I got a Bachelors in Physics and can't even get my foot into the door with an entry level job. Nowhere is really hiring in my area and normally I get beaten out by someone with more work experience. The whole thing is just an ordeal of having to prove your worth and jump through hoops, to prove that you can jump through more hoops.
@@SovietYugoslav IDK what to say to this. Physics is the highest form of STEM. The only two careers which are more difficult are Law & Medicine. Physics is a field designed to weed out the weak, even before the pandemic & lockdowns hit. The idea that I need to now get my Masters and then a Doctorate (both together would be at least 4 more years of education) is beyond absurd. Even if I were to accept it as true, it is an admission that people can't cash out half-way through climbing the education mountain and have anything to show for it. The top-heavy system will crumble with the next gust. That in itself is death for the entire education/academic system. A thousand pages would not be enough to express the depth of it. Bottom line is: it is not on the individual like me to fix the situation of society's issues. I am not god. It is out of my hands. Emp is right. The system is fundamentally broken.
@@pickyphysicsstudent201 I just don’t wanna sound mean. But realistically speaking, physics isn’t a high paying field outside being a researcher for a university. I know a lot of physics majors with masters who had to get a cs job. Life sucks and that’s unfortunate, but at least this isn’t China. Don’t complain about the game, win it.
@@pickyphysicsstudent201 You either go into research which requires a higher degree, or you go into engineering, at which point you could have just got an engineering degree instead. Idk what this "highest form of STEM" shit is supposed to mean. People who tend to think of STEM fields in isolation or in some sort of order or ranking are usually unfit to be in any of them. The M in STEM is required by all the others, but requires none of the others itself. If anything mathematics is "the highest form of STEM" so assuming this is a serious post you're already off to a poor start. Most physics students went into their undergrad understanding if they wanted to actually work in *physics* they'd need a more advanced degree. I sure did, and made the decision halfway through to change gears. Got my bachelor's in comp sci and within 3 years of leaving college I was making above median salary in the US for a single guy. I make more than people I know with PhDs in Physics and Biology, and I'm not even in the upper echelons of pay for my company.
(I choose to remain ignorant towards the question of wether it has any meaning, because asking that question wont change anything about the fact that i will still wake up tomorrow)
You could always go the absurdist way and simply say "It's meaningless, but so what?" In a world that does not obey your rationality, why should you imprison yourself in it?
The Groundhog Day metaphor is perfect. I said the exact same thing. Ya really can't take away EVERY SINGLE reason that a man has for working (family, God, community, honor) and expect us to work. Men, you hold a lot of power. Don't give it to people who hate you
As a young man, people who try to impress on me what I should do and or be attempt to use the motivations you mentioned as a cudgel. As in: “A REAL man will put in more hours if he loves his family.” Or say “A REAL man is my idea of masculine presenting hetero, because God.” Etc Not disagreeing with your point.
I had a friend in high school who walked out of Econ class shouting, “By the time I’m done here, weed will be legal, and I won’t need any of this” Not even a year later, weed got legalized, and dude worked 4 seasons as a lobster fisher to fund his dream project where now he is one of the largest weed distributers on the west coast. Go figure
Your videos mean a lot to me. I think I'm going to show this one to my therapist. It's funny; when I was a kid, your YTPs were something I loved and that my friends and I always talked about. Now... you've stayed with me. You grew up alongside all of us, and we very much appreciate you.
It felt like you described my life for the past 5 years. Always been hard working in school because people always told me that hard work pays off. Now in university and I either feel terrible or okay at best. When is hard work going to pay off? It feels like hard work only gives you more hard work and that cycle never stops. I wake up thinking about work and feel anxious, then go to sleep thinking about work. It’s all a setup to squeeze every last drop of work out of you. Cog life is real.
I grew up in a small town and was working part time at a job i really liked while paying for college. I dropped out once my grants ran out and i had an ultimatum about whether to take out a huge loan. There were no real further job prospects where i was, so i chose to take out a personal loan and open my own business in that field, to create one for myself and others instead of finishing college. My parents and adults generally did not consider it a real job until i was working for myself, and that took almost a decade.
Oh yes, the "that's not a real job" comment is all too common. People always try to dictate what one should be doing instead of minding their own business. There people in college right now studying what good old dad wants them to study and are depressed every day. It's good to break the cycle..
