Thread by @DagoSupremacy

Since all the RW grifters are posting their “I worked for $10” hustle stories I thought I’d share my journey with anyone who’s interested and how it informs my views.

I started work at 14 under the table for a landscaper, but below begins at HS graduation

Longish thread ahead

I started working for $8 an hour as an inside salesman in building supplies at 18. A year later I got bumped to $10/hr. This was 2001. No prospects for housing, lived at home with parents.

I toiled around a bit and found another job that paid $16/hr ($33k/yr) BIG BUCKS

At 22 I went back to college to earn a degree and hopefully increase my prospects long term. I moved to the Pacific Northwest (just wanted to be there) and went to school. First was a history degree, then an MBA (I needed to get paid). By 2009 I was making $60k/yr in finance.

That 60k in 2009 is worth $91,000 now, just so you’re keeping score. I had already gotten married a couple years before but now we could afford to buy a modest condominium and consider family formation.

I thought myself insanely fortunate and was really excited for the future.

Job markets what they were I moved around a bit, kept climbing the ladder…75k, 110k, 160k, up over 200. Life was good had some kids, bought nicer house, etc.

All the while when things were going well, I sometimes marveled at my good fortune. I was smart, sure…but a willingness to take risks and bet on myself kept the train moving upward. I continued going on this journey…

As an aside, during this time I felt a mix of pity and bewilderment at the lack of success among most people. Why didn’t they do what I did? I’m not that special…but I lived in a bubble of other financially successful people…I didn’t really figure it out at the time…

Then at the end of 2023 my own bubble burst. I was unceremoniously fired and began a real odyssey of trying to get back in the game.

https://twitter.com/dagosupremacy/status/1763346134494261633

I worked at a pizzeria part time for $13/hr…volunteered for church projects, did some odd jobs helping a handy man for $20/hr etc.

I finally found a job in the financial sector paying far less than I once earned. But I’m back in after a year on my ass.

Now some new opportunities are starting to come around; I think I’ll be back in the $160k range in the next few months…not guaranteed but it’s increasingly looking that way.

What I can tell you after all this is that YES, people have to be willing to do whatever it takes. Yes, it is possible, even probable to make a dent if you are blessed with intelligence and balls (yes you need huge balls) to make your way in this world

But that doesn’t mean the deck isn’t stacked against young people right now. I would feel very uneasy if I was graduating today as opposed to in 2008. I have young children, and all of my thoughts and concerns, political/cultural are for them and the future they’re walking into

I don’t care what any “big brain” grifters say. The country does owe their citizens a fair shot. The nation does owe their descendants a chance, even a preference in hiring, salary and so on…

Nothing is more deplorable than people who say:

“No one owes you anything, work harder.”

People whose families have been in the US for generations built the country, their ancestors died in multiple wars, they’re owed SOMETHING.

And that something is not to be undercut by cheap foreign labor. Not to have their opportunities dwindled to fast food or die. Not to be discriminated against because the world hates white people now.

It’s beyond insulting to listen to this drivel from people who’ve made their way in media, the commentariat or whatever. You worked for $8 when you were 16? So did the rest of us. Go to burger joints in NJ today, you know who’s working? 36 year old immigrants, not US TEENS

People love to point out that I am descended from Italian immigrants. My family on my father’s side came here between 1880-1905. It’s true, but they fought in WW1, WW2, Korea, Vietnam and GWOT. My mother’s side fought in every war since 1776. I think we’ve earned our place.

I am empathetic to immigrants. But there’s a limit. Be reasonable…this is no way to run a great nation. This is not fair to our people here and not fair to immigrants either who are treated as chess pieces in a rigged game and then are discarded as well.

I believe in our zoomers. They’re smart, they’re funny, they’re driven…they just don’t want to be slaves or to have their birthright given away wholesale to newcomers whose family didn’t sacrifice for America over generations. The answers are there, our boys just need a chance