Your Salary Doesn't Define You

Can you do your best in your job and try to provide for your family while maintaining some sense of spirituality and understanding of that perhaps the consciousness within you is something much bigger than you know than than maybe what what you're dealing with on a day-to-day basis? Depends on your expenses. Welcome back to Chuck for Free Radio. In today's episode, we're going to be talking about a topic that a lot of people may have uh on their mind, which is the salary they're earning. You know, a lot of folks out there may be dissatisfied with the salary they're making, wish that they could be making more. I don't know, Ray. I mean, what's uh it seems like it's a common issue for a lot of people out there, man.

Yeah, I mean, a lot of factors go into it. You know, education, you know.

Opportunity.

Opportunity, networking now. Yeah. I feel like networking is a I feel like now you only really need education. You just go into networking with people and get a little uh get a little job off of that. Yeah. I wish education wasn't so like fixated on so much. Yeah. I feel like experience, I feel like experience is better than education.

I think that's true. And I think employers, at a certain point, they value the experience more than the education. But you know, starting out, I think it tends to be a big masonos. Yeah.

I mean, I as an employer, I would I would be fixated more on experience.

Right.

Because I you could read everything. I want you I want to know what you actually do in the field.

Yeah.

You know what I mean? I wanna know how you do under pressure.

Yeah.

Um, yeah.

Yeah. Um, but I think you know, we should acknowledge up front that um for people, you know, the salary they make makes can make a huge difference in their life. Yeah. Right. I mean, you're talking about you know, quality of living, the experiences you're having, the amount of stress that that's in your life. So it, you know, it can it can really have a very, very big impact.

Right.

So we want to want to be up front and acknowledge that it it can be a tremendous source of stress for a lot of people out there. Yeah. And and I I you know, I think from our perspective, if if you're out there and you and you want to improve yourself financially, you know, we're with you 100%. We hope things get better.

Of course.

We also uh want to make a a very loud and clear statement up front that in the ultimate analysis, um, these things may not matter as much as we think they do.

Yeah, I mean, because at the end, yeah, we don't take none of that uh that 401k that we were saving, that raw fire we were saving, those high yield savings accounts that we were uh building up. All those things they might pass on to our beneficiaries, but they don't really like they don't do nothing for us while we're dead.

Once you're passed through.

Yeah.

Yeah. And so we're we're gonna hit on this topic uh both from from kind of the the raw economic standpoint of it and and talk about some some interesting aspects of of how um the salary a person makes oftentimes has no bearing whatsoever on the real value of the job that they're doing. Yeah you know, so we see what somebody makes, and it may not at all reflect the true value that they're providing to society, you know, based on their salary. So we want to establish that with some some hard some hard economic discussion. And then in the second half of the episode, we'll talk uh about some aspects of spirituality related to this. So we're gonna go through some some examples of of jobs and and how much they get paid. I'm kind of curious about Ray's reaction to some of these numbers.

So specifically told me not to look at the numbers.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so so first up, daycare worker. Any any guess on on average hour average salary or average uh hourly compensation for a daycare worker?

Like just a regular daycare worker.

Yeah. Talking about like the teacher or like instructor or the you know, the whoever's watching the kids at the daycare center. 22? The stats say$18 an hour. This is not mass, though, right? Not not Massachusetts. Not MASH. This is not mass.

This is just America.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Average in the U.S., yeah. Yeah, because yeah, okay. Yeah, it's probably a little higher in Massachusetts.

Yeah, I know a couple of daycare workers, they make like 24.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, but this is across across the U.S. And this is for all these numbers we're going to use are you know U.S. averages. Okay. Right. Now let's think about the impact that a daycare worker is having on the children in that center, right? You know, having a good daycare worker versus a not so great one, think about all the downstream impacts in terms of of the child's you know, ability to learn, ability to control their behavior. You know, it's it's a it's a potentially big impact, especially because you're involved with the child at a very young age and they have you know decades and decades of life ahead of them. Right? So so a really, really terrible daycare worker can really cause a lot of damage, and really great one could you know have a tremendous benefit, and yet they pretty much all get paid the same.

