Entrepreneurship Is No Longer a Choice—It’s a Necessity
The price of nearly everything we need to survive has exploded over the last 50 years. Rents, mortgages, childcare, healthcare, utilities, food, apparel—you name it—have skyrocketed, increasing 5x to 20x. Yet, wages have stagnated, leaving many Americans struggling to make ends meet. It’s no wonder that 770,000 people are counted as homeless in the United States today. This isn’t just a crisis; it’s an indictment of the systems we’ve allowed to run unchecked for decades.
Let’s be clear: the American worker is collateral in the U.S. job market. While CEOs and investors prioritize maximizing profits and shareholder wealth, the very individuals producing 100% of a company’s revenue are treated as expendable. In fact, workers receive less than 10% of revenue in the form of wages and benefits. The surplus? It’s funneled into stock buybacks and dividends to fatten the pockets of the wealthy.
The Numbers Don’t Lie
Consider this: In 1965, the CEO-to-worker pay ratio was 20:1. Today, it’s over 350:1, according to the Economic Policy Institute. That means for every dollar a worker earns, the CEO earns $350. Meanwhile, corporate profits hit a staggering $2.8 trillion in 2023, yet workers’ real wages adjusted for inflation have barely budged since the 1970s.
Stock buybacks have become a go-to strategy for corporations to boost share prices. In 2022 alone, companies spent over $1 trillion on buybacks, a 30% increase from the previous year. This money could have been reinvested in wages, benefits, or community programs but instead went to enriching the wealthiest shareholders.
The Harsh Reality of Exploitation
This system is designed to exploit workers. CEOs extract surplus value from employees and redirect it to executives and shareholders. The very people who generate revenue are systematically denied their fair share of it. This isn’t capitalism at its best; it’s greed at its worst.
This greed isn’t just unethical; it’s unsustainable. Nearly 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. Over 40% couldn’t cover a $400 emergency expense without borrowing. While the top 1% amass unimaginable wealth, millions are drowning in debt, with little hope of relief.
The Affiliate Marketing Alternative
In contrast, affiliate marketing agreements offer a dramatically fairer distribution of revenue. Affiliates typically earn 20-40% of the revenue generated from services they market and sell. This model values the individual’s contribution and compensates them accordingly, making it a viable alternative for those seeking to escape the exploitative corporate grind.
Skeptics and cynics of affiliate marketing need to reassess their perspective. The same people who hesitate to embrace revenue-sharing models willingly accept a system that pays them less than 10% of the value they produce. Why settle for scraps when better opportunities exist?
It’s Time for Change
We’re not advocating for mass resignations—we’re advocating for self-worth and financial independence. It’s time to recognize the value of your labor and refuse to be a cog in a machine that thrives on your exploitation. Entrepreneurship and business ownership are no longer optional; they are essential pathways to reclaiming your worth in an unjust system.
With homelessness on the rise and millions struggling to make ends meet, it’s clear that we need alternatives. Affiliate marketing and other innovative business models offer a way forward, enabling individuals to earn a fair share of the wealth they help create.
The Bottom Line
The American job market isn’t broken; it’s working exactly as designed—for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many. But we don’t have to accept this reality. By embracing entrepreneurship, we can build a more equitable system that rewards effort and ingenuity rather than exploitation.
The question is no longer whether we can afford to take action. The question is how much more we’re willing to lose before we do. The time for change is now.