Homeless man turned millionaire offers the best advice....

[LiveYourDream]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/carmine...fers-the-best-advice-i-ever-got/#6d1873536818
Good article, offering great perspective, for those inclined.

TL;DR "...often what we’re called to do and what we choose to do are different." “...the secret to success: find something you love to do so much, you can’t wait for the sun to rise to do it all over again."

How much do you love what you do for work? Is it primarily a paycheck or is it your passion?

 

[backbreaker]

Maybe for 1% of the population in the world, they are lucky to find something they are extremely passionate about and make a lot of money so it doesn't feel like work. Like acting, professional sports, etc. But for the rest of the 99% of people living in reality, that is just not realistic. For me, I am happy to have a job in something I am mildly interested in(computers), and making a middle class salary(55k). I don't understand people who cannot be fvcking happy unless they absolutely do something they love while making millions.

you don't get it.

most successful people, and by successful i mean, people who are worth over 5 million dollars, don't set out to make money.

the first thing that the majority of people do when they search for a job, is ask how much it pays.

People who are successful figure out what it is they are really good at and what they really enjoy doing.

I love horse racing and I love computers and building things. I run a web development company out of my house while i have a 60 inch screen TV in my work room that is hooked up to a satellite that gets the direct track feed for every horse racking track in north america lol.


people who build websites will take a client and ask how much they are paying and then if they don't think it's enough pass on the job. i have a client that we started a job with a 2k budget, small project. last week i talked him into financing $20,000 dollars becuase i came up with an idea that i believe will put his business over the top that we will implement on his website. i created the 20,000 out of thin air. And i really could care less about the money, i'd do it for free if he asked honestly. he won't but if he did i would. I do quiet a bit of stuff for free.


When you love what you do, and do it to the best of your ability, ways to monetize your career will create themselves. that's what people who are struggling day to day do nolt understand.

the first thing i look for when i'm hiring is i want to make sure that the people who work for me, like the career path they are in.

 

[taiyuu_otoko]

most successful people, and by successful i mean, people who are worth over 5 million dollars, don't set out to make money.

the first thing that the majority of people do when they search for a job, is ask how much it pays.

People who are successful figure out what it is they are really good at and what they really enjoy doing.

I think you missed his point. Most people people don't have a "passion" that will get them paid. What if your "passion" was cooking carrot and tuna pie? Could you turn that into 5 mil? Most people don't have the SKILLS to create a life of "passion driven prosperity."

People are LUCKY if they are GOOD at something AND they ENJOY doing some AND that something just HAPPENS to be worth a lot of cash to somebody.

Sh*t, people are lucky if they hit only TWO of them. "following your passion" is useless advice to somebody without any marketable skills OR the income to learn them OR the communication skills to convince somebody to teach them for free.

 

[BeTheChange]

"Follow your dreeeeeams and the money will follow"

Not surprised this BS is being espoused by a female poster. No offence.

 

[Mike32ct]

I think you missed his point. Most people people don't have a "passion" that will get them paid. What if your "passion" was cooking carrot and tuna pie? Could you turn that into 5 mil? Most people don't have the SKILLS to create a life of "passion driven prosperity."

People are LUCKY if they are GOOD at something AND they ENJOY doing some AND that something just HAPPENS to be worth a lot of cash to somebody.

Sh*t, people are lucky if they hit only TWO of them. "following your passion" is useless advice to somebody without any marketable skills OR the income to learn them OR the communication skills to convince somebody to teach them for free.

The other missing piece is that I don't think everyone is cut out to be a businessperson or entrepreneur. There's a reason why 95 percent of new businesses fail (or whatever the high number is).

You might have a skill or talent or passion that you enjoy. And yes, you can probably build a good career doing that. But most of those people will end up working for someone because they aren't cut out to build a business of it for themselves. It takes a rare person with a strong passion and talent for something WHO ALSO HAS great business talent to become the millionaire who loves what he or she does. Most people will end up the career type who makes decent money, has a good job, etc., but probably will never experience full passion/bliss because they have a boss lol.

TLDR: Just because you LOVE to cook and are passionate about cooking doesn't mean that you can successfully run a restaurant. Some very talented/passionate people need to have a boss because their talent doesn't include the talent/skills to run a business. There is nothing wrong with that. You can't be good at everything. Focus your talent as best you can. Maybe you need to focus on your passion of cooking or coding or whatever and let someone else run the business.

