Quote from: sourman on September 22, 2012, 01:16 pmQuote from: Dread Pirate Roberts on September 22, 2012, 12:31 amIt's great to see that my words are resonating with so many of you. It's a privilege to have a stage to speak from here. It doesn't get said enough, and it is hard to get across in this medium, but... I love you <3Who knew that a softy could lead an international narcotics organization? Behind my wall of anonymity, I don't have to intimidate, thankfully. But yea, I love you guys. Thank you for being here. Thank you for being my comrades. Thank you for being yourselves and bringing your unique perspectives and energy. And on a personal note, thank you for giving me the best job in the world. I've never had so much fun! I know we've been at it for over a year now, but really, we are JUST getting started. I'm so excited and anxious for our future I could burst ;DDPR, you are the man, or is it woman? Fuck it, you are THE PERSON!What you said about the average pot dealer really resonates with me. Most dealers aren't bloodthirsty ghetto thugs who don't give a shit, nor are they power hungry cartels that go around chopping people's heads off. These days, most are just young adults who have no choice but to serve drugs simply because there are no other opportunities worth their time! If you're under 30, chances are it's very difficult to find a good job now. Even if you went to school, there is just so much competition in some areas that unless you "know someone" on some nepotist bullshit, odds are you'll be stuck working some low paying retail job or whatever crap that's available these days. No one wants to be 20-something and live with their parents while barely making enough to pay for the fucking transportation necessary to get to work due to the circumstances of their birth. That's some indentured servant shit, and I can't blame anyone for doing what they can to avoid it. There is no humility in working these jobs once you're clearly mature and skilled enough to do something else.I said exactly the same thing last month, reposting it here for good measure, because it's True with a capital 'T'. The wheel has turned and all the power in the world is surging beneath our feet, economics and demographics. The Darknet Black Markets are going to become a permanent fixture to this world one way or the other. I also suggest reading about "System D", there is an excellent article in Foreign Policy called "The Shadow Superpower" on the subject, I think it is quite revealing.Quote from: InkIndulgence on August 10, 2012, 04:23 amToday at the office was someone's birthday. AGAIN. I went and picked up their cake from the bakery, vanilla with vanilla frosting. AGAIN. We all piled in the conference room and mumbled the Happy Birthday song, clapped, and pretended to laugh at the same crappy jokes about getting older. AGAIN. I swear to god someone has a birthday every goddamn week. Eating cake and ice cream every week for years it's a wonder I'm not 300lbs.As I was cutting the cake, looking at the room full of morbidly obese, visibly exhausted and saggy-eyed people eagerly staring at the giant sugary loaf like hungry hyenas as the one highlight in their day, I couldn't help but think "God, am I going to be standing here doing this when I'm 30, 40, 50, 60?!" and for some reason it really bothered me. I mean, if you happen to be "lucky" enough to procure a "normal" 8-5 job, or hell even at fast food jobs or whatever, you spend majority of your waking hours during the week being there, doing something you probably barely like, maybe you get paid well, maybe you don't. And there is no end in sight. If you have a kid, then you get a few months off and then have to put them in daycare or something and go back. It just worries me because I'm only in my mid-20s and already feeling this way of the working world, I am one of the youngest people at my workplace. I swear my day life is exactly like the movie Office Space. Probably why I do drugs. I just wish there was some other way, and I guess there are plenty of people out there who have their own business or some crazy cool job like traveling the world, or are super lucky and somehow are rich enough to not have to work, but for the majority of us, that will not happen. If I want a nice house, nice things, etc this is how it has to be. Does this bother anyone else? How do you deal with it? Do you ever wake up at 7am like usual and for some reason the very last thing you want to do is go to work? Or am I just messed up or naive. It's not that I'm completely miserable, I do like my job for the most part, but some days like today I just get in this depressive funk where I look at the big picture and get uncomfortable with it... and when I graduate college soon I'll still be doing this, maybe somewhere else one day for more money but the same picture.Anyway sorry to bring down the mood on here but I have to put on the happy mask all day everyday to my real life people, I like being able to come on here and just say how I feel.Quote from: pine on August 10, 2012, 07:24 amIt's posts like these that make me glad I'm an international drug smuggler. Today's wages for young people, even ones with advanced degrees are beyond crap. I see new grads paying to work internships because the cost of living is higher than their stipends, even when they live with their parents or half a dozen+ to a house. Then when they obtain a real salary it's 5 times lower than it was 20 years ago in real terms (i.e. w/o inflation), taxed to the hilt and then some. My taxi driver and waiter have decent STEM degrees these days and a 50-100k of student debt and a sob story to tell, it's completely ridiculous. It's somewhat hilarious that they imagine somebody like myself is taking burdensome risks when the opportunity cost of 'normality' has wrecked their prospects. Mind you, all our competition is of the 'Topix' variety, so I can see how you'd get that impression. But seriously, young people today aren't thinking about ROI, return on investment. They seem to think it's alright to be in debt until your late 30s or more before they get back into the black. Then they take on mortgages because everybody else is doing it. That's not OK, that's shit. Do the math. You guys should be rioting or something by now, I don't know what is wrong with this generation, I genuinely am surprised they aren't far more angry. I mean are you getting a raw deal or not? If so, maybe you need to plan something new. I don't know what, that's hardly my business, but there's no point in sitting around moping about things if you're not going to do something about it. Make a business plan or something, take some control over your life in some way. Example: If you work hard and invest consistently for long periods of time while you're younger, then you can accumulate wealth much faster than your peers. You'll know you're successful when your yearly dividends are higher than your annual salary. Your pals may have nice cars or houses, but they'll also be in debt up to their eyeballs. Don't go down that road, it's well trodden, and an infinitely sterile and anxiety filled way to live life.If you want to escape the rat race, you have to think laterally and take calculated risks, whether you are in the black market or regular market that is the case. You cannot follow the herd, they thought investing in real estate in 2007 was a hot idea. Fuck those people, don't take advice from anybody who isn't already ahead of you in some area. Do your research, make a plan, like you were making a report for your boss, but for yourself.Finally, a lot of young people look down on jobs like working a shop floor, pizza delivery, cleaning etc. Those jobs may not pay top dollar, but they aren't going to get outsourced to china now are they? Contrariwise, most classical middle class jobs like engineering, legal, payroll, is experiencing just that thanks to the combined effects of globalization and new technology. Looks like the plumber makes more money than my dentist or lawyer when you factor in their opportunity costs and supply/demand of labor. Work hard at whatever you do, obtain capital (you're still in the West, it's still much easier here than elsewhere), and then do something with it that puts you in control. Ownership of capital and income from said capital is the key thing to obtaining independence.tldr; Your parents had no idea what the fuck they are talking about. Traditional concepts like working for two or three corporations in your life time, even obtaining a mortgage, are flying out the window, it's just going to take some time for everybody to cotton on. What has happened is that supply and demand has dramatically changed, but not everybody gets it yet, least of all the educational establishments or your average 30/40 something. They think it's going to change "after the recession". No, it ain't. Wages are going to be like this from here on out. This implies either a massive deflation in house prices or you guys will be renting for the rest of your lives. Since your parents were dumbassed enough to put all their savings into real estate capital accumulation strategies and are now hanging on like frightened rabbits, it's probably the second for a while at least. I mean seriously, do the actual math for your average 20 something, that's what it is for most of them.