Increase Your Income in the Modern World

On a windy day in his hometown, an ambitious young man named Theodore waves at the neighborhood paperboy to signal his whereabouts. The hardworking boy dutifully throws a roll of paper towards Theodore while riding his bicycle. Theodore catches the processed wood pulp, thanking the boy for his daily diligence. After receiving the newspaper, Theodore walks back to his house. Upon his arrival in the house, the young man opens the newspaper and searches for headlines in the section for jobs. Months beforehand, Theodore had graduated from university with a degree in finance. Day after day, the young man looks for a job related to his previous field of study, scanning the paper to see what awaits.

After months of hunting for a job, Theodore sees a headline inquiring for anyone interested in managing a local bank. The recent graduate is ecstatic. He finally finds a job for which he could potentially put his knowledge to use. Excited, he walks into the bank and asks the teller for the whereabouts of said bank’s owner. The employee rings for the owner and tells Theodore to wait and have a seat.

Ten minutes later, the owner walks into the lobby. “Hello there. I hear you want to be the new manager of this bank. What is your name?” “My name is Theodore. Theodore Smith.” “Nice to meet you Mr. Smith. You may refer to me as Mr. Williams.” Mr. Williams interviews Theodore on the spot, asking him about his experience at university and a series of questions to test his understanding of finance. After the impromptu assessment, Theodore gets the job.

Thrilled, Theodore walks home with a grin on his face. As the young man strolls on the sidewalk, the birds nearby sing their daily hymns. He strides as the shining rays of the sun warm up his face. A boy walking to school greets him. “Hey Mr. Smith, how are you?” “I’m doing fine, thanks. I just got hired to manage the bank nearby.” “Golly,” said the school boy, “that’s so swell.” “It sure is.” After Theodore finishes his conversation with the boy, they part ways. Theodore prepares for his new job and ends up proving himself to be an excellent fit for the position.

Across the street from where Theodore grew up, a young man four years younger than Theodore discusses his life goals with his parents. The man, George, decides that he wants to be a meat butcher. Reflecting his aptitude for hands-on skills, George quickly realizes that college is not for him. Although he appreciates having received a formal education, George knows that his school days are over. He recently graduated from high school. George recounts seeing a “Help Wanted! Butcher Needed!” sign outside his local grocery store. He walks to the store window to confirm that the sign is still up. As a result of the sign still being displayed, George walks into the store and meets the store manager. Giving a firm handshake, George tells the manager that he’d like to become the butcher for the store. George is hired and told that another butcher will train him.

After completing his first day of the job, George walks home to tell his parents about his day. “Mom. Dad. Guess what? I’m the new butcher of Winn-Dixie.” “That’s great darling! My little man is a butcher now,” says George’s mom. “Gee willikers, that sounds like a job to me. You’ll be able to save up for a house in no time,” added George’s father. Thankful for his parents’ support, George goes up to his room and swiftly falls into a deep slumber. Just before sunrise, George wakes up from a delightful dream with a blush as red as a rose. Day after day, the young man hones his craft as a butcher. After six months of working in the grocery store, George buys a house of his own. He steadily progresses in life.

Following in the footsteps of Theodore, you decide to go to college and pursue higher education. You, like Theodore, get your degree and march forth into the job market. You apply for a multitude of positions, yet either get rejected or receive no response. Desperate, you take any job you can get. You finally get invited to an interview for a low-level administrative position. You get the job. Your job is monotonous and boring, providing you enough money to live paycheck to paycheck. You apply to other jobs, but qualify for only dead-end jobs. Your rent increases. Now, you struggle to save money to survive and try to find cheaper housing to no avail.

Through the thick of this mess, you ask yourself what the issue is. You strived for a goal like the two fine young gentlemen mentioned. If they could thrive in life, and you’re taking the same steps as them, why can’t you do well in life? The answer is simple. It’s 2023. Theodore and George both landed their jobs in 1961. Back in their day, the glorious sun would wink at you every day and the joyful birds would sing their melodies. Curious dogs would sniff each other as their masters said hello to each other. Lively kids would frolic in neighborhoods all day until the streetlights came on, going on daily quests to discover treasure chests. An unemployed person with no résumé would often walk into a building and come out employed. A man could support his family on his income alone. Life was prosperous.

Understandably, because you’ve worked hard, you believe you deserve more in life. “Just work harder,” many out-of-touch old people will say, as they put their hands on their hips, purse their lips down, and furrow their brows in arrogant contempt. “Kids these days are entitled. Back when I was young” blah blah blah.

The thing is you do indeed need to work hard. However, you also need to work smart. This is what our elders collectively fail to tell us. You need to adapt to the time period we are currently living in. Gone are the days in which you could work at a Blockbuster, making a measly $10 per hour, and support yourself with a decent amount of money left over for fun and emergencies. You know the deal. Inflation rises. Prices go up. Wages stay stagnant.

