All correct until you get down to the advice. I'm sorry, but most people are just ordinary, everyday slobs and can't possibly come up with some kind of intellectual property enough people will want to keep them afloat. It's ridiculous to assume everyone can be J. K. Rowling, and the reason I know that is I've spent almost my entire 57 years trying to write and watching a whole lot of people fail. We can't; and that's evidenced by the sheer millions of failed books, unpopular Medium accounts, and Substacks that aren't making any money. Everyone can't be SO blindingly creative and innovative that the world will beat a path to their door. Trying to do it that way is a dead end for 99.99999999999999% of the population.
People are better served being advised how to live together bartering in communes than they are being told they have to find a way to be special enough for the world to beat a path to their door. It's just plain bad advice. We're just ordinary people and that kind of creativity lives in almost no one. That's why J. K. Rowling is richer than the British crown and the rest of us are still at the day job realizing we'll never retire. We ALL need to get out of this silly American mindset that fabulous, runaway success is achievable and will save us.
Totally agree with this comment… the piece was great until it seemingly became one of those YouTube videos pushing hustle culture by creating passive income streams. None of that seems like any kind of sustainable concept for most people. But an even bigger indictment is that it seems much less about getting off the playing board, and more like convincing you to self promote your pawn by becoming an influencer with automated income streams that can’t be ignored… basically learning how to play the new game.
Which is a shame, because the rest of this essay was very compelling.
I totally agree with your take here and had a similar reaction until I thought about it a bit more… trying to find parallels between the author’s advice and my own life- I’m no creative and I have no hope of ever “creating assets” in the form of writing or code or anything. However, after years of being a W2 employee at a publicly owned company and feeling the instability in what was supposed to be the most stable sort of career, I took my skillset and went independent as a consultant/contractor and started my tiny company of 1, and now I can do literally any sort of white collar office work for any client at any time (as long as I’m good enough in the business development space to land clients). If one client goes through downsizing, I can ramp up with others. I couldn’t do that in my W2 role- when my company “downsized for efficiency and future growth,” (and luckily I was spared but the writing was on the wall), they could have torn the rug out from underneath me and left me to flounder and beg for my next role. I think that’s what he’s trying to say, but he gave narrow examples that only speak to the creative types. Am I thinking about this the right way?
JK Rowling was also lucky to offer the right rather mediocre book to the public in exactly the right moment. Things could have gone very differently even a small handful of years before her book hit the stands, or after.
Completely agree. The article starts off criticising hustle culture - then sharply transitions into a "how-to hustle" piece. It's not even new or unique advice. It's a huge let down to an otherwise relatively interesting read...
I’m glad to read this comment. I loved the beginning too and felt a huge sense of being seen as I’ve been thinking a lot about the system’s rules being broken - not me. But in his point about leveraging, I couldn’t help but think that for it to work and money to be made, I’d have to see other humans as my product... exactly the thing he was just stating is part of the problem. We can’t all do these type of jobs.. we can’t all buy and sell courses. We can’t all ‘win’ using this method: this advice/method is still for the 1%. We still need food, public services, utilities, leaders, teachers. What about the 99%? Because I can’t eat an online course and I don’t shit books. What do the people who need to be in employment do because their jobs HAVE to exist? I’m tired of advice that forces me to sell a service that isn’t essential, to people who’s lives are already very good but can spend thousands on a service to make it marginally better, when there are people who can’t afford to feed their children who live 2 roads from me. This article was there in terms of articulating the problem, but missed the mark practically.
Agree, the advice is this piece is trite and regurgitated. The "just create a course and monetize your experience" advice feels like a pyramid scheme. Fine for the few folks who can get rich selling courses on how to get rich selling courses, not so viable for the rest.
Great post. Hard hitting and accurate. What you didn’t do was address the question of whether it can be fixed. Bernie and AOC are speaking out about the root causes now. You addressed the problem and some of the abuses, such as Black Rock and other private equity pirates. Your tips on resiliency were excellent too.
Maybe I’m naive, but I believe this mess can be fixed. It won’t be easy but it can be done. We need to get corporate money out of politics. Trump’s orgy with the oligarchs may just be the catalyst we need. Musk, the poster boy for greed and corruption, has an approval rating less than 30%. His company is failing. The protests and boycotts show that the oligarchs can be defeated. If we can stick with it we can beat them.
