because anything bad is happening at the company,
| we are doing great) and nobody is sticking around.
| cinntaile wrote:
| > I am on a 6 week paid sabbatical right now
|
| Here in Europe we call that vacation.
| irrational wrote:
| Well, I have enough vacation saved up that I could take 2
| and a half months of vacation. That, plus my sabbatical,
| plus the 10 days of holidays we are given a year, plus the
| week off we get each summer means I could take nearly 5
| months of vacation. On top of that, we get every Friday off
| as a paid day between Memorial Day and Labor Day (June-
| August).
| jeromegv wrote:
| Yes.. but we are talking of people leaving after a _few days_
| , this is not the great resignation here.
| lancesells wrote:
| Looking at some of the jobs on 70m I see listings for
| dishwashers, line cooks, etc. I had these jobs in my youth
| and saw plenty of people leaving in days or weeks. Post-
| pandemic I can definitely see people leaving these jobs
| quickly for a whole host of reasons.
| somethingAlex wrote:
| Going to third the "need more information on this."
|
| Are they job hopping, in which case wouldn't that also be a
| revenue stream for 70MR? Did they find that it was such a
| sellers' market that they didn't need 70MR's services to get
| good jobs anymore?
|
| I never really understood this "shortage of workers / great
| resignation" phenomenon to begin with, so perhaps this specific
| situation would be a good one to use as a concrete example.
| iamthirsty wrote:
| I would imagine the recruiting company that provides the
| placement only gets paid after the employee has been with the
| company for a certain period of time.
|
| The same way companies offer a bonus to current employees if
| they recommend some for hire and they maintained their
| employment for 90 days or so.
| joenathanone wrote:
| From their website, employers pay $135-$145 per 1 month ad.
| Which is very reasonable, I current pay Indeed over $3k a
| month for 1 job listing (based on a daily sponsor rate).
|
| But if the applicant pool is bad with the majority quitting
| then I could see employers leaving the platform.
|
| https://www.70millionjobs.com/page/pricing
| iepathos wrote:
| Really sorry to hear this. Good luck with your next endeavor
| clausnitzercan wrote:
| Richard,
|
| When I think of the great people I met from our batch, you're at
| the top of the list. Your passion and gratitude were contagious.
| I was always rooting for you and I will continue to do so. That
| letter you wrote to the entire batch at the culmination of our YC
| experience remains one of the great missives I've received.
| You're top shelf, sir!
|
| Onward! Steven
| mooneater wrote:
| Love the vision, respect the dedication, thanks for the
| inspiration! A true gentleman and scholar _tips hat_.
| spicybright wrote:
| A felony on your record might as well be a gang tattoo on your
| face.
|
| First I'm hearing of you unfortunately, but thank you so much for
| your contribution to this terrible issue so many face.
|
| You not only changed many people pull themselves back up, but you
| put an imprint on the world that yes, people with criminal
| backgrounds in their past as just as worthy of opportunities as
| anyone else.
|
| Wish you the best going forward and, if it's the right path for
| you to walk, wish you luck trying again.
|
| And post your next endeavors on HN more, I'd love to hear about
| it ;)
| latchkey wrote:
| Sorry to hear about this. It seems like a wonderful altruistic
| service.
|
| Were you able to apply for PPP (and other covid related) loans /
| grants? I feel like of all businesses, yours should have been
| easy to get something like that.
| RBBronson123 wrote:
| Yes, we did get some PPP money, and it sustained us for some
| time, but it dried up quickly. Thanks for your comment and your
| kind words.
| ipaddr wrote:
| BenjiWiebe wrote:
| I took it to mean 'dried up suddenly'.
|
| Sustained for a while, and then suddenly you realize that's
| the end of that.
| gabereiser wrote:
| Oh this is heartbreaking. I remember reading about your company
| and mission and fully supporting it (while not fiscally). I'm a
| huge fan of hiring the right people, no matter their background.
|
| This is truly sad. I think the business model is still high in
| demand but maybe not right now as companies all over are paring
| down expenses and tightening coffers.
|
| Bravo! I sincerely hope you try again.
| onlyrealcuzzo wrote:
| Sorry to hear. Sounds like a great service.
|
| But curious about this...
|
| > When the economy and job market began storming back, we were
| inundated with inbound requests for our services. Our
| perseverance seemed to be paying off. Except now we were hit with
| a new gut punch: "The Great Resignation." Now our workers were
| reticent to come back to work. And if they did accept a job,
| they'd often leave after only a few days.
|
| Why were they leaving after only a few days when before they
| weren't?
| kome wrote:
| Probably because the wages are very low and the work loads way
| too high. Some link: "How the current worker shortage is really
| a wage shortage" https://www.nynmedia.com/content/opinion-how-
| current-worker-...
|
| "It's not a labor shortage -- it's a wage and workers rights
| shortage" https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/570441-its-not-a-
| labor-s...
|
| "Our employment system has failed low-wage workers. How can we
| rebuild?" https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-
| front/2020/04/28/our-emplo...
| onlyrealcuzzo wrote:
| Is this new?
| spencerflem wrote:
| my spitballed guess- people who were working retail type
| jobs werent able to during the pandemic and then realized,
| hey, this is optional. I survived without working a shitty
| job for poverty wage. Why go back?
| toqy wrote:
| I don't think it's new, but a lot of people got a taste of
| what life is like when they aren't breaking their back for
| minimum wage thanks to the pandemic
| sowww wrote:
| Karunamon wrote:
| Perhaps, but unless you want a permanent under class of people
| unable to find real employment, there needs to be an on-ramp.
