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Millennials Are Obsessed With Side Hustles Because 'They're All' They've Got (qz.com)
Quartz ran an article over the weekend which captures a growing trend among millennials: to have a side job -- or as many of them call it, the "side-hustle." One of the reasons that people need this other gig is obviously money, but there are other factors at play as well. From the article: The side hustle offers something worth much more than money: A hedge against feeling stuck and dull and cheated by life. This psychological benefit is the real reason for the Millennial obsession, I'd argue, and why you might want to consider finding your own side hustle, no matter how old you are. Now one might say that this "side-hustle" is not a new phenomenon at all. People have since forever have had multiple jobs to make the ends meet. But the author argues that in the post 2008-crisis, we have witnessed a whole generation where one gig would simply not cut it all for many. The article adds: Previous generations have also coped with such semi-tragedy; probably every human ever has been a sort of actor-waiter at some point. In any case, those of us who are employed generally understand ourselves to be lucky. Working as a benefits administrator, an ad-sales rep or even a Facebook engineer might not be the dream job. But your side hustle can keep you from feeling pigeonholed. It's the distraction from your disappointment, a bridge between crass realities and your compelling inner life. In the best-case scenario, your side hustle can be like a lottery ticket, offering the possibility -- however remote -- that you just might hit the jackpot and discover that holy grail of gigs. The one that perfectly blends money and love. The one that's coming along any day now.
They used to call this your "day job." Artists, writers, and musicians all have day jobs, all except the very lucky few that hit it big.
Sounds like one of those entitled Baby Boomers.
As a BBer, I have had a "second job" for most of my life. I have stacked hay, renovated houses, and done lots and lots of contract programming. TFA offers no actual evidence that 2nd jobs are more common today. It is all just conjecture and opinion.
My hobby is working on electronic musical things. Some people know about this and will bring me busted guitar amps and ask if I can fix them. I make money every time I do it for anyone that isn't me, which means it pays for itself plus a bit of extra for some tasty adult beverages.
I never thought of it as a side hustle, or even a second income. It's something I do that is fun, but will be much less fun if I have to rely on it for living or if people think they can bring me their busted junk and I'll fix it for free.
I think the term "making money" refers to the amount of money in relation to the hours put into "making music" versus you would make if you worked at McDonalds.
If you practice twice a week and on top of that once with the band per week, lets say 2 hours ever time, that is 6 hours practicing per week. Assuming normal vacations and other causes, you do that only 45 weeks per year we come to 270 hours per year practicing. Now lets assume you play in a small band, just 3 people (Bass, Drums and Piano) and have a gig every month, lasting lets say 3 hours? And you let a hat go around, you make $150 per evening, divided by 3 that is $50 per gig or $600 per person per year.
Total hours worked is 270h practicing and 36h gigging, so you "make money" of $2 per hour.
That is by no definition "making money", it is a "waste of time". No lets factor in your gasoline and guitar strings and we are very quickly in the negative.
Actually, that was a no brainer, sorry that it took so much writing to point it out to you.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
Where the hell were you? The housing market crashed, but so much more went with it. Lots of folks got laid off. The lucky ones who got a new job often found that they were deep underwater in their house, even if they put 20% down.
Being part of an interlinked economy means that nobody is an island. Crappy loan products peddled to suckers can blow up a bank and take down everyone else with it. Young folks hitting the job market at that time were SOL. Colleges are not subsidized nearly like they used to be, so the same degree you have costs a lot more (usually necessitating student loans). Companies shipped all the lower end jobs overseas, taking away entry level jobs to gain experience. So the few open positions of any consequence for a few years after 2008 all required 5-10 years experience and super specific job skills.
We littered the country with a whole heap of well educated debtors that really struggled to get a decent job. Many of them did get crap jobs, and many had to go live with their parents due to the crushing debt they got that could not be serviced on a service job.
Thomas Jefferson founded the University of Virginia and it was free. Contrary to popular belief the founders were not in fact opposed to the notion of there being benefits for living in a society.
The California public university system was free until Ronald Reagan got elected governor and ended that. His rationale: college students were opposed to his policies. Reaganomics brought exactly that much thought on a national scale and over 30 years of it has ruined this country.
I went to college in the late 80s/early 90s. Paid for it with savings from working through high school, working summers, and the occasional job during school though I tried not to work when school was in. Graduated with zero debt, and near zero fun too but such is life. Got married in 2000 and my wife had to finish school that she'd interrupted when she was younger. We paid for that in cash too. It was hard but we did it.
College inflation brought on by Republican education cuts and privatizing student loans while letting the loan companies have essentially zero risk (thanks, 'free market' conservatives) have made either of those feats mathematically impossible today.
I literally couldn't do what I did were I to try now. I don't blame the millenials for what was done to them, unlike so many dipshits out there. The conservative fallacy that everything that happens to you is your own fault it's just excuse making for the utter failure of their entire philosophy.
We need something better.