If you’re new to my website from TikTok, please check out my book (100 percent free). When I became a young man, I took a look at the world and decided that if I had to go to work to support my own survival then I’d rather spend my time helping people than enriching some asshole CEO. I only ever pursued social work, non-profit work, counseling, and teaching. To my horror, all that ever accomplished was the enrichment of some asshole CEO.
Arizona has this defect where it allows business people to launch “educational companies” that can open charter schools that remove dollars from public education. Charter school directors bid for the cheapest possible labor and everything saved becomes profit. This effectively cut teacher salaries and student resources in half. Before teaching, I was also a case manager for special needs children ($10 an hour), I provided adoption home studies for children under the “Interstate Compact for the Placement of Children” ($12 an hour), I supervised a group home for older teen boys on the cusp of leaving foster care ($16 an hour), and I provided individual and group substance abuse counseling to juvenile probationers ($18 an hour). As a college educated public servant in Arizona, the most money I ever made was from unemployment during the COVID-19 pandemic.
While the videos I posted to TikTok conclude a coupling I very much enjoyed, I also struggled with being the poor half of an income gap relationship. My girlfriend spent half her life in school and is now winning at capitalism (compared to most people, but still losing overall), so telling her the world is broken when teachers can’t meet their basic needs falls flat. She cares, but she doesn’t quite get it. She would affectionately call me her “clown” or “cartoon character” without realizing how hurtful that sounds. I became a single dad at the end of my undergraduate year and spent nearly every moment since building my son’s happy childhood. Now that my son is a teen, and currently realizing the world isn’t as fun as I made it out to be, I guess I come across as this goofy huckster with a rude kid.
I hope my son’s attitude will evolve as mine did. I’m not a clown or a cartoon character. My sense of humor is my suit of armor, forged in fire, so I can stand under the crushing weight of late stage capitalism.
It’s Best If You Don’t Reach Out: Free PDF
It's Best If You Don't Reach Out 