I worked my ass off in a “professional” setting for 15 years. Obtained a degree and various other accolades during this time. I was you young and fresh out of trade school when I started. I stressed about bills and money the entire duration of my “professional” career. Finally after opening my eyes to the way “business” operates I said “fuck that” and asked for a raise. It was a hefty one, but I know for a fact that the work I did (some really technical bullshit) would more than be enough leverage. You get to understand your worth a little better after you start bidding jobs.
My boss. He was given a thriving company. He had to put in minimal effort his entire life and he gets a multimillion dollar company. Its fucking gross. Anyhoo… I tell him I need a substantial raise. He tells me “I got you”. Six weeks go by and nothing. Fuck it. So I'm having a discussion about exiting the company with a part owner (bossman couldn't handle the academics to get his license so he had to tell the engineers who actually made the money something). He tells me “Bossdoucheguy is reworking our rates so that he can give you a raise” This motherfucker makes 350k+ a year and the company pays for most of his personal bills, vehicles, gas and at least 5 phone lines for them. I got… I don't really know what to call it, but I was totally it. I blurted out…
“I don't want BDG to charge the clients more, I want him to come down off of that fucking pedestal he's got himself on!!”
I felt bad about my outburst because the guy I was talking to wasn't the problem and I genuinely thought he was a good dude (he left for similar reason no more than 6 months later). The next day I did apologize to co owner guy. For the outburst. I made sure to let him know that I was not sorry for the words though as I meant them wholeheartedly.
That was about 2 years ago. I sit at home and work maybe 10 hours a week now and play fucking videa games and smoke all day. Fuck every bit of the system as it currently stands. It's fucking disgusting and I absolutely refuse to participate in that bullshit.