Did you uh did your kids go to daycare?

No, no, not at all. My wife was at home, yeah. Yeah, okay when they were young, yeah.

Yeah. But I don't know about uh most people, but like all my nieces and like young cousins, like when I when my mom uh when uh my grandmother was like she was able to do more things, she was the daycare worker.

Right, right, right.

You know what I mean? So like everybody like learned Spanish and like all that stuff, went to her every morning and and stuff like that.

So that was that was cool. Yeah, which is which is unusual. I mean it's it's it's rare for kids to have that.

I'm pretty sure like most like Spanish households do that.

I I don't know. It's it's a good question, but I I think it's true that this was kind of like this is what families did before on an extended basis.

Because grandma was always home, probably.

Right. Right. And I think a lot of that's broken down over time, which is you know a shame.

But but you're right, the daycare workers do have like it's like two lives for that kid at one point for like what ages one through five.

What what do you mean?

Like they go home with you.

Right.

And then they you know I mean, whatever habits they learn from there come home too. Yeah, yeah. I mean, and vice versa. Maybe they're like, oh, they start to pick up like, oh, maybe I could I could do this in daycare, but they're just like a nuisance there. Right. But at home, they all like cool. You know, I mean kids are smarter than they actually like, you know.

Let on, yeah. Yeah, so you think about it, right? Like, you know, especially for a younger kid, say they're two or three years old, okay, they come home and a huge amount of the time that they're at home they're sleeping. Right. So of their their waking experience during that age, a huge percentage is occurring at the daycare center. Right. So again, like what how big an impact can that can that worker have on that that that child, right? It's a huge amount, and yet there's really not like some kind of mechanism to compensate them appropriately based on that. Okay, no. So next up uh EMT. Emergency services when you when when you when you gotta call 911 and you need somebody to show up. Ray, any any guess on on the average hourly sal compensation? Hourly? Hourly. Actually, I can't say compensation, we have to be we'd be precise your salary because they may be getting other compensation above it.

But like salary for the year?

No, hourly. Oh, hourly? Uh 25?

20. 20 an hour. So the people saving you are making 20 an hour.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Now, isn't that kind of a crazy thing, man? I mean, these this is like a highly specialized skill. You got to come into a very stressful situation, remain calm, yeah, have the training, know what to do.

See blood.

Yeah. Yeah. And and you know, and I assume like most jobs, there's probably like a starting salary and goes up over time, but this is this is a critical job and it gets paid twenty bucks an hour. You know? Okay. Now this was this one was was an eye-opening for me. I actually looked this up a couple of years ago and I was I was really surprised. Okay. Uh someone enlisted as a Marine. So what's the what's their monthly compensation? Or salary, rather, again, because there's other fringe compensation for people in the Marines, but monthly, monthly compensation. Month monthly salary. 3.5? 2,000. So think about this. A Marine. That's like 15 an hour, probably. Whatever it is, yeah. It's probably less than that. Yeah. Now, I think they're given housing stipends and meal stipends and some other stuff that that may kind of offset the balance, but these are people you're entrusting this this you know safety of the the country to.

Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, it's not for for putting their you know their lives on the line, all the potential long-term risks to them, health-wise, and I mean, it's it's not a lot. Yeah.

Right.

And we got we got a lot of money for the defense budget for for hardware and equipment, but they do get benefits after they leave, though. They get some hefty checks after they're valid, valid, but but nonetheless.

MVA checks be crazy. Yeah.

Nonetheless, it's still not a lot.

Yeah, no, it's not. It's not. It's not because they could be like sending money, you know, home and stuff.

Yeah.

That's sick. Yeah.

