Twenty-seven years at Macy's

The clarity of the yoke

It’s hard to communicate the extent of the con. The enormity of it. The mind slips off.

1.

We did the math out of fun curiosity. There were 120 attendees paying $15k apiece, and the four counselors were each being paid a very impressive $100k/year, so that meant the owner was getting -

“Wait, that can’t be right. He’s pocketing $1.4M?”

We’d thought that the Six-Figure, $100k job the teachers had landed was cushy; it was something we were striving for. The best of the cohort would be invited to do it. We could land that role, if we were the best and brightest and we worked hard and got lucky.

We had neglected to look up.

2.

In 2016, I put $100,000 into index funds. My friend put $100,000 in a bank.

My $100,000 turned into $392,800.

Because of inflation, his $100,000 turned into $74,000.

The only difference is that it just…didn’t occur to him, to move the money out of a bank. No one told him he needed to.

3.

You go to college to “get a good job”, which means, “to become useful to someone”.

A person who pays you to do something, is doing so because your fee is less valuable than what they gain.

(Duh)

4.

Your college degree paid off, and you got a really cool job at a startup! You’re getting paid $150,000, plus benefits!

Your company raises fifty million dollars, at a four hundred million dollar valuation! Wow! Let’s have a company party.

(After two dilutive fundraising rounds and accounting for all employee stock options, your boss owns 50% of the company.)

5.

You research a company and think it’s ahead of its time. You think it’s going to do well, so you want to invest in it. You’ve scraped together $2,000 and want to put in a check.

“Are you an accredited investor?” asks the government.

“What?” you ask.

“Only accredited investors are allowed to invest in small companies.”

You pause. “How do I become an accredited investor?”

“You have to be a millionaire,” explains the government.

“The fuck?”

6.

“The Virginian Cavaliers had an obsession with liberty, but needless to say it was not exactly a sort of liberty of which the ACLU would approve. I once heard someone argue against libertarians like so: even if the government did not infringe on liberties, we would still be unfree for other reasons. If we had to work, we would be subject to the whim of bosses. If we were poor, we would not be “free” to purchase most of the things we want. In any case, we are “oppressed” by disease, famine, and many other things besides government that prevent us from implementing our ideal existence.

The Virginians took this idea and ran with it – in the wrong direction. No, they said, we wouldn’t be free if we had to work, therefore we insist upon not working. No, we wouldn’t be free if we were limited by poverty, therefore we insist upon being extremely rich. Needless to say, this conception of freedom required first indentured servitude and later slavery to make it work, but the Virginians never claimed that the servants or slaves were free. That wasn’t the point. Freedom, like wealth, was properly distributed according to rank; nobles had as much as they wanted, the middle-class enough to get by on, and everyone else none at all. And a Virginian noble would have gone to his grave insisting that a civilization without slavery could never have citizens who were truly free.”

7.

(This is not a screed about communism)

(This is a public service announcement)

(You are DOMESTICATED and you YEARN for the YOKE)