by Charles Hugh Smith
Of Two Minds
There are still opportunities to not just earn a wage, but the overhead, profit and capital skimmed by global corporations.
So how can someone earning $15 an hour as an employee get ahead? The short answer is: they can’t. One worker earning $15/hour will struggle to get ahead, which I define as building capital that generates an income stream.
A family with four adults working full-time at $15 an hour with benefits can get ahead; together, they’re earning $60/hour plus another $40/hour in benefits. Assuming they live under one roof and live frugally, their combined earnings of $100/hour will enable investing in income-producing capital.
There is another path to getting ahead: self-employment. Working for yourself isn’t for everyone, but it does provide two avenues of wealth-building that are not available to employees: overhead and capital accumulation.