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I'm finding that it's more of the attitudes of the younger guys nowadays....they don't like hard work and they think it's beneath them to drive trucks and work with tools.....too bad, because an apprentice electrician or plumber can take in about $100k a year (in my area)
Trades are often dangerous and highly taxing on the body. My FIL worked in the trades. He and almost all his colleagues ended up pretty much crippled by the age of 50.
Considering that the average life expectancy is 80 and liable to keep increasing, fewer people want to end up suffering for decades and decades after they retire.
"Income inequality" is a meaningless concept and a waste of time to worry about. Who cares how much more or less money someone has than you? The important thing is whether your standard of living has improved, and for most Americans who have put in a modicum of effort it has.
Since Trump took office, the median income has risen $5k. 8 years of Obama? $1k.
Wow...
The average electric utility lineman that worked for the company I retired from earned $120K to $130K as long as they were willing to travel to other locations during storm damage outages.
The average substation technician that worked for the company I retired from earned $150K to $170K as long as they were willing to travel to other locations during storm damage outages.
Yes, they work 18 hour days during storm work and they make serious money because it's all double time and a half for storm work. Their food and lodging are paid too.
But it's not achievable... huh?
...not achievable for 90+%.
Just as i suspected, you ran really good (lucky) in your career and have projected your luck onto everyone else.
Plenty of people born to wealth consider themselves superior to others not born to wealth. This is a pretty common phenomenon among humans. Plenty of white people consider themselves superior to black people. We tend to consider ourselves better than a class of humans below us or different than us in some way.
The problem with wealth inequality is that more wealth is now in the hands of fewer people, who are really at the top of the economic ladder. There is thinking that this shift began with Reagan's trickle down theory, which theorized that easing tax burden on the wealthy would allow them to hire more people, etc. But that did not happen. More wealth became concentrated in the hands of the already well off.
One recent study that I have read about asserts that it takes 20 years of work, with no bad luck such as illness or loss of income, to make it into the middle class.
The key to upward mobility has traditionally been through education. But nothing is like it used to be. We have many educated people who have ended up working as baristas and teachers' aids. The days of the high wage union job are numbered. Many factory jobs have migrated to other countries or have been automated away. So, you do have people who cannot find work that pays living wages. This is a disaster in high COL areas. And it is disaster in underdeveloped semi rural and rural areas where there are simply no jobs to be had.
A lot of one's ultimate destination depends on luck. Sure, one's own determination and work ethic matters. But circumstances of birth, area of country, inborn intelligence, parental influence, availability of some sort of education-- all matter to how people end up. It is not simply a matter of working hard. Plenty of people have worked hard all their lives, but end up with little to show for it in the end.
Not to mention a bit of a crybaby. You`re not being forced to stay here.
We aren't going down this road.
1. When you don't initiate force on others you have no moral or logical obligation to alter your behavior in the face of those that do initiate force on you (or others).
2. When you or any other innocent "leave" they can and still do find you. If you want the examples I'll PM them to you. One per day...for the next million years.
To recap, just stop. It's not intellectually honest nor is it even remotely humane to entertain your worldview.
If you don't like the reality of the situation... leave...or don't. I don't put guns to heads. Do you?
Define hard work? You really need that defined for you?
So what if intelligence, health and financial connections have much to do with success? Why is that a problem?
Hard work is a different thing to everyone. That's just how it is.
Intelligence, health, and financial connections have a lot to do with success. I see nothing wrong with that. The thing I see wrong are those pretending nothing else matters but hard work and ambition. That's just not true for everyone, and makes some people angry.
Location: Live:Downtown Phoenix, AZ/Work:Greater Los Angeles, CA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by eastriver
Working full time is 8 hours per day, 40 hours per week at work work, working. For the employer. Not including lunch. Not including getting ready for work. Not including getting to the jobsite. Doing the work. Keeping the job.
And going to school full time is about 4 classes a semester. M, T, W, Th. Same prep time, nutritional requirements, transportation time. In class. Going to another class across campus. Paying attention. Having to study afterward. Reading books. Having to prepare homework.
Plus 8 hours of sleep.
However the calculus-based physics is easier because while the textbook contains both, the assigned problems never do.
As someone who has regularly worked 70 hrs per week (14 hr days for 5 days), I generally call BS on those "work full time while attending school full time" posts. Generally all I can do during a 70 hr week is work eat and sleep. I don't function unless I get 6 hrs of sleep minimum, so that's 20 hrs right there. Figure an hour for meals, that's 21 hrs. Commuting is 30 mins each way, that's 22 hrs. Have dogs that I need to take care of, that's another 1hr gone walking them 3 times a day. So with less than 1 hr left in that 24 hr day, what is there time to do?
(Note: if I work out on one of those work days, I sacrifice an hour of sleep to allow for it, due to that, I try to usually work out on my off days)
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