You are naïve. It cannot be fixed. The US economy that existed 40 years ago can never be resurrected. Not even close. You clearly haven’t understood the author’s central thesis—everything has changed and it isn’t coming back. The US as a federal entity will rapidly break down. Irreversibly.
I fully understand the author’s thesis. As I said, I agree with his assessment of where we are today. Furthermore I understand how we got where we are. But as a country we have been here before during the gilded age We fought our way out before and we can do it again.
I never suggested that things would go back to the way things were. But we can easily have a more just society where the oligarchs and ultra wealthy do not control every facet of our lives. Where the rich pay their fair share of taxes. Where we have a healthcare system that works for everyone. Where education doesn’t require you to permanently mortgage your future.
I refuse to believe that we are permanently stuck with a feudal system where everyone is on their own. I don’t believe that the author believes that either. His advice is good and there is no harm in following it. It may even be necessary wile we are dealing with the current regime. But I will not abandon the fight and I will not accept that our country cannot be changed for the good.
“as a country we have been here before during the gilded age”
No. This analogy is laughable. The US as an empire and as a nation-state is finished. One more ill-considered war will push it over the cliff. You won’t be permanently stuck with feudalism or anything else. The US will devolve into a motley band of states whose economic and social future will be grim after the disappearance of its exorbitant privilege—the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.
Not naive, hopeful. Maybe not “fixed” or restored but we can build back better. What was before had stability and was predictable, somewhat, but the system was rigged by misogyny and racism. The Industrial Revolution made workers indentured servants, even management had to succumb to their Masters.
So while I see the country as we know it unravelling, I also see the seeds of a new future. The current extractionist system is unsustainable and it is inevitable that it will fail.
However, I can’t help but think that the country we knew will not survive the current onslaught. There will be widespread death as a result of 47s policies - more foodborne disease, no support for the current COVID crisis and the next pandemic, skyrocketing healthcare costs and loss of research, and on and on….
Something will rise after it, and I can place hope in the idea that more people are opening their eyes so that what comes next is a positive change, a new society in which we have learned some hard lessons about the power of community, the evil of greed, and the need for farsightedness.
I am a small farmer. The new system you are describing is apostate to the growing of food. I largely agree with you article and came to similar conclusion a few years ago. It's important for people to hear that this new system won't feed them. Food production, especially sustainable food production, requires incredible amounts of stability and deep knowledge of soil and climate.
I do appreciate your clarity on the all-encompassing nature of The Game which we are all taught to play. The frustration and sense of powerlessness is real when the playing board is tilted.
I'm still pondering whether your idea of being a Sovereign Citizen isn't a step too far. It sounds like a mean world where the most powerful are in control.
Somewhere, somehow there is a New Game (cue the melody There's a Place For Us from West Side Story) for us, which you have begun to outline.
We need to create forms of governance that works for fairly large groups of people, we need to create technology that doesn't squeeze us like playdough, and we need to be able to build community where we have power to live cooperatively with others, in the real world more than through screens.
Maybe that's the intellectual product that is yet to be invented? Maybe that's where the future will take us?
Just read this . You for the first time. I liked and shared it as I’ve been telling my kids this so long now . In their early twenties, one replaces windshields, the other not working now but there is a reason ( personal) . Both have been to the first part of becoming electricians. They need to find apprenticeships first . Nothing highly intelligent, hard workers.
Thank you. I really appreciate this piece. It’s helped me to realize that in my attempts to navigate the system and my feelings of failure to do so, I’m not only alone but I’m part of what the system was meant to do, keep us barely afloat so we aren’t able to exit. For months I’ve been feeling as if I’m losing not just the game but also my mind. What I’ve come to realize is that I’ve not been dealing with insanity but instead have been given the gift of clarity. This is very validating.
This seemed good but being just a regular person... having the "solution" be created intellectual property, buy gold or land, etc etc ..ugghhh ...the problem is I have nothing extra...so now what...
One tiny note — Mangione is the most successful *ALLEGED* felon to capture national sympathy since Bonnie and Clyde. Contrary to what many people, including AG Pam Bondi, imply when they talk about him, he hasn’t actually been convicted of anything yet. I think that it’s important to refrain from saying he’s a murderer before he’s had his day in court because “innocent until proven guilty” is both such a key aspect of our justice system and also something that the current administration is trying to erode.