I too came to the same realization, 2 years ago I started college studying for a software engineer with the same mentality of working hard is the utter solution to life, to have a job security and to take the "safe route". I stopped trying and caring about school recently when I began to think about my future of working a 9-9 job for the rest of my life or worse. I'm showing up late to classes, I don't even do homework anymore. I stopped everything what college demands and I started to notice how much happier I've become. To think how much of my life was lived following a blueprint of an average worker life style really bothers me I've got 2 more years until i graduate, I'm planning to do things differently from now on.
i went to a really tough private/college prep school until high school and i think it made me really disillusioned with “hard work” from a young age from having no free time due to all the homework i would have in elementary and middle school i don’t like work. and i’ve never wanted a career. one of my favorite lines from any movie is from office space where the main character talks about his response to adults asking what he wanted to do when he grows up and he said “nothing.” work is not something you should be proud you do a lot of, it’s the people who don’t work at all you should envy
This one hit close emp, I sacrificed everything including my RU-vid channel, friends, and life for a job. And at the end of the day I hadn't been more miserable in my entire life, my job performance and quality of work was shit. I turned off the auto pilot mode, hit the brakes, and seeked therapy and now I am on track to doing something I am passionate about and getting back on my channel.
i really felt this to my core. Two years ago I was in Architecture school, feeling like utter dogshit and studying something I had very little passion for. Now, I'm studying to become a science teacher and a cartographer, and I'm mostly happy with my choice (the classes not related to my major are still shitty though).
I had a very similar experience. Sometimes "authority figures" act without authority. That's when they screw us over and try to make us do what they want rather than what we should.
Nailed it Emp. The thing that makes this realization worse, is that we're all born without a choice in the matter; and we're all lumped with the same odium if we feel a sense of great regret at the current circumstances, branded as "lazy" or some other such thing. How could this never ending cycle of work, for practically no benefit to the average Joe, not completely depress and demoralize a person? Knowing we have to work until the end of our lives in unfulfilling, highly bureaucratic jobs which don't allow us the financial latitude to own even the most basic necessity, a house to live in. It's a sick joke, but just sit there and take it, so long as GDP goes up! Who cares!
I feel you on this. I went to school to be a nuclear engineer originally, but I wasn’t doing well in school and was quite depressed. I dropped out for a year, reevaluated, and went back for a mechanical engineering tech degree instead. It was still full on mech engineering, but it was algebra based instead of calculus based. I suddenly didn’t have to study for exams anymore because all of the coursework clicked in my brain without the added complications of calculus equations. The teachers in this program cared more too as the classes were smaller and more hands on. I made good friends during that second round of schooling, dated, and had tons of time to do fun stuff. I still got the kind of job I wanted at the end of the day and life is about as good as it can realistically get for someone our age. Some people are built with that drive to endure the crappy stuff, but there’s no shame in wanting to enjoy your life and taking an easier path for the sake of your mental.
Hey Emp, this video really hit home for me. We have a very similar situation here in the UK with regards to the worsening standard of living and the stagnation of society as a whole. I'm currently an engineering student myself and I often find myself feeling crushed under the sheer weight of expectations that are put upon me. Every day I wake up and instantly feel a wave of dread wash over me because I already know I'm going to have a miserable day. I feel like I'm only really doing this because I don't know what else to do, but this video really put things into perspective for me. I usually try not to think about the future because it seems very bleak at times, but after watching this I had a moment of clarity that the future is not predetermined, I can get off this train whenever I want to. What I would really like is to find something that I'm genuinely good at and passionate about, instead of feeling inadequate in a career path I sleepwalked into. I'm going to use my free time to explore my interests and passions more and, who knows, maybe I'll find something to do with my life that really excites me. Thanks for this video Emp, I'm glad I'm not alone in feeling this way.
I moved to Taiwan recently and compared to Asian work culture America has a pretty good emphasis on balance and life outside of work. Americas problem is the dream that everyone can become rich if you just work hard enough. The expectation makes everyone dissatisfied with the outcome of their work. Most of life is work with no big payoff so best not to obsess over working hard at a wage job.
From my experience (and correct me if I'm wrong) but Asians play as hard as they work. In the office you guys make the amish look lazy but when the bell, whistle or what have you sounds and it's time to be off the clock you guys are off the clock.
I’m a field service engineer. (No college, more turning wrenches than staring at schematics and spreadsheets) I really like my job because I get to solve puzzles to fix machinery most every day. For what it’s worth I think you’d make a kickass engineer. The analytic process you use in finding out the causes for things and making videos about them is evidence for that.
