227 comments

You Can Spare us Both the Outrage

mercedesThe recent 50 Jobs post has been a nice success so far: I was happy with my own start to the list, but as expected the readers (as well as my celebrity guest contributors) got back to me with even better ideas. We’ll have an easy time bumping it up above 50 when Part Two comes out in the near future.

But I thought we should pause for a refresher lesson in effective living, because there have been so many illuminating events recently that it would be fun to put them together.

It’s almost a law of the Internet these days: if somebody comes up with an idea or does something, there will be an immediate nationwide chorus of whining and rattling keyboards as a large number of people hasten to complain and express outrage about what they’ve just read. A few examples:

Regarding the Jobs post, lots of people took the “Gaw! Those jobs are impossible to get!” tack. I put a few quotes together from Twitter* for your enjoyment:

some_twitter_job_complaints

Then there was that McDonalds Budget controversy earlier this month. Everyone got into a big huff because the low-wage fast food employer dared to publish a budgeting guide for their employees, with inaccurate values filled in to the example:

budget

News flash: it was an EXAMPLE. That means you put your OWN numbers into the blanks, rather than complaining about the estimates that came with it. Idiots.

“Gasp!” Went the outrage on this one.

“They didn’t allow enough for health insurance, and they totally forgot GROCERIES!”

And finally, you’ll see outrage whenever a story hits the news, and happens to feature people like you and I who are earning good money:

“BLAUUGH! FUCK THAT PERSON LIVING IN FAIRYLAND WITH THE HIGH INCOME! REGULAR FOLKS DON’T EARN THAT MUCH!”

or not spending all their money:

“YEAH! NICE LIFE! TRY THAT HERE IN EXPENSIVEVILLE WITH MY 80 MILE COMMUTE!!”

or for the general case of a story about anything at all

 “AND OBAMA FEDERAL RESERVE TOILET PAPER FUCKIN’ LIBERAL BLABLABLA!!”

In a way, it is nice to see a bit of outrage. It shows that at least people are out there reading things on the internet and reacting, rather than sitting passively on the couch watching the TV news. But the outrage is on the wrong side of the divide.

Suggestion: Instead of boiling up a pot of anger based on your perceived inability to do something, why not throw it on the other burner – the one that gets you fired up about new possibilities about which you knew nothing before?

With this in mind, let’s review the outrage examples above to see how they could be re-phrased.

The Twitter users who didn’t like my list of jobs were suggesting that it was poor advice, because their own experience (or speculation) suggested that it is extremely difficult to get jobs like that and earn over $50,000.

Yet the only reason I put those occupations on the list is because I have repeatedly met people who do all of those things, and dabbled in at least half of them myself, and found that they do indeed generate income at a greater-than-$50,000-per-year rate. Including occupation of writing the very website you are reading right now!

All of this is new to me as well – ten years ago I was still an engineer and I would have told you that the only way to make good money was to get a degree and then work in high-tech.

I’m not putting things on this top-50 list to build false hopes so I can sell you courses or e-books. I’m doing it because I’m genuinely excited about the stuff I have discovered and happy to share it with a group that may be more focused on traditional employment.

From what I’ve learned, making money based on sharing content through the internet is not a lottery. It is something that can be methodically and successfully done – as long as you have the required underlying talent and do the right research and work.

Just like being a plumber, electrician, or carpenter. Not every job is a good match for every person’s DNA – why express outrage over that revelation?

Next there’s the McDonalds budget. It was a funny attempt by some out-of-touch corporate types, sure. But when I read it, rather than feeling outrage at the lack of a line item for heat or groceries, I had the opposite reaction:

“Wow.. even with a financed car(WTF?!), $100/month for “cable/phone”, and four times my entire houshold’s electricity consumption, these people still have $750 in “monthly spending money” remaining. Not bad at all! I’m outraged** that anyone would think this budget is sparse!”