 

[guru1000]

I think you missed his point. Most people people don't have a "passion" that will get them paid. What if your "passion" was cooking carrot and tuna pie? Could you turn that into 5 mil? Most people don't have the SKILLS to create a life of "passion driven prosperity."

People are LUCKY if they are GOOD at something AND they ENJOY doing some AND that something just HAPPENS to be worth a lot of cash to somebody.

Sh*t, people are lucky if they hit only TWO of them. "following your passion" is useless advice to somebody without any marketable skills OR the income to learn them OR the communication skills to convince somebody to teach them for free.

The spirit of OP's message was not to forego the skills/tools necessary to become successful (i.e. marketing acumen; market research; financial budgeting/planning, etc.). Her intent was to state that in the context of making money, it is best to do something that you are passionate about.

As per the pie example above, I know the owner of Robicelli's, New York. He makes carrot pies. He also just bought a multi-million dollar condo in midtown, Park Avenue.

"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it." --Steve Jobs

 

[backbreaker]

One thing I have learned is not everyone is me. I'm a natural born entrepreneur. I love risk. I'm an all in type person. Not everyone is built to wake up and not have a guaranteed paycheck, and that's fine. But still, you're going to make the most money doing something you actually enjoy doing. You're going to want to do it better. You're not going to mind putting the work in to become better at it.

 

[DiegoSantori]

Whenever I hear "follow your passion", this video pops up in my mind:

 

[Colossus]

The "follow your passion" mantra of our generation is fundamentally flawed, and bad advice to give to a young person.

Here is why:

This feel-good truism assumes that 1) you have a preexisting passion that you can monetize, and 2) that in doing said passion for work, your relationship with this thing remains unchanged and you still "love it" every day.

There have been case studies and even a good book written on this subject, and what they typically find is that people who drop everything to follow a "passion" typically end up either disillusioned, broke, or both.

Most people dont have some overarching passion that endures throughout years of life. Passions come and go. So to throw in all your chips and buy a yoga studio or try to be a professional athlete/musician/entertainer or own your own restaurant, you are betting against yourself and in all likelihood you will fail miserably without any foundation to give your venture some traction. Again, this has been studied and demonstrated in real-life individuals.

Even if you DO have a passion that trumps everything else, it has to be translatable into business or profit, AND you have to be so good at said thing you stand above everybody else who is trying to make money doing this. You definitely arent the first person to think of this.

The other piece is that when you do something for WORK, it fundamentally changes your relationship with the subject. It isnt the same as when you are enjoying something in your free time or only doing the aspects of it you like to do. To make something work, it makes it 100x more complicated, and your exposure level increases exponentially.

The grass is always greener. Sometimes it really is, but most of the time it's just an illusion.

I posit that a better approach is to pick something scalable, profitable, and stable and get so good/advanced at that thing that you really cant be ignored any longer. Rare and valuable traits in work that ACTUALLY make people happy are autonomy, creativity, and impact. Being rare and valuable traits, you need rare or valuable skills to offer in return. And those take time to cultivate.

People are made happy by the traits their work offers them, not necessarily what they do. Yes, there are plenty of inspiring and romantic examples of someone "following their passion" and being ostensibly happy, but the vast majority of these people have either luck, incredible talent, or incredible skill at that thing they are doing, such that they are set above all the rest. Taylor Swift or some pro surfer telling you to "follow your dreams" is like a lottery winner telling you to quit your job, sell your assets, and spend it all on lotto tickets. It's a sample size of 1.

I dont totally love what I do, but you know what I do love? Making dollars and having freedom to live my life the way I please. My job is licensed, stable, and somewhat scalable. I have incredible benefits and no one is making me swing a hammer in the hot sun for 12 hours a day and 8 on Saturdays. I have skills that are valued and that people will pay a lot of money for. So this gives me more leverage in the long run to make more money, work less hours, and start cultivating side work that will ultimately become my next job or retirement gig.

My ultimate goal is to be no one's employee and never have to depend on any one source of income.

 

[daddymonsterpoodle]

I am passionate about paying my mortgage and not being homeless. My job is ok and I chose it because I enjoyed it. To make a lot of money in it I would have to go into management and start my own business, passion be dammed. I just dont enjoy that side of things.

