Thread by @SilverKayondo

Had a deeper conversation with the security officer who impounded our bodas. He's surprised many young professionals invest in bodas, rolex sigiris,etc. We provide capital & our cousins, brothers, sisters, etc do the work. Not ideal for us to venture there, but that's the economy

Ideally, the informal and semi-formal pockets of the economy should be an arena of the low-skilled & least qualified, but situations like ours drive even graduates to seek for survival in the lowest segments of the economy. No job is too small when you are hungry.

The most depressing thing about unemployment is not just about lack of economic opportunity, but the toll it takes on one's self-esteem. You start hiding from your peers. Most start avoiding you because you are always the guy begging for 1k for transport or the next meal.

When you couple unemployment, low wages and high cost of credit, even the small working class will compete for these informal and semi-formal sector opportunities. Those are the investment options available when you are earning anything below 3 million per month.

I pointed the Afande to the symbiotic relationship between two economic fundamentals here- young professionals as financiers partnering with boda, rolex, salon, etc semi-skilled workforce who run these micro SMEs for us who provide the seed capital & do profit share arrangements.

Ideally, this should be the role of the state to support these small enterprises, but we are also caught in this vicious cycle of inefficiency.

In the Afande's view, guys like me are supporting rural-urban migration, crime & boda traffic mess by underwriting such industries!

In my defence, the boda traffic mess, crime, rural-urban migration, etc are caused by poor planning- and are only symptoms of wider problems.

No young professional wants to spend their day flexing to see whether the boda is working or eggs have been delivered to the rolex stall

We definitely have an idea about the big things as well- stocks, bonds, commodities futures & options, etc but they are not for this economy.

We can only interact with the economy the way it is presented to us. You have to find your piece of the pie amidst the chaos.

There is an African proverb that says, "You can only make the pot with the clay you have."

So- it is not that we are lazy or dogmatic, but scarcity of opportunity has turned many of us into hustlers, and there is no pretence about it.

This is a game of survival, my friend.

And btw, this whole mantra of "youth must be job creators instead of job seekers" is lame gaslighting.

The next time anyone tells you that stuff, ask them how many companies they founded/jobs they created when they were your age.

Guys here play too much. A person who has no skin in the game (however small) has no business playing with anyone's investment (however humble).

Like- you've never run even a pork joint or a kiosk, but you are busy playing around and impounding peoples' survival assets. How?