For me, the college path *was* the path with less labor. The alternative was to break my body upon the gears of capitalism like my father and his father before him doing manual labor. I've seen enough near-misses in my short few decades. Traded away the sore back and regular threats to my health and safety on the job for drudgery and mentally taxing labor instead. No cubical at least. I get to work remotely, I'm not micromanaged, and I have some level of authority to tell people no or that things will have to wait. I'm lucky though, I have levels of freedom with my work hours that a lot of people do not. Not many people can smoke a bowl and do laundry while getting paid for it on the clock.
Honestly I get the point of this video but in absence of any imminent change to the status quo, this path is quite high up there on the desirability scale
Finding passion is so crucial; finding a way to feel enjoyment/fun doing something that enables financial stability. I didn't choose to do a comp-sci degree and instead chased only learning what I directly care about which was programming for games. And it's allowed me to cut through all the comp-sci baggage that wouldn't matter 🙂
I think this video finally gave me a mental breakthrough to understand why I found my compulsory military training so miserable. I couldn't wrap my head around as to why I wasn't feeling any joy in what's supposedly meant to be the greatest pursuit any man can have. It's not like my country is sending in soldiers to unethical foreign conflicts either (it's too insignificant to do that anyways). I deeply related to what Emp talked here, about this state of waking up in the morning and the next most exciting thing worth looking forward towards is going back to sleep at night, because there's NOTHING to look forward towards in a day. I thought a time would come that I'd finally "adapt". That I was in just an extended training montage and that all I needed to do is to keep my chin up and eventually I'd have a body of a movie star, herculean strength, Iron Willpower, Instincts of a Cheetah, respect of my peers and I'll become a "real" man. But once the training had ended, after I put in so much effort just to be adequate I ended up having none of these things. This promise of me becoming a "chad" was a blatant fuckin lie. I was no different from a wage cuck, but the difference is... I was earning *less* than a minimum wage and couldn't go back home to unwind from this tight atmosphere. I can imagine telling people this story and they'll go "well it's because you didn't try hard enough" or "well, it means there's clearly something wrong with you, you're mentally impaired in some way". And now it hit me that this shit is barely any different from this "pick yourself by your bootstraps" ideology, that all you need to do is work harder. If you can't adapt under living in miserable conditions, that evidently means there's something wrong with you. And this contrast between civilian and soldier life reached it's profound absurdity recently, when a group of students praised me in a chat group, calling me a soldier over me deciding to switch project groups because one group was lacking people. Just like that, I received more respect and praise then I did over 9 months of training, and all it took was clicking a button on a fucking poll prompt on Whatsapp. The contrast here of praise relative to effort is like comparing an ant to a tank. Although the first signs... the first signs in my brain that made me suspect that there was something deeply wrong and dehumanizing of my experience came from a rap song by Nas "I gave you power". The opening lyrics struck my soul the first time I heard them and I don't feel I can elaborate any further, besides sharing them here: Damn Look how muh-fuckers use a n---a Just use me for whatever the fuck they want I don't get to say shit Just grab me, just do what the fuck they want Sell me, throw me away N---as just don't give a fuck about a n---a like me, right Like I'm a f-, I'm a gun, shit It's like I'm a motherfuckin' gun I can't believe this shit
Dude this is catharsis for me. When I interned as a teacher, I had my study and work for 40+ hours per week, and doing stuff for my work way beyond my level, with high levels of stress and pressure to preform, and learning new things all at the same time, and after my paycheck I still had to borrow €200 per month to get by. Now after years of work I'm in between jobs, on welfare, with a sea of time on my hands, saving up €200,- per month. This is when I learned that the stories I was told, are not grounded in reality, rather a attribution error from those older than us, on how they'd "made it".
Great stuff, keep it coming. I've been full hell realm doomer for awhile now. I either stream 7 days a week from a motel or work as a long haul truck driver.
@@flameguy3416 It depends. I make out alright but experiences vary. Start at a training-mill company and work your way up is a way most people settle with.
I mean...sure it's good to do what you're passionate about but it doesn't change the crappy 9-5 work life even when you're doing what you want. Especially when your quote on quote "free-time" is basic needs, food, cleaning, and exercise.
There’s a reason I got an Associates instead of a Bachelors degree. I spent so long in college studying my ass off that I just decided I wanted my degree now so I could get on with my life. Once I did I got a contractor position in the US government that I’ve had for four years now and I’m a lot happier now than I was studying my ass off in college, to the point I’m now pursuing federal employment for my position.