If you want to pursue your passions pay off your mortgage, then do whatever the hell you want.

 

[BetterCallSaul]

Agree with everyone that the follow your dream/passion crap is doomed for failure, but I'll add a different viewpoint on why.

For the entire world's workforce, the majority of them get up out of bed to go to a job that they generally are just getting by or would rather do something else. For these people, calling in sick that day just to take a personal day off would be better than going in to work. They continue to do this job because it pays the bills and maybe they have a little left over for discretionary spending...many do not though. The world continues to function normally every day in part because of these people.

When I think back to the mass migration to the USA of people from all parts of Europe and Asia around the early 20th century, you think these people came to this nation with the mindset of doing what they were passionate about? Hell no, they were up to do any sort of job that was offered and they did it every day for as long as it took to get a better opportunity down the road. The reality is also for some of those people, a better opportunity never came. However these are the same people that helped build this country to become a global powerhouse that stands above all others. Some of those people were able to save money and in turn, the children they raised had better opportunities than they did.

What if every single one of those immigrants followed their passion, and their passion just happened to be being an executive at a big company making important decisions every day? Yeah, simply not going to happen for everyone. Instead they took whatever work they could find and we see the result today. Instead, we have entitlement minded kids (i dont call them young adults) with the executive mentality I mentioned and now look what's happened.

 

[synergy1]

I agree with what most people are saying, and want to expound using examples on the "why" following a pure passion is a fools gamble for many.

I started a thread a while ago about a business I wanted to start. The overarching goal has been the same for nearly two years, but what started as a passion underwent drastic change and a lot of challenges. However, there is something there that keeps me wanting to make progress every day so the key ingredient has been something a lot of dreamers don't want to admit , "hard work". In order to master something, you have to work through the ****ty parts and that is the only way to learn something.

For example, I started simple html/css because it was a fun way to maybe make websites and start my own business. I loved computers and programming as long as I can remember and endeavored to make a great idea ( that I might eventually) so figured why not pursue that passion. As I went from simple html/css to front end JavaScript and eventually back end programming, it became incredibly complex with no real results from my efforts. I still remember wanting to put a blog functionality on my resume website *within a week*, but couldn't even tie in my front end to the backend. Hell, I couldn't even get rich text formatting to work right. This shakeout period would have been enough to stop 99% of the people out there, but I kept at it for a long ass time. Picked up python, learned another framework in hopes to get a beta version of my idea out 2 months ago...that never happened either. Even still, I have adjusted this process and am not discouraged in the least.

However, its been the constant struggle and having to learn things that have made me 100 times better than 2 years ago. The latest incarnation of my idea looks beautiful, and I can tie in all the data seamlessly now. When it is done, it won't be the passion that gets it done, but the preserverence through the bad times that did. Its those times I didn't go get a drink, or to a sailing regatta but instead tied in a laravel controller to a view to serve the data from my huge database. Those little times add up...all those times a regular person would say "its just one thing, I can put it off", and I said "well lets get this done and get it done". However its not to say I haven't been social - I reword myself by being social when I get something done.

I am not successful yet. Having crafted my knowledge of programming and investing is taking time, but its starting to pay its dues. However, there is still so much to be done but the curious things is this - I absolutely love doing it. If someone gave me 20k to live off of, I would finish my application , than build my proprietary investing/trading platform with most of my waking hours. I do it for free right now. However, in order to be able to do this full time, one needs a marketable edge so that also takes work. It would be nice to divorce myself of working full time at my job, so as to be able to dedicate 100% to this, not the current 50%. To be smart about it, one needs to listen to what people want to spend money on. Passion doesn't help here either...but listening does.

For example, someone I know needs an Ecommerce site, so I'll need to learn how to manage products and payments , as well as maintaining the site. These are areas to improve on. its not passion, its just common sense.

But at the core of it all is a passion. Maybe it'll pay off, maybe it won't. All I know is that the journey through all its ups and downs is rewarding, and interesting. I'd love to do this for others, and sometime soon.

Why won't "passion" work for most? Simply because they will capitulate when times get bad. And times WILL get bad. Life can suck. Most people crumble like a tent and blame everything under the sun while foolishly maintaining an entitled attitude. Those people will stay in limbo until they die, complaining the entire way. Passion won't work because they will refuse to go outside their comfort zone and learn something new.

