But how high can that work raise your salary? They can’t keep raising it for the same job forever unless it a very niche case. At some point there is almost always a cap.
So then you got a swanky EV job and were a techie elite and they made memes about your company and your boss. You got stocks and were treated all grown up and you felt like suddenly you had some breathing room financially. And that continues on until and unless you reach a point where within reason you can buy whatever you want, you can pay all your bills pretty easily and you have a measure of financial security and a financial future that doesn’t seem to involve eating cat food because that’s all your budget in detriment would have allowed.

But for most people- every step of that list- if you stay at any one step long enough that excitement fades. That gratitude fades. When you landed that “big shot” $20 an hour job from minimum wage you probably felt pretty rich for awhile after your first check- until you realized $20 an hour ain’t shit. Good luck buying a home in many cities around the world. Good luck buying a new car when the average payment and costs are not well over $1000 a month.
You got a nicer apartment that costs more and started taking your partner out more and doing bigger things in your free time-
More exotic trips or nicer locations and accommodations or buying the big TV or the things you can now afford on Amazon etc. and $20/hr ain’t shit in grown up world.

But outpace of those huge raises we talked about- most of the time a raise gives a short term bump in happiness and then wears off.
If you’re working for federal minimum wage as a mechanic and then get offered a job at a shop making $20 an hour you’ll probably be stoked. If you work there a few years and gain the skills and resume to go work for a hotshot EV company and start making $30 an hour as an EV specialist you’ll likely be stoked. If you get promoted to a shop formula at $45 an hour you’ll be stoked, and then a company doing space probes using technology like the EV tech you know so well hires you for $85 an hour. Wow. You made it.

In short you leave your job most often because another job offer came in for an overall better job or opportunity for the future, or because your job sucks or you are just over it.
But there are these odd zones on the scale- odd circumstances that can happen-
Some weights are harder to balance.
If you are an accountant that hates being an accountant it would be hard for your current job to do anything to change your mind since you’d still be accounting.
If you’re a cashier but you hate the sorts of customers that go to your particular store, it’s probably more feasible to move locations than for your job to change their client base to make you stay. Money is usually pretty easily moved around on the scale providing you are worth money and the ask is reasonable to the industry/job.

So we enter this scale of sorts on an individual level. And each thing we live and each we don’t puts a weight of a certain sized based on the value of each thing to us on either the side of the scale to stay or the side to go. Each thing we can get at another company or job that we don’t at
Ours adds a corresponding weight to “leave” and each thing our company offers that we don’t find elsewhere in realistic jobs to leave for adds a corresponding weight to stay.
Money is just one weight, and some folks weight it more than others do at any given time, but it is seldom or ever alone.

So we have this pattern across socioeconomic classes where there just gets to a point that no reasonable amount of money could keep you at a job.
You either don’t need the money or you can get similar money elsewhere or you’re tired of your company and it’s shit or you’re tired of coworkers that suck or you don’t see a future where you have the things you want and can eventually retire if you live king enough or whatever.

There’s a number that if you reach that accumulated wealth- you could live the rest of your life in a lifestyle that you enjoy, and not have to work. There comes a point where you can make enough to do almost anything you want except maybe buy entire companies and go to mars- but you can have almost anything you want and never work again. Not everyone or even most get there- but when you do… work loses value unless you are passionate about it because
One day you realize you don’t HAVE to clock in and spend all day waiting for the moment you an be off, without any real consequence. Why wouldn’t most people at that point start working on what they want to versus chasing money?

But often it’s less about the money than even we think it is. Often it is about the value.
At some point we reach the next level if we make it there. That’s where for whatever lifestyle you want or may want- you earn enough and have the right ratio of security to earnings that more money isn’t interesting unless you are just someone who enjoys making money like trading stocks or starting new businesses etc.
people who are working primarily to find a lifestyle only need so much. Many tech companies learned this the hard way. You pay someone $200k+ a year straight out of college and give them potentially millions sim stocks and there comes a day where unless they just really like the work- they will leave and “focus on themselves” or “giving back” or “having experiences because life is too short to be so much about money.”

consider- but I mean… that’s usually a career change. Not a whole lot of jobs where you can make $30k one plane and $40l doing the same job somewhere else- besides maybe sales or such.
And it depends on the life you lead and where you’re at in it. At 20 and single one might stay at a job simply because it pays enough to pay their parents rent for a room and leave pocket money and isn’t too hard or is cool or fun with perks like being able to watch new films before everyone or free meals etc.
if you are expecting a new child or starting a life with someone etc. then yeah- you might need to make choices that are based entirely on your ability to provide financially. It all depends.

Now a business in the same sector offers you the same position but $1 an hour raise.
New company, new culture. Different co workers and rules and new ways to do things and rules.
Are you going?
What about a raise of $5 an hour?
At some point we will likely hit a number that would make you leave- but for many people the number might become unreasonable for the work they do.
Even if I had a dream job with my pals like that- offer me a million a year guaranteed salary and I’ll leave. Even if that’s just to collect enough money to be very secure financially or wealthy and then go back to doing the other job since I don’t have to worry about money or maintaining my lifestyle so much or at all anymore. But few jobs would offer a raise like that and wether I’d leave or not depends on how much I’m making. If I’m making $100k then a $5-10k raise a year may not compel me to give up the freedom and security and satisfaction. If I’m making $30k a year then $10k could at least make me..

Every day you work and play and feel like you accomplished something and did a good job worth doing. There are lunches, sometimes or often bagels or donuts and such, special events here and there like BBQ events etc. and enough variety in the routine to keep it from becoming too boring.
You feel like you work hard enough to sleep well but not hard enough to be tired all the time or exhausted.
Ok. Picturing it?