So again, these are these are critical services, EMTs and and Marines. You know, who who keep who help keep the society functioning and they get they get paid not very much. You know, one more year. Uh firefighters. Any guess? Average and we'll go with annual salary on this one. Uh 70. It's 50 to 60,000.

Now, again, this is across all US, it's not mass. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We know we a lot of us know the some firefighters here, so we know how much they gave. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, now again, they're they're getting compensation in the form of retirement benefits and some other you know, parts of their their you know, their their pay package. But nonetheless, again, we we get an example of a critical function where the compensation is just not that much, right? Especially relative to the risk involved and the yeah.

I think 60k though in in Utah's fine.

Yeah, yeah. It's could be right.

60k here though is not stretching it very thin.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh now now we want to turn um maybe to a to a different uh angle on this question. And again, what we're trying to emphasize is that the real value of a job is many, many times not at all reflected in what the job gets paid. Okay, so we're we're gonna turn to political individuals. Yeah. So here, so so some interesting stats here, Ray. So and any any guess what the total spending was on the 2024 election in the US for Senate, House, and presidency?

All together.

Yeah, all the campaigns. How much money do you think was raised for that 2024 campaign?

Had to be in a billion, right? Billion area? Yeah, give me give me give me your best guess, man.

One. One one. One billion? Okay, so so you're off by 15 times. 15 billion? 15 billion. Yeah, so the source on this is uh open secrets. Uh so nine and a half billion for the House and Senate seats. Nine and a half billion dollars raised for these campaigns. And then another five billion for the presidency.

There's a lot of house seats though, right?

Yeah.

Like 60 something, right?

Uh no, hundred, hundred Senate seats, and then, you know, I think whatever, four house? 400. There's a I mean, I I forget the number off the top of my head. I think it's like 538 total between that kind of makes sense, though.

Okay.

That is a lot of money though. But okay, but now so so Wait, does that go to them or now that's like the spending on the campaign infrastructure, advertising, you know, paying for you know so that's our US dollars? Yes, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

That's how that's where our taxes go?

Some of it, but a lot of it's you know, just raised from people, you know, getting donations for their campaigns. Okay, so uh now now so so we got 15 billion dollars to get them elected. Okay. What do you think the the combined salary of all those government officials, all the senators, all the congressmen, and the president? How much do you think they make a year? All of them combined. No,$100 million. Okay. So our entire federal government, okay, House, Senate, and Presidency, okay,$100 million a year. Do you do you know what the Yankees' payroll is?

Yeah, probably like$280.

Yeah,$300 million. Yeah. So our our entire federal elected government officials make a third of the Yankees' payroll. And they're in charge of a federal budget measured into trillions of dollars.

I can't tell if that's bad or good, though. Because I feel like those that's a lot of that's a lot of people. So like the the average, like probably like uh Senate seat, probably like what, like$150,000 to$200,000 a year.

Okay, so yeah, so that's my my next question. Yeah. So what so do you know, yeah, what is what's your guess on an average senator's salary? No, would have been that$150,000 to$200. Yeah, and you're dead on. It's actually one$174.

Yeah.

Okay, so$174,000 a year, which is which is for most families in the U.S., that'd be a lot of money, right?

Yeah.

Now I think it's important to remember they've got to maintain a separate household in DC and in their home state. Like it's actually, I don't think it's very high compensation for the you know, the job involved. Um now, now we're gonna get into an interesting fact. So this this job, right?$174,000 a year.

Mm-hmm.

Okay. Uh what do you think the cost was for a contested Senate seat in terms of election spending? How much it costs for them to to run. How much how much money was raised for to win a competitive Senate seat? Probably like 100 mil. Yeah, good guess, but yeah.

Yeah, so I mean, and you you said nine billion, so it's like four or five hundred of them. So like it has to be linear.

Yeah. Yeah. So for yeah, this is again the the data source here is is open secrets. Um, the Ohio Senate seat, that campaign was$140 million. Ohio. Yeah. Can't imagine what it what mass is. Well, what mass is different because it's not a competitive seat, it's almost always a democratically held seat. So they don't have to they don't spend it's it's when there's a lot of competition that spends those. And the Texas was the biggest number at$200 million.

