And more from this week...
RECOMMENDED READING
Sorry for the late delivery of tonightās edition. Iām 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 Rennās commentary on āAndrew 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 āSpiritual Boomerism,ā which he defines as āA person, typically a man, who has achieved high status/success/home ownership/secure retirement/marriage speaking down from his lofty heights towards those who donāt have them.ā
The piece makes a number of good points about whatās wrong with this attitude on its own terms, even when its underlying impulse may have some kernel of truth. (āIf you want to succeed, you actually do have to work and work hard. Everybody has to pay their dues. Youāre not entitled to success.ā) Read the whole thing.
Iād like to add a point, though, which is that in this instance there is no kernel of truth. Rufoās 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 āRich Men North of Richmondā with the shrill lament, āsellinā my soul, workinā all day, overtime hours for bullshit pay.ā Not so, retorted National Reviewexecutive editor Mark Antonio Wright. āMy brother in Christ, you live in the United States of America in 2023 ā if youāre a fit, able-bodied man, and youāre working āovertime 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 āsecureā, 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.
Recommended Reading
Is Our Children Learning? Apparently Not.
Plus, Sam Altman as ShamWow Guy, and more from this week…
The One Thing You Should Be Reading This Week, and Every Week
A brief departure from our standard Friday formatā¦
Notes from an Inauguration
Or, the Canadian Girlfriend Theory of Executive Power