If I'm being honest, yes, I think I do feel that $1,200,000 a year is a lot of money to be making as a massage therapist. Even after taxes. Heck, it's a lot of money to be making as a CEO of a company. You could retire very early with a salary like that.

Don't get me wrong, people feel good after getting a massage, but it's not like it's necessary to survive.

I understand you work hard and feel like work effort should equate financial reward, but ultimately it's the usefulness or utility or result/feeling of the service that's being paid for, not the effort it took to provide it.

If we're talking about the cost to you of providing the service, that's different. If the cost is super high for you to be able to give massages, then you have expenses that need to be paid, and massages become a premium luxury service. But even I can afford a massage now and again because it "only" takes human labour. (I'm just guessing what it "takes". No offense! Again, I understand you work your ass off, don't get me wrong here.)

But yeah, sadly, prices are determined by the demand, I guess. What are people willing to pay for a thing, you know.

We all feel like we "deserve" to make a billion dollars before 35 and retire early and live our best life in our best years. But ultimately nobody deserves anything but a chance at happiness and a healthy life. Just a chance, mind you. That's my opinion. 😅

I'm a software developer helping big, big companies save millions of dollars probably every year. Do I get a cut off those savings? No. The company I consult for does. But I don't know if I deserve to either. I get paid what I need to have a good life. I can properly support my family, eat proper, healthy, homemade food, have a nice car, etc.

But do I deserve more? Why would I be worth more than someone else? It doesn't take a lot of physical effort. But a lot of mental effort! Is that worth less? Mental stress? Ruining my body and life expectancy by sitting for hours every single day? Is that something that's worth more than other types of work?

I don't know if I have answers to these questions. I don't know if I can just put a number on what I'm really "worth". All I know is what I want.

Anyway, this is long and wandering into philosophical land, so I'll cut it here for now. 😅

I work to complete exhaustion of my body & mind & soul EVERY FUCKING DAY. People drain my very SOUL and ALL my muscles. Do you think there should not be a high value placed on that?? I give my absolute ALL to appreciative repeat customers, and you think that's not worth a living wage?

What is your opinion of massage therapists?

Maybe you think massage therapists are only worth pennies because perhaps you have some stereotypical perception of submissive Asian ladies who you can't communicate with due to language barrier, so they don't talk and they were raised with a slave work ethic mindset. Hell they might even be trafficking slaves who barely get paid because they're illegally massaging without licences.

Yesterday I had to renew my bi-annual massage license which cost $330 which is 2-3 days of net pay for me. That hurt a lot because I'm still trying to pay off my credit card after getting new belts on my vehicle & rear differential service & brake fluid exchange & coolant flushing & pinion seal repair & new key fob all at once which cost $4700, and I fucking LIVE in this car because my job doesn't pay me enough to afford rent or mortgage anywhere.

I'm a Caucasian American girl who grew up surrounded by millionaires and I paid $10k out of my own pocket to graduate from an accredited massage school in Falls Church Virginia near where the Kennedy family lived during Kennedy's presidency. I eat clean & exercise hard & painstakingly maintain my mesomorphic 104 lb tiny frame. Jaws drop & heads turn whenever I walk by people, and they know I work hard for all this. And I know my value.

I give my all to my job, my body-mind-soul yet they do not pay me enough to live comfortably. They pay me enough to live in my car and buy enough food to survive.

I work to complete exhaustion of my body & mind & soul EVERY FUCKING DAY. People drain my very SOUL and ALL my muscles. Do you think there should not be a high value placed on that?? I give my absolute ALL to appreciative repeat customers, and you think that's not worth a living wage?

Okay, that's not what I said. Of course you should be paid a living wage for the work that you do. Especially the time that you put in. Time is the most valuable thing IMO, because we only have a certain amount of it in life. And I have two kids I'd like to spend as much time with as I can before they grow up, so I can definitely feel the time-is-money aspect.

To me, it sounds like you don't really like this work very much? If it drains you as much as you vehemently expressed, and it doesn't pay you enough to even have a home to live in, why do you do it? I wouldn't do it. 😐

What is your opinion of massage therapists?

I have no opinion one way or another regarding massage therapists, specifically. I've never gone and had a massage before. My sister-in-law is a certified massage therapist, but works as a district nurse. She's nice. I like her. 🤷‍♂️🙂

Maybe you think massage therapists are only worth pennies because perhaps you have some stereotypical perception of submissive Asian ladies who you can't communicate with due to language barrier, so they don't talk and they were raised with a slave work ethic mindset.

Wow. What? No. Let's pump the brakes here. That didn't even cross my mind. I was very positive about your profession from the start, remember?

Hell they might even be trafficking slaves who barely get paid because they're illegally massaging without licences.

Holy hell. I hope not.

Yesterday I had to renew my bi-annual massage license which cost $330 which is 2-3 days of net pay for me. That hurt a lot because I'm still trying to pay off my credit card after getting new belts on my vehicle & rear differential service & brake fluid exchange & coolant flushing & pinion seal repair & new key fob all at once which cost $4700, and I fucking LIVE in this car because my job doesn't pay me enough to afford rent or mortgage anywhere.