Imagine your favorite people- the friends you get along best with and work well with- open a small business and hire you.
You don’t get paid ALOT but for your age and job you do alright.
Every day you go to work and while there are moments that suck- you feel mostly good.
You find the work interesting or pleasant enough. You feel needed and skilled.
You feel good at your job and get recognition from your peers and from customers etc.
you go in and most of the day when there aren’t things going on you hang out with your friends. Maybe there are clients or customers or vendors who are cool. You get to joke and play around, no one sweats you if you take a few breaks or run some errands or take a long lunch when things are slow and quiet. When you need personal time- family events, trips with friends, a movie or concert you want to go to- they bend over backwards to make sure you can get the time off.
When you have a concern or need or opinion you are listened to.

Often this is why we really leave. The Burger King employee that goes to McDonald’s probably isn’t jumping ship just for the 50 cent an hour raise to do the same job- or it’s inconsequential since they are likely easily replaced and it is in the better interests of the company to replace at lower cost than give a raise. Whatever. Not critical.
The point is that if they had a great team they got along with, great managers, relatively flexible hours and freedom, they aren’t bored and don’t feel like they are stagnating, if they have good benefits or the benefits are equal or better than the other job etc. they probably aren’t going to leave for a fifty cent raise.

You might make a “lateral move” for opportunity- a job might pay the same or less or a little more- but the company seems like it offers a better chance at higher earnings with time or effort. You may change careers with or without specialized training or education or certificates because those careers offer more potential earnings.
So in a way that is about the pay but really it is about the future.
The other major factor is… your job or company sucks.
The work is boring or stressful or just leaves you feeling like shit or frustrated. Maybe you’re treated badly or get no perks or are embarrassed by your job or who you work for. Maybe they are all idiots and it hurts your soul or they treat all workers like idiots or maybe the culture isn’t right for you or there’s no room for personal or financial growth- a dead end job.

So it is true that for many- both high and low earners- it USALLY isn’t worth it to leave a job JUST for money unless it is a significant increase, which is more likely in some jobs and incomes than others.
So this is correct? Mmmm…. Not so much. Firstly- there are a slew of people “in between” making “good money” and “it is almost illegal or illegal to pay less…” money. So for those people a modest raise can be able to change their lifestyle.
But it often isn’t about MONEY exactly…
Even when it is about money it isn’t usually.

“In 2023 scientists studied 60 years of data and found that fleep Florps had returned to pre Nixon administration levels!”
Wow. And that means exactly nothing to any sane person reading this because you don’t even know what a fleep florp is most likely and there is no context or information to indicate wether that is a good thing or a bad thing.

So I mean… yay?

Many “man made” examples of “green vegetation” that could contribute to an increase are actually likely not something to celebrate. Turning deserts into suburbs with manicured lawns for example is generally not great overall as it increases demand on scarce water resources and disrupts local habitats and potentially contributes to sprawl and transportation related pollution as goods and other traffic tends to increase due to often remote proximity to commerce centers and employment opportunity or recreation.

Due to their nature these crops rarely support local ecosystems or long term healthy ecosystems as generally we specifically poison and upkeep comercial crops to eliminate life forms from using them as habitats or food sources, and they are often harvested at regular intervals.
So is this wild crops? Of an average of 13% growth- where is that growth? Is it 1% in most of the world and 50%, 200% etc. here and there to equal an average of 13% global “green vegetation”? Because when it comes to weather and local ecosystems etc. a net global increase doesn’t have the impact of a local increase.

Indeed. Diversity and type are rather important. Species that provide habitat or food and are native to local ecosystems, or largely ornamental or non native plants etc? A change like this wether desirable or beneficial can signal other factors.
But a larger question concerns the data.
“Green vegetation” is a colloquialism, not a strictly scientific category. It can simply mean plants that look green, or it can mean plants which have chlorophyll as opposed to parasitic plants or, where classified as plants- fungi.
But context is missing. For example- most food crops are “green vegetation” and as such, over 30 years, a global average of 13% increase could be accounted for in whole or part by industrial farming yield increases.

Look at the problems in the world and then look in a mirror. The world shows us who we are. Watch your behavior. I’d you had wealth and power- what would you act like?

The simplest concept- anything you have is something someone else can’t have.
If you take a cookie, I can’t have that cookie. If you take a book, So people get mad at billionaires because they have rockets and we can’t go on vacation because olee owe bills- but then 90% of the world has less than us. There are people starving and it isn’t to build a rocket ship- it’s because you want to have strawberries out of season or bread for $3 a loaf and you want dinner to be “tasty and fun” and can’t stand to eat rice and beans and locally available foods or you live in places that aren’t actually habitable and pipe in the resources to live from elsewhere. It’s because to keep your child safe you’ll use disposable resources and safety equipment that be Caínes obsolete in a few years that makes it so someone else’s child can’t eat.

If Elon Musk gave someone $5 million dollars that’s like me giving someone a couple hundred bucks. It is not even the cost of a wild weekend.
On that $5 million dollars most people could live a middle class life for their entire life and never work. He has the power to easily and painlessly give you an entire life of comfort and freedom instantly. But- if he does that for 100 people that’s 500 million dollars. For 200 it is a billion dollars. For what he paid for Twitter, he could do that for about 9,000 people. Not even one small town. That’s 1% of 1% of the worlds population.
So not everyone can have that. You see- most people in developed nations live better than royalty did a century ago but it still isn’t enough. They feel pressure and stress and see what they don’t have and want it. They want everything.