And finally there is the outrage directed at high salaries in general and more of it at low expenses.

Sure, I briefly made a good salary in software in my 20s. And many people in the field earn much more: Bill Gates used to personally visit the campus of Canada’s Waterloo University each year and offer $100,000 starting salaries to the top 100 computer science and engineering students. And many of them would refuse the job offer in favor of even better opportunities.

Many people of my age are now running companies or working in financial jobs where they earn millions, rather than hundreds of thousands per year.

And equally impressive, many others are living far more badass lives – being a ranger in Northern Alaska, touring internationally as a startup musician, growing most of a  family’s food on their own lots while maintaining a full-time job on the side, volunteering and donating more than I do.

Many people, most of the world in fact, lives on a tiny fraction of the supposedly frugal amount of money we burn up each year.

Should we be outraged at people who do something that we haven’t yet done ourselves? Or is it more productive to just say,

“Hmm.. I hadn’t realized that was an option! I am glad to have it added to the broadening suite of fun things that I might choose to do in my life, now that I am getting the money part of things under control.”

In a sense, this shift in attitude really goes back to one of my favorite posts on this blog, the one called “The Practical Benefits of Outrageous Optimism.” In that classic, I argue that the very act of believing in the viability of a bold plan, greatly affects the chances of you succeeding at it.

Given that we know these things are possible, what benefit can be had by building a Whiny Wall between ourselves and the tasty rewards?

With this in mind, we will return to 50 Jobs – Part Two in our next post, where the potential jobs will be equally surprising, and yet not outrageous at all.

I hope you don’t mind me poking fun at you here, Nicole! I’m actually impressed that you took the time to make fun of me on your own blog, which is exactly where people should be expressing their most vigorous complaints (as opposed to in the comments section of this blog) But when someone actually copies me personally on Twitter by including the @mrmoneymustache thingy, it’s obviously an invitation for some public battle ;-)

**This is not meant to be a political statement that I think US minimum wage is too high. In fact, I’d personally make it higher myself, because if you run a business and can’t afford to pay people more than $7.50, your business model sucks. And if you can afford to pay more, but just want to keep more money for yourself instead and lobby congress in order to keep the official minimum so low, you might be a bit of a dickhead. I’ve never paid anyone less than double minimum wage through my own small businesses, and even then it was embarrassingly profitable and my wife asked me if I was sure I wasn’t being a dickhead for paying someone only $15/hr. 

  • jj July 29, 2013, 5:41 pm

    I’ll be blunt… I’ve found your website very inspiring in EXACTLY this way. We just moved to a house that needs extensive outdoor landscaping love, which my husband and I are confident we can do because we relandscaped the backyard of our last house (which we’re turning into a rental). It’s really had me thinking that maybe I want to retire into being one of those nerdy, middle aged plant ladies. Which led me to a local non-profit specializing in native plants and now I’m getting myself an inexpensive education. Whether or not I become a bona fide clog-wearing garden geek I’ve expanded my skill set and saved my family a bunch of money. Might become a job, it might not. But even if it’s only a $20,000 a year part-time retirement gig… that’s a solid chunk of money to add to my ‘stache in my active retirement years.

    Reply
  • MrWednesday July 30, 2013, 5:46 am

    I can sympathize with the complainypants comments as I too feel “like I can’t do it” when it comes to making 50k or more. The main thing holding me back here is a lack of optimism, poor organization skills and a lack of sustained effort. Many of the opportunities listed in the first 50 jobs post require self employment which in turn requires many of the attributes I already mentioned I’m lacking.

    BUT all is not lost even for someone timid like myself!

