Society Lied to Us: We're all Wage Slaves, I Can Prove it.

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How Work Works Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGYdCDMX4guyzaS_oW43r2hZlJrnAabpP&si=0hruz8CC-pNGzMCR Contact: [email protected] Substack: https://stephenantonioni.substack.com/ About My Channel: Since 2019 I've been documenting my life progression as I've pursued financial independence as a means to free myself from the coercive nature of employment. With the measure of freedom I've won for myself I now teach others how to win their freedom too while also investigating the questions that currently interest me such as... "How does work work?" "How does that translate to how the world works?" and the big one: "What is reality?" If that sounds cool to you, here is my full story: https://youtu.be/osbpjXNAs7g FOOTNOTES: US Net Worth Methodology 340M pop, 78% adults per Census 2020, so 265M adults Billionaire count: 813 per Forbes 2024 Centi-millionaires: 9,850 per Henley & Partners UHNWI (+$30M): 225,077 per Frank Knight Wealth Report 2024 From there, Frank Knight estimates $5.8M required to be top 1% of pop so that’s about 2.65M people. (Subtract the above to get $5M-$30M range) Next, those with over $1M are estimated at 24.5M per UBS Wealth Report (subtract above to get $1M-$5M range) 35% of households have a net worth between $100K and $1M per Fed Reserve Rest of pop has less than $100K. Elite class is defined by A - their complete economic independence and B - their ability to command others. Middle class is defined by A - their complete economic independence and B - their inability to command others. Working class is defined by A - their spectrum of economic dependence and B - their inability to command others. Economic independence is determined by the ability to have a liquid net worth in excess of a Lifetime Annual Subsistence (minimum ~$3M based off MIT Living Wage Calc $30K/annual income, 2% inflation, ~80yr life expectancy, 22 year old career start date post grad) Ability to command others is determined by the ability to have a net worth in excess of 1,000x Annual Subsistence ($30K/yr x 1,000 = $30M). This is roughly equivalent to corresponding access to resources / ability to employ at least 1,000 people in a very general sense. In sum, the Middle Class is defined by a net worth in excess of $5M but below $30M because their economic independence can be certainly assured but they are unable to command others like the Elites can. The top of the Working class, $1M-$5M, is defined by potential economic independence ie. the potential for escape, but also is largely made up by retirees who spent their entire lives in the Working class as the demographic of that net worth bracket skews heavily towards retirement age people. So in some sense, they are a transitionary group between the two classes but probably lived as Working class people. 00:00 The True Working Class 04:15 The Work Iceberg 06:45 The True Social Hierarchy 19:52 Core Labour Units 23:58 The Social Hierarchies of History 30:16 We are Modern Peasants 39:33 But Isn't Life Way Better than Before?