My aunty down in Mississippi has this 2022 Lexus RX 350 F SPORT that Nigerians consider as luxury. She bought the vehicle on loan.
She lives paycheck to paycheck, & works for a Retail Store as a branch manager. She has a mortgage & three credit card payments, plus a $6000 medical bill. You know what she does?
She uses the so-called Nigerian luxury vehicle for Amazon deliveries on her off days. The math is simple. She gets to pay down her loans each time she gets her quarterly bonus check.
You get bonus checks when you made your budget. She keeps around $1800 when all her bills come out of her regularly checks.
Nigerians donโt have a sense of anything. Your job is to survive, living is a luxury only a few can afford. And itโs because you have zero social safety net. All subsidies are long gone.
Everything in Nigeria is paid out of pocket. Survival is your only priority. Hustle today, hustle tomorrow; it changes nothing!
So people come online for a Thanksgiving each time they purchased what they call the big boys vehicle. Itโs almost a party, a celebration of life sort of. Like a Rite of Passage into the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, & admission is exclusive. Itโs an achievement nonetheless.
But itโs a car I could grab on loan tomorrow (if I choose to). I get to pay $395 a month. Nigeria must build an Economy that works for all, an egalitarian society; not an economy based on tribe, religion & whimsical considerations.
Poverty in the abroad and poverty in Nigeria are very different.
Most think driving a good car or wearing fancy clothes abroad is an indicator of living well.
Itโs the basics. Itโs because there is a working society, good credit system and social safety nets that help mask that poverty.
But if you check their income range, debt, how they use assistance programs etc you get an idea of their actual worth.
This is what makes โjapaโ attractive. You can be struggling but still live a decent life compared to Nigeria.
@elonmusk A thermostat for the Earth.. hmm, thought-provoking.
But the geo-political alignment required for this makes it almost impossible. Who regulates it across Earth hemisphere (and diverse terrains/seasons)?
It's a much better thought than @BillGates's proposal to kill us all ๐
1.5 billion young people sitting on top of all of the resources that will define tomorrow, and most of the ones that define today, yet fervently believing that they do not matter and their salvation only comes from being rescued by people whose land freezes solid for 6 months every year...
<doesnotcompute>
I've seen a rich man beg
I've seen a good man sin
I've seen hard men cry
I've seen a loser win.
I've seen a sad person laugh
Heard honest men lie.
I've seen the good side of bad
Seen the downside of Up
And EVERYTHING in-between.
If you know you know
Keep going, however slow...
You can cry, but not too loud.
You can fail, but not too often.
You can dream, but if youโre still broke?
Youโre just another delusional nobody.
So...
Work like no one's coming.
Because no one FUCKING IS.
As a man, your worth is invisible until you produce results
Nobody gives a damn about your potential.
Nobody claps for your struggle.
Nobody cares that youโre tired, broken, or healing.
Youโre loved conditionally.
Youโre respected transactionally.
Youโre valued only when useful
FTX Liquidation process just released funds back to ftx users today. I hope y'all got back some change atleast. @asemota
Minor relief from that whole fucking fiasco. I hope Sam rots in jail. ๐