    The awesomeness of this site is that one can almost always tweak and optimize their budget, re evaluating and cutting expenses to free up some cash. Even if the idea of early retirement isn’t on your radar due to an inability (or unwillingness) to earn more money, you can save more, spend less and be more happy. The ideas are simple and adoptable by anyone. I cut my TV service (digital TV, never had cable) switched to a $10 phone plan, cut my car insurance by $30, started baking my own bread and pizza, joined costco (OMG! costco is awesome!) lowering my food bill by a few hundred at least, started biking to the bus stop several times a week (which really helps my mood by giving me a sense of control and self reliance), am using cloth napkins and started using ynab to budget, all as a result of the excellent suggestions found on this site. This site is a goldmine of information and even if something does not resonate with you now, it might later. Focus on something else positive that you can change right now and maybe circumstances will change and you can come back to that idea that gave you trouble later on, if not, Oh well. nothing lost as you spent your time fruitfully rather than complaining, disregarding and ignoring.

    Reply
    • insourcelife July 31, 2013, 1:37 pm

      With this attitude you will do just fine! Great comment!

      Reply
  • Holly July 30, 2013, 10:13 am

    I LOVE these posts because I know a lot of people who make over 50K without a college degree. And the internet is filled with opportunities to replace your full-time income despite what anyone says about blogging or building websites for a living. You just have to work hard to find opportunities and hone your skills in order to fill a need.

    Reply
  • Dragline July 30, 2013, 11:06 am

    Nice follow-up post.

    I use “outrage” as a negative filter. The more frequently someone claims to be “outraged” by something they saw or read, the more I try to minimize or eliminate the time I spend dealing with them.

    Excessive “outrage” is usually a symptom of deeper problems and flaws involving anger and fatalism. Life is too short to be wasted on or with such people to the extent you can avoid it/them.

    Reply
    • Anonymous` July 31, 2013, 10:55 am

      Exactly. Outrage is a waste of time unless you channel it into something productive.

      Also a good reason to not watch TV news: lots of opportunity to get outraged about things that don’t actually affect you and that you have no intention of attempting to change.

      Reply
  • Caitlin July 30, 2013, 11:12 am

    I loved that 50 jobs post, I am trying to work my way out of an unpleasant career and financial situation – that post (and your blog) gave me hope. I love that it did show a WIDE range of options.

    Reply
  • Julia July 30, 2013, 11:46 am

    I have been trying to think of something remotely intelligent to say regarding people complaining about the list of jobs and it not being easy to make $50,000+ per year (to be fair, in my household we currently make less than $35,000…it hasn’t always been this way and it will not remain this way…but right now it is what it is). The only thing I can really say is this: My mom makes just under $40,000 (after all of her expenses and such) as a NEWSPAPER CARRIER. Do all paper carriers make this? No. Did she start out making that amount? No. She accumulated multiple paper routes in one (large) area of the city. There are 7 publications delivered in this town…she eventually accumulated contracts for all 7, making sure to keep each individual route within the same area of the city…Bonus: she gets a ton of Christmas tips because she gives good service, it does also help that she is fairly good at contract negotiation.

    I realize the example given isn’t $50,000+ but still, $40,000 for delivering newspapers…you can make money doing almost anything. Sometimes you just have to get creative…and not expect it overnight.

    Reply
    • sleepyguy August 1, 2013, 9:28 am

      That’s clever of you mom! I think a lot of folks don’t see opportunities to make some money. They complain and don’t critically think (even just an hr a day) to brainstorm opportunities. I’ve NEVER had issues with making income ever since 14… and pretty proud to say will be FI at around 40 or so (34 now). Basically how I made money early on without an employer… I started at 14.

      At 14 – Noticed parents seem very rushed around my neighborhood taking their kids to school. So I walked door to door asking my neighbors if they wanted me to walk their kids in mornings to school so they could free up time, I charged them $30/wk. I could only take on 3 kids / wk, so $360/mth was not too bad for a 14yr old, taught me a lot even though i didn’t save much of it :) I did this until I was 18.

      At 18 – I got interested in PCs, ran my own PC support business, charged about $30/hr and $45/hr for at-home support. Consisted of low-voltage wiring, pc setups, networking, server setup (simple NAS) etc… stuff you can easily learn with google/youtube. I may go back to do this on the side just for fun after decide to quit my FT job.

