Hi Adriano,

You keep on calling out people for not being more supportive of Talia, you even say that people are suffering from “stockholm syndrome” by siding with a big corporation that’s exploiting her. My goal here isn’t to qualify either side of the opinion but to point out things in Talia’s letter that should make anyone, millennial or not, question the veracity of her claims.

1. Working for the San Francisco minimum wage, $12.25 an hour, she says she spends 80% of her income on rent. She also mentions that the suggested amount for a person to spend on rent is about 30%. 
   Rent is clearly her BIGGEST expense and she spends MUCH more than the suggested percentage.
   She says she lives as far away from the city centre as possible while still being able to take public transit(BART) to work. Other than this, she never mentions what steps she has taken to reduce this expense. I’ll assume she hasn’t done anything.
   A cursory search for rent prices in SFO on sites like craigslist/zillow tells me that she can’t be paying that sum and have a roommate as well unless she’s living much closer to the city than at BART’s extremities.
   So it's safe to assume she lives alone, after all this criticism if she did have a roommate she would’ve mentioned it.
   If she gets a roommate, that expense is instantly 40% of her income. Still more than suggested but much closer to the 30% suggestion. This also gives her the extra $600+ a month that she said she so desperately needs.
   Side Point: I also doubt that she’s being truthful about her living situation, most landlords won’t rent you an apartment unless you can show that the annual rent is less than 40% of your gross income. This is the standard in NYC and I have no reason to believe it’s different in SFO.
2. Moving to the bay area and taking a minimum wage job were all her choice. She says she accepted it to get a leg in to the industry and get closer to the job she wanted, all legitimate reasons, but if she can’t afford it then I would classify taking that job itself as an extravagance.
3. She’s complaining that her job is minimum wage. Reading the job description I don’t understand why she would think that job deserves anything more. In today’s date when people aren’t considered for jobs on the basis of being “overqualified”, someone decided to throw her a bone and give her the job. In HR, the justification about not hiring overqualified people is that the job will bore them and they’ll leave faster than say someone who is just qualified enough for the job. Her letter lends credence to this HR practice.
4. To sum up, her situation is a function of her own actions. Humoring her belief that she’s being taken advantage off is only fuelling her entitled attitude and approach to life.

In my opinion, her needs do not trump the needs of millions of starving people in other countries that unlike her, don’t even have the opportunity to better themselves. These people still work multiple jobs, scrimp and save all they can so they can give their children a better life. People should be directing their charity to help the people in these situations(not to mention this charity would also most probably be tax deductible vs a PayPal transfer to Talia), Talia could probably solve all her problems by getting a roommate.

Coming from a third world country, having seen what real poverty is, I have no sympathy and only disdain for people like Talia who have had all the opportunities available to them but are just too lazy to do anything about it. The most obvious action when you need to curtail expenses is to start with reducing your largest exp

Want help to get out of a bad situation, tell me what you’re doing to help yourself and maybe then I’ll think about how to help you. Her post never asks for help, maybe to find a job or gain a skill. No, she just asks for money.

I’m not from another generation, I’m only 28 so there’s no generational divide here. I certainly am from another culture and country. What Talia calls suffering, many people call a good life. Talia wants to succeed but isn’t willing to work for it. Unfortunately for her, the old adage that the road to success must always pass through hard work blvd. is a universal truth.

My goal here is to make you realize that no one is kicking her when she’s down. We’re hoping she reads this and realizes that her situation isn’t as bad as she thinks. It could be much worse, so much worse. I implore you to focus your charity on people in real need versus someone who’s making the stupid financial decision to pay 80% of her income on rent and then wondering why she has no money(because people who went to college are supposed to have money).