(Author's Note: Today is a double-scoop of Overlord. There will be TWO posts today, because the stupid was served up in hefty portions these last few days).
For those of you who do not know who either Gramsci nor Dan Price are, here's a bit of context:
Antonio Gramsci was a Communist who is best-known for what he called "Hegemony Theory", which simplified, states that whoever controls the cultural institutions of a society are the true rulers of that society, and whose theory is the origin of the program of "Invading the Institutions" which was a staple of late-20th-century leftist movements.
The critical institutions were defined as education, government and commercial bureaucracy, the legal system, religion, journalism, political parties, the family, the arts and entertainment (including sports), and the labor unions.
Gramsci had deduced that, in the real world, no communist movement stood a chance of ever winning an electoral victory if faced with a challenge by capitalism. Therefore, the communist must not engage in electoral politics, but rather subvert the capitalist system by infiltrating it's cultural and social underpinnings in influential positions which were acquired without recourse to elections, and from which no communist could be ousted by the vote.
If you wonder why every American institution appears to be run by a cabal of it's enemies, this is why.
The Commies invaded the institutions.
Dan Price is the CEO of Gravity Payments, a credit-card payment processing company. He is somewhat famous for instituting a program by which all of his employees were to be paid $70,000 a year, regardless of job or skill, and he lowered his own salary from over a million-per to $70,000, as well.
Of course, that's virtue signaling, because like most CEO's Dan Price doesn't get paid like his employees do. In fact, after multiple allegations of enriching himself to an excessive extent (and the resulting lawsuits), Price was found to be making about $3 million a year, and has received numerous offers to write books, and has (allegedly) played serious games with his real estate holdings in order to put more cash in his pocket; he gets paid to speak at all manner of nonsense "conferences".
The lawsuits accusing him of shady business dealings are stacked on a neat heap like cordwood.
If he's anything like the typical CEO, it is very likely he has no living expenses whatsoever, all (or most) of his needs being picked up by the company and written off.
You know, Like Warren Buffet does.
So, when I saw that meme -- it's been floating all over the internet for quite some time -- I had to laugh.
"The System" works very well -- for Dan Price.
And what's even funnier is, "The System" that all these recent kollege grads with no prospects whine about, is precisely "The System" these assholes support when they vote with their feelings rather than their brains, and pull the lever for someone like Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton or AOC, while outright rejecting -- even refusing to acknowledge -- that The Other Side has anything to offer them beyond slavery to government...through kollege loans, even.
But then again, that attitude is part of "The System" that Dan says doesn't work. It's part of "The System" that people who still live in Mommy's basement after 4,5,7, 12 years of kollege have begged for, because fucktard.
Understand WHY you went to college, in the first place. It certainly wasn't "to get an education"; you went because someone told you that you should, and that same someone probably also told you to "follow your dream" without explaining that your dream job in Latin Translation, (insert name of ethnic group here) Art, or ________ "Studies" would probably result in very limited economic opportunity, post-graduation.
Even the "Liberal Arts Major", who is typically very un-liberal, has no artistic talent, and is a major pain-in-the-ass, has more opportunity available post-grad than, say, the Latina Humpback Literature major, but that's not saying much.
What you really went to school for was to NETWORK. If you missed that boat, it's difficult to swim in it's wake.
The truth is that your initial opportunities are very much limited by the fact THAT YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO DO ANYTHING because you've never done it before. That piece of paper you got in a Club-Med-like atmosphere of binge-drinking, reckless sexual encounters, easy-A's, luxurious campuses, experimentation with drugs and how-to activism didn't actually prepare you for anything. It didn't even give you the basics necessary to begin a career in your chosen field.
I know this for a fact, because I was a hiring manager for over two decades and saw thousands of eager, young idiots who came in all full of themselves (because diploma) and who quickly discovered they wasted four years of their lives chasing that piece of paper.
Your beginning salaries and opportunities suck because a prospective employer isn't making an investment in what you think you can do; they're making an investment in your (perceived) potential, and if that deal doesn't work out for you, it's your own fault, your unrealistic expectations aside.
Everyone pays their dues.
And people much like Dan Price, who talk a good game, and make tremendous efforts to position themselves as "Men of The People" -- even to the extent of trying to pass themselves off as Jesus -- are liars, par excellence.
CEO's, as a general rule, don't run companies. They may found them, yes, but they don't actually get their hands dirty doing the actual work; that's what other people are hired for, and they spend their days as salesmen and cheerleaders, subsidized by shareholders. I doubt Price knows what happens on the factory floor any more than Buffet, Gates, or Bezos does, or that he could seamlessly slip into someone's job, if necessary, and do it with any degree of skill or efficiency, because people like Price DON'T WORK.
And they know it.
(Disclaimer: I don't know this for a fact about Price, but I suspect that I'm not too far off the mark).
Another thing: It is hardly considered that while Price's action of paying everyone $70,000k is great publicity, it probably had the practical effect of depriving two other people of a $35,000 OPPORTUNITY.
It's not the money that counts as you begin your career (although there are certainly practical considerations to take into account) but the quality of the opportunities you are initially offered.
Quality often comes with sacrifice.
This is the part of the equation that gets no consideration.
And, of course, the "solution" to this "problem" of confusing "opportunity" with "income" is to tear down the system that creates the opportunity and the income, i.e. capitalism, and make everyone a ward of the state, where their loans will be wiped out and everyone will (theoretically) be paid the same, regardless of use or function.
And we'll all be equally miserable. Because that's what happens under communism.
But not Dan Price. That capitalist system worked for him, it made him very wealthy, it made him somewhat famous, and it will go on doing so until either time, hubris or poor judgment finally catches up to him, just like it does every other rah-rah dingbat for Communism (for everyone else).
It's all well-and-fine to play at Robin Hood, Dan; it is another thing altogether to actually LIVE it.
So, while you're busy Tweeting out your own bullshit, how about you put your own, actual, money where your mouth is, and tell everyone where it comes from?
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