      Reply
  • JayBee July 30, 2013, 4:02 pm

    Here’s the thing. Each of us are in our own context.

    First, I have to say that it is true — if you think you can’t, then you can’t. But the reality is that you probably *can* make positive changes in your financial situation with a bit of effort and time. It doesn’t have to be big to have a big impact.

    Second, I also have to say that if you are tsking or being tsked, just ignore.

    No doubt, based on his blog about how to do paleo with pasta on a budget (yeah. . .), MMM would tsk at me for spending money on food. And a lot of it.

    When we first came here, we purchased as we did in the US — which was a budget of $175 for our family of three per week. In our new city, that was $450 per week.

    Over the course of a year, we learned to eat seasonally, eat more simply, got involved in community gardens, cow shares, and a co-op. We were able to drop our budget from $450/wk down to $300/wk.

    So, look. You work with what you have. I’m not willing to compromise my health and that of my family for a cheaper diet based on cheap pasta. But, we were able to make changes to how we sourced things that have saved us a LOT of money — it’s $7,800 a year that we save just by dropping our food bill by that much.

    And, that makes a big difference when you put it into your investments!

    End of the day, MMM or anyone else can tell me “but you could save so much more on groceries if!!!!!” And we do still look for ways to save. But ultimately, it’s not the number itself that matters, but the practice of looking for ways to cut costs.

    And that’s that.

    Reply
  • R5 July 30, 2013, 7:39 pm

    Reading many of the above comments again now as I’m posting shows certain points have been covered separately. My hope is that aggregating them in the fashion below adds something to the discussion.

    This post and its attendant whines hint at, but do not directly tackle, a big question for the US which is how do you get out of median wage stagnation and return to raising broad standards of living via real wage growth on a massive scale? (Admittedly a big issue for Canada too but for the moment let’s stick to the US as having spent a lot of time in both places I can say with confidence that the national exceptionalism mentality is stronger in the US).

    The related questions to the big one above are:

    what is the right mix of entry level and higher pay jobs?
    how do you change the mix if you think it’s skewed too far one way?
    how much skill should be needed to move up rungs on the wage ladder?

    Personally I’m not on board with the idea current minimum wage is the enemy of wage growth and therefore that it should be doubled or that any business model that leverages cheap labor sucks. It’s probably beneficial both to the individual and the overall economy that there are entry-to-workforce level jobs available. So long as the slack supply of labor is so large as it is at the simplest level I believe working for pay is greater than or equal to not working in almost all instances.

    To the extent that individuals aren’t happy with the wages the entry jobs provide MMM is saying that the answer is obvious. The path to higher wages is for individuals to move out of entry-to-workforce level jobs by adding skills and leveraging those skills. If one takes that as the theme and the specific jobs he references as examples, not an exhaustive list, his point survives. There are opportunities out there. At the encourage a despondent individual level I say “Right on!” (I’m totally on board with the be-happy-with-less side of the equation too but that is not the subject of this post).

    The bigger challenge for the US, which I think is implied although not well articulated by many of MMM’s detractors, is that the aggregate number of these opportunities today is insufficient to absorb the number of individuals that would like to earn 50,000+ per year today. On that point I’d agree with the detractors. MMM’s position is not a macroeconomic solution. For nearly all of these positions the relative wage will compress quite quickly if large numbers of people pursue the opportunity (let’s not get into any debate about rediscovering the laws of supply and demand). It’s not just labor supply side movement either since in the housing trade examples there has been a lot of demand destruction. I personally know carpenters with fine skills that struggle to string together work right now. And they aren’t all suited to self-employment.

    So what’s a reasonable answer to creating higher real wages on a massive scale? Not an easy problem. There is probably a Nobel for anyone who could figure out how to grow GDP per capita with certainty and without boatloads of negative externality.