On a positive note, I feel more in touch with my passions and goals now than before. At 23, I look back at my high school years and see a lot of meandering/wasted opportunity. Right now I feel like things are more clear. Not crystal clear, but I think it’s a good thing not to have an exact roadmap, to let your journey unfold somewhat on its own. Take it easy lads.
It’s much more important to work better, not harder, and not even smarter, but better. If you’re able to produce something of better quality and or quantity with less overall effort in one field (like media production) versus another field (like engineering) then you’re actually working better. Thanks for sharing your story, I think many students going through college need to hear this.
I’m interested to hear what you have to say in the next video! It’s true that many people have a warped relationship with work and the burden of expectations. I agree that people should adopt lifestyles that prioritize personal development and happiness, and that “working hard” or “become rich/prosperous” are bad end goals that will probably take you through a lot of misery.
Even as early as a child I questioned and was repulsed by the idea of working for 40 years. Considering the fact how awful & virtually useless autism special education ended up being for me, alongside how much society declined in the last 10 years or so, I have zero regret about dropping out of high school and never getting a job. It's hardly even in my control in my case. My worst years has been from high school and I'm supposed to & is expected to start "working" with my mental state and next to no education (because special ed is useless)? No thanks.
Honestly the best decision I ever made for myself was deciding to pursue an English and Media Production education, things I enjoy and am passionate about, rather than keeping at a miserable grind for the chance at the overcrowded, sweaty law field. I feel so much better and healthier in life now.
Man, there's so many times I've wanted to do this. Make a video wandering around the wilderness rambling to my phone camera about society like a complete psycho. Props for actually doing it.
Works cited: Pessimism is *literally* for losers. (2019), Luke Smith Will you EVER stand up for yourself? (2021), Luke Smith The Economy Is Fake, the Jobs Are Fake, the Money Is Fake (2022), Luke Smith
Yeah the illusion of the American dream has been falling. At this point I guided my nieces to aim for happiness/ fulfillment rather then grinding the mighty dollar. I owned a business and was making great money, but I was miserable. Took a full shift of values and self reflection to get out of that hole.
Crazy how I went through the same thing at the same time in 2016. I actually got in an argument with my grandma about schooling and jobs a few days ago and she said that "she did it when she was younger" but had no response when I said that not every generation has to go through it and my eventual kids hopefully won't have to
I'm in the next stage of what you went through. I have a degree which utterly has felt pretty useless. I've been grinding so long to get to the place I'm at career wise and I'm miserable. Honestly I was so worried about being a respected professional that I lost perspective. Do what makes you happy. Period. If it makes less, live a simpler life. It's not impossible. Fall in love, combine incomes, put the pieces together. Be happy. Fuck the system.
You’re so right, Star Wars. This is exactly what I had to do. When the white collar career path I had chosen didn’t work out, I decided that my happiness was more worthwhile than my income level. I made a total switch, and I have never been happier. Do not live by the lie that money equals happiness. It is not. Do what makes you happy.
can you list some of the social events you missed out on? because i dont consider myself stereotypically "hardworking" but i still missed on on being normal and fully developed
Yep. When I graduated from High School and go to college right after. Huge depression and I hated school but only went to college for that degree to please my family. I don't enjoy having a cynical and skeptical view on life because of what I experience.
hey man, hope you're doing well, hope your family is doing well, and I hope the times aren't stressing you out too much. please stay just the way you are. I love your sense of humor and your verbose flavor of writing. don't trip homie.
I slogged through eight years to get my bachelors eventually and I kinda wish I'd given up in 2016 when my student debt was still manageable. I have sustained injuries from overworking myself, forewent personal development, and am earning less than if I'd just kinda chilled and saved money earlier. I pushed through during covid times because I felt like I had to, and produced a lot of work I'm not proud of.
it is my personal opinion that that's what they WANT. mindless obedient worker drones, endlessly serving them. or at the very least, obedient worker drones who drown their misery in all sorts of coping mechanism. don't worry, i'm sure they're not making this kind of life worse.
Yes on the groundhog’s day thing. When I pretty much broken down at age 26, I couldn’t stop comparing everything to the concept of groundhog’s day, and trying to explain how/why most people don’t understand the whole CONCEPT of groundhog’s day is a paradox. That was in the hospital whoops. Doing much better now. All I’ll say is that life issss a roller coaster. If you go up you gotta go down and vice versa. Been trying to just maintain balance - enjoying what I have and cutting out people with unhealthy expectations has been freeing.