Life needs people who punch in and out every day and entrepreneurs. Some are not cut out to run a business, others not cut out to work for the man. People should embrace either option since the work really needs both to function right.

 

[AAAgent]

I think you missed his point. Most people people don't have a "passion" that will get them paid. What if your "passion" was cooking carrot and tuna pie? Could you turn that into 5 mil? Most people don't have the SKILLS to create a life of "passion driven prosperity."

People are LUCKY if they are GOOD at something AND they ENJOY doing some AND that something just HAPPENS to be worth a lot of cash to somebody.

Sh*t, people are lucky if they hit only TWO of them. "following your passion" is useless advice to somebody without any marketable skills OR the income to learn them OR the communication skills to convince somebody to teach them for free.

Actually, I know a woman who is now making thousands of dollars a month cooking vegetarian food on video, and then eating it. She a friend of a friends wife, and is a bit crazy when she's cooking the food. She has over 100k followers in less than a 6 month span (April 2016 she started), so if you want to make carrots and tuna while still bringing money, i'm sure it can be done. Cook the food differently every single video you make, sell ads on your video's through google, and slowly you'll build a following. You'll be surprised what people will watch! There's pretty much a market for everything.
---
I think there's multiple ways to achieve success, and it isn't pigeon holed into 1 single path, outside of hardwork that is (which is required for any successful path). Success is linked to opportunity. If you can spot an opportunity, and you tackle that opportunity with hardwork, you will be successful and make a lot of money. It's often difficult to spot good opportunities. You may not have the skills, the intelligence, the experience, to take advantage of certain opportunities, but at the same time, most successful people fail over and over again until one of their opportunities pans out.

If you're still young, take advantage of that. Fail over and over again. Learn as much as you can, be knowledgeable enough so that when an opportunity does come your way, you can tackle it to the ground and if you fail, you have a vast amount of experience from your failures and time to be able to bounce back. I've failed at multiple different opportunities and also cut my losses when I knew I was going the wrong way (important to cut your losses), but i've finally found an opportunity of a lifetime that would have never opened up if I didn't keep trying things out, taking risks, reading and learning, etc.

I'm making 6 figures and living very comfortable but now that this opportunity is here, I've thrown every single penny at it. EVERYTHING. People tell me i'm crazy, others tell me I have balls of steel, at one point I had -98% of my net worth gone, and in a short period of time I managed to turn it back into +150%. I know I won't be rich making 6 figures, I'd rather risk it all, leverage my money and have it triple, quadruple, or even evaporate and fail then just to do what everyone else is doing. Get rich or die trying.

None of this will be available to you unless you educate yourself so that you can take advantage of these opportunities.

 

[backbreaker]

I never stepped foot on a college campus and know html5, php, some asp but not my speciality, flash, ruby on rails, angular.js, backbone.js, vue.js and objective-c.

We took over a job last year, that is somewhat revolutionary so I cant disclose it as we are at working on it. The guy had a great idea but no one could make it work. Everyone was trying to customize plugins and this was much to complex for that. T required the site to automatically resize pictures based on the product dimensions that are being looked at


So After doing research I figured in theory this is posdible using html canvus. However I dont know html canvus lol. So I learned html canvus on the fly and after avout three months, for his idea working.



I dont said that to brag. Im good. Im really really ****ing good. But im good because I genuinely love programming ****.I can be a billionaire and id stll take on complex programming problems because it's fun to me.

Maybe, you aren't being honest with yourself. Maybe you like programming. I knew the first time I built a website to sell bootleg dreamcast games lol 15 years ago I loved this ****.

There are things im good at that I do not like. I sold cars. I wad damn good at it but I hated it. I love horse racing and I love programming ****, making things online work better. Monetizing websites. Programming work arounds. I programmed an automated ecommerce affiliate system from complete scratch last year, the client didn't even ask me to lol I wanted to see it I could. I could. Didnt even bill him for it. Gues what. Hes still a client a year later.


I stopped worrying about money over a decade ago because I found what I wd truly passionate about. If you stil thnkr in terms of how much money this pays you arent passionate about what you are doing. And that is fine. But you will never be anythjng more than working class

 

[backbreaker]

The only real difference between myself and most was my ability endure hardships longer than most.

