Oddbean new post about login | logout I have to say I disagree. EVERYONE has to take responsibility for their own lives, and not blame someone else. At no time in history is there a greater opportunity for each of us to achieve success. As Henry Ford said: "Whether you believe you can, or believe you can not--you're right"
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.
Social security is the antithesis of taking responsibility for your own life But your point is well taken - young people should never adopt an attitude of resentment or hopelessness
LOL - well SS is a whole different topic 😃 (Good in principle, corrupted by a corrupt government). But I am a firm believer in each person's ability to succeed...
What about it is good in principle? Honest question.
SS was original set up so that each person "paid in" and those funds (paid over a lifetime) would provide a reasonable retirement. Essentially establishing an incentive to save (which everyone still should do--but most won't) But government started mismanaging the program, and stealing the dollars...and...well...here we are.till
It’s not an incentive to save if it’s mandated by law and enforced with violence. The cure for most people not wanting to save is a generation of people who didn’t save. That’s why everyone resents boomers - they are a generation who didn’t save and used debt to buy assets, but still get to take your money and cut themselves checks every month. Luckily Bitcoin (sound money) presents a natural incentive to save which fixes this problem.
To be fair my mother didn't work but raised us before her divorce. So her ss is really small.
Social security is pure communism, theft by temporal salability. Interstate Highways, not so much.