The Game We All Play

1. Finish high school and get a diploma so you can get entry-level work
2. Work an entry level job for a while to show you are a good worker
3. Move up as fast and as far as possible. Save up some money
4. Get a car so you can drive further to a higher paying job. Don't worry, over time the increased salary will more than pay for the car and gas.
5. Go to college and get a degree so you can get professional level work
6. Work as a professional. Move up as fast and as far as possible. Save up some money
7. Get a house, make payments for 30 years.
8. After you turn 60 and have your house paid off, start getting ready to retire
9. Retire at 65 or maybe 70.
10. Enjoy life

Is it just me or did anybody else for this hooey hook, line and sinker?

I was more the
1. get drunk at school and learn life lessons
2. Get a job/ home
3. Loose said job/home
4. learn more life lessons
5. grow old
6. continue to learn
7. Get out of life what you put in it

Whyte Horse wrote: 1. Finish high school and get a diploma so you can get entry-level work
2. Work an entry level job for a while to show you are a good worker
3. Move up as fast and as far as possible. Save up some money
4. Get a car so you can drive further to a higher paying job. Don't worry, over time the increased salary will more than pay for the car and gas.
5. Go to college and get a degree so you can get professional level work
6. Work as a professional. Move up as fast and as far as possible. Save up some money
7. Get a house, make payments for 30 years.
8. After you turn 60 and have your house paid off, start getting ready to retire
9. Retire at 65 or maybe 70.
10. Enjoy life

Is it just me or did anybody else for this Horse-sh!t hook, line and sinker?

Not everyone:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXvoYGrnuv8

I couldn't remember which youtube video lecture this was in.

Mine turned out more like:

1. Give up in high school because the pressure to meet the demands on you is too intense.
2. Laze around for a few years playing video and card games until a cute blonde tricks you into college.
3. Drop out. Twice.
4. Wind up couchsurfing and unemployed for about half a decade.
5. Pretend you're a writer and start pecking at keys while you eat other people's food.
6. Pull in paychecks from said key-pecking and continue to mostly be useless to society.

Whyte Horse wrote: Is it just me or did anybody else for this hooey hook, line and sinker?

That old system is designed for when people got pensions. These days people will need to create future wealth for their old age as well as survive in the present moment. Point 7 and onwards are no longer suitable (as they stand in that list).

But... it's probably the safest way to direct people into the system, and from there they can change directions. Otherwise starting outside the system and trying to get in will just put yourself up against younger people who are likely more versed in whatever is emerging and fashionable.

That's not how my life worked out at all, nor was it something I ever strived for.

Akkarin wrote: Not everyone:
I couldn't remember which youtube video lecture this was in.

That pretty much sums it up for me. Carpe diem!

Adder wrote:

Whyte Horse wrote: Is it just me or did anybody else for this hooey hook, line and sinker?

That old system is designed for when people got pensions. These days people will need to create future wealth for their old age as well as survive in the present moment. Point 7 and onwards are no longer suitable (as they stand in that list).

But... it's probably the safest way to direct people into the system, and from there they can change directions. Otherwise starting outside the system and trying to get in will just put yourself up against younger people who are likely more versed in whatever is emerging and fashionable.

Yes it's obsolete. With online free education and info, school is a legacy application. Why not give the money directly to any teacher on the planet and receive tutoring via skype? Take a class with 10 people even through a courseware app. Go to MIT for free, etc.

Why bother working for someone else? If, at the end of it all, you just break even and live paycheck to paycheck? It's like working for free actually. I hope that one day people will wake up and realize this. It would be awesome to see everyone just decide to not work for someone else and work for themselves. The whole system would collapse. No more money for cops, jails, NSA surveillance, war, torture, targeted assainations, corporate America, no big yachts for company owners, no big fat dividends for stock owners, etc. People would start stringing cat5 to their neghbor's house for internet and use wireless uplinks between communities. Electricity co-ops would spring up everywhere and throw in renewable energy because it's cheaper and safer. blah blah blah

Whyte Horse wrote: Why bother working for someone else? If, at the end of it all, you just break even and live paycheck to paycheck? It's like working for free actually. I hope that one day people will wake up and realize this. It would be awesome to see everyone just decide to not work for someone else and work for themselves.

Just because you work for someone else doesn't mean you have to stop working for yourself

I think it depends on the job and whether you're getting paid what you're worth, and honestly in the US at least... there are people getting paid much less than there worth... and people getting paid much more than they deserve. I was having a talk with the teacher's aides at my daughter's school here the other day and I was telling them how I had a friend who in her first year of teaching (and this was only about 10 years ago) was only paid $25k in that year (before taxes). I don't think it's much more than that now. Out here, in the area I'm living, a teacher's starting salary is about $65k a year.

Just looking at the minimum wage here compared to there says a lot too. Minumum wage over there is just over $7 an hour ($10 in some places). Who, honestly, can live on that in a normal 40 hour a week job? No one... at least not someone trying to raise a family. Minimum wage here is $15 an hour and quite honestly, I have not known someone to be paid less than $18 an hour in my area in any job (except those on apprenticeships or in training).

And you get those people who say... well if you got an education you'd have better pay. I say bullpoo to that. See my first example with the teacher's pay and it's also known that the majority of people over there will never get a job in the field they go to school for. Getting an education doesn't guarantee a well paying job.

And yet there are people like my dad who didn't even get beyond 3rd grade who have jobs that make them up to $60 an hour. How does that work if education is so important to how much you can make in your career?

So it's not about whether you work for someone else or for yourself. It's about making sure you're getting paid what you are worth... and that means getting paid more than just enough to get by if you're working full time. If you work full time and you are barely getting by or being forced to work a second job just to make ends meet, then the company you are working for is taking advantage of you and wasting your valuable time.