They'd be fighting over there.

Okay. So again, we're talking about a senator making$170,000 roughly a year, okay, and yet they're spending$200 million to win some of these seats. So if you take a senator's term of six years, it implies the real value of the job is more like$20 to$30 million a year.

Damn.

Right.

And they get paid$174,000.$174,000.

Right. So some of these senators are crooked, though.

Yeah, yeah. Listen, I mean, uh they'll they'll they'll they'll get their compensation somewhere or other. But I again the point's the point the point here is the senators paid X, okay, but the real value you can tell based on how much money is spent on on the campaign election.

Yeah. You know.

So there's there's there's again.

Just imagine what you can do with that money as like feeding Americans, housing homeless people, fixing the roads and fixing the problems in the educational system. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh my God.

Okay. So um so we got uh this is the last political one. Okay, so Supreme Court justice. How much do you think they make?

They're like in between like president and like Senate, right?

Yeah, and like hierarchy and like hierarchy? Yeah, you could think of it that way. 250? Yeah, good guess. Yeah, 300,000 a year. Yeah. Okay, now the reality is that a lot a lot of the money spent on Senate. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot of the money spent on those Senate campaigns is in reality to try to control who's going on to those Supreme Court seats.

Yeah. Right.

So if you were to have an open auction for a Supreme Court seat, I mean I think it would be valued in the billions of dollars. You know? I mean, I think it the number has to start with the with a B.

Yeah.

Right. So again, you have this person making$300,000 a year occupying a seat that's worth billions. Right. So there's no no relationship between the salary and what what the position is actually worth.

That's just the powers that be though. Yeah, yeah. That like that want to keep the infrastructure the way it is. Right. You know what I mean? Like a lot of those people we we could talk about it, but like Yeah, I think well, let's let's move on from the political side of things.

Okay, so now now we're we're gonna talk about you know a historical figure that's that's near and dear to my heart. Um Vincent Van Gogh. Okay. Salary. How much he made? Yeah. Is there a statistic on this? Yeah, I mean, you can say he made nothing. He he died broke.

Hold on. I gotta I gotta I gotta ax the whole backstory a little bit so I can get what year.

Uh this would be like I think around 1880, 1890. Money was nothing back then. No, money was still something back then. Come on. Okay, we're talking about a guy, okay, obviously a a highly unique, incredibly talented individual, you know, who you don't see very often in the species. Okay. He was so poor that he a lot of times he couldn't even afford paint and canvas.

Yeah. You know? Probably made like in his lifetime or like a year.

Well, he didn't make an annual salary because he was an artist. Okay. I'm just saying he couldn't even sell his artwork.

Yeah.

People thought it was like trash.

They make Legos out of his artwork. People, I have one at home. I have the Starry Night one. Oh, do you really? Yeah. That's funny, man. And I have uh and I built the Great Wave one too.

Okay, so so let's some some some fun statistics here. Okay, last last two major works of his sold at auction. Okay. One was in November of 2017, titled Labor in a Field. Any any guess on the number? 50 mil? Good good close, 80 mil. Okay, and then uh in just in uh just recently, November of 2025, um Parisian novels, another one of his works. Okay, which was close to your number. This one went for 60 million.

Okay.

Now we're talking about somebody who was kind of kicked around, again, frequently couldn't afford to buy paint and canvas.

Yeah. Okay.

150 years later, those works are are going for you know, 50, 60, 70 mil a pop.

Okay.

So again, we can see Vincent van Gogh. Okay, if you're someone out there and you feel like you're being underpaid, Vincent Van Gogh made nothing. Okay. So we're we're sympathetic. Okay, we're just we're just trying to say that there are a lot of situations where somebody doesn't get paid for something, and the real value of it's not determined until way later. You know?

