Re: A year in Oklahoma

I started to write out a comment that turned into a bigger piece that I was hoping to get some feedback on so I decided to post it here instead.  It’s great to hear from readers of all different ages and it’s also nice to get feedback from people who grew (are growing) up in other parts of the world.  I don’t know if it’s gaming, or simply luck of the draw, but the diversity in this audience is pretty amazing.  Well, aside from the lack of females.  But still!  Five years from now who can say where we’ll be..

I love all the responses. It was a lot of fun to read about where everyone has grown up and what they think of where they live.  It’s great perspective and good information to have.

Up until recently I hadn’t given much thought to where I live because it really wasn’t an option to live anywhere else. Of course, much of that has changed with graduation and working as an RN which makes it simple to grab a job anywhere. Things that weren’t even on the radar are now significant factors. Mo’ Money Mo’ Problems?

TLDR; OK is far from the worst place on the planet, it’s just not a state that most people actively seek to move to. It’s a state that people from away from. Regardless of your political, religious, or economic views, I’d assume most people would be happier in states that have for a variety of reasons, people actively seeking to move there.

I’m also a bit embarrassed with how much it appears I stressed the importance of $$. I don’t lead an extravagant lifestyle, although I’m sure I would be more grandiose if I made millions of dollars. I don’t desire to eat out at all the best restaurants every day of the week, so once I buy a TV or two, my consoles and a computer, I’m pretty much set.

If I wanted to make a lot of money I’d be going back to school in order to get a degree in business and working my ass off to make it big. My father is a fairly wealthy man and I have to say that under no circumstances am I willing to work as hard as he has to make that much money. It seems like such a waste of time. Life is so short and as far as I’m concerned we only get 1 shot at this so I want to make the most of it. I want enough money to get around, but I don’t want to spend my life making it either. It’s a tough balance.

Anywho, back to my original point about emphasizing the size of my wallet. I’m a pretty typical college grad with large amounts of student loans and it’s really expensive to pay those back in combination with also taking care of basic bills such as rent/food/utilities. Thank god I have my car paid off otherwise I’d really be hurting.

I did attend a private school which increased the tuition for becoming an RN, however I can’t even think of any non-private institutions that offered RN programs so it’s a bit of a moot point. School was about 45k a year or so which puts me into six figure debt for the next 20-30 years (depends on how fast I pay it off). As of right now that’s enough to make my student loans cost around $800/month. When I start factoring in everything else, my paycheck starts looking fairly underwhelming compared to what my friends are making doing the identical job back home.

I really don’t place money that high on my list of priorities, but having school loans kind of forces you to rearrange them. It doesn’t matter as much what I want because of how much I owe. Priority number 1 at this point is making sure I’m able to just pay my damn bills. I could go on and on about how this affects the types of jobs people pursue , the degrees they obtain, or people being forced to manage debt with more debt, etc.

I really don’t know how most people make it in today’s world. If the average family income for a family of 4 is $45,000 and I feel as though I’m barely making ends meet on $40,000, how do other people do it?  How the hell does anyone possibly afford to live with children making less than I do?

The idea of making double what I do now seems…surreal.  Not only that, but it just doesn’t seem fair.  How much money does any 1 person need to live?  Need to survive?  How does it make sense that any 1 person deserves to make life altering amounts of cash but other people struggle to simply make their way through life?

I remember finishing up the last of my clinicals when the realization that I’d be making more money that I had ever had before in my life started to hit me.  My first thought was “Woah, that’s crazy”.  My second thought was more along the lines of “This doesn’t seem fair.”  Are you telling me that I was only worth $8.00/hr before my degree and now I’m worth $40?  What?!  I don’t buy or agree that I deserve to make that much more than another human being.  Examining the ratio of salaries paid to top-tier CEO’s versus those of the average employee yields the following information (excerpt taken from Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris):

Britain – 24:1
France – 15:1
Sweden – 13:1
United States: 475:1

Could anyone really come up with an argument as to why any given human being should be making 475 times more than another?  Hah, I know I’ve gone off on a bit of tangent but I despise money and I hate that it has to be such a big component to my life.  That said, it really does simplify things and man, it sure is nice making more than $8.00/hr.  I can’t fathom what it would be like to make anywhere close to six figures and not have children to support.

Edit: As you can plainly see, I don’t mind talking about specific financial figures (and it doesn’t hurt that I make nominal amounts of $$ so people can’t accuse me of showing off).  The reason why I do this is because it was such a fucking mystery as to how much people made and what the costs were to just…live.  My own parents refused to share anything with me and when I tried to ask teachers or aunts and uncles, they’d just laugh it off and you don’t talk about those sorts of things.  Horseshit!

How are you ever supposed to learn or gain any perspective without knowledge?  If you’re embarrassed about how much you make then you should probably go back to school or find a different job.  Preferably a CEO.

While I have no issues sharing this with everyone, I would prefer if the actual figures didn’t make their way into the top comments on subsequent videos or spammed all over twitter (yes I realize the inherent risk in posting this).  However, I do want people to feel safe talking about finances and breaking down that barrier or taboo that surrounds how much people make.

My parents reasons for hiding what they make revolved around status; those who made more are seen as superior.  Youtubers often do it to hide the fact that they’re making large sums for minimal effort (play PoE and watch people discuss how much they think Kripp makes).

There’s no shame if you’re not in the six figure club and according to statistics from the US census bureau, most Americans aren’t and even if you are, what you’re making is still orders of magnitude less than some corpora CEO’s bonus check.