It's fashionable these days to elicit a false Hobson's Choice when discussing the matter of free markets and employment. The doctrine of democratic socialism dictates that no free person can willingly, voluntarily submit to working for another person.
Employment, as they claim, is a thinly veiled threat against the working individual. You either agree to work for the man or you will simply perish. Work or starve to death. Since you were given no salient option, you must "agree" to be under the authoritarian rule of bosses and landlords.
Of course this scene is patently false.
While you must, out of a default condition of objective reality, secure the means of survival (ie food, water, shelter) in order to live, you do not have to work for another person.
There are a myriad of concrete, real-world solutions and strategies to eschew the corporate rat race. Many people have turned their hobbies and interests such as writing, jewelry, dogs, fashion, sexuality, etc into successful enterprises.
The claim that you have to be under latch and key from some rich asshole becomes more and more obsolete as entrepreneurs, influencers, indie hackers, diy service businesses, misfit economists, and side hustlers prove that the status quo can be threatened and destroyed.
There is creativity and innovation virtually untapped that waits to be unleashed.
If you believe that there are only two choices to select from, either working a miserable, laborious dead-end job or meeting your untimely demise, then you're already marooned on a desolate island of hopelessness.
You will not tap into this wellspring of change with the defeatist attitude that comes along with Democratic Socialism.
Below are 9 vitally important steps to staying poor in America and allowing the corporate and political class to remain unchecked and unchallenged.
1. Always Blame Others For Your Problems
An integral part of remaining poor in America requires full participation in the habit of blaming others for your problems. Refusing to accept responsibility for your own happiness, awareness, and success, you will surely become (or stay) a miserable, ignorant failure.
To correct this scourge, simply realign your thinking. Accept that there are things outside of your control. Some people were born into luxury, most weren't. Some people have a lot of help, some don't. It doesn't matter. With the right mindset, you can overcome all adversity.
You can't change your past but you can indeed change your future. It all starts in the present with accepting that you are the champion of your own destiny. It is not fate, not history, not chance coincidence, not the rigged system, not the rich man, or even politicians - You are.
2. Never Invest Your Money
A great habit to keep you poor is to never buy assets, always buy things you want right away. Spend every extra penny you get like there's no tomorrow. Drive yourself into unspeakable debt. It's not your fault that you're in this situation, right? You didn't ask to be born!
The refusal to invest money will always keep you broke. To fix this immediately, start thinking about what to invest in. Prior to taking action, get a plan together. You can invest into small, medium, or large projects. Cryptocurrency, realestate, art, kickstarters, online entrepreneurs, technology, stocks, media, energy, commodities, etc.
The ultimate way to make money is to have your assets paying you at all time. This is known as passive income, and there are several more ways to expand your cash flow so that you can re-invest, such as a side hustle.
3. Never Start a Side Hustle
A solid way to keep being broke in America is stay at a job. While employment does have a low-risk entry point, it can be risky in the long term if that is your only source of income. People who worked at the same job for 10, 20, 30 years or more may believe that they have job security, but there isn't such a thing. Company's close, people get laid off, bad economic times happen.
A smart way to remedy this is to get multiple streams of income. One great way to add another line of income is to start a small business while you're working for someone else. Some people have even quit their jobs to work full time on their smaller projects. If you plan on having a career, that's great, but also make sure that you're investing and starting a side business. (Just make sure you're not violating any contracts with your employers)
4. Never Read Business Books
There's a lot of entertaining books out there. They can entice the mind and take you to a world never known before. It's awesome to be swept away in the resplendence of fantasy and fiction. In the objective world, however, you're still poor. This is because you're not reading enough business books. Learning is power, knowledge is the fulcrum upon which that power revolves. The more you know about the business world, the better equip you are to make intelligent decisions and smart adjustments.
Always do what you love, don't give up your fantasy novels. Just add a few business books and your financial literacy will improve vastly.
