Wealth isn’t built by how much you earn. It’s built by how much you invest.
I used to think people stay broke they didn’t earn enough. the more I paid attention the more I realize that’s not always true.
We’ve normalized paying taxes on money the moment you earn it, then taxing it again when you spend it, then taxing what’s left when you die but if you’re late by even a week, they called it a crime and add interest, penalties and sometimes take the whole asset to cover a debt worth a fraction of it. The system doesn’t call it theft when it does it. It calls it “Compliance.”
In 1965, the average CEO made 20x what their typical worker made. today it’s over 300x.
Worker productivity has gone up nearly 80% since 1979.
Worker pay has gone up about 17% in that same time.
That’s not an accident. That’s not the market. That’s 40 years of policy choices on unions, on taxes on trade, on wages made by people who benefited from making them.
They didn’t get 15x more productive.
They just made sure the gains stopped flowing downward.
Geraldine Tyler was 94 years old.
She’d bought her one bedroom Minneapolis condo in 1999 and live there for over a decade. When it got unsafe for her to live alone, her family moved her into a senior community in 2010.
In the shuffle, nobody paid the property taxes on the empty condo. By 2015, the debt taxes, interest, penalties stacked on top to about $15,000
Hennepin county seized her condo. Sold it for $40,000.
Then kept all of it.
Not the $15k she owed the full $40k . Her $25,000 in home equity, just gone. Minnesota law said she had no right to ask for it back.
She fought it all the way to the Supreme Court. in 2023 all 9 justice ruled in her favor.
Between 2014-2020 over 1,200 Minnesota lost thier homes this way, loosing 100% of their equity over debts averaging 8% of the home’s value.
That’s not Tax collection. That’s government deciding a debt of a few thousand dollars entitles it to everything you own.
27 with a Master’s degree, full time job, no kids, no House, and I still have to check my bank account twice before buying groceries
Meanwhile my Dad bought his first house at 24. Factory job, no degree, wife and a baby on the way.
Rent alone eats 52% of my paycheck. The “safe” number is supposed to be 30% I googled it hoping I was wrong, I wasn’t.
We were told: get good grades, get a degree, get a job, and you’ll be fine. Nobody mentioned that “fine” would cost 3x what it cost our parents, on wages that barely move.
No kids, no medical debt, no car payments, and still one bad month away from asking the parents for help at this age.
the system has changed entirely, inflation is eating things up.
How can a freaking court block Trump renovating the ballroom at the White House??? It’s his home. If I was him, I’d tell the court to go whistle & I’d finish it!! WTF??? I’m so sick of all this petty BS!!!
My uber from the airport was $180. when the driver got here I asked him how much they were paying him, he said $75. I said man cancel the ride I’ll give you $80, & did.
Keeping more than 50% of the drivers pay should be illegal!
My nephew clocks in at a distribution center outside Columbus
Ohio minimum is $10.70. He makes $16. 40 hrs/week =640/week, roughly $2,770/month before anything’s taken out.
After federal tax and FICA, he brings home about $2,260.
His studio apartment (nothing fancy, 15 min from work) is $1,050/month.
Car payment + insurance: $410.
That’s already 65% of his paycheck gone before he’s bought a single grocery
What’s left about $800 for
• food
• gas
• phone
• student loan minimum
• any emergency at all
He works 5 days a week full time, no gaps in his resume, and he’s one blown tire away from missing rent.
This isn’t a “get a better job” problem. He has a job. It’s just that a full time paycheck stopped paying being enough to live on a long time ago.
And most people don’t see to this until it’s their own kid.
My dad gave one company 34 years
They gave him a cardboard box and two weeks severance.
A job pays you while you show up. Ownership pays you while you sleep.
Employment isn’t security. It’s risk with a delay on it.
Own something. Even something small.