<<"Work-life balance is a lie. Having it all is a lie.">>
Exactly! Our culture is based on so many lies, that the collective default is to ignore unpleasant realities as long as an appealing fantasy can be maintained (and keep people spending money to pursue it). Opportunity costs are real, and compromises are unavoidable. Sounds like you worked through those issues and attained a lifestyle that works in terms of what is most important for you, which is awesome. I hope this young woman is able to do the same, although she definitely will not get the answers from the culture around her (which seems designed to deceive people and get them racing frantically on a hamster wheel to pursue impossible dreams -- or bottoming out in despair and numbing their heartache with opioids and mindless high-tech palliatives once they recognize their dreams are never coming true).
Well, well. This Boomer (slacker-boomer? born in the early 60's but I really have more in common with younger siblings & Gen-X in general) not only had to commute, but wear "dress for success" suits. Dress for Success (TM) suits with shoulder pads. Really, really Big Shoulder Pads. The scarier, the better. And how to take care of those Really Really Big-shouldered Dress for Success suits? Dry cleaning. Don't forget that PantyHose was a requirement for the Dress for Success look. The stuff of nightmares, I say!
Oh, and car loans? I thought I was genius at the time to renegotiate a 14.5% car loan to a 12.5% loan. Ugh! (I was living back then in a small city with traffic jams but no mass transit, so a reliable car was required.)
Seriously though, I have some empathy. It seems that no matter how well-prepared one is, there is occasionally some nasty surprise with a new job. Talking it out helps, but perhaps avoiding TikTok while sorting things out would be good.
Definitely the standards of professionalism were higher back then, and I have mixed feelings about how those standards have gone by the wayside. There's certainly a connection between maintaining "professional attire" and maintaining a certain level of professionalism in the workplace, and the cause-and-effect loop seems to work both ways with that, similar to the way you smile because you're happy but smiling will also make you feel happier. You also see this with "business writing," which is a lost art in most workplaces today. As for posting job complaints on TikTok, I really do wonder what response this Gen Z girl's video got from her coworkers and boss. That would have been the death of your career 20 years ago (of course, there was no TikTok back then either), but today, I wouldn't be terribly surprised if getting internet famous actually helps her career. We live in clownworld now, and increasingly, it's the exact opposite of the old rules that seems to prevail.
Agree, it's a clown, clown, clown world out there.
I was reading El Gato Malo today, who had a link to his ode to a 70's childhood, and thought again about your 'stack. I think the Gen Zs' have severely missed out on this fun, leaving them defenseless against clownhood: https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/in-praise-of-lawn-darts
That post is excellent, and the points he makes are spot on. I think this insanity started sometime in the 90s. Good news where I live, most of the parents are Gen X or older Millennials who are letting their kids play outside unsupervised like the way we did growing up (I also live in a red state). Kids absolutely need the opportunity to make mistakes and learn to assess risks for themselves and resolve their own disputes, like El Gato Malo said.
Depends on the "TradWife" though. If you're talking about a traditional wife and mother in a traditional, high-trust society where people have lifelong, meaningful relationships with the people around them and where having young children doesn't come at the expense of having fellowship with your peers, then yes, I agree they do not have such problems (although no life is perfect, so they would have some other problems, but the overall quality of their lives would be much better). But if you're talking about a TikTok trad-wife who is home all day by herself (or by herself with very young children) while her peers are all "working for the man," she will most likely experience a sense of isolation and feel "lost" or depressed a lot of the time -- and it may even be worse in her case, because if she's not careful, she'll blame it on her kids or her husband and resent them for it. Our civilization is fucked, because it takes something as fundamental as child-rearing and moves it (and those who engage in it) to the margins of modern life. If you're a young mother, you either pay some stranger to "mother" your children for you while you work some BS job, or you cut yourself off from the "adult world" for a few years and raise them yourself (and this is only possible if your husband is a sufficiently high earner to cover all of your living expenses, which have been skyrocketing with Bidenflation). Our culture makes child-rearing unnecessarily difficult, so the birth rate has cratered. And our ruling class responded to that by just opening the borders and mass-importing a bunch of third-worlders with alien cultures. Just that dynamic, righgt there, speaks volumes about how sick and perverse our culture is.
Yes, and most churches are a hollowed out shell of what that institution used to mean for people. Mass-produced, gimmicky spirituality and little in the way of real community (a church "family" where you see each other once or twice a week and play a role without really being there for each other in the thick of life's challenges).
You're quite right, I may feel inordinate amount of pity for her, but definitely think you've made some excellent points Rabid Spirit Animal.