5. Never Explore Your Passions in Life
Most people's hobbies will never pay them. Some people's hobbies make them vastly wealthy. The less you explore about yourself, the less odds you will discover some remarkable talent that could elevate you to the next level in life.
If you wish to continue to be a bum, accept that who you are right now is all that there will ever be. Your level of skills, your desires, your passions in life, are all at their apex and will never expand. Being joyless and exhibiting a total lack of adventure will bring about certain mediocrity.
If you wish to be successful, however, you will keep unraveling the layers of your entire existence until you find something that you love to do that consequently can bring you great fortune just simply as a side affect of wanting to keep doing it.
6. Always Do What Is Easy
An extension of number 5, number 6 will help to ensure your financial dearth. Those who refuse to accept challenges, take risks, and fail many times will never succeed in the end. As I said in What it Takes To Be a Successful Entrepreneur, you must get your ass kicked if you want to learn how to win. The beatings are imperative. The more comfortable you are in life, the more stagnant your evolution will be.
As it's said, let not the dreamer be corrupted by reality. Indeed, it is true. Taking risks worth the trouble, finding new ways to challenge yourself, and being resilient to the inevitable ass-kickings will bore a path of great success.
7. Wait for Someone Else To Fix Your Life
Don't worry, your boss is really close to realizing how valuable you are in the work place and they're nodding in agreement right now about how they're going to triple your salary. If you've ever anticipated that your life's worries could be mitigated by a promotion or an increase in salary, you've set yourself up for failure.
Politicians, bosses, landlords, they're not going to just give you what you want. You're not going to win the lottery, you're not going to inherit a billion dollars, and you're not going to find a limitless fortune hidden in an underwater cave like Edmond Dantes in The Count of Monte Cristo.
If you wait for some miracle, it's never going to happen. You have to go out and make things happen on your own.
8. Never Build A Successful Lifestyle
If you'd like to retain your status as a plebian in America, you'll shut your mind off to the possibility of changing your entire lifestyle to prompt your success.
The movies all show rich people sitting around doing nothing, but that's precisely what most of the poor do when they're not being commanded to move. Rich people don't actually do that.
Watching tv all day, drinking beer all night, waking up 30 minutes before work with a hangover rushing around cramming down junk food for breakfast before you fly out the door will definitely keep your cash flow as dry as your dwindling sex life.
What can be done to save you from yourself? Build a routine. Start waking up early. Read, exercise, lift weights, eat healthy food, learn skills, invest, get better friends, take it easy on the booze, play sports, learn how to play chess, meditate, stay off of facebook, etc.
Whatever you choose, just know that a disciplined life will always yield better results than a sloppy, degenerate life. You will have way more fun in the end when your dedication and scrupulous attention pays off.
9. Keep Thinking The System Is Rigged Against You
Maybe the system is rigged against you, maybe it isn't. What is true, however, is that you can win either way. Deciding that you cannot win and concluding that it's not worth the hassle is a legendary way to lose right from the start.
How do you win a rigged game?
The reality is that even if the powerful are trying to rig the system against you (which they probably are), just know that you can still win. That's the first part, knowing that you will not lose.
You do not have to be immoral or have questionable business practices. You do not have to "become them" to win.
You can be yourself and do things ethically, and they cannot stop the progress that comes from many people replicating these tactics. Take matters into your own hands. Even if you're all alone, they won't be able to stop you if you keep fighting back.
In short, if you want to be a failure, believe the rhetoric of the democratic socialist.
Accepting their logic that there are no other alternatives except centralized government control is both fanciful and deleterious to progress.
In Conclusion
These are 9 fantastic tips to staying poor in America. You can take them or leave them. It's up to you. Millions of people will accept the mundane and still live basically decent lives. Be aware of the fact that whether you live a grand or modest life, it is your choice, not somebody else's. You can do whatever you want.
If you enjoyed this thought-provoking series of tips, check out What is Extreme Ownership?