At the start of the new millennium, the Industrial Age came to a close. We are now in what James Dale Davidson and William Rees-Mogg, authors of The Sovereign Individual, call the “Information Age.” The book, first published in 1997, predicted the occurrences of said age. The primary infrastructure of the Information Age is the internet. The analog days are over. That said, a central point of the book is that people will best serve themselves in the new era if they learn to be economically self-sufficient. As each passing year goes by, the modern world more stubbornly demands that you adapt to it. In the book, Davidson and Rees-Mogg quoted businessman Jack Cohen, who stated that the universe rewards those who understand it and punishes those who don’t.

As you’ve surfed the virtual waves of the World Wide Web, you most certainly noticed the products and services being offered. You know that you can purchase goods on Amazon, Wal-Mart, and Instacart online. If you’ve paid closer attention to the web, you know that normal people like you and I sell original products on Shopify, Spotify, and Etsy. These are businesspeople. You don’t have to run a massive corporation to be a businessman. You just need to work for yourself. “Okay,” you may be thinking, “but I don’t want to deal with inventory.” Nobody said you must. If you have years of experience in a particular industry, you can create a website and become an independent consultant. You can write eBooks and sell them on a popular platform like Amazon. Alternatively, you can start a newsletter using a publication platform like Substack.

The point is these tasks can be accomplished. Today, many individuals use the internet to their advantage. They generate income online. This income can be called Wi-Fi money. You are likely refuting this. “Those are scams lol!” True, anyone who claims that you can make five figures within the first month of quitting your day job is indeed not to be trusted. If you have neither a marketable skill nor specific knowledge base, you will make a whopping $0 from the interwebs. Devilishly red foxes always claim otherwise. In the past, foxes searched for prey in the forests to feed themselves. Then, in the 1800s, they hunted for snakes so that they could sell some fake oil. Now, these cunning carnivores upload scammy advertisements on YouTube, tempting racing rats into forking money. Don’t fall for scams.

However, not all online businesses are scams. Some are legitimate. The real question is, are you willing to hone a specific skill or develop an innovative insight? If you’d like to gamble and risk being poor, then just say no. Ignore the advice from The Sovereign Individual and keep allowing a boss to control when you can eat and go to the bathroom.

But, if you are somewhat intelligent and in touch with the happenings, you’ll devise a plan to establish a side business. Should you quit your job right away like the fraudulent foxes recommend? No. That’s dumb. You have bills to pay. I’d suggest waiting until you make two to three times more money with the business than you do at your day job. If you make $30 an hour working your 9-to-5 job, wait until you make at least $60 an hour from your business. Taxes and health insurance will never be “sexy” nor entertaining topics to discuss, but remember that you must pay self-employment tax if you are self-employed and you don’t get employer-provided benefits.

On the flip side, those who fail to adapt to the times will put themselves in the position to struggle. Many of them will continue to live paycheck to paycheck, blaming “the system” for their shortcomings. To be fair, they’ve correctly identified the issues currently plaguing the western nations – lack of affordable housing, inflation, wage stagnation, rising prices of goods and services, etc. Nevertheless, their solutions to overcoming these challenges are ineffective. Working more hours won’t cut it. You need something that can scale exponentially, not linearly. You will need to figure out a way to work for yourself online as the Information Age progresses.

In this period, will we reach a point where everyone works online? Of course not. We will still need sanitation workers, burger flippers, electricians, and other blue-collar workers. As far as white-collar workers are concerned, more and more people will transition to working online. Remote work breaks the chains that lock you in a particular location. Without a physical building you commute to, you will have the option of living wherever you want. In The Sovereign Individual, Davidson and Rees-Mogg proposed the argument that people won’t be citizens that belong to a particular area. Instead, people will be “customers” that get to choose the places that they live; no differently than they select their favorite candy bar. Nation-states will have to compete for these sovereign individuals like Whole Foods and Ralph’s compete for buyers. Nation-states will need to modify their laws to stay competitive.

While you read this post, begin thinking about possible products and services that you could potentially bring to the table. Once the beginning of this age ends, the economy will be one based on skill. It will be a “winners take all” economy. Relative performance will be valued more than absolute performance. In other words, people will increasingly be compensated for their results as opposed to their time. You want to be a winner in this society. The winners of this era will be those who acclimate to the modern age. Everyone else, “the losers and left-behinds,” as Thomas L. Friedman bluntly phrased it, will suffer.

Keep in mind that we are still in the infancy of the Information Age. Only time will tell which of the predictions outlined by Davidson and Rees-Mogg turn out to be true.

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