| Either someone is too dangerous to have in public (which case
| they should still be imprisoned), or they have served their
| sentence and their punishment is over.
| RickWolter wrote:
| well said
|
| if you had some free time to volunteer and wanted a mission
| reach out here....
|
| https://www.underdogdevs.org
|
| and on Twitter @UnderdogDevs
| Sohcahtoa82 wrote:
| To add to this, 45% of people in federal prison are there for
| a drug charge.
|
| https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_offen.
| ..
|
| Only a little over 1/3rd are actually in prison for violent
| crime.
| creato wrote:
| That table looks like it sums to 100%, which is confusing.
| Many prisoners have been convicted of both drug and weapons
| charges. How is that represented?
|
| My understanding is that while the rate of prisoners with
| drug charges is high, the rate of prisoners with _only_
| drug charges is a lot lower.
| floxy wrote:
| >Only a little over 1/3rd are actually in prison for
| violent crime
|
| On that chart, I was a little bit surprised to see the
| percentages for: - category (g)
| (Homicide, Aggravated Assault, and Kidnapping Offenses) and
| - category (l) (Sex Offenses)
|
| ...are as high as they are (although probably not that high
| in absolute numbers) for federal prison. I wonder where one
| could find a breakdown of the offenses? I'd have thought
| the only way to get a federal rape or murder sentence would
| be to commit the act on an FBI agent or other on-duty
| federal agent (Secret Service, US Marshals, Postman,
| others?). But I guess maybe soldiers who have been court-
| martialed end up in federal prison? That might explain most
| of those? And maybe kidnapping becomes a federal offense if
| you cross state lines?
| danielvf wrote:
| That's a stat for _Federal_ prisons - it 's a completely
| different set of laws and crimes than state and local laws,
| and only 10% Americans incarcerated are in federal prisons.
|
| Here's a breakdown by most serious offense for my state's
| prison system:
|
| https://www.doc.sc.gov/research/InmatePopulationStats/ASOF-
| M...
|
| Which has 16% drugs, but also:
|
| 26% homicide, 12% Robbery, 11% Burglary, 9.5% Rape/Sexual
| assault, 6.6% Kidnapping, 6.4% Assault.
|
| I wrote an blog post a while back about how prison
| populations skew so much towards the most violent crimes.
|
| http://braino.org/essays/why_so_many_people_in_prison/
| tizio13 wrote:
| Exactly. I truly hope sowww doesn't find themselves on the
| wrong side of the law for the million dumb reasons a person
| can get arrested and jailed for.
| sowww wrote:
| chirau wrote:
| Karunamon wrote:
| This register idea amounts to a permanent scarlet letter,
| and probably is going to have an effect you don't want.
| What do you think people are gonna do if they are unable to
| have a normal job?
|
| Just from a harm reduction standpoint, this is a bad idea.
| You will absolutely increase the amount of crime in the
| world. I think the world is better when we don't know about
| all the misdeeds of every random person.
| internetuser103 wrote:
| I'm not American, so perhaps this is why I never heard of the
| service. However, it would be better if it was acquired rather
| than shut down. I mean, it seems like a just cause and people
| would suffer without it.
| dwighttk wrote:
| Why is 70MillionJobs repeatedly referred to as 70MR?
| neogodless wrote:
| In the first line of the post
|
| > 70 Million Resources
| dwighttk wrote:
| Ah gotcha. There's a line break there for me so I didn't
| catch it when I went back scanning for an R word.
| SpaceManNabs wrote:
| sadness. Thanks for the efforts.
| spaniard89277 wrote:
| I'm not even from the US but props to you man. I know some words
| from random internet people don't fix the situation but to me
| you're an inspiration. Hopefully, some day, with some more money,
| wiser and with skills that I'm lacking, I can make a company to
| solve a real problem like you did.
|
| It's sad that the amount of money floating around doesn't pour
| into a company like yours.
| ushakov wrote:
| > It's sad that the amount of money floating around doesn't
| pour into a company like yours.
|
| money is put where profits are
|
| this seems like a low-margin low-profit business
|
| it's not the investors who are the problem, it's the capitalist
| system which encourages this behavior
| camillomiller wrote:
| Namely also the American capitalist system that encourages
| mass incarceration with little to no reintegration plans
| bpodgursky wrote:
| > Now our workers were reticent to come back to work. And if they
| did accept a job, they'd often leave after only a few days.
|
| If I'm reading this right, there's an immense amount of
| unemployment fraud suppressing ex-convict workforce re-entry.
| bozhark wrote:
| Might be worth trying to sell, rather than close the doors?
| thr0wn4w4y wrote:
| einpoklum wrote:
| > companies made wholesale terminations of nearly all our people
|
| The "employment at will" doctrine at work. Terrible.
|
| I would attribute that to the weak US labor, and its failure to
| do away with this via country-wide/industry-wide labor agreements
| make this impossible, or appropriate legislation. Many (most?)
| countries don't have this doctrine.
| oliverx0 wrote:
| And they are nowhere near as liquid when it comes to employment
| as in the US. The trade off of not having employment at will is
| extremely slow hiring processes and a lot of difficulty when
| firing employees that do not perform well. All in all
| employment at Will is probably what makes Silicon Valley
| thrive. Otherwise nobody would dare to start a company.
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