Ex-GF opened up a writers' publicity company that explicitly and openly discriminates against straight, white, cisgender men, and brags about how she earns well above six figures from this.

Folks, trying to become wealthy is a trap. The system monetarily rewards its friends and punishes its enemies. You are its enemy, right? So, tell me, why do you think it will allow you to win a game that it controls? Are you so smart that you can fool it? Are you so virtuous that you can play the part without corrupting yourself? If only the rest of us were men of such astounding quality.

Just bought the propane to heat my house this winter. Cost about $200; the price per gallon was just above ⅓ of the current national average. Back in my previous home, in an upper middle class town in IL, where it's about 10°F warmer on average, it would cost about that much per month to heat the house throughout the winter.

Poor areas tend to have better pricing for most goods and services. As an extreme example, would you rather live in Darien, Connecticut, where a home costs $1.6 million and a big Mac meal at your favorite local fast food joint, with less than a quarter pound of beef, costs $18, or a poor-ville like my area where you can get a nice house and some land for $60k and head down to the local eatery for a $7 ½ pound burger meal at a non-fast food restaurant? (Bonus: all you can eat chicken gizzards at the salad bar.)

Wealth can free you from the need to make good decisions, but then it, itself, enslaves you as you become dependent on it. The only way to avoid this while having wealth is to be indifferent to it, which is ultimately the message of The Daily Poor.

There's a fundamental question here: which would you rather have: more wealth, or a decreased need for wealth?

I'm reminded of a passage from Epictetus' Discourses:

4.9 To one who had become shameless

"Whenever you see another person exercising authority in a public post, set against that the fact that you can do without a public post; when you see another person living in wealth, look to what you have instead of that. For if you have nothing in place of it, you’re wretched indeed; but if you’re capable of not having need of wealth, know that you have more than he does, and something of much greater value. Another man has a beautiful wife; you have the power not to wish for a beautiful wife. Do you think these are small matters? And yet how much would those very men who are rich and powerful, and have beautiful wives, give to be able to despise riches and power, and those women whom they love and win? Don’t you know what kind of thirst one feels when one has a fever? It bears no resemblance to that of a healthy person. A healthy person takes a drink and his thirst is quenched, but the other, after some short relief, feels sick, turns the water into bile, vomits, suffers from colic, and feels much thirstier than before. It is much the same to have wealth and yet feel a strong desire for that very thing, or have power and yet desire it, or pass one’s nights with a beautiful woman and yet lust for her. To which may be added jealousy, and the fear of losing what one has, and shameful words, shameful thoughts, and improper deeds.

‘And what do I lose?’, someone asks.

Man, you used to be modest and now you’re no longer so. Have you lost nothing? Instead of Chrysippus and Zeno, you now read Aristides and Evenus [Note: these were authors of erotic stories]. Instead of Socrates and Diogenes, you admire the man who is able to corrupt and seduce the largest number of women. You want to be good-looking and make yourself so, although you’re not, and want to display yourself in flashy clothing to attract women’s attention, and if you come across some wretched perfume somewhere, you count yourself blessed. But formerly you didn’t even think about any of these things, but only about where you could find decent talk, a man of worth, a noble thought. As a consequence, you used to sleep like a man, bear yourself like a man, wear manly clothing, and speak in a manner appropriate to a good man. And then you say to me, ‘I’ve lost nothing’? What, is a bit of cash the only thing that a man can lose? Can’t self-respect be lost; can’t decency be lost? For your part, perhaps, you no longer think that the loss of such things brings any penalty; but there was a time when you thought this to be the only loss and harm that really matters, and you were most anxious that no one should force you to abandon these principles and practices.

Look, you have indeed been driven away from them, but by no one other than yourself. Fight against yourself; restore yourself to decency, to self-respect, to freedom. If someone had once told you this about me, that someone was forcing me to commit adultery, to wear clothes like yours, or perfume myself, wouldn’t you have gone off and killed with your own hand the man who was subjecting me to such mistreatment? And yet now, you don’t want to come to your own assistance? And how much easier it is to offer assistance of that kind! There is no need for you to kill someone, or chain him up, or assault him, nor do you have to go to the marketplace; you have only to talk to yourself, the man most likely to be persuaded, and whom no one could more easily persuade than you can.

First of all, condemn your own actions, and then, after having condemned them, don’t give up on yourself, and don’t be like those mean-spirited people who, when they’ve given in on one occasion, surrender themselves completely, to be swept off, as it were, by the flood. You should learn instead from what the wrestling masters do. The boy has taken a fall: ‘Get up,’ he says, ‘and resume the fight until you grow strong.’ You too should think in some such way as that: you should know that there is nothing more tractable than the human mind. You only have to exert your will, and the thing comes about, and all is put right; whereas on the other hand, you only have to doze off, and all is lost. For ruin and deliverance alike come from within.

‘And after all that, what good will I gain?’

And what greater good could you seek than this? Where once you were shameless, you’ll have self-respect; where once you were faithless, you’ll become faithful; where once you were dissolute, you’ll have self-control. If you’re looking for anything other than things such as that, continue to act as you’re now acting; for not even a god could still be able to help."

Respectfully, this is defeatism. I understand your sentiment but this is a form of excuse for being a loser (or an excuse for not even try). Yes, there absolutely a myriad of different ways to be monetarily successful. Yes, you can be powerful. And yes, you can beat these faggots.

Get in, we are going to win

You're creating a false dichotomy here. Imagine there's two generals creating a battle plan. One demands a direct charge into the enemy's strongest point. The second fires back, "no! That's suicide!" The first responds, "that's an excuse to lose, an excuse to not even try!"

There are other important things to do. People ought to put their effort into better endeavors, into things on a small scale that they can actually and readily influence and improve. Starting a family. Helping their local community. Building self-sufficiency. Over-focusing on money has the potential to stifle more genuine goods.

Nobody here is saying to not try. Rather, the attitude is that you should direct your efforts elsewhere, away from wealth, away from material success. You don't strike where your enemy is strongest.

Delicious Yooper mountain snake, eh

Behold, one of your betters. Look at what wealth does for people and feel your jealousy grow.

Nice Poor Yoop Walk today

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