Or until after they die.

Until after they die, yeah. Okay, so now we're this is this is kind of the last of the the the economic side of this. Okay, so we're gonna we're gonna go with Deshaun Watson. Stealing money. Cleveland Browns quarterback, you know, much much discussed in the in the media. Making, I don't know, like what, 60 mil a year on average for that contract?

Yeah, to sit out. Yeah, to sit out, yeah.

And he's had injuries, you know, I'm sure he'd like to be playing if he could. Yeah. But but the the the the reality is that he's getting paid only because of the way that contract was structured.

Yeah.

You know, if the contract had been structured in a slightly different way, he would have been cut by now.

Yeah, a lot of it was guaranteed. Yeah.

So yeah, so they're stuck with it, right? So that's that this is a situation where the you know, this this individual is literally like draining money from the team. What was the number?

Yeah, do you did you look at the number?

His contract?

Yeah. I think it was like what was it, like 250?

Yeah. I think it was like 250 or years or something.

Like 160 or 180 of it guaranteed? I think more.

I think it was like more. Yeah. I think almost all of it was guaranteed. Right? Yeah. So again, this is this is literally no no relationship between the economic value and what this person's being paid. The reason they're being paid is simply because of the way the contract was structured. Structured. Right now, good good for his agents. Yeah. You know, they they did a good job taking care of him. Okay, but again, we're we're just trying to establish this point that what a person gets paid and what they're worth has no no like in a lot of cases it doesn't really mean anything. You know, so I don't know.

Any any counterpoints or anything you want to argue or well, I mean Deshaun was being paid for what he looked like in Houston, so right. Yeah, but artistically, we're uh a lot of those people are unfortunately like after they die is when people see the worth of something. You're you're talking about like Van Gogh or anyone's artists. I I've known I know a a couple artists that are like really have amazing work, but they're probably not gonna ever get the recognition they deserve. Right. Right. That's just life. Take take uh for music, you know, when somebody dies, those artists, their streams go up, they skyrocket, and everybody's like, you know, writing the RIP, like, oh my god, and his music was so good. Yeah. But nobody really valued them when he was alive. Like, take Mac Miller. Right. A lot of people love Mac Miller's work, but he's getting like crazy streams now. Because people are going back and being like, oh my god, like this dude was actually pretty decent. You know what I mean?

Yeah. Yeah, and there's a lot like let's um let's take studio session session musicians. Yeah, some of whom have had huge contributions to world famous tracks, and they they really they get paid like a couple of bucks. And so, you know, thank you and and you know, move on.

It sucks sometimes you think you're uh worth more. Yeah. But that's the way America is. That's the way America is. I'm pretty sure most of all of us would love to be paid$100k a year.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Unless you're a hedge fund manager and then it would be torture.

That's just the way America was America's built though. Yeah. You can't you can't give everybody you can't give everybody a high salary. Yeah. Because then everything else is just gonna skyrocket.

So Yeah, it's true. Yeah, you know.

You know what I mean? Like you gotta like you and that that sucks that's just the way that that like that's the way that life is, but like take a place like Dubai, they don't even have taxes in Dubai.

Right, right. Right. There's a lot of extremely wealthy people there, and then there's a lot of people who are basically just like you know, in very, very difficult situations there, you know. So, anyways, our our our message is if you're out there and you're dissatisfied with your salary, we we hope things get better for you. Um, but just please, please remember that it actually has very little meaning in terms of what real value you're providing to society from a purely economic standpoint. And there's a lot of situations where somebody does amazing work and they don't really get paid for it. So we we hope, we hope, you know, if you if you're out there and you're dissatisfied, we hope things get better, but please understand that there may be other things, you know, kind of factoring into it.

