I'm in my late 40's and I agree with you 100%, more now than I would have at any point previously, and I certainly don't consider myself a bleeding leftie. Might be interesting to see how the "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" HN/SV crowd react to your comment.
Slowly over the course of the last 48 years. There was no pivotal moment. Probably the key thing was the realisation that even with the very good wage i'm on, I was unlikely to be able to save enough deposit money to buy a house in my city without at least one of my parents passing away. And then the realisation that there are people that work far harder than me, earn far less, and understanding that they are in an even more fucked situation.
It sounds like you are in the Bay Area. Did you ever consider moving to a lower cost location? Assuming that we are talking about the US, the "flyover states" (midwest) have some insanely good value. Land and houses can be very cheap.
Watch the person operating the jackhammer go to a golf course, or watch someone operating a jackhammer and then visit a golf course myself? Your sentence is ambiguous.
Are you trying to say that you think that some manual labor roles are overpaid? Why can't a jackhammer operator play golf if they want to?
In my country an entry level jackhammer operator makes about $60K and an experienced one about $100K. Doesn't sound unreasonable to me.
I mean I get your point ... rich and lazy executives often play golf, but my buddy plays golf and he's a manager for a crew at a painting company. Hardly a millionaire. Perhaps you're thinking of private golf courses which are sometimes very expensive. Public ones generally aren't.
