Why can't I get a job (Slightly NSFW-Language)?

[RHL]

Found these "le gems" on Reddit, both on the front page of r/all.

"Why can't I get a job?"

"Why are working class people not getting ahead?"

"Why am I paid less than previous generations for a day of work?"

"Why can't we adopt basic income that makes sure that everyone gets $30,000/yr regardless of what they do?"

These are just a few questions I've seen asked on Reddit time and again. Tonight, the front page may have delivered some actual answers, one at around 3K upvotes, the other around 1,800:



Exhibit A:

Exibit B:

SMH. Prosecution rests. Create value, get valuable compensation. Or Reddit all day and wonder why you're chronically un/under employed.

 

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[AntEmpire]

May I rant with you?

A few weeks ago, when I told my co-worker from a different office how I hate working a corporate job, she replied that she liked working in corporate because corporate jobs offer good pay and are "safe."

This morning, she told me her work BFF was fired for performance issues after 9 years of service (2 years more than my co-worker's record). She was upset over the matter, telling me how she had cried over the affair. I offered my sympathy, but secretly I sat thinking to myself "so, do you still think your job is safe?"

It's not like we haven't been down this road before. Last year we watched a slew of highly skilled co-workers getting walked out the company for reasons never really revealed to the rest of us. Some of these people had 10+ years with the company.

As for me I'm not looking for more money with my current company or another company. I'm looking for a way to make my own money.

 

[The-J]

Most of them dont seem to understand basic economics, then when someone tells them how it works they just get mad, as if their bitching will change the math behind it. It wont. If you are being paid 10 bucks an hour, the company is not willing to spend much more than that on the work you do.

If you want to make more than 10 bucks an hour, provide value. Jobbers have one big customer, their companies. Business people have many. Do the math

 

[SBS.95]

"Why can't I get a job?"

I've never understood this, especially on Reddit where 90% of the users are college students that are just looking for some $9/hour job. These jobs are everywhere, you can obtain one with your eyes closed.

"Why are working class people not getting ahead?"

"Why am I paid less than previous generations for a day of work?"

The average "poor" person in the US has a car, TV, smart phone, washer/dryer, dishwasher, and all kinds of other luxuries.

A generation is 25 years. Go back just 4 generations and running water was a luxury. Go back 3 generations and TV/radios were luxuries. Still want to complain about how things are tough now?

"Why can't we adopt basic income that makes sure that everyone gets $30,000/yr regardless of what they do?"

Because the surgeon managing a team to perform open heart surgery totally deserves the same amount of money as the guy managing the cashiers at Target.

What's scary is the thousands of upvotes that these types of posts will obtain. It's frightening to realize how many people think like this.

 

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[amp0193]

May I rant with you?

A few weeks ago, when I told my co-worker from a different office how I hate working a corporate job, she replied that she liked working in corporate because corporate jobs offer good pay and are "safe."

And today Marathon Oil lets 400 employees go with zero notice, and brings in cops and security to be in the building to prevent any backlash.

Yeah, "safe".

 

[All In]

Whenever I see an /r/personalfinance post on the front page, and view the top comments, I cringe.

 

[Vigilante]

When I was an employee, I was the best employee they ever had. Ever. I outworked everyone.

If you suck as an employee, you'll probably suck even worse as an entrepreneur without someone there to hold your hand and tell you what to do.

 

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[RHL]

If you suck as an employee, you'll probably suck even worse as an entrepreneur without someone there to hold your hand and tell you what to do.

+Rep. Thanks for articulating this, I've been trying for a while. To use an example, this ^^^ is why I'm always nervous when kids come in saying, "school/my day job is boring, they don't teach anything useful/the pay is bad/it isn't CENTS, it won't help me in life, everyone's dumb there, I'm dropping out/quitting to start a biz." Not because school or prior employment is vital to success, but because it seems like you already have the ethic and attitude of failure.

What this usually sounds like to me is that the person is unmotivated, scattered, lacks creativity, or some combination of all three. "School is useless" or "work is just holding me back" usually = "I suck at school/I'm not good enough at my job to get promoted." They're bombing school (which is mad easy) or failing to impress their co-workers, but imagine the life of a business owner will be so much easier, because all they'll have to do is sleep all day, play CoD, then do some burnouts in their 458 while the New York & Co model in the passenger seat swoons.

I totally agree with you: If you can't put in a good day's work for someone else, you're not likely to put many in for yourself, either.

 

[Charnell]

When I was in the Marine Corps, on my last year I had that kind of gig. It's absolutely horrible. I went from busting my a$$ for consecutive 20 hour days to working 20 hours a month. I did get swole in the gym though, I just wish I would have a better entrepreneurial mindset. I was doing small time side hustle nonsense like recording bogus "rappers" in my little barracks studio setup.

I seriously want to start a website, like getrichslowly.org. Call it belazyatwork.com

 

[RHL]

Whenever I see an /r/personalfinance post on the front page, and view the top comments, I cringe.

Pssst. Hey you! Want some free advice from a 27 year old that has $74,000 in student loan and consumer debt and still lives with his mom?

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Why can't we adopt basic income that makes sure that everyone gets $30,000/yr regardless of what they do?"

I exist, therefore, I deserve.

 

[theag]

on Reddit time and again

Why are you wasting your time there?

