"Bills bills bills"~Destiny's Child
My boyfriend and I have had many a discussions about wealth and how to achieve it, with the prevailing theory that success can be gained found three ways (or combination of such): (1) Luck. Ex. Inheritance, rich parents, lottery, right place right time. (2) Hustling. Any time you convince someone to make a trade with you that benefits you more than them. Ex. Drug dealing, waiting/bartending, tow truck businesses, insurance companies, favors. (3) Hard fucking work and/or savings and/or investing. Ex. either working hard for several hours a week at a low-medium wage job and saving your money and investing, or, working hard to learn expert skills which take a long time to acquire, such being educated to be doctor, an engineer, a lawyer, an architect, a drug maker, or a chef.
I'm still convinced, wrongly or rightly, that my personal path to wealth is further education for a skill-based job, plus owning property.
More discussions about wealth and lack there of:
1.)
Owner
Middlemen
Labor
In working at a hotel, the pyramid of wealth is perfectly clear. The housekeepers do the back-breaking work and makes the lowest wage (about $8 an hour). Us middlemen of the front desk who do the most selling and socializing with customers makes the middle wage of about $10+ an hour. I don't know what management makes, though I would image it to be somewhere in the high teens, and their duties are paperwork and organization of hours and tasks. And of course the owners are millionaires and do absolutely nothing but check in a few times a week to makes sure things are running smoothly and take the biggest hit if there's a lawsuit.
And the pyramid is not always accurate, especially when it comes to high-skilled jobs who trade physical labor for emotional stress (and both are hard on a body). A surgeon isn't breaking his or her back in the tomato fields but he or she has the emotional stress of not harming/killing their patient, plus the hours at the office, plus the time and money spent keeping up to date on the latest medicine.
This discussion is not hating the rich, no, I sincerely admire wealth people in achieving what most people what. No, what this section is about is the unfairness of certain people (usually the labor force) being underpaid. Now, I realize that by increasing wages or perks you increase the cost of the product. But I'd hope for the honesty of fairness that I'd rather pay more for my vegetables to pay the farmer more money, ect.
My conclusion: The worker/labor will never be rich based on wages alone. He or she must save their money or invest their low wages to equal up to wealth.
My boyfriend's conclusion: Be an owner. Start a business.
2.) The complacent worker
I once said, 'I get paid if the customer is happy; I get paid if the customer is unhappy. Either way I'm getting paid, so it really doesn't matter, but I'd rather the customer be happy.'
It does not matter if I'm stellar at my job; I will get paid the same amount as the weakest worker. Now, I hate commission-based wages because it makes it about selling selling selling and not customer service. Still, there is not enough reward for doing a good job at your job. Furthermore, with long hours and low pay, there is little incentive for a worker to give good service aside from their own work ethic.
My conclusion: An unhappy worker makes an unhappy product/unhappy service. If they had better wages or more perks, or if those perks were simply standard ie universal healthcare, then the worker would be working for the work itself and not out of desperation.
Boyfriend's conclusion: Own your own business you actually enjoy.
3.) You need two jobs to get by
It's no secret that you need two healthy incomes, or one steller income, to maintain a family household in wealthy California. So what if you're on your own? Well, if you're on your own one job usually isn't enough unless it's highly skilled.
My boyfriend has the most to say on this topic, that skills are the key to wealth in this country. Having in-demand skills whether as a primary income or as a secondary one is the only way to reach higher wealth. For example, one might make it on a doctor's salary (I'll lay off the topic of student loans for this conversation), or an engineer's salary because they require high-demand skills. And one might might it one a normal job salary but can find wealth if they do this plus a secondary skill set such as hair cutting or photography.
As my boyfriend and I stand now, our value is our time and ethic, not necessarily our skills. We have time to trade (40 hours a week), and what we really need to do is refine our skills.
Boyfriend's conclusion: Develop more skills and have side-business options
My conclusion: I agree. Have a primary skill and career, but have back-up skills just in case.
I realize that most of this entry is boring because it has been said before by many many many people, including intellectuals and politicians, and that average guy on the street. But now I'm living it, so my interest in the wealth-middle-poor system is far more invested.
And of course, what is my definition of wealth and how much of it do I want? Well, in a simple definition; I want to be wealthy enough that my problem is life is figuring out which vacation I want to go on vs. how am I going to afford groceries this month.
And as my boyfriend said, there is a system and if I feel that it is unfair I can be an activist my whole life and maybe change it a little bit, but if I want to be wealthy or at least not poor, I need to understand the system and know how to beat it whether that's being an owner, having in-demand skills, or freelancing. [The economy is shit right now so I'm not going to include investing on this list.]
I had a business teacher who taught us to treat ourselves as our own business. I rather hated the idea at the time, because I am a person, not an ATM. But perhaps in this economy one must be a little more savvy of how to get ahead, how to stay ahead, and how to pay those bills bills bills while still enjoying life. Cha-ching!
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