Oddbean new post about login | logout Yeah absolutely, but there’s no denying that the climb has gotten tougher recently and many people won’t be able to make it.
It’s objectively more difficult to sustain a family on one income than it was before. We can face that reality straight and take responsibility for our futures while also pointing out the boomer generation kinda sucks and they created much of this mess
Is it more difficult? Really? Case in point--have a friend that has a college degree that he realized was worthless--became a plumber. Owns his own business now and is very successful. Another case in point--another friend with a finance degree--quit finance and is now a contractor and owns a business building houses--again very successful. BOTH took a TON of work--yet both have become successful in today's world--so why can't anyone else do this?
Sure and there are rich people in Africa too why can’t they all follow suit? lol There will always be success stories. I’m talking about the average person. Wages haven’t kept up with inflation so it is indeed harder to sustain a family on a single and even 2 incomes today than it was back then. This is not a controversial point. Kinda why we are in bitcoin
The answer to fiat theft is not “well it’s not so bad. If you work super hard you can make it like my plumber friend”. The answer is to stop getting your time and money stolen by the system. Work ethic is not the root cause of the problem
Actually I think one of the root causes is higher education--people go to college, get a degree, and then expect to earn a decent income. If you're a "gender studies" major are you really expecting to graduate and earn a 6 figure income? Who will pay you for that knowledge? And frankly, all a degree gets you (in almost all cases) is a "job" working for someone else--and yes, that means you'll likely just have to "settle" for being comfortable, working in a cube farm somewhere.
I don't disagree--yet the climb is what makes life worth living, and what establishes the "sweetness of success". And the corollary is that success takes hard work--REALLY hard work, and (unfortunately) many are willing to simply "settle" for a comfortable life...and therein lies the rub.