Do Teenagers Still Think About College?

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I watched a few episodes of Smallville over the last couple of days. I remember watching it as a young adult when it first aired on TV about 25 years ago.

The stories and characters are very simple: there’s the good guy, Clark Kent; the monster of the week; and the always-ambivalent Lex Luthor, who wants to be good but is constantly pulled back to the dark side by the world, his family, and his inner demons.

It’s easy to turn you brain off and just relax with a show like this for 40 minutes.

Nowadays, TV shows are very different.

But it’s not just the change in character construction or story development that stood out to me. What struck me the most was how every young person in the show talks about college: They want to go to UCLA, Harvard, MIT, and so on.

It made me wonder: Do today’s 18-year-olds still think this much about going to college?

Social media has exposed countless bubbles in the Western world. Politics, finances, migration… during the pandemic, even healthcare was revealed as one. Colleges are surely another bubble ready to burst.

If I were 18 again, I wouldn’t go to college at all. I’d attend trade school and build an online business in my spare time. As soon as trade school was over, I’d set myself up to start my own electrician, carpenter, or mechanic business in the real world—while my online business generated additional side income.

Right now, that seems like a much better plan than aiming for UCLA to study computer science, going to law school in Princeton, or trying to become a doctor in Harvard.

AI is coming for many jobs that are primarily computer-based. Western governments are running out of money. And constant socio-political upheaval makes many career paths a risky bet. So why go into six-figure debt for a degree that may not make you more employable in the future?

That’s a question that comes to mind when I try to see things from the perspective of today’s youth. And it’s also a question I never asked myself 25 years ago, when I chose college over trade school. Because back then, college was the end all be all. My parents told me it’s all, high schools told me so, culture did it too, and even TV-shows like Smallville told me that college should be the main thing to think about for an 18-year-old.

Times have changed. TV shows have changed. Massively.

Thanks to social media, young people can see these changes much earlier than my generation ever could. I hope they use that advantage to their benefit and make the right decision.

I Prepare For a Life Without Retirement

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Once again, there is talk of raising the retirement age in Germany.

Not long ago, we were told that borders needed to be opened so there would be enough people to pay for our pensions—funny how quickly that argument was abandoned.

The current life expectancy in Germany is 80.5 years. For men, it is only 78. Now there are discussions about raising the retirement age to 73. That brings us close to a reality where the average man pays into the system for his entire working life without receiving much in return.

“Just pay for your retirement privately,” you might say—and technically, you’d be right. The problem is that in Germany, you are forced to contribute to public systems in many ways, including retirement plans. There is simply no way to opt out while living in this country. That is how socialism works.

On top of that, insurance companies are required to invest large portions of private retirement funds into government bonds to prop up a public system that wastes money and is collapsing under corruption and incompetence. When the public pension system fails, most private plans will fail with it.

Since mass migration did not solve the problems created by the state, the government is now playing its final card before admitting that public pensions will no longer be paid out at all: raising the retirement age so that as many people as possible die before ever reaching it.

So what happens once the age is raised to 73?

They won’t stop wasting taxpayer money. They won’t slow down migration. They won’t do anything to prevent ever-growing state debt from consuming all public funds. A decade later, they will simply demand another increase—this time to 75. After that, it will be 76, 77, 78, 79…

I’m preparing for a life of continuous work until the grave, while investing my money in perceived safe havens such as gold, silver, and crypto. I am also preparing by building jobs and income sources that I can still do with a broken body—which inevitably comes with age—such as computer work, writing books, and creating passive income streams.

Since insurance systems will collapse along with the state, I am preparing by relying on no one but myself and my family for the final stage of my life. And if you want my advice, I recommend you do the same because Germany’s problems are almost everywhere in the Western world.

I Think I’m Never Going to Buy a New Car Ever Again

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Last week, the German car manufacturer Porsche reportedly immobilized hundreds of cars in Russia using its VTS (source).

They haven’t officially confirmed it yet, but it would be an unbelievable coincidence for so many Porsche vehicles to stop working on the same day—December 1st—and in the same country.

Some say it might have been a software update gone wrong rather than intentional sabotage, but in the end, it doesn’t even matter. What matters is that Porsche appears to be able to shut down your car with the push of a button from a computer on the other side of the planet.

The VTS—Vehicle Tracking System—is connected via satellite and can automatically trigger an engine immobilizer. “All models and all engine types” are reportedly affected.

And that raises the question: what’s stopping the government from using such a system to switch off your vehicle if you haven’t paid enough taxes, or in the name of a climate emergency?

Nothing.

The only way to protect yourself is to buy cars that don’t have a VTS or any other satellite connection.

