Coffee Shops and The Alberta Young Adult Rat Race
It feels strange working only 40 – 50 hour work weeks. I wanted to work for another company because of it, as being paid hourly, working so little means lacklustre income. With all the spare time though, I can allocate it to fitness, studies, and to brainstorm new ways to make money. If I’m not lifting weights or buried in books, I am at the coffee shop doing research or checking over my finances.
I look for undervalued stocks with growth potential, though without cash to play with lately, I only get disappointed for not being able to do anything. I review frequently my budget/cashflow spreadsheet, which tracks every financial transaction. From this I can anticipate cash flow for each month and problem spending areas and plan accordingly. At times it becomes an obsession to look at the Net Cash Flow row, as that is the main present concern. This year has been bad for that, as earnings has been very disappointing throughout the construction season, and I’ve been working at reduced day rates for my oilfield work at the beginning.
If you have been following this blog, you should have noticed by now I’ve had a very low opinion of most other young people, especially some of the women. I picture them as arrogant lazy attention-seekers empty of ambition with a bag of chips in front of the TV daydreaming about how many kids they’ll have. They spend their spare time thirsting for the chase and affection of many lonely Albertan men and wasting their time; you’d be lucky to meet one who can even make a plan to show up at a given time or even tie her shoe. If you do not waste time on her, she will instantly accuse you of just wanting sex; the bad ones daydream about “trapping” the man by forcing him to have a child. Instead of planning a career, they plan on how to look as pretty as possible to attract lonely guys willing to do anything for them. Instead of being more direct, they’ll make a career out of just getting a date with them- sometimes even a number- as if it’s some golden privilege. If you don’t take things slowly with some, then with time waster logic, you only want sex:
How DARE he ask me out on a date already? How DARE he already ask for my number? How DARE he try to kiss me?
Also, the dumber and less ambitious you are, the better, because they know you can’t leave for a better woman, and will give them all the affection and attention they crave. Being dumb and empty of ambition themselves, they also seek their own kind to share their pain. Misery loves company. If you are too attractive, then they think you just want sex or will find another woman. If you are too ugly, then you are undesirable as well.
Many women also have no regard for the working man’s heart; work too much and/or away form home, and they will not hesitate to start looking for other men when they get lonely. They say money doesn’t matter, yet it’s what pays for their endless beauty products and clothes and bags of chips in front of the TV. Few have the emotional strength to put up with a successful man:
If you want a successful man, you put up with a busy man.
After meeting many different faces and hearing many different stories across the oilfield, a common trend is that the ones who have ended up loving an Albertan woman, have been left alone, often with child support and/or alimony payments. The ones who’ve had women from other provinces tend to stay together. Alberta is a trades province with an abundance of lonely men giving a little too much power to the affection and attention-thirsty woman. It’s also partly the cause for the high STD rates, as many sleep around.
I go through phone numbers like candy; they are added and deleted off my phone so frequently that it’s almost a numb habit, as I weed though the attention seekers only to get someone to feed their emotional needs until the next best thing comes along. Many planned dates are cancelled last minute when the woman comes up with an excuse; commonly that will be the last time we speak.
The men fit a similar description, but in addition, they’re lonely and crave the sex and affection of the time wasting woman. Most have little to no ambition as well beyond just finding a job, and see that as a means to an end. Most other young people (both men and women) are just interested in joining the rat race; only do what everyone else is doing. Maximize the credit cards and consumer spending just to keep up with the other young. Spend loan money on partying, looking pretty, drugs, and toys instead of real estate, education, and stocks. Minimize the future and blame their suffering on the better off. Dating sites are a “sausage fest” as we like to call them; many lonely guys just looking to get a smaller number of ass.
The line between what’s right or wrong can be blurry. I’ve ended things with many women due to the lack of punctuality and sensitivity to time. I don’t care if I don’t sleep for you for a month, but if you can’t even show up at a given time or answer your phone, or play a game to see how persistent I am, I won’t care for you very long. If I didn’t end things, I got angry enough to make it happen regardless. However, they act like this due to the abundance of desperate men in Alberta- many will take anything, and hardly have their life together themselves. In their words, they want a man who will do anything for a woman. Many are brought up just to find the highest bidder.
I once told a colleague:
It’s hard to go wrong with bank stocks. People will always be idiots and borrow to spend to do what the next person beside them does. Women will spend to look pretty and attract the affection and attention of lonely guys. Men will spend to pick up dumb young girls. Women will always pick losers as romantic partners, think 6 months is forever, buy a home together, then split when they realize their error. Then they pay the lawyers, real estate agents, and banks the associated mortgage penalties. Tradespeople profit from making homes that people actually don’t need. Raising interest rates and tightening mortgage rules is never for the good for the public; it’s just to maximize shareholder profit and keep the masses trapped in their consumption cycle. The flexible and disciplined shareholder will always be king, regardless of economic conditions.
I’ve worked up to 35 hour shifts, most being 10-15 hours in length, and finding every alternate but realistic avenue possible to make more money. Instead of joining the rat race of the other young people running each other into the ground, I’ve worked to ensure eventually they will be paying off my Ferrari when they’ve finally figured themselves out. Those who have put me down, caused me grief, and wasted my time over the years will then be finally bent over paying for my early retirement and wondering why they went wrong. But at the same time, how can I hate something that’s so normal, and socially normally deemed the correct philosophy of life? They didn’t know any better growing up. Women here are accustomed to men willing to take anything; it’s seen to be impractical for me to be above other men. How can I endure so much pain, to one day rise above them all and have the fruits of their labour pay for my Ferrari? How can I hate, though illogical, what’s part of the regular romantic dating process? Sometimes I feel guilty for being so hard on the other young people here, as though I hate much of them, how they are is all they know.
They are like my dog; you just throw her a bone and scratch her stomach and she’s so happy. If you don’t teach her what’s wrong and what’s right, then she will never know. I can’t hate my dog.