 

[Journey2Million$]

These are lazy, communist thinking losers. They hate money itself and they hate working. They think they should be able to live without working at all. They're the same as the hippies of the 1960's. They take stupid majors in college, such as: cultural anthropology, philosophy, women's studies. Obviously they never studied any success advice. They strongly dislike making logical, practical decisions, even though they know this will put them in a bad financial position. They totally suck at planning, decision making, and organizing themselves. They can suck it. I didn't create their problems and I don't want to pay taxes to support these fools. The world doesn't need them.

 

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[splok]

"Why can't we adopt basic income that makes sure that everyone gets $30,000/yr regardless of what they do?"

I know it isn't a popular sentiment here, but consider the following:
- Wikipedia tells me that we're currently spending in the realm of $4T per year on social programs.
- The government has no incentive to be efficient or effective.
- The beneficiaries of the programs have no incentive to use the programs efficiently.

Assuming an equal level of spend, would we not be in a better situation if these programs were fully privatized and simply gave people below a certain income level an allowance?

Sure, it would drive the prices of some things up, but it would also cause the prices of anything involving those social programs (like healthcare) to plummet.

The money's getting spent either way, but I can't imagine that giving people the choice of where to spend the money would be less efficient.

 

[RHL]

Why are you wasting your time there?

Traffic generation.

 

[SBS.95]

I know it isn't a popular sentiment here, but consider the following:
- Wikipedia tells me that we're currently spending in the realm of $4T per year on social programs.
- The government has no incentive to be efficient or effective.
- The beneficiaries of the programs have no incentive to use the programs efficiently.

Assuming an equal level of spend, would we not be in a better situation if these programs were fully privatized and simply gave people below a certain income level an allowance?

Sure, it would drive the prices of some things up, but it would also cause the prices of anything involving those social programs (like healthcare) to plummet.

The money's getting spent either way, but I can't imagine that giving people the choice of where to spend the money would be less efficient.

When you give people the choice of how to spend money, they spend it stupidly. I don't know if you've ever worked a retail job, but when I did I would see people use their food stamp cards for steak, lobster, heck even one got away with a damn fondue kit. Taxpayer money goes to this shit. If you want to eat steak, do it on your own dime like everybody else. You're suggesting we give people more free reign?

I'm not the type of person who wants the government to tell them what to do. But when it comes to government allowances, I'd prefer the restrictions to be very tight. I want to know that my money is only going towards bare essentials- roof over head, water in sink, basic food in pantry. Not the cable bill, not the $120/month iPhone plan, and certainly not a damn fondue kit.

 

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[Wal-Mart Vendor]

Spoiled brats that's what it is.

 

[splok]

heck even one got away with a damn fondue kit. Taxpayer money goes to this shit. If you want to eat steak, do it on your own dime like everybody else. You're suggesting we give people more free reign?

So the current system already buys people steak and fondue kits, only there's a really inefficient/expensive government middleman involved?

on your own dime

I think this is the really important part. Obviously some people would spend their money on drugs or whatever, but that already happens. When you have nebulous "benefits", the actual value gets abstracted away. People treat it differently than actual cash in the bank. Its the same reason that very few people comparison shop for medical care when insurance is footing the bill.

I think giving people real money and letting them make their own decisions is a much healthier, which would actually incentivise responsibility instead of the opposite. I mean, no one's saving 10% of their monthly foodstamps to put a downpayment on a house, but a guarantee that a non-zero % of people getting an actual check would.

Of course, this "feels bad", so it will probably never happen, but it seems like one of the "would you rather be right or rich" issues to me. People would rather go with what feels right regardless of the results instead of the thing that feels bad and yields the preferred outcome.[/QUOTE]

 

[Iwokeup]

When I was in the Marine Corps, on my last year I had that kind of gig. It's absolutely horrible. I went from busting my a$$ for consecutive 20 hour days to working 20 hours a month. I did get swole in the gym though, I just wish I would have a better entrepreneurial mindset. I was doing small time side hustle nonsense like recording bogus "rappers" in my little barracks studio setup.

I seriously want to start a website, like getrichslowly.org. Call it belazyatwork.com

Haha. That's EXACTLY how my last six months in the Corps went too. What a waste

 

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[Guest]

When I was an employee, I was the best employee they ever had. Ever. I outworked everyone.

I am the same, I even bring work home and stay after hours. My ideas win 9 out of 10 times in the company I work for. One day my co-worker said something that is the verbal equivalent of being slapped in the face with a frozen tuna. He said, "why should I work hard, we get paid the same."

Now I am the best damn employee working for MYSELF building my business on company time while my co-workers surf reddit. Every time I hear them chuckle at some cat videos online, I chuckle thinking "go ahead and laugh at worthless sites, you'll be doing that for the next 35 years."

 

[Charnell]

I am the same, I even bring work home and stay after hours. My ideas win 9 out of 10 times in the company I work for. One day my co-worker said something that is the verbal equivalent of being slapped in the face with a frozen tuna. He said, "why should I work hard, we get paid the same."

That's one of the primary reasons I wanted to get out of the military so bad. After a while people figure this out so you have 9/10 guys doing barely the bare minimum while the other 10% make up for them. Salary's great if every pulls their weight.