This whole incident raises a bigger question: why do cars even need an internet connection in the first place? You already have a smartphone that can serve as a navigation system or information device. The only real reason is that manufacturers want our data, and governments want another tool to restrict our freedom.

All these so-called “smart” devices aren’t actually helping users at all. Cars, washing machines, refrigerators—everything now has to be smart and connected, yet barely anything truly improves the user experience.

The future might very well bring a massive demand for “dumb” devices that aren’t connected to anything.

Politicians Sound Like CEOs

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Not long ago, Democrats were convinced that Kamala Harris was the best candidate in the history of democracy. The media praised her competence, intelligence, and experience.

The same thing happens in Germany. Government politicians talk about how amazing the country is and how great their achievements are—every single one of them. The current president even said, “We live in the best Germany that ever existed,” just a couple of weeks ago.

But it turned out Kamala Harris was one of the weakest candidates in modern history. And it turned out that the last several German governments have run the country so deeply into the ground that only massive new debt can ensure pensions are still paid out next year.

So why do politicians and pundits keep talking about how wonderful everything is when reality is the complete opposite?

The answer might be: Politics is like the stock market. And politicians are just CEOs.

Not long ago, Germany was shaken by a huge scandal involving a company called Wirecard. It was essentially a PayPal clone with German roots, reporting massive profits in the Asian digital payments market. The company rose quickly, making it into the DAX—the German equivalent of the S&P 500. Politicians proudly presented Wirecard as a “tech success made in Germany” and praised its two leading figures as symbols of German innovation.

But everything Wirecard reported turned out to be a lie.

The company inflated its stock price with fake financial reports and transactions that never happened, all while being possibly connected to Russian and Chinese intelligence networks. Wirecard collapsed just as fast as it had risen.

During its rise, Wirecard’s CEO constantly celebrated the company’s numbers in the spotlight. His second-in-command was hailed as a young tech genius—the next “Steve Jobs,” as they always say. Both enjoyed the fame. Even when the first reports surfaced claiming Wirecard might be nothing more than a bubble, they stayed calm and talked about a bright future.

When it all fell apart, one of them vanished somewhere in the East—possibly Russia—beyond the reach of Western law enforcement. The other, the official CEO, still insists the company wasn’t a fraud and claims he could have saved it if only he’d been given more time.

In short: nobody in charge ever took responsibility. They never admitted any wrongdoing. They didn’t even acknowledge the reality of the fraud after the bubble burst. Not. A. Single. Time.

And isn’t that exactly what we see in politics today?

Politicians always talk about how great things are—even when they’re not. As long as they’re in charge, everything is supposedly perfect. And when they’re out of power, they insist everything will be perfect if we just vote them back in.

It’s like stock-price management: never admit mistakes, never discuss problems, always insist everything is fine—because anything else would drive the “stock price” down.

In politics, we voters are the stock price. And they try to lie, deceive, and manipulate their way into higher voter numbers at all cost. Even after their bubble—or an entire country—has burst, they still pretend everything was fine.

It’s pure psychopathy. Pure stock-market bullshit.

How to Invest 1,000 Dollars

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A couple of years ago, Bitcoin was the best place to put 1,000 dollars. I believed in BTC, invested some money, and happened to be right. Luck played a significant role in that. Bitcoin could have been regulated into oblivion, rejected by the masses, or crashed to zero because a few whales decided to sell. Fortunately, none of that happened.

Despite being lucky with BTC, I would have advised my younger self not to invest that 1,000 dollars in Bitcoin, but to invest it in yourself instead.

Investing in Bitcoin involved considerable risk—just like investing in stocks. Even government bonds are risky nowadays, especially with the looming threat of hyperinflation. Most traditional assets no longer offer a return on investment (ROI) that outpaces inflation.

Investing in yourself, however, is independent of legislation, regulation, or inflation; it depends solely on you.

If you put 1,000 dollars into the S&P 500, you might end up with 1,100 dollars next year (if it was a good year), but taxes and inflation could easily eat up that profit. On the other hand, spending 1,000 dollars on a camera and learning photography could pay dividends for decades. You gain a new skill with the potential to generate income. Best of all, you control the risk—your success with that investment depends on your own effort, not on unpredictable government decisions that no one could foresee unless they’re Nancy Pelosi’s husband.

That’s why I would encourage you: If you’ve got $1,000 invest it into learning a new skill.

  • Buy a website hosting plan and start a blog
  • Take a painting class
  • Get a gym membership
  • Pick up a guitar and learn to play
  • Start learning a new language
  • Grab a GoPro and try moto-vlogging

This is where 1,000 dollars is best spent as it can turn into a new business, income stream, or at least a new hobby that enriches your life.