There's nothing really you can do except like go back to school and try to like fit into those brackets. Right. You know what I mean? So that's the really only way to advance or network. Yeah. Like to try to get to the next pedestal, but yeah. I mean, take a person like me, like I didn't even finish school. Right. So I'm kind of like I've been stuck at like the average, whatever it is. Right, the average, yeah, US salary, yeah. Yeah, so I'm making I'm making what life is, you know, about. Right. I'm just try living a life trying to be happy. Right. There's gonna be moments where you're sad, there's gonna be moments where you're you're you know, mad, depressed, want more, and you're gonna have to fight for it. Right. Unfortunately.

So all right. Well, we wanted to turn to the the spiritual aspects of this, um, which I think there's some very, very important messages here that we want to get across. Um, okay, well and when we talk about spirituality, a lot of times there's a lot of like woo-woo, you know, kind of uh you know, kind of cla you know, head in the sky kind of you know mentality around it. We we just want to look at this from a very, very hard level. Without the consciousness in you, you're just a meat puppet. Okay. Do you do you agree?

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. So basically without your soul. Yes. Yeah, agreed, right?

Yeah, yeah, we can use consciousness, soul, you know, we c I I want to use those as interchangeable terms for for our purposes here.

Okay.

Agreed. Okay. In order to have the experience of having a salary, you must be conscious. Right. Okay. So therefore, in a very real sense, your your con everybody's consciousness is infinitely more valuable than the salary they make. Because to even have the experience of having a salary, you've got to be conscious. Agree or disagree? I agree. Okay. Right. So so let's think about this. Okay. A lot of us in this world run around defining ourselves based on how much money we're making, okay, how much the other person is making, how much I should be making because the other person is making more. Right. In order to have any of those thoughts, you've got to be conscious. One cannot even have the experience of having a salary unless you're conscious. And so that's why I'm I'm making this. This is again, I made this as a personal statement here. I'm saying, in in my worldview, the consciousness in every single human being is infinitely more valuable than their salary.

Yeah.

Because the salary is just a materialistic, inert thing. Unless the consciousness is there to experience it, it's a meaningless thing. You know, so this is like like how many people really, I mean think like this? Yeah.

Not too many.

Yeah, right. And I think this is part of the issue, is that we we have a society now where everybody defines themselves, not everybody.

I think there's a lot of sane people out there, but I mean, because unfortunately, as much as we love spiritual talk and all this stuff, unfortunately, spiritual talk doesn't pay the bills. Yes. Yeah, yeah. Like we we can we can like have these these these talks and all this stuff and and and uh think about it, but that gonna pay the rent on the first. Yeah. So I I think I think sometimes people have to push the spirituality and and the and the happiness and all that, they'll push it aside. Yes. And they have to fight for that dollar bill. Right. So that's what sucks because we shouldn't have to live like that in in in in worldview, you know what I mean? Right. So, but that's just the way it is.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think I think it's worth acknowledging near nearly every spiritual tradition has very, very, you know, pretty serious warnings about the desire for wealth and you know, the desire to you know acquire all these things. And we don't really talk about okay, this this dichotomy between the religions and spirituality telling us don't worry too much about it, and the day-to-day reality that we we're all dealing with, which is that it's it's really hard to just live. You know, so is is there a path to reconcile the two? You know, this is this is the to me, this is one of the big questions. Can can can you do your best in your job and try to provide for your family while maintaining some sense of spirituality and understanding of that perhaps the the consciousness within you is something much bigger than you know than than maybe what what you're dealing with on a day-to-day basis?

Depends on your expenses. You know, I mean, if you don't if you don't overly buy everything and just live off salary and like you know, providing for your family and food and giving them everything, then I'm pretty sure I'm pretty sure that there's people out there that are like that and that are happy with life. I mean, I I I'm like in the middle ground of that, you know what I mean? Like I want more money, but I'm also like, okay, I'm doing decent. I still have money in my savings and my 401k and all those things. Right. Right, right, right. You know, but at the end, like you said, I can't take that.