I don't know that this is so much stepping away from the path of work. You clearly put a lot of hard work in your chosen craft. The importance here I think is that you charted your own path. You realized you didn't have a passion for the path you were on and knew you were going to hate the rest of your life if you just kept going on autopilot, putting effort into something that did not reward you on a moral level.
I am a teacher and is now on sick leave for being clinically atressed and depressed... I have no idea how I can start to teach again without not caring at all about anything. What shocked me the most is that my collegues treated it like a part of the journey...
I remember seeing a tweet or something a few years back You wake up: you go to school You wake up: you go to college You wake up: you go to work And then one day, you don't wake up, and there are no more days after that.
I was a central Albertan farm kid, home schooled until the second semester of grade 11, and I went to a tech college to get my diploma in enviro sci. Did well in that-likely because I enjoyed it-and after two years, graduated with a 4.0. I work in my field, and I have very decent hours, even if the pay is dog water. I yearn for more. I want a job that allows me to see the changes I make, that allows me to reap the rewards of doing a good job. I want to live, and spend time teaching my kids, and building something bigger than myself.
Part of me has always wanted to find my calling, and to feel passion for what I do, but I've always put it on the side. Instead, I'm making good money, but definitely wish I had time to up my skills and do what I want to....which is something I still don't know at the age of 31
Tbh, the Hard American Worker really only works for blue collar work along with assembly line work. Heck, that's kinda what the entire education system is built around is probably a mixture of getting people ready for assembly lines or potential military recruits.
Your description of that doomer period accurately describes the entirety of my last two years of high school and first year of university. A neurotic mess, feeling like I wasted my life
You can go back as far as you want. Work has been an inexorable part of human existence. You will never escape it. The fact you can even retire at all, at any point in your life is a miracle.
@@UBvtuber Thats life dude, 100 years ago you would have worked until death. the majority of work serves a purpose. The system that grants us leisure would not be able to run if people werent doing work. Seems more like emp is upset about not knowing college alternatives
You can go back to hunter gatherer times where we think humans had a lot of leisure time, but we have retaurants, airplanes, and medicine now so I guess Ill take a 40 work week.
Ngl, the way the Western world is right now and the fact it's only going to get worse has been getting me down. Lately I've found myself having to lie down on an evening. Not to take a nap, but to just lie there and clear my head. It's bad man. I have a plan to try and get out of the West, but it's probably going to take a gargantuan effort and part of me is questioning if it's worth it because if I fail, I'll be right back at square one, but I'll feel even more defeated than I do right now and I'll be down a lot of money. It's such a dilemma because if I stay here, I'll most likely be miserable for the rest of my life, but if I don't manage to execute my plan, I'll end up even more miserable.
im a sophomore in high school, and the school and teachers and parents keep asking me "what do you want to do for a job"? and i say the same thing. "i don't know". cause i want a job that doesnt force you to work your ass off for some degree, and most jobs in the U.S make you feel like crap every day just to reach retirement. and most jobs they mention dont interest me, except being an electrician, but you still have to go to a school and work your ass off. so i still have no idea. i dont work (yet), but i feel you, Emp.
I understand why you, and many others, feel this way. But, for whatever reason, I never really have. I love to go to work, busy as for 10-11 hours a day, come home and enjoy a dinner with my girlfriend, and repeat. I get so much gratification out of contributing, in my small way, to something much bigger than myself. It could be the field I’m in? My company builds spray aircraft that fly all over the world and help make food more affordable for loads of people. I also don’t feel like I’m missing out on those socials things, i have always thought they don’t really matter that much in comparison to my contribution to my fellow man. I think everyone needs to find something (work) that gets them up in the morning and motivated. A ceaseless Positive mental attitude doesn’t hurt either 😂
We aren't supposed to just get employed somewhere til retirement. It's more like we're hired somewhere that's good and sustainable until we can launch our own careers to more efficiently contribute to society, and make much better money than most places are willing to give. Unfortunately, job application automation, 0 chance for unemployment benefits, ay-offs and overly priced housing and education are things that prevent ppl from advancing practically every time. It makes garnering a community for support that much more important, which ALSO takes money if you didn't start with such a thing
You have my sympathies. I too suffered the endless preaching of work ethic, and at its core I do agree with the value of hard work. However that value has been thoroughly corrupted in our time. People look down on you if you don't make your life about work even if you are fortunate enough to not need to. I for example come from a background of hard working ancestors that saved money and invested wisely to build a modest upper middleclass future for their descendants. Am I really supposed to believe that I'm the bad guy, a lazy bum, "not a participating member of society", because I decided not to sacrifice my sanity and quality of life to obtain a career that pays me money that I don't need to live the life I want to live? One of my Grandfathers was known to have picked up on this sentiment very early on. He observed that people would move to the city to work hard and make a lot of money so they could afford to retire to the country. In the process they spent a lot of the money they made so they could afford to live in the city or commute. So he decided to simply build a life working in the country/rural towns. Overall he made a lot less money than people who went to the city, but in the end his country home was just as nice as theirs.