 

[switch7]

I still don't understand how Chris Gardner thought it was acceptable to have his child live in a public toilet so that he could pursue his dream. OK it paid off but to me that is not acceptable. He should have found some security first, got a reliable day job and spent a couple years saving so he could take the time off to do an internship and have a roof over his childs head.

 

[BlueAlpha1]

The "follow your passion" mantra of our generation is fundamentally flawed, and bad advice to give to a young person.

Here is why:

This feel-good truism assumes that 1) you have a preexisting passion that you can monetize, and 2) that in doing said passion for work, your relationship with this thing remains unchanged and you still "love it" every day.

There have been case studies and even a good book written on this subject, and what they typically find is that people who drop everything to follow a "passion" typically end up either disillusioned, broke, or both.

Most people dont have some overarching passion that endures throughout years of life. Passions come and go. So to throw in all your chips and buy a yoga studio or try to be a professional athlete/musician/entertainer or own your own restaurant, you are betting against yourself and in all likelihood you will fail miserably without any foundation to give your venture some traction. Again, this has been studied and demonstrated in real-life individuals.

Even if you DO have a passion that trumps everything else, it has to be translatable into business or profit, AND you have to be so good at said thing you stand above everybody else who is trying to make money doing this. You definitely arent the first person to think of this.

The other piece is that when you do something for WORK, it fundamentally changes your relationship with the subject. It isnt the same as when you are enjoying something in your free time or only doing the aspects of it you like to do. To make something work, it makes it 100x more complicated, and your exposure level increases exponentially.

The grass is always greener. Sometimes it really is, but most of the time it's just an illusion.

I posit that a better approach is to pick something scalable, profitable, and stable and get so good/advanced at that thing that you really cant be ignored any longer. Rare and valuable traits in work that ACTUALLY make people happy are autonomy, creativity, and impact. Being rare and valuable traits, you need rare or valuable skills to offer in return. And those take time to cultivate.

People are made happy by the traits their work offers them, not necessarily what they do. Yes, there are plenty of inspiring and romantic examples of someone "following their passion" and being ostensibly happy, but the vast majority of these people have either luck, incredible talent, or incredible skill at that thing they are doing, such that they are set above all the rest. Taylor Swift or some pro surfer telling you to "follow your dreams" is like a lottery winner telling you to quit your job, sell your assets, and spend it all on lotto tickets. It's a sample size of 1.

I dont totally love what I do, but you know what I do love? Making dollars and having freedom to live my life the way I please. My job is licensed, stable, and somewhat scalable. I have incredible benefits and no one is making me swing a hammer in the hot sun for 12 hours a day and 8 on Saturdays. I have skills that are valued and that people will pay a lot of money for. So this gives me more leverage in the long run to make more money, work less hours, and start cultivating side work that will ultimately become my next job or retirement gig.

My ultimate goal is to be no one's employee and never have to depend on any one source of income.

I agree with literally every word you said, but I have a question for you at the end of this post. First, my experience.

I went through the pipe-dream phase myself. In January 2015 I quit my job to "follow my passions", which were writing and traveling. I spent hundreds, maybe a few thousand hours throwing myself into a blog and a few e-books, and I did it on the road. What happened? I blew tens of thousands of dollars during my 20 months off. I didn't go broke thankfully, but I was hard-headed as a rock and didn't want to hear it was time to go back to the drawing board. Now, ask anyone I know and they'll tell you I'm still a damn good writer, but unfortunately it's very rarely a lucrative skill.

I also had a friend from that same job who quit at the same time. We got very close because he took the same route, and we were in touch daily on our "progress." He wanted to become a musician, or better yet "the greatest rapper who ever lived" with a $500 million net worth. My goal was only to make enough money a month to live freely as a writer, but I figured who was I to tell him this was absurd? We still speak occasionally, but are no longer good friends because I can't identify with this naive pipe dream that defines his life anymore. Sure it would be nice, but any investor would tell you it is foolish to bet the entire house on a million to 1 odds.

So now, I'm back in the corporate world. I work in a sales job with a modest base salary but a lucrative commission structure. Average performers earn $1,000-$1,500 a month, top earners earn $3,000-4,000 a month on top of our hourly wage. So, it is an "alpha" job in every sense of the word. The problem is I hate it. I hate the cooler talk and forced socialization, Human Resources, sexual harassment trainings, micromanaging, and "diversity and inclusion".