Yeah. That goes that goes to somebody. Yeah, and I and I want to be you know, you know, open with our audience here. I mean, when I was a kid, especially, and continued on into adulthood, I was a I was a greedy little snot. Yeah, you know. I I really was. I had all these things I wanted in life, yeah, you know, and I I had to have them, and if I didn't have them, it was it was like a crisis, you know, and I worked hard and whatever, but I think now with a little bit better understanding of of kind of what these spiritual traditions were trying to point us to, I think I've I've come to understand that it was a very limited worldview. It was a very selfish worldview, right? Yeah. Because it wasn't it wasn't about, oh, I'm just gonna provide for my family. It was like I had to fulfill all these visions I had for the life that I I deserved, that I I was owed. Okay, and that none of that is really true. Yeah, you know.

So I don't think I deserve anything though. Right, right. Yeah. Um, I mean, I think I deserve to be happy. Right. Certain stuff like that. But like in terms of like money and and everything, I think I picked the path myself, you know what I mean? Like I can't be mad at anybody besides myself. Right. I'm the one that didn't go to college and all those things. Right. You know what I mean? I'm the one that did school the way I did school, you know? Yeah. So you can only be mad at yourself if you put yourself in the circumstances, you know what I mean? So that's the way I look at things.

Right. So yeah, I think this is actually an important point. Okay, where for for anyone who's dissatisfied out there, okay, I think you gotta look at it from the standpoint of what is what you know, instead of instead of being fatalistic about it and and complaining about it, I think it's better to look at it on a hard basis and say, hey, why why have I not achieved what I wanted to achieve? And what what concrete steps can I take to move towards my goals? Yeah. You know, because I I I'm curious, like, have you ever spent a lot of time like blaming others for your problems or at first when I was when I was a kid, I used to.

Right. This is why I didn't stay at this school. Because I mean, I went to I went to prep school. So like I blamed everybody else besides myself. Right. And I mean, and if I would have stayed there, I'd have been a snobby little asshole. I would have, because I was developing bad habits. So if I would have stayed there the full four years, and you know, I probably would have gone to college because it was a great school. So I would have got into college and and I probably would have been like a super dickhead. I'm not gonna lie to you. I'm not gonna lie. So I'm you know, I'm I'm glad the way life turned out a little bit, you know. At least I at least I know at the end of this that like I had a I had a heart worth worth a little bit more than that just money or whatever's in my pocket. Yeah.

So yeah, and this is you know, again, a theme that that recurs on the show frequently, but you know, you you you you live and you die. Yeah. Like this, you know, and and and you may be spending a lot of time thinking about your salary, but I would I would say just spend a little bit of time thinking about the fact that you're gonna be dead and that at some point the salary may not matter. In fact, it won't matter. So I don't I don't know, too morbid. Usually I'm morbid, you just got morbid.

But yeah, I mean, like, all right, take it this week, right? I had a dentist procedure. Yeah. Right? Did I want to spend the money on it? No. Right. Because it was a lot. But you know, and then yesterday, you I spent$100 on a shirt. Right. Because I was like, you know what? It's the start of the new year. I really want this shirt. Right. You know what I mean? I haven't bought myself anything in a long time.

Right.

Let me buy this shirt.

Right.

It happens. Yeah. You know, stuff happens. Yeah. Sometimes you want to feel good about yourself. As much as we talk about fashion, and I said I was never gonna pay$100 for something. Right. But you know, sometimes you slip up and be like, you know, I want to do this one thing for myself. Yeah, yeah. Am I gonna wear that shirt a lot? I don't know, probably not. So who knows?

Yeah, yeah. All right. Well, uh, we're gonna we're gonna cross economics and spirituality here. So, you know, this is I again just just something to think about. Okay. Yeah. Buddha. Annual salary after Enlightenment. Zero, yeah. Was it zero? Yeah. I mean, he lived off of, you know, I mean, he was wandering, essentially a wandering monk. I mean, his compensation was he he got free food and lodging. Like no gold, no silver, no retirement account. Now there are hundreds of millions of followers of Buddha now, right? Who who have looked at his example, learned from his teachings. I mean, can can you put a price on that? Right? Nothing. Yeah, you can. It's it's in it's worth an infinite amount of money. No, right? And he got paid zero. Jesus. Compensation, annual compensation. Zero. Zero.

