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Sorry for the late delivery of tonightā€™s edition. Iā€™m on the road, my laptop charger died, and my computer then ran down its battery. But still I persisted. An Uber ride to the nearest Best Buy and back got the electrons flowing again so I could bring you your one thing to read this week: Aaron Rennā€™s commentary on ā€œAndrew Tate or Panda Express: Which Way Young Man?ā€

No sooner had the Vivek Ramaswamy sleepover discourse died down, you see, than Chris Rufo leapt into the fray, tweeting:

The Panda Express near my house is offering $70k/yr plus benefits for the assistant manager. You can make $100k/yr working at Chipotle for a few years and working up to store manager. ā€¦ Yes, cost inflation is a huge problem, especially in housing, but my point is that even non-college, non-trade jobs that require minimal experience or credentials can yield a six-figure salary in a few years. More ambitious young people can, and will, go for knowledge work, entrepreneurial ventures, and high-prestige employment. But that will always be limited to a small group. It’s fine and good that young guys without a degree can live the St. Louis suburbs and make $145,000 a year as a UPS driver.

This, says Renn, is a great example of ā€œSpiritual Boomerism,ā€ which he defines as ā€œA person, typically a man, who has achieved high status/success/home ownership/secure retirement/marriage speaking down from his lofty heights towards those who donā€™t have them.ā€

The piece makes a number of good points about whatā€™s wrong with this attitude on its own terms, even when its underlying impulse may have some kernel of truth. (ā€œIf you want to succeed, you actually do have to work and work hard. Everybody has to pay their dues. Youā€™re not entitled to success.ā€) Read the whole thing.

Iā€™d like to add a point, though, which is that in this instance there is no kernel of truth. Rufoā€™s reality is painfully and obviously incoherent. And he is wrong in a way distressingly common on the Old Right, and indicative of a deeper failure of not only empathy, but also basic critical thinking.

We went through all this a little over a year ago, when Oliver Anthony opened ā€œRich Men North of Richmondā€ with the shrill lament, ā€œsellinā€™ my soul, workinā€™ all day, overtime hours for bullshit pay.ā€ Not so, retorted National Reviewexecutive editor Mark Antonio Wright. ā€œMy brother in Christ, you live in the United States of America in 2023 ā€” if youā€™re a fit, able-bodied man, and youā€™re working ā€˜overtime hours for bullshit pay,ā€™ you need to find a new job.ā€

American Compass happened to have a survey in the field that same week, attempting to assess the quality of jobs in the American labor market. What share of workers had jobs that met our definition of ā€œsecureā€, with annual earnings of $40,000 or more, at least somewhat predictable future income, health benefits and paid time off, and satisfactory control over scheduling? Less than half. For works that had not earned a four-year college degree, the figure was less than one-third.

Continue reading at Understanding America
Oren Cass
Oren Cass is chief economist at American Compass.
@oren_cass
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