Here's the Mexican standoff: - Employers who are "mindlessly obsessed" with college degrees - Erosion of the marketplace from steady employment to contract and gig employment - The steady annihilation of the middle workforce through consolidation and automation - The retraction of entry level positions and the rise of the permanent underclass Anybody with any sense knows the United States is a service economy (despite manufacturing more stuff than we have in our history - we're just employing far fewer people to do it). Anybody with the sense to figure that out has to understand that services have to be paid for by someone. So. Are we selling services to poor people? What's the cap on that? How 'bout services to rich people? There's a guy in my yoga class. Not much older than me. When he found out I was showing up in my 25-year-old Porsche he decided to bring his i8 (joke's on him, I was sick). It doesn't even count as one of the six BMWs he owns because he leases it. he was telling me he's put less than 5,000 miles on it in three years because gullwing cars get rain in them in seattle. who knew? I asked him about clearbras because I don't want my headlights to get cataracts. He mentioned a place that does all his work; it costs him about $6k a car. I'll try and get out of the place I found for $700 or less because holy shit. So, denizen of the service economy. Who would you rather service, him or me? If you were to focus on one type of client, which one gives you more bang for your buck? Everyone gripes about in-game purchases while also pointing out that it's that one whale in 100 who actually buys fuckin' anything ruining the experience for the rest of us. But think about it: if only one person in 100 buys fuckin' crests or whatever but the game still shoves them at us every time we log in, those fuckin' crests must be pretty goddamn lucrative. The whale matters more than 100 normies. This is how gilded ages happen. I've been having a bad fuckin' week. I may never mix again it's been so shitty. Watchmaking? Some mutherfucker spent $6m on that thing Saturday. In Monaco, of course. Which is one third what was spent on this thing two weeks ago: Why? Because Paul Newman owned it, of course. Are you filthy fucking rich? No? Are you catering to the filthy fucking rich? No? Are you in a profession favored by the filthy fucking rich? No? best grab a broom. Edited to add the proposed Republican tax plan, as analyzed by the Wall Street Journal: Under the GOP plan, the executive would pay $868,000 in taxes, according to a rough calculation by Tony Nitti, of WithumSmith + Brown, an accounting firm. The manufacturer pays $704,400, but might be able to argue her way into a lower bill. The passive business owner pays $576,000. The dividend-earning investor pays $476,000. The heir to the estate pays nothing. The manufacturer, the estate and the passive owner all get big tax cuts from the GOP plan. The investor and the wage earner generally don’t. Merit-based, mutherfucker.
Take a simplified example of $2 million, received at the relevant top rates, by five different people: a salaried executive; the owner-operator of a manufacturer; an investor receiving dividends; a passive business owner, such as one who has a stake in a real-estate property; and an heir from a large estate.