I was the first in my family to go to college. I lived an intensely frugal life to minimize my debt, which was successful: I graduated with $3 in my pocket and no debt.

All of that effort got me, after 3 years of job hunting while making minimum wage, a $20 hour job. Almost twice our minimum wage at the time and I didn't even have the purchasing power my mother did at the start of her career, despite starting mine years later with an education and a whole stack of certificates.

This is the joke that capitalists think is acceptable.