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YouTube millionaires are not your friends

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Re: YouTube millionaires are not your friends

#61

Post by danjac »

The sigma-male/get-rich-quick types (and their female equivalents in the MLM spaces) are parasites, but as with any parasite, they thrive in an unhealthy environment.

Since the 1970s, the path to even modest generational wealth has been eroded. You can play the property casino, inherit your money, or maybe luck out with joining the right startup or making the right investment at the right time - or a combination thereof. The slow-and-steady path of working hard and saving frugally for a reasonably priced home and a pension, with a decent public education for your kids and decent free or reasonably priced healthcare and social protections, has been eroded in the turbocharged neoliberalism of the past few decades.

If you are a young person looking at all of this, you could be forgiven for thinking the "study hard, work hard, have a family, buy a home, retire" ethic is for mugs, and the only way to carve out a decent lifestyle (not even talking about Lambos and mansions) is the Hustle.

Re: YouTube millionaires are not your friends

#62

Post by hristov »

Those guys sound just like those late late night infomercials you would see back in the 90s if you fell asleep in front of your tv and woke up at one am with the thing still on. Except back in the 90s nobody took those infomercials seriously. Now apparently people's defenses are down. And they take those scumbags seriously.

So here we again have the general malaise of western culture -- the fact that everything is done for money and more and more of the culture is based on tricking the content consumer into spending money. Have you ever wondered, for example, why in modern culture the paragon of femininity is considered the ability to shop for a lot of expensive stuff that you do not need and the paragon of masculinity is considered to be gambling. When you think about it those are both ways to lose a lot of money fast.

So culture or content is more and more centered on the ability to trick the consumer to lose money for no good reason and the smarter consumers try to grow an internal resistance to these tricks and the dumber ones fall prey to them.

Re: YouTube millionaires are not your friends

#63

Post by meghan_rain »

I agree with the article that those are narcissistic psychopaths but then there is this quote from the tweet:

> - 8 hours sleep

> - No porn

> - Hit the gym

> - Make lots of money

> - Have a big family

> This is the magic of life.

The author points to that like those are supposed to be bad/vain things.

Hard disagree.

Whoever wants to nudge me not to pursue the above (here: author of the article) is my enemy.

So I despise both the influencers mentioned and the author of the article.

EDIT: I would add "no social media", but that would break the influencers business model ;-)

Re: YouTube millionaires are not your friends

#64

Post by AlecSchueler »

BiteCode_dev wrote: post #59

Just an aside, but I've noticed a lot of popular video trends among the younger generation revolve around watching somebody you don't really know, doing things I would I've done with friends. Reaction videos, eating things, hanging out and making jokes, making a stupid contest, trying some new experience... It's like there is an entire part of the children/teen population that have such a bland life they feel good wh…

They also had two of their developmental years during lockdowns with the minimal social exposure.

I've heard from some teachers that the younger children they see coming up find it very scary to interact with real kids.

Re: YouTube millionaires are not your friends

#65

Post by throw74648284 »

BiteCode_dev wrote: post #59

Just an aside, but I've noticed a lot of popular video trends among the younger generation revolve around watching somebody you don't really know, doing things I would I've done with friends. Reaction videos, eating things, hanging out and making jokes, making a stupid contest, trying some new experience... It's like there is an entire part of the children/teen population that have such a bland life they feel good wh…

I relate to your sentiment, and then I think about how hard it was to explain to my parents why I enjoy watching others play video games.

Re: YouTube millionaires are not your friends

#66

Post by BiteCode_dev »

AlecSchueler wrote: post #64
BiteCode_dev wrote: post #59

Just an aside, but I've noticed a lot of popular video trends among the younger generation revolve around watching somebody you don't really know, doing things I would I've done with friends. Reaction videos, eating things, hanging out and making jokes, making a stupid contest, trying some new experience... It's like there is an entire part of the children/teen population that have such a bland life they feel good wh…

They also had two of their developmental years during lockdowns with the minimal social exposure. I've heard from some teachers that the younger children they see coming up find it very scary to interact with real kids.

I though as well, and without a doubt it added to it (I have teacher friends that give me bleak reports for the cohort that went through it), but this thing started before the pandemic.

Also, I told myself, it's like watching sport instead of playing it, but something seems different.

Re: YouTube millionaires are not your friends

#68

Post by meghan_rain »

wruza wrote: post #60
lessname wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you learn programming you can create a completely unique and useful program. Dropshipping on the other hand is thousands of different people selling the exact same product, there is no value added.

Tbf, from the economical perspective both are a lottery of marketing.

Interesting and scary take.

Re: YouTube millionaires are not your friends

#69

Post by BiteCode_dev »

throw74648284 wrote: post #65
BiteCode_dev wrote: post #59

Just an aside, but I've noticed a lot of popular video trends among the younger generation revolve around watching somebody you don't really know, doing things I would I've done with friends. Reaction videos, eating things, hanging out and making jokes, making a stupid contest, trying some new experience... It's like there is an entire part of the children/teen population that have such a bland life they feel good wh…

I relate to your sentiment, and then I think about how hard it was to explain to my parents why I enjoy watching others play video games.

In person, I get it. You chill with someone you like, you don't need to do much to enjoy it. Like reading together, or just being there.

However, I don't get watching pewdiepie playing something. I just can't groke it. You don't know the person, the person is not in the room, the person is not even currently playing since it's a recording. It's a flat image of someone else having fun. And not somebody particularly good, interesting or special.

I tried to tell myself it's like watching porn: you watch somebody else having sex, why not play video game? But something doesn't click for me.

I miss the point entirely.

Re: YouTube millionaires are not your friends

#70

Post by kfrzcode »

danjac wrote: post #61

The sigma-male/get-rich-quick types (and their female equivalents in the MLM spaces) are parasites, but as with any parasite, they thrive in an unhealthy environment. Since the 1970s, the path to even modest generational wealth has been eroded. You can play the property casino, inherit your money, or maybe luck out with joining the right startup or making the right investment at the right time - or a combination ther…

The path to modest generational wealth is pretty straightforward, pay off all your debts, don't borrow money, invest at least 15% of your income toward retirement in stable low-risk index funds or managed mutuals and leave it alone. Don't waste on big toys and you'll be a millionaire in a couple decades.

It's really really that simple. If your income is not enough to achieve the above state loop, then you'll need to put effort into increasing available income; whether by reducing expenses or increasing income by way of self education, career change, etc.

It's not hard. Anyone in America with $35,000/yr is in the 1% of the world's economic strata.

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