    On top of it being hard to begin with the labor market expectation in the US is irrationally anchored by two issues. First, the US has a really high basis in GDP/capita. That makes any arbitrage approach on labor very hard to implement without having inflation erode real wage and standards of living. Second, the typical myopic US resident has framed their personal expectation of growth primarily by reference to the post world war 2 period of US hegemony. Today there are a lot of very smart people all over the world trying to solve the same problems in their own nations, with an eye towards lifting masses out of poverty, not a return to halcyon days.

    Against such a backdrop my strong personal opinion is that it will be totally ineffective just to demand entry-level jobs pay more. That’s an argument that the US labor vs. capital split is inequitable. Setting aside for the moment concepts of unsafe working conditions or company towns (and I’ll concede both do still exist) the US split is probably at the most equitable end of the range if one uses global comps as the yardstick. While that may not feel “fair” if you look at income distribution the speed at which capital can exit any geography and redeploy in alternative geographies right now is just stunning so I’d argue the yardstick is an appropriate one.

    MMM’s position on this issue is seems unstated. Connecting the dots it’s probably that if everyone is adding skills, particularly general management run your own business type skills, there will be a rising tide that will lift all boats in whatever geography the skills were added. I could buy that directionally speaking. Having a workforce focused on adding skills as a path to wage growth will be better than having a workforce focused on fighting a labor/capital divide battle. Light a candle vs. curse the darkness if you will.

    Will it raise US standards of living sufficient for people to stop whining writ large? Probably not. And the point I’d make to you personally MMM, should you get this far in the comment list, is that if you want progress on the secret objective in your lifetime you need to think not just about preaching to the converted. You need whining abatement writ large. In that regard one area I can see for improvement in inspiring the MMM potential entrepreneur readership is encouraging them to stay connected with the grind longer in an effort to have more societal impact. Creating or at least influencing larger organizations that win in the market while possessing the desired cultural attributes. I think the right mentality may be something of a hybrid between the current MMM reader and the entrepreneurs I’ve seen in Switzerland or Taiwan. The manufacturing entrepreneur there is focused all the time on operational excellence and multi-market competitiveness albeit typically as means to a ridiculous standard of living.

    Reply
  • Mr. Frugal Toque July 30, 2013, 9:33 pm

    How we handle people challenging our assumptions is important. How many people react to almost everything involving early retirement with this sort of Excusitis attitude? How many people use these excuses to rationalize that MMM is lying?
    But ask yourself, am I ever reacting to people who challenge my long held beliefs?
    Indeed, when the vitriol gets this bad it is entertaining, but it is also a reminder for the rest of us to let our own assumptions be challenged.

    Reply
  • Marc Allred July 31, 2013, 10:10 am

    Sir,
    I have cursed your name a few times since you slighted me and refused to write a post on my blog. (How did my Whiny Wall sarcasm come across?)

    The world is far too full of youtube comment posters. Hatred and contempt for people who are doing things.

    All we need is love and great ideas to toss around to help us live better lives. Oh yeah, and tons of books with great principles to teach us what we’re doing wrong!
    -Marc

    Reply
  • Matt July 31, 2013, 8:02 pm

    I am thinking of building a bar in our basement from scratch, rather than paying for it to be installed. This would be a full bar, plumbing included. Some electrical possibly, but we have a few outlets inthe right spot. Any suggestions on places to start on how to learn to do this myself? Google searches… I’ve done these, but it can be hard to narrow down to the best info sources.

