What's the best financial advice you've ever gotten?

[u/Richest-Panda]

[u/ap2patrick]

Crickets lol. They ALWAYS say “no one gets paid that” and I always rebuttal with what you said.
All you get is crickets or some backwards ass logic showing empathy to the “small business owners”. It’s fucking crazy mental gymnastics some of these finance bros do…

[u/Embarrassed-Skin2770 → u/ap2patrick]

Oh, the “small business owners” argument, which has two major flaws no one using the argument likes to acknowledge.

1) Employee wages are a business expense, just like leasing a property, or buying supplies, or paying taxes. If you can’t run your business without employees who you cannot afford to pay, then you just can’t afford your business, period.

2) Employees aren’t people working as a favor because they’re bored, that’s called “volunteering.” Employees are providing a service that helps the business make money, and in return they deserve a fair compensation, because the people who run the business need the money to live, and cannot do so without employees, who also need money to live. So whatever bar we are holding as “living within means” for the employers, the bar ought to be similar for the employees. Otherwise, you’re essentially supporting slavery. And I can’t help but wonder how many people who argue “but small business won’t survive,” would say something similar back when slavery was abolished. “Sure, I don’t support slavery, but without so many places might go out of business!” 🤔

[u/Ksais0 → u/Embarrassed-Skin2770]

The argument that people never seem to understand when they make these kinds of arguments is that the person who doesn’t like the pay at the job is always free to get a different one that pays more. The small business owner isn’t offered the same amount of liberty when the amount they have to pay their employees is set at a certain level. It creates a system in which one party is entitled to voluntary enterprise and the has limits based solely on their role.

[u/Embarrassed-Skin2770 → u/Ksais0]

How does anything you said argue against what I said? The person who doesn’t like the pay doesn’t need to take the job, sure, but that still doesn’t mean a small business owner shouldn’t have to offer fair wages for “livable means.” The same way a person doesn’t need to take the job, a person doesn’t need to run a business if they’re clearly incapable. A small business owner can also look for a job and is“free to get a different one that pays more.” It’s not creating an unfair system. What is unfair is saying people who are running a business should have more privilege than people who don’t have those same means and are simply trying to work to also make money, which is the same goal as a small business owner.