Will Work For Pay

Anxieties of a quarter-life crisis.

In this essay by Ruth Goodwin, she talks about her anxieties about being a twenty-five year old and wondering when everything will fall into place.

"I can’t possibly be alone in this feeling that every decision I make now affects the rest of my life, that I’ll never amount to anything impressive (unless you find loneliness and unemployment impressive, which unfortunately my parents do not)."

Read the full article over at The Globe and Mail here.

Best budget food blogs

Over at Huff Po!

A trillion dollars of student debt - a TRILLION

Rapid rise of student debt..... $0 to a trillion in 20 years.... pic.twitter.com/h9f1CZP7Yy
— John Robb (@johnrobb) November 15, 2014

Who's funding that business of yours? ...Then again, does it matter?

I read a post by BlogTO this afternoon reviewing Tonality Records, an indie record store opened and operated by an 18-year-old named Julian Seth-Wong. It's a good-looking store with a neat concept (Seth-Wong organizes the records by labels, rather than artists or genres).

I made the mistake of reading the comment section (why do I never learn?) and saw some pretty nasty things being said about Seth-Wong.

One commenter writes, "Cool but.. how does an 18 year old kid set himself up with a store filled with stock?" and is responded to by another commenter who snidely states, "Bank of mom and dad." There are a couple more comments like this:

Here's the deal. We don't even know where Seth-Wong got the money to open up his shop. All of these rude and critical comments are based on assumptions. And even if he did use his parents' money -- does it matter? I think we need to step back and re-evaluate this whole deal.

Seth-Wong is eighteen. Eighteen, you guys. Do you know what I was doing at eighteen? Going to university and watching Lost while eating fries in between classes. I always put off doing my Classics readings until the night before a test and, while I don't think I was unbelievably immature, I was definitely no where near being able to open up and run a business.

Let's say that he did get the money from his parents. Does that make it right for us to villainize him? Here's the deal -- the world isn't fair. Some people are going to have parents that support their business ventures. Some people are going to have parents that pay for their education. Some people are going to have parents that pay their rent. This doesn't necessarily mean that those people are not hard-working, initiative-taking, determined people. Are they incredibly lucky to have a more cushy landing pad that not everyone has? Of course. But some people are born with healthy while others struggle with chronic disease. Some people are able to skim a textbook quickly and ace a test while others need to study for tedious hours. It's not fair to hate the healthy and the academically gifted simply for those traits. I'd do plenty of things to have thick hair or the ability to get a decent GPA, but those things just aren't for me -- but it's not fair for me to hate my friends who do have heads full of gorgeous hair and 4.0 GPAs.

I get that it is frustrating to see other people in better socioeconomic positions. If Seth-Wong did get the money to fund his business from his parents, it may sting a little, especially if you're in a position where you are working long hours and not making as much and do not have the support that he might have. But clearly this kid is working hard and is passionate about what he's doing. He's the one running the business, selling the records, sharing his knowledge, etc. Would you rather his parents buy him a car or a condo? Or fund a trip for him to Europe so that he can find himself?

Life's hard and sometimes things seem unfair, but it's important to not project your own frustrations on other people -- especially when you don't know their full situation.

Good on you, Julian, for opening up your business. We're impressed and we wish you the best of luck with your business!

Upaid internships, no one likes you.

In an article for The Guardian, Sally Weale describes the real cost of unpaid internships in the UK.

A third of university graduates who are employed as interns receive no payment, while paying out up to £926 a month in living costs, according to new research published on Wednesday.

A six-month unpaid internship would cost a single person living in London a minimum of £5,556, according to research by the Sutton Trust, which argues that interns who work for more than a month should be paid at least the minimum wage of £6.50 per hour.

An estimated 21,000 interns are working for nothing in the UK at any one time, despite widespread public concern about them giving huge advantage to young people from wealthy families better positioned to work for free. A newly published Ipsos Mori poll for the Sutton Trust says 70% of people aged 16-75 in England agree unpaid internships “are unfair because only people from wealthy families are likely to be able to work for a significant period without pay”.

Read the full article here.

Misery loves company (and cheese)

In a piece for The Varsity, University of Toronto's student newspaper, Heather Eason offers ~~depressing~~ attainable leisure pursuits for cash-strapped students.

Pro tip: if you pour box wine into a respectable jug, no one will be the wiser. For the slightly more affluent, step up your wine-tasting with a selection of inexpensive (read: fluorescent orange) cheeses. For extra panache, remove cheese slices from their individual wrappings before guests arrive. And remember: aerosol cheese sounds respectable if you call it “mousse.”