    Reply
  • Kareem Majeans July 31, 2013, 10:47 pm

    You want anything in this life you have to fight for it. Not in the aggressive, combative MMA fighting (although you whip Chuck Liddell’s ass and you’re a rich man). Fight for…ideas, education, skill, talent, invention, creation. Quit letting society, family, friends, managers, enemies, and stoopid people tell you what you can and can’t achieve. MMM is the Fight Club of the internet, it’s moved to the basement, Project Mayhem. Quit being a consumer and working for greedy corporations to buy dumb shit. We all buy things we can’t afford to impress people we don’t like. I have never met MMM but I hope he is as cool as Tyler Durden. He quit his comfortable job, took a huge fucking risk and never looked back. He figured out that working for somebody else is not the solution to happiness and freedom. If you have never seen “Fight Club” borrow it from your local library or amazon/netflix membership.

    I leave you all with this… “All the ways you wish you could be, that’s me. I look like you wanna look, I fuck like you wanna fuck, I am smart, capable, and most importantly, I am free in all the ways that you are not.” -Tyler Durden

    Reply
  • 1winedude August 1, 2013, 7:24 am

    In many ways, this post is wrong. But it’s also very, very right.

    It’s wrong in that statistically speaking, our lives are significantly influenced by factors totally outside of our control, and mathematically randomness plays a much bigger role in shaping pour lives than any reasonably sane person would be willing to admit. A look at some of those examples can be downright depressing.

    Having said that, I think true badassery comes from facing into that and accepting responsibility personally for those factors that we can control, as these also have a not insignificant impact in our lives. One of those things is portion of what we spend and save, and it can free us.

    I speak from personal experience here, as I’m semi-retired ( or just tried in MMM’s parlance :-) and did that at 39, before I knew about this site. I can attest to the advice here, because I lived a lot of it already, and it works!

    Reply
  • Caitlin August 1, 2013, 8:48 am

    Your optimism is refreshing; all to often people’s creativity is wasted on thinking of ways they cannot achieve things, instead of on ways they can. I prefer your mindset, and I need to hear these things so I can reinvigorate my motivation to pursue the things I love. That’s why I read your blog!

    Reply
  • Sam Serv August 2, 2013, 2:30 pm

    How about a list of $150K jobs? Probably need some kind of training but hey, 2 years of grad school to triple your annual income for the rest of your life seems legit to me!

    Reply
  • Jarrod August 3, 2013, 6:42 am

    To MMM:

    I’ve never really been a fan of blogs or into the whole blogosphere scene…until I came across your blog. And in the roughly 4 weeks that I’ve been aware of MMM’s existence, I have chewed through almost every single post, and they’ve changed my life in the most important way possible. Interestingly, I came across your blog while Googling “student loan depression.” Since the middle of my sophomore year of college (about two and half years ago), I’ve dealt with periodic anxiety and depression derived primarily from the realization in December 2010 of just how much debt I was going to be in upon graduation. The numbers scared me more than anything ever. The mood changes had various effects on my personal life and health: isolationism, lost relationships and friendships, losing 10 pounds in two weeks when I thought there weren’t ten pounds to lose, and disrupted (or impossible) sleep. This (and so many more details I’ll spare you from) led me to Google that day, while wallowing on the couch. I was captivated from the first post I read. It was as if someone turned on a flood light of hope in the deep dark depression cave I was in. So many things (life itself) suddenly seemed possible again. I’ve always leaned toward the side of minimalism and anti-materialism, so I already had some Mustachian traits installed. I was able to use MMM as a foil to see all the glaring financial mistakes of my parents and their middle class lifestyle and finances, and see just how easily a few simple habits could change everything. Suddenly I had a plan, I had ideas, I had structure, I had a loose blueprint to work from. I learned more about finances in one hour of reading your blog than my parents have learned their entire lives combined. This blog literally (at least figuratively) might have saved my life, and I’m now trying to save my parents’ finances. I’m not as badass as you, and I may never be. And it’ll take a long time to get rid of my student loan debt emergency. But you’ve given me the tools, attitude, and outlook to address it way faster than I could imagine. All I know is I have hope when I didn’t before. And I can’t thank you enough for that.

    Sincerely,
    Relieved Recent Graduate

    P.S. You don’t have to accept this giant comment onto the bottom of this post. I just wanted to thank you personally, so as long as you read it, I’m satisfied.