Yeah, that is awful. What is it they say? Everyone is one medical issue or car repair away from financial ruin? It's an awful situation. Especially when your workplace or clients don't pay you enough to make a living. I'm really sorry you are in that predicament. ❤️

$330 which is 2-3 days of net pay for me

I did some fast math on that, and that got me to about $27 per client on average? Is that about right? That sounds absolutely disgustingly low. A massage where I live is like $50–70 for 30 minutes, I believe. You'd have around $950–1,000 a day with that kind of price. That's more than what I make as a software developer consultant, which are notoriously more expensive than regular employees. So that should be a very good salary to aim for, IMO. You could buy a house in the city by yourself with that kind of money where I live.

But like. You want $1,000 per client. Which would be $5,000 a day. That's a lot. A lot lot. Realistically. I understand housing prices can be ridiculous in some cities around the world. Are you maybe in one of those types of places where you need $5,000 a day to live in a small apartment and eat proper meals? Maybe somewhere in LA or something? 😬

I'm a Caucasian American girl who grew up surrounded by millionaires and I paid $10k out of my own pocket to graduate from an accredited massage school in Falls Church Virginia near where the Kennedy family lived during Kennedy's presidency. I eat clean & exercise hard & painstakingly maintain my mesomorphic 104 lb tiny frame. Jaws drop & heads turn whenever I walk by people, and they know I work hard for all this. And I know my value.

I— I don't know the relevancy of all those details, especially your race. Are you saying that because you're Caucasian and have a mesomorphic body type, and that you're tiny, that you are worth more? I hope that's not what you're saying.

What I do imagine is that growing up "surrounded by millionaires" might not grant someone with the best perception of the value of a dollar? So maybe since all the people around you had millions of dollars you also expect to be paid in the millions every year? As a massage therapist?

I grew up with my single mom, we didn't have much. I wanted something, I'd have to save up, or wait for Christmas and maybe get that thing. Maybe a birthday. We lived small. My mom managed to move us to a house that's like two houses/homes in one shared building, kind of half-half split down the middle with an internal wall. That's when I had already spent half my time living with her before moving out. Anyway. I grew up knowing the value of money. I'm very frugal. Keeping close tabs on all my expenses compared to my income. Knowing the value of money, yadda yadda.

I give my all to my job, my body-mind-soul yet they do not pay me enough to live comfortably. They pay me enough to live in my car and buy enough food to survive.

On this, I am fully on your side. They need to pay you enough for you to be able to live in an apartment at least. That is completely unacceptable. At least if you work full-time with this. That's crazy, and I would definitely find other work if I were you. That's nonsense salary, in all honesty. I hope it works out better for you, because you do deserve to have a home and a life.

Maybe open up your own place, if possible? 🥲

Yeah, who likes going fast anyways?

If you like going fast you don't build a vessel like this. You dint need to carry cargo if you're just going fast. You need to explain what the cargo is if you want to pretend like they aren't drug boats. They aren't fishing boats, and other cargo doesn't need to be transported like this, and it isn't fuel efficient so it must be something that can't take other routes.

I would bet everything in my pockets that most of the drugs in this country come in on regular container ships with the rest of the freight...

I'm not making any claim about where most of the drugs come in. How does that have anything to do with the conversation. Even if it is true, it doesn't mean these aren't drug boats.

I can extrapolate that to Venezuela a lot easier than I can dream up a scenario where it makes sense to ship fent precursors over from China and run a bunch of pills up the coast on speedboats.

It's not fentanyl. IIRC, most of that comes in through Mexico, but I might be wrong about that. I believe it's mostly cocaine coming through Venezuela.

Again, this doesn't matter. The fact we're having this discussion proves my point. It's better to just talk about the legality. It being a drug boat doesn't make it a legal target. Why even bring that into the discussion. All it'll ever do is distract from the actual crimes being committed.

Just to be clear, I'm a leftist (anarchist). I'm very against this administration, and I'm also generally pro legalization of any drug. That doesn't mean I need to be stupid and pretend drugs aren't being smuggled. There's a hell of a lot of evidence ships like these, and others, have been used to smuggle drugs. Technically all of that could have been staged, but I doubt it. There are drugs being smuggled through Venezuela and you'd have to be very ignorant to think that isn't happening. Hell, there are drugs being smuggled through the US. None of that has anything to do with these acts being illegal though, so don't shoot yourself in the foot by arguing about it.

Edit: On the image you posted, in case this makes you think I'm more reasonable, this is a comment I made a while back: lemmy.zip/comment/23085761

I agree with you it's bad. However, drugs are being smuggled. This isn't really something that can be denied. It's happening everywhere all the time. It just isn't relevant. It's illegal no matter what, even if these are drug smugglers or not.

Cethin

2025-12-01 19:14:45

the country holds the world’s largest proven oil reserves

Yeah, just like that time, the excuse given is almost certainly bullshit.

Venezuela has the world’s most oil: Why doesn’t it earn more from exports?

Venezuela holds the world’s largest proven oil reserves, more than five times more than the United States.

^{Mohammed Haddad (Al Jazeera)}