this video basically echos my exact experience except im only realizing things after my 4th semester and now going into junior year the funny thing is i love programming and tech which my degree is based in but i still hate college so im stuck
this is like totally redpilled dude im totally pepe profile pictured out real talk though this video put into words a ton of ideas and feelings ive had in my head for a while 10/10 love this emperorlemon guy greatest youtube evar....
Look into meme analysis. Chris has a lot of interesting occult takes on the current states of things, very enlightening. Also read Thus Spoke Zarathustra.
There is instinct and there is reason and there is common sense, then there is skepticism and there is cynicism. I say "is" because you can choose between but one and each one goes but so far, except instinct for most people that is tied to the primal brain and is something that often is most predominant in life and to break free from that is to truly shed ones ego. Or some shit, look. I don't know, all right? I'm just inspired by these types of videos and I then feel that I want to make a comment of my own and so here we are. Also in regards to the video: same-ish, kind of. I like when people put things into perspective so that I don't feel lost always because not that I'm too lazy to do it for myself and my own perspective it's just; I don't know what the truth is. I don't know much of anything, really, but I sure am glad when someone says something that resonates.
12:40 That's how I feel exactly, except I'm broke trying to become an electrician so I can finish my meteorology degree. The system doesn't forgive mistakes, especially if they're not your fault. I shouldn't have to deal, exclusively, with the fallout of attending college without knowing that I had adhd.
im trying so hard to get time back and idk how to do it its too expensive where i grew up and i need to leave but i dont know where things are better and i cant find anyone to rley on and idk
I didn't go to college. I don't see the value of learning harder mathematics in my own life, I have no aspirations of being like a train engineer or scientist. I just wanna be happy and have a family. Though customer service has its occasional draws, retail work does not stress me to an unreasonable degree, and I earn decent enough pay for it right now. you don't absolutely need a college degree to make any earnings
5:00 ish - fuck, I feel this. The difference is that while I also missed out on my childhood, I did do OK financially. In an absolute sense, I had the better outcome. But it's hard to say if it was enough to matter. The fact that I have a well funded IRA will not matter when we're hunting for scraps of food.
I don't really get what you're angry about exactly. If you hated the major you were in, it just means it wasn't for you. I tried doing programming first and hated it, so I switched to IT. You tried to do engineering first and hated it, so you switched to media production, and you've succeeded! Finding out what exactly it is you want to do is part of life, not everyone gets it right the first time. It's not like media production isn't hard work too, it's just a different kind of work than engineering.
last year i was in the same pit emp described in this video. i decided to keep pursuing a stem degree on the grounds that i can still follow my passions when i graduate, while still having the degree to fall back on. but still, i keep running into all these bitter pills i have to swallow as i go down this path. school really brings out my misanthropic tendencies. the way he emp is talking about how the common wisdom is to selling your time/labour at the cost of personal happiness, it makes me wonder if he's gonna drop some marxist philosophy in the next video. (it would be pretty controversial, i think)
As a poor person who grew up with parents who never went to college, I didn't go until I was 28 and I worked as an HVAC tech, Electricians Apprentice, Chef, and more. College has been the only thing I've done that makes me anymore money than I did before. College isn't for everyone, but if you're poor and want to move on from living paycheck to paycheck, college is a great investment. On average, people with bachelor's degrees make 30,000 more a year
I'm eager to see what solutions you come up with. Some people only partake in this human meat grinder of a system due to a set of circumstances that basically leave them with no real choice. This goes for older generations as well, but only zoomers seem to have the energy and vitriol to actually try and change something.
In Moon Channel's video addressing the phenomenon of bad Christian video games, he goes to great lengths explaining the underlying "Protestant Work Ethic" which has defined American work culture since the country's inception. This is effectively the crux of this "hard work and self-sacrifice above all else" MO that you explain in this video. Good stuff, recommended viewing.
Your story is quite universal. Nobody feels happy living out somebody else's dream. But you have to understand, most people aren't highly talented artists like you. Your criticism of the system isn't fair because the system was never meant for you, it was meant for the average person.
