Because these "examples" have been wielded against me so often, I actually enjoy breaking down all the ways this doesn't apply to everyone, particularly poor people.
I clicked the article so you don't have to - a thread
I clicked the article so you don't have to - a thread
1. Not everyone can be a private tutor for MIT and Harvard students trying to get into grad school. 
2. If the case study himself says he's "playing life on easy mode," then he's probably only a good example for other people who are also on easy mode - no kids, privileged family with stable finances, able-bodied, college-educated, white.
3. His business model depends on providing services only to rich college students able to afford over $100/hr for test prep. Do you think with these rates, he's helping the first gen or scholarship students from poor families at the Ivy Leagues pass the GMAT?
4. He lives in shared housing, which he can do easily mostly because he is a single dude. A studio apartment alone would mean at least a 65% increase in his housing costs in the area, so can you imagine what a 2 bedroom would go for?
5. I do need someone to explain how you live in a house with 4 other adults and still pay nearly $200/mo. in utilities - not including internet. I've lived in a house with 3 other adults, 1 child, 2 pets. The utilities did not come out anywhere near to $195 per adult per month.
5a: Internet is a utility. Fuck anyone saying otherwise.
5b: Has to be cryptocurrency mining. They have to have a $1k/month electric bill because they've got 10 computers running non-stop mining bitcoin.
5b: Has to be cryptocurrency mining. They have to have a $1k/month electric bill because they've got 10 computers running non-stop mining bitcoin.
6. Ah yes the infamous "I don't have money, I only have savings."
Only people who know life on easy mode have luxury of considering savings to not be real money - especially when they can crash with family in order to prevent having to use their savings for housing.
Only people who know life on easy mode have luxury of considering savings to not be real money - especially when they can crash with family in order to prevent having to use their savings for housing.
6a: Look, if you have the luxury of thinking money in your bank account is absolutely off-limits - whilst couch surfing - you don't know poverty.
7. Living in an area with public transportation is a luxury, especially because places with more reliable public transit also have studios starting at $1400/month. The cheapest parts of California where rent is $800/mo for a 2 bedroom are nigh impossible without a car.
7a: Are we ready to talk about how public transportation systems in most parts of the US receive more funding/get expanded service after Black people have been priced out of the area, and how that then plays into portraying Black people as unconcerned about climate change?
8. Despite what aspiring capitalists would have you believe, you do need to spend money to make money. Dude spends $350-1500/month for work space and $100-200/month for marketing. And some unspecified amount from his savings for taxes. I thought savings wasn't money though? 🤔🤔
"I have no money, only savings."
"I pay taxes with my savings."
"I pay taxes with my savings."
9. When you accidentally make an argument for why a redistribution of wealth including reparations would benefit society without significantly impacting individuals with the surplus resources >>>
9a. If you can give money to charity because you'd either squirrel it away and never use it, or use it to buy more things you don't need - then you just admitted if your surplus was seized and redistributed according to need, it wouldn't actually hurt you a bit.