It is sad, but to actually achieve the American dream, I had to leave the US. I'm now in a nation where healthcare is free at point of delivery, my maternity leave was paid, I could get a viable mortgage, and my exposure to the US market is limited. Yes, I'll still take a bath when I go to get out my ancient 401K, but for me it's all found money at this point from the US. I am lucky.
But it is time to stop letting the oligarchs spend money on penis rockets and then chide us if we get upset when they take our jobs and financial aspirations away from us. As somebody said to me yesterday, why is there the space race to another planet? Why not work on the one we have here, and make this one liveable for everyone? I cannot argue with that.
However, this American regime has nobody in it that can actually manage to govern for the people and the planet, instead of for themselves. Shocking.
Great blog Mr Finnegan. So much good reading. Thank you.
Thank you for this post. I’m an RN and know very little about economics beyond save a lot and spend a little. My credo is it doesn’t depend on what comes in but what goes out financially.
Clear, logical, and doable steps are a gift to me. To all of us.
I'm also an Aussie. That's a pretty bleak assessment (and prediction), but unfortunately, I have no basis to disagree. And yes, vested interests are always going to howl when their gravy train is threatened.
However, I think a critical point regarding the American health care system can be made. On a per capita basis, it does indeed represent around double the cost of other advanced nations (such as Australia), while still comprehensively failing to deliver comparable health care outcomes. Americans pay much, much more for health care, but receive much, much less for their money.
Nationalising the US healthcare system and implementing a notionally 'free' health insurance system at point of delivery would deliver vastly improved health care outcomes for most Americans AND ALSO free up a massive amount of disposable income (even allowing for continued co-contributions). Not least because the frankly massive bureaucracy that exists to support the American user-pays model could be trimmed back to just the usual 'fat' bureaucracy that other nations run with. Never happen though. Those vested interests again.
All correct until you get down to the advice. I'm sorry, but most people are just ordinary, everyday slobs and can't possibly come up with some kind of intellectual property enough people will want to keep them afloat. It's ridiculous to assume everyone can be J. K. Rowling, and the reason I know that is I've spent almost my entire 57 years trying to write and watching a whole lot of people fail. We can't; and that's evidenced by the sheer millions of failed books, unpopular Medium accounts, and Substacks that aren't making any money. Everyone can't be SO blindingly creative and innovative that the world will beat a path to their door. Trying to do it that way is a dead end for 99.99999999999999% of the population.
People are better served being advised how to live together bartering in communes than they are being told they have to find a way to be special enough for the world to beat a path to their door. It's just plain bad advice. We're just ordinary people and that kind of creativity lives in almost no one. That's why J. K. Rowling is richer than the British crown and the rest of us are still at the day job realizing we'll never retire. We ALL need to get out of this silly American mindset that fabulous, runaway success is achievable and will save us.
Otherwise, great piece ...
Totally agree with this comment… the piece was great until it seemingly became one of those YouTube videos pushing hustle culture by creating passive income streams. None of that seems like any kind of sustainable concept for most people. But an even bigger indictment is that it seems much less about getting off the playing board, and more like convincing you to self promote your pawn by becoming an influencer with automated income streams that can’t be ignored… basically learning how to play the new game.
Which is a shame, because the rest of this essay was very compelling.
I totally agree with your take here and had a similar reaction until I thought about it a bit more… trying to find parallels between the author’s advice and my own life- I’m no creative and I have no hope of ever “creating assets” in the form of writing or code or anything. However, after years of being a W2 employee at a publicly owned company and feeling the instability in what was supposed to be the most stable sort of career, I took my skillset and went independent as a consultant/contractor and started my tiny company of 1, and now I can do literally any sort of white collar office work for any client at any time (as long as I’m good enough in the business development space to land clients). If one client goes through downsizing, I can ramp up with others. I couldn’t do that in my W2 role- when my company “downsized for efficiency and future growth,” (and luckily I was spared but the writing was on the wall), they could have torn the rug out from underneath me and left me to flounder and beg for my next role. I think that’s what he’s trying to say, but he gave narrow examples that only speak to the creative types. Am I thinking about this the right way?
JK Rowling was also lucky to offer the right rather mediocre book to the public in exactly the right moment. Things could have gone very differently even a small handful of years before her book hit the stands, or after.
Completely agree. The article starts off criticising hustle culture - then sharply transitions into a "how-to hustle" piece. It's not even new or unique advice. It's a huge let down to an otherwise relatively interesting read...