Yeah. He got backstabbed.

Yes, yes, yes, his his non-cash compensation is that he got crucified. Now, there are I th I think north of a billion Christians practicing. Okay. And and you know, aside from from the outward, you know, structure of Christianity, I mean the the the the power of his living example, okay, to love one another, you know, without condition. Infinite value. Okay. Got paid nothing for it. Okay, did it because he thought it was the right thing to do.

Yeah.

Okay. So so again, we we started off this this episode talking about how economically there's a lot of people who do things and they don't get compensated for it. Okay. Buddha and Jesus got paid nothing. Okay. I would argue the two most underpaid people in human history. So just some food for thought. I don't know.

Life was different back then. Yeah. Unfortunately, we can't survive off the teachings.

Yeah, I I don't know. It's maybe. I mean, yeah.

It's it you can. You know what I mean? You can, but a lot of people don't want to detach.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, again, the these two beings who came to help help liberate the human race. Yeah. You know, they did it for free.

Mm-hmm.

So just just something to think about. I think it's just so hard in this world, man. Everything, everywhere we turn, it's telling us to make more money. Yeah. So it's hard. It's tough. Make more money, get more healthier. Yeah. But in order to get more healthier, you gotta spend more money, make more money.

You need the gym membership and the the healthy eating.

Well, nah, you don't need to spend$200 at lifetime fitness. You can just go to Planet Fitness, it's the same thing. It's literally the same thing. But that's neither here nor there. But yeah. But I what I I would love for America to do, right? You want people to get healthy, but like make it affordable. Why why is a salad costing you know what I mean? So much money or whatever. Like make those ingredients like a dollar.

Right.

You know what I mean?

Like, yeah, it is it is expensive to eat healthy.

Yeah. It's like, dude, make these things like like reasonable, reasonable prices.

Yeah.

That doesn't that doesn't make money. Keeping people fat makes money. Yes. Yeah. Not finding the cure for cancer and HIV makes money.

Well, yeah, that way they can, you know, you you you know, you you you pay for the processed foods on the way in and then you pay for the Ozempic and the Monjaro on the way out. You know, so they get you both ways.

Yeah, man.

All right. Well, on on a related note, uh, our our donation for this episode is gonna be to the Greater Boston Food Bank. Here we go. Uh so hopefully some some families out there get some benefit. Yeah, so I don't know. Ray, anything else or no?

I think we covered everything. Yeah. We didn't want to get too philosophical on people. But those numbers are great, though. They they're great to hear about and great to learn. And remember, that's just US, that's not mass, because we you know we're in mass and we know we know people that thing.

So yeah. You got her uh ready for a minute? Yeah, I got you. You did better than me, man.

Going with our quote? Yeah. You know, one day you gotta you gotta get a quote in here. No, no, no. No, you just leave it to me. Yeah, yeah. Something simple. It's four letters. Water what waters you.

That's great.

Four words. Oh, yeah, four words. Sorry. See, no education right here. Oh, yeah, water what waters you.

Yeah, that's great.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, nice, nice.

Yeah, who uh attributing, do you know who it's attributed to?

No. Yeah. I'm pretty sure I mean that's it's it's pretty simple. I mean, a lot of us could have just thought about that, but when you hear, when you when you finally hear it, it's like, oh, that makes sense.

Yeah. Well, you know, we hope there's there's been some something useful in this episode for for the audience out there. And uh, you know, again, you if you're dissatisfied with your salary, we hope things get better. But remember, it may not be as important in the grand scheme of things as as maybe you're you're making it out. Until next time, this is Chuck Refree Radio signing up.