But most of all I hate the archaic schedule that doesn't allow you to go to the bank, or go to the dentist without planning a PTO day months in advance. I hate that you have to beg permission to have a holiday off. I hate that you often have no say in your hours. We haven't really needed a 40 hour workweek since the Industrial Revolution. We should be more focused on PRODUCTIVITY rather than filling a time sheet, and if we can give 24-30 super productive hours every week, that is far better for everyone than everyone slacking on Mondays and Fridays. In theory, having a job is great because it allows you to actually pursue those hobbies and passions in your spare time. The problem is the current system is outdated and doesn't allow for very much time to actually do so. The 40 hour work week often equates to 55 when you factor in commuting and unpaid lunches. And when you factor in sleep, that means 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year are not yours at all.

So the question: what is the balance between the two extremes of 9-5 and "quitting your job to follow your dreams"?

 

[mrgoodstuff]

I agree with literally every word you said, but I have a question for you at the end of this post. First, my experience.

I went through the pipe-dream phase myself. In January 2015 I quit my job to "follow my passions", which were writing and traveling. I spent hundreds, maybe a few thousand hours throwing myself into a blog and a few e-books, and I did it on the road. What happened? I blew tens of thousands of dollars during my 20 months off. I didn't go broke thankfully, but I was hard-headed as a rock and didn't want to hear it was time to go back to the drawing board. Now, ask anyone I know and they'll tell you I'm still a damn good writer, but unfortunately it's very rarely a lucrative skill.

I also had a friend from that same job who quit at the same time. We got very close because he took the same route, and we were in touch daily on our "progress." He wanted to become a musician, or better yet "the greatest rapper who ever lived" with a $500 million net worth. My goal was only to make enough money a month to live freely as a writer, but I figured who was I to tell him this was absurd? We still speak occasionally, but are no longer good friends because I can't identify with this naive pipe dream that defines his life anymore. Sure it would be nice, but any investor would tell you it is foolish to bet the entire house on a million to 1 odds.

So now, I'm back in the corporate world. I work in a sales job with a modest base salary but a lucrative commission structure. Average performers earn $1,000-$1,500 a month, top earners earn $3,000-4,000 a month on top of our hourly wage. So, it is an "alpha" job in every sense of the word. The problem is I hate it. I hate the cooler talk and forced socialization, Human Resources, sexual harassment trainings, micromanaging, and "diversity and inclusion".

But most of all I hate the archaic schedule that doesn't allow you to go to the bank, or go to the dentist without planning a PTO day months in advance. I hate that you have to beg permission to have a holiday off. I hate that you often have no say in your hours. We haven't really needed a 40 hour workweek since the Industrial Revolution. We should be more focused on PRODUCTIVITY rather than filling a time sheet, and if we can give 24-30 super productive hours every week, that is far better for everyone than everyone slacking on Mondays and Fridays. In theory, having a job is great because it allows you to actually pursue those hobbies and passions in your spare time. The problem is the current system is outdated and doesn't allow for very much time to actually do so. The 40 hour work week often equates to 55 when you factor in commuting and unpaid lunches. And when you factor in sleep, that means 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year are not yours at all.

So the question: what is the balance between the two extremes of 9-5 and "quitting your job to follow your dreams"?

The balance is to use 20+hrs a week on your dreams while you work your 40 hrs to support yourself.

 

[BlueAlpha1]

The balance is to use 20+hrs a week on your dreams while you work your 40 hrs to support yourself.

My dream is to travel the world. Unfortunately its impossible to travel 20 hours a week, or 2 days off per week. Now if I could work 2 weeks on at 60 hr a week and have one week off, that'd be golden.

 

[Tenacity]

I'm convinced that a healthy capitalist system requires impoverished masses. SOMEBODY has to flip burgers and mow grass.

I'm not sure if that's technically true, but you will surely have more lower paying jobs in a healthy capitalist system than higher paying jobs. It just depends upon how the country's macro-economic structure is operated.

Right now, the US has destroyed many of its middle-class jobs through horrible trade deals as well as the continued advancement of robotics. What this means is that many jobs that used to be middle class, are paying working class levels now, while the "good paying jobs" are fewer in number today than ever before.

This situation is a result of bad policy, not technically capitalism. In my opinion, capitalism has saved the world. For all its flaws, capitalism has done far more good than bad.