BadAdvice

This isn't really true in rural communities. However, this imo is a bigger economy issue than it is an education issue. Truth is that kids as young as 11 and 12 are routinely hired for work in communities like these for the extra income they bring home to their families. Even farm kids on successful farms generally test or drop out of high-school even today. It's just not worth it to spend all day in class when you can be making real money running the farm. And industrialized farms still need as many hands as they can get. What we need to do is take the profit out of basic food stuffs and subsidize it entirely as the basic necessity it is. Same with water and housing. There is no reason to squeeze every drop profit you can out of a venture except greed.

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Tech companies don't hire people who know their stuff. Tech companies pay contractors who know their stuff to do the things their trained employees can't. They arent looking for a full cup. They need new meat to exploit while it's still too dumb to realize how hard it's getting shafted and then to dump it before it makes itself irreplaceable.

It also doesn't sound as much like you're looking for engagement as you are employment ("people with money don't pay attention to me"). If money is the end goal, you want to do advertising, not just engagement. If engagement and community are what you truly want, then I'm afraid to tell you those things generally cost money instead of generating it.

Contracting work would be the best case of having your cake and eating it too. Contractors form their own communities wherever they go depending on the trades in question. I think you'll find the network of likeminded individuals you're looking for there. However, be advised that contracting is regulation heavy and would greatly benefit from a few focused law courses before really trying to get yourself into bidding jobs.

I had an employer try this on me too. I beat the claim in court by pointing out that people who quit don't tend to bother showing up on time and ready to work at their next shift. Judge agreed with me. Shortly after I was offered about 80% of my claim as a settlement with the understanding that the taxes on the settlement would be paid by the company. Pretty good deal when I didn't even have a lawyer ngl

As a guy who was introduced to the Deesden Files through the syfy TV show I think I can say a bit about experiencing a weak opening. Honestly Storm Front isn't even that bad. It accomplishes its goal of establishing a fantasy nior in urban Chicago, but the fans universally hold it as the weakest in the series. The first three are seen as being weaker as a whole when compared to the series overall. Oddly similar when you look at it laid out like that.

You are more persistent than I am. I can't remember how many times I've picked up and put down the eye of the world without ever managing to get through it. I think I get to some river scene and just can't hack it anymore. Mat drives me up a wall by not just being entirely useless but often times actively harmful to the goals of the group as a whole. Further, while I appreciate worldbuilding that shows instead of tells (the scene with the bug bear guy stands out), the character interactions are often painfully weak with childish bickering dominating any sort of meaningful character development, especially within the main quintet of young characters. I am disheartened to know that the next two books don't do much better.

I don't need to wonder. I hear "I'm a conservative" and I already know you're a waste of oxygen and carbon. Literally rocks from the ground are more useful and productive to society at large.