Hard work is good, but fundamentally I beat out a lot of other people that worked really hard, a lot of them for definite, worked harder than me. I got my job initially not just because I was a qualified and hardworking candidate, but also because I interviewed well - one of the interviewers went to the same university as me, another did his thesis on the same subject as me, whereas the other 4 people in my panel had no easy rapport with the senior technical specialist - and that was realistically luck. You seem to think that there is an infinite well of good jobs available, and I'm not really sure why?
Right; so you had at least one better job skill, which also happened to be a transferable one, which is a key consideration for a lot of jobs, particularly if you are the type to want to move up one day or to branch out - and certain employers like to try to at least seed the ranks with people who potentially could do that.
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In general, at least half of the "there's no hope, no future, no opportunities, no point" comments itt are by or about people who have not yet even tried. And that is dumb and wrong.
Someone who has been out there pounding the pavement (literally or metaphorically) - I mean busting ass applying for jobs and trying to find ways to get noticed and get in somewhere - and who has been getting
rejected over and over may have some cause for complaint or discouragement, at least temporarily. Nothing but compassion, especially if they are also responsible for putting the roof over their or others' heads. It is terrifying to face the prospect of not being able to do that.
But someone who has not and is not doing that? No; you have no rightful cause to use anticipatory failure or getting less than what you (incorrectly) think everyone in the past was handed without requiring effort as an excuse to waste your life and then complain you got screwed.
Can't find your ideal job that pays you what you think you're worth? Take something else for awhile and slay at it. Leave your superior attitude at home and learn everything about your second or 25th choice place. You think no one older than you has ever had to do that? Lol fuck off.
Or make your own business. I know a young guy (22-23), kind of a dick & a lazy fuckup in high school, who started his own lawncare-type business right out of school. He shilled all over Next Door constantly, took any kind of job he could get. FF 4-5 years to now. He's already bought a little house, flipped it, and is buying a nicer one. He does not come from money, so whatever he has he's created. Got past his laziness, apparently. Still a dick tbh, but instead of sitting on his ass wasting his life and complaining about how he's screwed, he's gone out and started building something.
...I'm not saying "start a landscaping business!" - just an example of a (young white male) person without all the advantages who didn't just fling his hands up and say there's no use. And it is already paying off.
If he'd said fuck it, I'm playing games, he'd have nothing but lost time.
I'll stop playing video games when participating in society as a white male is worth it again.
You will never find out whether it is or not if you're inside playing games or carping online.
The world is going to pass you by.
They’re angry people aren’t playing along with their plans.
Well, see how well persistent ODD works out in 20 years from now. However hard it feels now is nothing compared to how it will feel at 45.
there's no point working, putting 33% of your income into federal/state taxes
If a single filer employee without a mortgage, any pre-tax accounts, or dependents (all of which would lower net tax owed, in most cases), earns $80k, they will owe 11.8% in Federal taxes ($9144).
8 states have no state income tax for 2024. 15 have a flat income tax, mostly clustering around 4% (Idaho is high, near 5.7%). The rest have graduated marginal rates (ranging from a couple percent to the top in CA with 13.3% - if over $1M taxable income (it's a 10.3% marginal rate at $80k).
At $40k, they'd initially owe $2816 (7%) but would be eligible for $1452 in credits, meaning only $1364 (3.41%) to Feds.
Make that income $200k (= top 14.4% of all household incomes in 2023), and Fed is $37,539 (18.7%).
At $300k (around top 5%), it's 23.4%, so at the highest state marginal rates, they're finally approaching 33%; in the flat tax states, they can earn hundreds of thousands more before hitting 33%.
At $1M (around top 1%), Fed gets to 32.2%, so if in a non-state tax state, still not 33%.