    Reply
    • Mr. Money Mustache August 3, 2013, 3:04 pm

      Wow, thanks a lot, Jarrod! You bring up a good point – adults like ourselves trying to figure out how to knock some sense into our older parents. Mine are already completely sensible and frugal, and I grew up thinking that was the case with everyone’s parents. But it totally isn’t the case.

      There are still 50 and 60 year-olds out there that think you are supposed to borrow money for cars, “trade them in” every few years, and then wonder if they will have to work until 70 in order to have enough for retirement. Many of these have trained their adult children to follow a similarly hopeless path, and only if we’re lucky do they wake up before getting locked into the consumer poverty life themselves.

      Reply
    • Schmidty August 4, 2013, 12:56 am

      Jarrod, I’m so glad that you found this blog in time to make changes early on. I felt the same way when I was finishing up school, and can tell you that with a Mustachian attitude you will not only pay back the loans much faster than you thought possible, but you will also develop a dark smudge on your upper lip that will burst forth into a bristly ‘stache before you know it. It’s all about maintaining a positive attitude, guarding against lifestyle inflation, and plain old common sense. If spendy people get you down, check in with the MMM community for a lift. You can do it!

      Reply
  • Anna August 4, 2013, 11:49 am

    Thank you for the 50K jobs list and your original perspectives! Although I am happily employed, I also work with many people who are talented but remain in minimum wage jobs. I thought it was a new angle I had not seen before and wish it did not draw such criticism.

    Reply
  • Nicole August 18, 2013, 8:24 pm

    I don’t mind at all when people poke fun at me. :) I did like the Part 2 selection of jobs – they were both practical and user-submitted.

    Like many of the other commenters have noted, you can make $50K/year doing nearly anything – even being an actor on Broadway! – but the trick is you have to be absolutely top-class, plus a little luck, to get there.

    Reply
  • Oelsen September 15, 2013, 2:40 pm

    I don’t know what you think of me after reading this, but your blog is sometimes the best entertainment. I know you want to teach something important, but on me, everything is lost when a post like this one comes up.

    Gold!

    thank you

    Reply
  • Josh April 9, 2014, 4:49 pm

    Some people just need to CTFO. Loving the blog.

    Reply
  • Chris January 28, 2017, 8:58 am

    McDonalds (and any other large “evil” corporation) pay what the market will bear. This isn’t a moral issue, it is economics. They are free to pay what they want (down to minimum wage) and the worker is free to work there or not. Flipping hamburgers is only paid $8 per hour because pretty much anyone can do it. Arbitrarily raising minimum wage to $15 or any other amount will just cause McDonalds and any other corporation to figure out ways to raise prices for all, give existing workers fewer hours, and automate. P.s. The McD’s example shows net income of about $2,000 a month or $24,000 a year… An amount that someone else we know says that his family lives very well on every year. If we accept as truth that the MMM family lives on that (and I believe they do, although they have a paid off house), then why do some express outrage at what was clearly an example (full of holes though it may be)?

    Reply
  • Heather June 30, 2018, 3:56 am

    Thank you so much for your 50 jobs posts! I’m disabled and stuck on benefits in the UK, even though I have two degrees from MIT and years of experience as a scientific researcher. I’ve been trying to find work to do from home for ages, but it’s pretty tough to find things that actually pay enough. Alas, at 43, I fear I’m too old to be a cam girl. ;)

    The optimistic “kick ass” tone of your blog is also really great!. Becoming disabled, losing my career, running through all my savings and retirement savings and ending up destitute on benefits, plus being periodically tortured by the UK benefits department, has killed my self-belief. But you know what? F*ck it! I’m *really* good at living cheap now, and I know a ton about mental health and chronic pain. I can also write random things about interesting science. I’m going to start that blog I’ve been too scared to start. Thank you.

    Reply

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