It's gotten me thinking about my own lady, who finds the 9-5 exhausting though her hope is to switch to a job after we move in together to a 8-4 so that she could be home earlier to help with kids when the time comes while I would be in charge of cooking. She's very godly and doesn't think being a house-wife would be a good idea due to the economy, but thinks if when the time comes that we do well financially, she will move to at least a part-time job position.
So I think given the situation compromises are necessary, especially if one wants a small brood of kids.
Working mothers generally bring less than ~20% income home after taxes, childcare costs, transportation, clothing, and eating out costs. Even a mother who works remotely is still working for a boss usually and needs to ask someone else to help with childcare.
A big problem is that America's main export is its currency. And because our bankster overlords can just print as much of that currency as they want, and because all goods and services, essentially, have to be converted into that currency in order to be traded, these parasitic banksters take a huge cut off the top, making everything so much more expensive than it otherwise would be. (Then add in all the legal issues and tax issues to boost the prices even more.) The most profitable enterprises are those that are closest to the "currency creation" scheme, meaning the financial sector and government (and the "nonprofits" lining up for government grants), none of which produce anything. Unfortunately, we can change very little about how expensive the basics in life (like having a family) are -- and how many people are required to work in BS jobs -- until the parasite is removed.
For US exports, yes currency. But also MIC (military industrial complex) products. And bad political planning, but that actually is a corollary to MIC.
I'm still plotting out what to write in a substack about a career as a defense engineer. One favorite topic I'm mulling is the irony of "systems engineering" which is critical to product development but is also filled with loads of BS jobs - small wonder it is the preferred source for corporations of managers. And some of us non-managerial types are left with what feels like completely non-marketable skills during the occasional layoff jamboree.
One potential solution is to bring back high school vocational training. And to bring back high school level business classes. Running one's own business is tough, but a lot more "normie" people are significantly better suited to that life than attempting to be "software bros" or IT in corporate world. We did not evolve via staring at computer screens, although smartphones may change that. We evolved with bartering, which sadly appears to be a lost skill.
<<"She (and everyone else in this predicament) doesn’t know who she is, what her core of Being is. None of us do. Even religious people are largely bereft of anything resembling spiritual continence. I went to Catholic school and practiced the religion for over 30 years and never had a spiritual experience once. Never. I’ve had plenty since then. Does religion need revival, revision, or revolution?">>
That's it, right there! That's the real issue underlying all this!
<<"Work-life balance is a lie. Having it all is a lie.">>
Exactly! Our culture is based on so many lies, that the collective default is to ignore unpleasant realities as long as an appealing fantasy can be maintained (and keep people spending money to pursue it). Opportunity costs are real, and compromises are unavoidable. Sounds like you worked through those issues and attained a lifestyle that works in terms of what is most important for you, which is awesome. I hope this young woman is able to do the same, although she definitely will not get the answers from the culture around her (which seems designed to deceive people and get them racing frantically on a hamster wheel to pursue impossible dreams -- or bottoming out in despair and numbing their heartache with opioids and mindless high-tech palliatives once they recognize their dreams are never coming true).
I am glad you added a note about the song Nine to Five. It is definitely not pro-wagie song.
Thank you for always being so supportive!!!
You're sharing an important message! I'm happy to help get the word out!
Well, well. This Boomer (slacker-boomer? born in the early 60's but I really have more in common with younger siblings & Gen-X in general) not only had to commute, but wear "dress for success" suits. Dress for Success (TM) suits with shoulder pads. Really, really Big Shoulder Pads. The scarier, the better. And how to take care of those Really Really Big-shouldered Dress for Success suits? Dry cleaning. Don't forget that PantyHose was a requirement for the Dress for Success look. The stuff of nightmares, I say!
Oh, and car loans? I thought I was genius at the time to renegotiate a 14.5% car loan to a 12.5% loan. Ugh! (I was living back then in a small city with traffic jams but no mass transit, so a reliable car was required.)
Seriously though, I have some empathy. It seems that no matter how well-prepared one is, there is occasionally some nasty surprise with a new job. Talking it out helps, but perhaps avoiding TikTok while sorting things out would be good.
Definitely the standards of professionalism were higher back then, and I have mixed feelings about how those standards have gone by the wayside. There's certainly a connection between maintaining "professional attire" and maintaining a certain level of professionalism in the workplace, and the cause-and-effect loop seems to work both ways with that, similar to the way you smile because you're happy but smiling will also make you feel happier. You also see this with "business writing," which is a lost art in most workplaces today. As for posting job complaints on TikTok, I really do wonder what response this Gen Z girl's video got from her coworkers and boss. That would have been the death of your career 20 years ago (of course, there was no TikTok back then either), but today, I wouldn't be terribly surprised if getting internet famous actually helps her career. We live in clownworld now, and increasingly, it's the exact opposite of the old rules that seems to prevail.
Agree, it's a clown, clown, clown world out there.
