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The Gen Z Put
I can't.
Ok, I can, but it's really, really hard.
Suffer Wall Street strategists' pretensions to c
I don’t want Donald trump or anybody fixing inequality. There is nothing wrong with people wanting to get ahead. Ahead of who? Everybody else.
“There is nothing wrong with people wanting to get ahead. Ahead of who? Everybody else.”
Correct. Except the vast majority of people who make that claim only make it in the context of a rules-based system that habitually privileges one group of people over all the rest.
There’s nothing essential about that system. Nor about the rules that govern it. The system and the rules are arbitrary. I doubt seriously that most people who make absolutist claims about the inherent “rightness” of the human impulse to “get ahead” would be willing to make those same claims outside the system which protects them from encroachments by “criminals.”
If there’s nothing wrong with people wanting to get ahead — if that’s the maxim and we’re actually committed to it, as opposed to committed to it as long as we’re in gated communities and protected by the government’s monopoly on coercion — the person who robs you at gunpoint or swindles you with a Ponzi scheme is not only not wrong, but in fact a paragon of rightness.
I’m completely fine with that state of affairs. At least it’s consistent. How about “everybody else?”
Good old scarcity mentality that is foundational for sapiens and buried in our subconscious.
If you’re actually committed to the maxim but not to consistency and truth, you get the human condition: people doing well say the system is good, the poor say a revolution is needed, priests say their religion is best, those who exploit find ways to justify it and the exploited come up with theodicy, and no matter what is said either the elite benefits or is overthrown and a new elite benefits. We humans are great at keeping the process on a semi-conscious level so we can say what benefits us but sound like we speak from first principles.
Reading Sorkin’s “1929”. Sometimes history rhymes.
First of all, I’ve sort of lost count on the number of years, but I still fondly remember your posts in SA, especially over the final 6-9 months when you participated on that site- although, in hindsight, I recognize the inverse relationship between your personal health and the pitch of your excellent work. Was that before or within the ten year timeframe?
Your description of Gen Z is very accurate. I have 3, 20-something children. Fortunately, they don’t have to side hustle, but they are certainly using the stock market to try to financially boost their wealth in order to be able to afford a home. Otherwise, not possible.
Federal government deficit spending is absolutely amplifying the wealth gap. Eventually, the equity owners hoover up a disproportionate benefit from all dollars distributed to all levels of our economy.
Happy Halloween, H.
I started my third full time professor job in 1974. I had no idea how to start a side hustle. They just found me. I started reviewing books for publishers. Then I fell into my first job as an expert financial witness with 20 lawyer clients. Then my boss got me a five year job as a executive educator for a big oil company. That was soon an overlap with other consulting jobs, none of which I sought. Soon I was making more on the side than my wife made in her full time teaching job. The pay for all this work was saved and I live off it today. I had to report my consulting load every two years in a report to the state board of regents, not the income, just the time spent. I never missed a class for a consulting appointment but sometimes I thought I might be getting a bit carried away and I mentioned it to my department head. He said not to worry. The regents wanted to find out if we were collectively doing enough to share our skills with the public. He told me my small side hustle was bigger than the time spent by the entire faculty of the whole rest of business college. Frankly, I did much of this work to learn what others were doing and building my own knowledge base for teaching and consulting. I still consult with non-profits and review contributions to academic publishers even after 20 years of retirement. No money involved. I’ve got two reviews on my desk for the weekend. In the last 14 years I have learned more about India than I ever thought I’d know.
Dr. Lucky – loved the Board of Regents story.