I’m glad to read this comment. I loved the beginning too and felt a huge sense of being seen as I’ve been thinking a lot about the system’s rules being broken - not me. But in his point about leveraging, I couldn’t help but think that for it to work and money to be made, I’d have to see other humans as my product... exactly the thing he was just stating is part of the problem. We can’t all do these type of jobs.. we can’t all buy and sell courses. We can’t all ‘win’ using this method: this advice/method is still for the 1%. We still need food, public services, utilities, leaders, teachers. What about the 99%? Because I can’t eat an online course and I don’t shit books. What do the people who need to be in employment do because their jobs HAVE to exist? I’m tired of advice that forces me to sell a service that isn’t essential, to people who’s lives are already very good but can spend thousands on a service to make it marginally better, when there are people who can’t afford to feed their children who live 2 roads from me. This article was there in terms of articulating the problem, but missed the mark practically.
Agree, the advice is this piece is trite and regurgitated. The "just create a course and monetize your experience" advice feels like a pyramid scheme. Fine for the few folks who can get rich selling courses on how to get rich selling courses, not so viable for the rest.
Great post. Hard hitting and accurate. What you didn’t do was address the question of whether it can be fixed. Bernie and AOC are speaking out about the root causes now. You addressed the problem and some of the abuses, such as Black Rock and other private equity pirates. Your tips on resiliency were excellent too.
Maybe I’m naive, but I believe this mess can be fixed. It won’t be easy but it can be done. We need to get corporate money out of politics. Trump’s orgy with the oligarchs may just be the catalyst we need. Musk, the poster boy for greed and corruption, has an approval rating less than 30%. His company is failing. The protests and boycotts show that the oligarchs can be defeated. If we can stick with it we can beat them.
Without being a total prick, I hope that musk/ Tesla fails miserably.
You are naïve. It cannot be fixed. The US economy that existed 40 years ago can never be resurrected. Not even close. You clearly haven’t understood the author’s central thesis—everything has changed and it isn’t coming back. The US as a federal entity will rapidly break down. Irreversibly.
I fully understand the author’s thesis. As I said, I agree with his assessment of where we are today. Furthermore I understand how we got where we are. But as a country we have been here before during the gilded age We fought our way out before and we can do it again.
I never suggested that things would go back to the way things were. But we can easily have a more just society where the oligarchs and ultra wealthy do not control every facet of our lives. Where the rich pay their fair share of taxes. Where we have a healthcare system that works for everyone. Where education doesn’t require you to permanently mortgage your future.
I refuse to believe that we are permanently stuck with a feudal system where everyone is on their own. I don’t believe that the author believes that either. His advice is good and there is no harm in following it. It may even be necessary wile we are dealing with the current regime. But I will not abandon the fight and I will not accept that our country cannot be changed for the good.
“as a country we have been here before during the gilded age”
No. This analogy is laughable. The US as an empire and as a nation-state is finished. One more ill-considered war will push it over the cliff. You won’t be permanently stuck with feudalism or anything else. The US will devolve into a motley band of states whose economic and social future will be grim after the disappearance of its exorbitant privilege—the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.
Empire, war, exorbitant privilege. These things will necessarily end. We've been pillaged from within, as empires before us have been.
Not naive, hopeful. Maybe not “fixed” or restored but we can build back better. What was before had stability and was predictable, somewhat, but the system was rigged by misogyny and racism. The Industrial Revolution made workers indentured servants, even management had to succumb to their Masters.
The only thing constant is change.
So while I see the country as we know it unravelling, I also see the seeds of a new future. The current extractionist system is unsustainable and it is inevitable that it will fail.
However, I can’t help but think that the country we knew will not survive the current onslaught. There will be widespread death as a result of 47s policies - more foodborne disease, no support for the current COVID crisis and the next pandemic, skyrocketing healthcare costs and loss of research, and on and on….
Something will rise after it, and I can place hope in the idea that more people are opening their eyes so that what comes next is a positive change, a new society in which we have learned some hard lessons about the power of community, the evil of greed, and the need for farsightedness.
I hope I’m still able alive to see it.
I am a small farmer. The new system you are describing is apostate to the growing of food. I largely agree with you article and came to similar conclusion a few years ago. It's important for people to hear that this new system won't feed them. Food production, especially sustainable food production, requires incredible amounts of stability and deep knowledge of soil and climate.
