drethelin comments on low stress employment/ munchkin income thread - Less Wrong

14 [deleted] 23 July 2013 09:22PM

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Comment author: drethelin 23 July 2013 10:13:10PM 1 point [-]

prostitution pays pretty well, if you're attractive.

Dealing drugs is very lucrative but fairly risky.

If you can find out and be good at keeping track of the value of collectibles such as magic cards you can make a lot of money buying and selling them.

Comment author: JoshuaZ 23 July 2013 11:41:17PM *  10 points [-]

prostitution pays pretty well, if you're attractive.

Attractive, and female. Male prostitutes do get paid a lot less. Also, stress levels and risk levels here are likely pretty high for all genders. If one is in an area where it is legal, possibly less stress and risk, but still likely to be not at all small.

If you can find out and be good at keeping track of the value of collectibles such as magic cards you can make a lot of money buying and selling them.

This seems like an area that's already saturated with a lot of skilled people.

Comment author: CronoDAS 25 July 2013 03:50:46AM 1 point [-]

Running an MTGO trading bot apparently isn't too difficult. I don't know how much money they actually make, though. (Hopefully enough to pay the electricity it takes to run the computer...)

Comment author: coffeespoons 23 July 2013 10:53:41PM *  14 points [-]
Comment author: jamesf 23 July 2013 11:47:19PM 21 points [-]

Low level crack dealers in gangs face worse pay and conditions than workers in most minimum wage jobs. My friendly independent neighborhood pot dealer makes a good living. There is still a risk of being robbed etc. without any legal recourse, but I'd imagine it's a lot lower if you aren't selling crack in the inner city.

Comment author: DanielLC 23 July 2013 11:11:45PM 6 points [-]

That leaves me with a question that they were nice enough to explicitly ask at the end of the page:

So if crack dealing is the most dangerous job in America, and if the salary is only $3.30 an hour, why on earth would anyone take such a job?

Do they answer it later in the chapter?

Comment author: jamesf 23 July 2013 11:43:05PM 14 points [-]

Status-seeking, essentially. Gang leaders are very high status in some circles, dealing drugs through gangs is a necessary part of becoming one. Of course actually becoming a gang leader is extremely unlikely, but then there aren't many self-described rationalists who deal crack.

Comment author: gothgirl420666 23 July 2013 11:44:26PM *  7 points [-]

Yeah. They say that there's a slim chance of becoming a successful drug dealer and making tons of money, so people see those guys and try to be like them.

For what it's worth, I imagine that being a suburban weed dealer is an entirely different ball game. OP might want to look into that.

Comment author: CellBioGuy 24 July 2013 01:46:29AM 2 points [-]

See, i see that question and assume the answer is probably extreme poverty and inability to make money any other way.

Comment author: drethelin 23 July 2013 10:16:17PM 1 point [-]

My consort says working a dry cleaner's is very easy and you get a lot of free time, though it is very hot.