I was reading El Gato Malo today, who had a link to his ode to a 70's childhood, and thought again about your 'stack. I think the Gen Zs' have severely missed out on this fun, leaving them defenseless against clownhood: https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/in-praise-of-lawn-darts
That post is excellent, and the points he makes are spot on. I think this insanity started sometime in the 90s. Good news where I live, most of the parents are Gen X or older Millennials who are letting their kids play outside unsupervised like the way we did growing up (I also live in a red state). Kids absolutely need the opportunity to make mistakes and learn to assess risks for themselves and resolve their own disputes, like El Gato Malo said.
You go girl! Go to hell.
TradWives do not have such problems.
Depends on the "TradWife" though. If you're talking about a traditional wife and mother in a traditional, high-trust society where people have lifelong, meaningful relationships with the people around them and where having young children doesn't come at the expense of having fellowship with your peers, then yes, I agree they do not have such problems (although no life is perfect, so they would have some other problems, but the overall quality of their lives would be much better). But if you're talking about a TikTok trad-wife who is home all day by herself (or by herself with very young children) while her peers are all "working for the man," she will most likely experience a sense of isolation and feel "lost" or depressed a lot of the time -- and it may even be worse in her case, because if she's not careful, she'll blame it on her kids or her husband and resent them for it. Our civilization is fucked, because it takes something as fundamental as child-rearing and moves it (and those who engage in it) to the margins of modern life. If you're a young mother, you either pay some stranger to "mother" your children for you while you work some BS job, or you cut yourself off from the "adult world" for a few years and raise them yourself (and this is only possible if your husband is a sufficiently high earner to cover all of your living expenses, which have been skyrocketing with Bidenflation). Our culture makes child-rearing unnecessarily difficult, so the birth rate has cratered. And our ruling class responded to that by just opening the borders and mass-importing a bunch of third-worlders with alien cultures. Just that dynamic, righgt there, speaks volumes about how sick and perverse our culture is.
Yes, and most churches are a hollowed out shell of what that institution used to mean for people. Mass-produced, gimmicky spirituality and little in the way of real community (a church "family" where you see each other once or twice a week and play a role without really being there for each other in the thick of life's challenges).
You're quite right, I may feel inordinate amount of pity for her, but definitely think you've made some excellent points Rabid Spirit Animal.
It's gotten me thinking about my own lady, who finds the 9-5 exhausting though her hope is to switch to a job after we move in together to a 8-4 so that she could be home earlier to help with kids when the time comes while I would be in charge of cooking. She's very godly and doesn't think being a house-wife would be a good idea due to the economy, but thinks if when the time comes that we do well financially, she will move to at least a part-time job position.
So I think given the situation compromises are necessary, especially if one wants a small brood of kids.
Working mothers generally bring less than ~20% income home after taxes, childcare costs, transportation, clothing, and eating out costs. Even a mother who works remotely is still working for a boss usually and needs to ask someone else to help with childcare.
A big problem is that America's main export is its currency. And because our bankster overlords can just print as much of that currency as they want, and because all goods and services, essentially, have to be converted into that currency in order to be traded, these parasitic banksters take a huge cut off the top, making everything so much more expensive than it otherwise would be. (Then add in all the legal issues and tax issues to boost the prices even more.) The most profitable enterprises are those that are closest to the "currency creation" scheme, meaning the financial sector and government (and the "nonprofits" lining up for government grants), none of which produce anything. Unfortunately, we can change very little about how expensive the basics in life (like having a family) are -- and how many people are required to work in BS jobs -- until the parasite is removed.
For US exports, yes currency. But also MIC (military industrial complex) products. And bad political planning, but that actually is a corollary to MIC.
I'm still plotting out what to write in a substack about a career as a defense engineer. One favorite topic I'm mulling is the irony of "systems engineering" which is critical to product development but is also filled with loads of BS jobs - small wonder it is the preferred source for corporations of managers. And some of us non-managerial types are left with what feels like completely non-marketable skills during the occasional layoff jamboree.
One potential solution is to bring back high school vocational training. And to bring back high school level business classes. Running one's own business is tough, but a lot more "normie" people are significantly better suited to that life than attempting to be "software bros" or IT in corporate world. We did not evolve via staring at computer screens, although smartphones may change that. We evolved with bartering, which sadly appears to be a lost skill.
<<"She (and everyone else in this predicament) doesn’t know who she is, what her core of Being is. None of us do. Even religious people are largely bereft of anything resembling spiritual continence. I went to Catholic school and practiced the religion for over 30 years and never had a spiritual experience once. Never. I’ve had plenty since then. Does religion need revival, revision, or revolution?">>
That's it, right there! That's the real issue underlying all this!
God has hidden himself from Western culture because it spat in His face.