Thank you for writing and sharing this. Sparky Von Plinsky wrote on Substack "A Great Reset". Suggested three constitutional amendments:
1) Corporations are not people.
2) Limit political donations. Canada has per resident per year limit of $1750 CD.
3) Respect the natural environment. It's all we have.
you hit it out of the park with this one today. Excellent!
I will pass it on.
I do appreciate your clarity on the all-encompassing nature of The Game which we are all taught to play. The frustration and sense of powerlessness is real when the playing board is tilted.
I'm still pondering whether your idea of being a Sovereign Citizen isn't a step too far. It sounds like a mean world where the most powerful are in control.
Somewhere, somehow there is a New Game (cue the melody There's a Place For Us from West Side Story) for us, which you have begun to outline.
We need to create forms of governance that works for fairly large groups of people, we need to create technology that doesn't squeeze us like playdough, and we need to be able to build community where we have power to live cooperatively with others, in the real world more than through screens.
Maybe that's the intellectual product that is yet to be invented? Maybe that's where the future will take us?
Just read this . You for the first time. I liked and shared it as I’ve been telling my kids this so long now . In their early twenties, one replaces windshields, the other not working now but there is a reason ( personal) . Both have been to the first part of becoming electricians. They need to find apprenticeships first . Nothing highly intelligent, hard workers.
Thank you I just subscribed for the first time.
You frickin' nailed it! I have been ranting and raving this reality for decades.
An absolute BANGER essay! 🔥🔥🔥
Thank you. I really appreciate this piece. It’s helped me to realize that in my attempts to navigate the system and my feelings of failure to do so, I’m not only alone but I’m part of what the system was meant to do, keep us barely afloat so we aren’t able to exit. For months I’ve been feeling as if I’m losing not just the game but also my mind. What I’ve come to realize is that I’ve not been dealing with insanity but instead have been given the gift of clarity. This is very validating.
Thank you again.
This seemed good but being just a regular person... having the "solution" be created intellectual property, buy gold or land, etc etc ..ugghhh ...the problem is I have nothing extra...so now what...
Move in with Mom and Dad?
Nice idea but they're dead...
One tiny note — Mangione is the most successful *ALLEGED* felon to capture national sympathy since Bonnie and Clyde. Contrary to what many people, including AG Pam Bondi, imply when they talk about him, he hasn’t actually been convicted of anything yet. I think that it’s important to refrain from saying he’s a murderer before he’s had his day in court because “innocent until proven guilty” is both such a key aspect of our justice system and also something that the current administration is trying to erode.
fair point
It is sad, but to actually achieve the American dream, I had to leave the US. I'm now in a nation where healthcare is free at point of delivery, my maternity leave was paid, I could get a viable mortgage, and my exposure to the US market is limited. Yes, I'll still take a bath when I go to get out my ancient 401K, but for me it's all found money at this point from the US. I am lucky.
But it is time to stop letting the oligarchs spend money on penis rockets and then chide us if we get upset when they take our jobs and financial aspirations away from us. As somebody said to me yesterday, why is there the space race to another planet? Why not work on the one we have here, and make this one liveable for everyone? I cannot argue with that.
However, this American regime has nobody in it that can actually manage to govern for the people and the planet, instead of for themselves. Shocking.
Great blog Mr Finnegan. So much good reading. Thank you.
Thank you for this post. I’m an RN and know very little about economics beyond save a lot and spend a little. My credo is it doesn’t depend on what comes in but what goes out financially.
Clear, logical, and doable steps are a gift to me. To all of us.
Thank you for explaining today's reality. Brilliantly explained. Blessings to you.
I'm also an Aussie. That's a pretty bleak assessment (and prediction), but unfortunately, I have no basis to disagree. And yes, vested interests are always going to howl when their gravy train is threatened.
However, I think a critical point regarding the American health care system can be made. On a per capita basis, it does indeed represent around double the cost of other advanced nations (such as Australia), while still comprehensively failing to deliver comparable health care outcomes. Americans pay much, much more for health care, but receive much, much less for their money.
Nationalising the US healthcare system and implementing a notionally 'free' health insurance system at point of delivery would deliver vastly improved health care outcomes for most Americans AND ALSO free up a massive amount of disposable income (even allowing for continued co-contributions). Not least because the frankly massive bureaucracy that exists to support the American user-pays model could be trimmed back to just the usual 'fat' bureaucracy that other nations run with. Never happen though. Those vested interests again.