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Missed out on Ring and Nest? Don’t let RYSE slip away!

Ring 一 Acquired by Amazon for $1.2B

Nest 一 Acquired by Google for $3.2B

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RYSE is a tech firm poised to dominate the Smart Shades market (growing at an astonishing 55% annually), and their public offering of shares priced at just $1.50 has opened. 

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Take Some Personal Responsibility

If you’re not where you want to be in life, what do you do? Do you complain, or do you do something about it? Unfortunately, Americans increasingly choose the former.

For example, let’s take this girl complaining about only being able to find work as a customer service agent even though she has two degrees:

She is by no means a unique story. Some 40% of recent college graduates are considered underemployed, which is defined as working in a job where a bachelor’s degree is not typically required. Customer service definitely fits into that category. So, whose fault is it that she and her peers are in this situation? The college? Biden? The capitalist cabal?

Yes, the college is way too expensive, and yes, the college definitely sold her on a lie, but ultimately, she has nobody to blame for her predicament but herself and her parents. After all, it is her life, and the facts of the situation were very easily accessible. In a world where more and more people are getting bachelor’s degrees, it’s not enough just to get a degree anymore. You have to do more. So, for her, she could’ve picked a better major. She could’ve got better grades. She could’ve networked more. She could’ve done work in her field on the side. She could’ve built up a portfolio. She could’ve grew a following. She could’ve…you get the point.

Getting a customer service job after college is a pretty average result. There’s nothing wrong with it. The problem is that kids are sold on college based on above average results. The golden ticket into the 1%. Unfortunately, that’s not the truth anymore. Going to college is just what everyone does. So, if you want to achieve more than everyone, you have to do more than everyone.

In other words, her plight really isn’t a structural issue. The way out isn’t to abolish college or make college free (although it should be cheaper) or to mandate a job for everyone or eat the rich or whatever else. This is a her issue. Her underemployment is her fault. Of course, I’m sure she and her peers would vehemently disagree with me. The world is fucking rigged, and what not. Consider how the most liberal people (aka, young people) feel about what causes wealth:

The age gap is just as stunning:

In this rare case, the older conservatives are correct. Hard work and grit are what determines success, not family connections and getting lucky. 70% of unicorns are founded by immigrants, women, and people of color because they have that immigrant mentality of just finding a way to succeed, no excuses. Said differently, they have that fucking dog in them.

The solution to the underemployment crisis is not free college, but truthful messaging. Stop telling kids that college is a surefire way to becoming wealthy, because it’s not, and you’re only setting them up for failure and future pessimism over their ability to live the life they want to live. Instead, tell them the truth: college is a decent start, especially if you have average ambitions, but if you want to become wealthy you’ll need to do more. Much more. But, thankfully, there are endless ways to do more today. It’s never been easier to start a business, become famous, or get rich. 5 SOL and a dream, as they say.

That brings me to tweet #2. This isn’t the exact tweet I saw (that got deleted), but it’s the same sentiment:

Putting aside the fact that putting aside 30k for live/eat/entertain and 60k for private school is anything but middle class, the real point is that the average guy is getting screwed. Is that really true though? Yes, covid inflation was a bitch, but wage growth is once again outpacing inflation:

And yes, things used to be a lot cheaper 100 years ago, but you also made a hell of a lot less money. The average annual salary in 1915 was $687/year. That’s about $21,000 in today’s money. Today, the poverty line for a family of 4 is $30,000, and the average salary is about $59,000. In other words, the average salary is about 2.8x higher than in 1918.

Yes, you can make the argument that the average house was $3,200 back then, which is only 4.6x the average salary, whereas today the average house is $417,700, 7x the average salary. However, most (all?) households were sole income back then. With two incomes of $59,000, the average house today is only 3.5x the average household income.

The story is similar with the percent of income people spend on food:

And, before you start bitching about wages not keeping up with inflation and productivity growth, when you take into account total compensation (health insurance, 401k match, stock options, etc), everything checks out perfectly fine.

So, what’s the problem here? Why do people feel like they are getting such a raw deal?

It’s because they spend so much god damn money:

I just have a hard time taking pity on the average guy when they do shit like this:

So, I’ll say the same thing I said about the college girl: if you’re struggling, it’s probably your fault. Get a side hustle. Change jobs. Get a Phantom wallet. And, please, STOP SPENDING SO MUCH GOD DAMN MONEY.

If this all seems deeply unfair, tough shit. College is still a good gig for a decent lifestyle, and you can spend away and live decently, but nobody is entitled to wealth. The path is there, you just have to work for it. If you don’t, then just take the average path and chill. Ultimately, there is no society where you can simultaneously chill and be wealthy, and there’s no country or continent that can still grow while the population is chilling. You can be America, or you can be Europe, but you can’t be both.

Unfortunately, there’s no incentive for anybody in power to actually say this. Colleges want you to pay. The parties want you to think they can save you from forces outside of your control. You taking control of your own life does nothing but help yourself.

Which is why you should do so immediately.

Extras

• BYD’s new EV is going for less than $10,000. Understandably, their competitors are pissing themselves.

• The Feds want to know what YouTube videos you’re watching. 

• Almost half of all managers want to replace their workers with AI. Now is not the time to be “playing it safe”.

• You now have to be over 16 to have a social media account in Florida. I generally agree with this.

• The mainstream media is coming back to kiss the ring.

• Larry Fink says a retirement crisis is brewing.

• How the hell is Truth Social worth so much?

• Something has to be done about sports gambling.

• Republicans just can’t help themselves from doing the most absolutely idiotic things.

• Free Ronna McDaniel.

• Cargo cult rituals reveal a lot about human nature.

• Weekly reminder that the elites aren’t smarter than you.

• The more people are exposed to robotic automation, the less religious they become.

• Unsurprisingly, unicorn founders got that dog in them.

• It’ll now cost $15 to drive into lower Manhattan.

• Kyiv is racing to get ready for another Russian offensive.

• US payrolls may be severely overstated.

• Singapore is using AI to stalk your smoking habit.

• Cops running DNA-manufactured faces through face recognition is a tornado of bad ideas.

• Even digital signs are spying on you now.

• Biden ordered every US agency to appoint a chief AI officer. What qualified person is actually going to that job?

• Cheap drones are the future of warfare.

Until next time, ✌️

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