Crapitalism

This week Nate and Jerry discuss just how much of a pain it is to switch jobs and the hurdles that may be blocking your path of escape. They also dive into just what exactly constitutes a breakfast food after a message from a friend detailing a strange zoom call.

Hot off a few weeks of watching uber rich people launch themselves into the sky, Nate and Jerry are here to discuss the Billionaire Space Race. They go into what's happening, how much it costs, and how exactly Minimally Useful would approach the situation. They go on a audio voyage that includes space pirates and even features a special guest.

Sometimes work isn't just all glitz and glamour followed by the wage fairy raining money on your head. Sometimes it's more than that. Sometimes it's coming to your first day and shelling out money for the privilege to work. That's what Nate and Jerry discuss in this episode. Along with an interesting theory on subway's marketing strategy, what the hell is going on with Olympic shorts, and just how messed up things are at Activision Blizzard right now.

Continuing down the yellow brick road of trying to get paid, in this episode Nate and Jerry discuss some of the origins of paying people for work. They break down salary vs hourly, go over the pitfalls of pay bands, and share stories of the tricks companies will play in order to squeeze just a bit more work out of people without paying them more.

After covering what exactly constitutes pay in Part 1, Nate and Jerry go on to discuss the trials and tribulations of negotiating away your life in exchange for being able to afford food, lodging, and maybe a ticket or two to a medieval themed water park coming soon to a town near you. They also share their take on what exactly would constitute a better setup and lay the groundwork for their plans at Minimally Useful Industries.

In this episode, Nate and Jerry decide to take a step back from the outright bashing of crapitalism to come at it from a more nuanced stance. Well... Maybe. This episode kicks off a multi-part series of what they're calling "The Pay Day" and will be discussing all things pay. Part 1 is all about what constitutes pay and the guys get into a discussion on where you can draw the line on pay. They also create some incredible new incentives for working at Minimally Useful that will hopefully catch on everywhere.

To continue on the journey of applying for and accepting a new job, Nate and Jerry dive into the world of scoping out a potential employer, dealing with interviews in all their pain, negotiating that paycheck, and finally, what you should do once you start your new job.

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Interviewing is a part of life and it totally sucks. In this episode Nate and Jerry go through the finer points of sprucing up a resume, including a couple of things you should definitely not do. Then they move on to the fun of going through the job boards and looking for something that piques your interest and wouldn't be a total disaster of a place to spend a bulk of your life. Also, in true Minimally Useful fashion, we recorded quite a bit more than we intended and instead of making you suffer through a super long episode, we've broken this into two parts... Basically we really hate looking for jobs.

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Imagine creating a great new widget, going through the fun of getting a patent on it, and a company comes along and steals the idea anyway because there's no way you have enough money to defend yourself in court. This is what Robert Kearns experienced with Ford. In this episode, Nate and Jerry discuss the Robert Kearns story and all the other "features" of the patent landscape.

An internship is a great way to get experience to help land your dream job. But what happens when that internship is unpaid. In this episode, Nate and Jerry go into what kind of jobs have unpaid internships, how prevalent they are, and how useful they think they are versus paid internships.

Spying isn't just for James Bond. It can happen at work and it's not nearly as uncommon as people would love to believe. In this episode, Jerry and Nate dive into the ways that companies track their employees and explore some of the companies that are out there trying to make it even easier.

Podcaster Note: Following this episode we will be dropping the frequency of our podcasts to start work on some other projects that we hope you will also enjoy.

Welcome to the Gig Economy, or as the kids say these days, "Gettin' giggy wit it." In this episode, Nate and Jerry discuss the finer points of what the term gig economy means, who the main culprits are, and how they contributing to some down right crapitalism.

Nothing says Crapitalism quite like a company ruining peoples lives all in the name of profit. And not many companies do that so well as Nestlé. In this episode, Nate and Jerry go through all the brands Nestlé is known for and just how they used them to wreck millions of lives.

Correction to a statement we made in the podcast: Arrowhead and Poland Spring were originally not part of Nestlé unlike what we said in the podcast. Arrowhead was directly acquired by Nestlé in 1987 and Poland Spring was acquired when Nestlé acquired Perrier in 1992.

Things aren't adding up? You aren't alone. In this episode, Nate and Jerry review some of the biggest conspiracies that surrounded business, most of which turned out to be true. This episode also includes and incredible recipe to boost home run performance.**

Should you be below the poverty line if you work a full-time job? Most definitely not. But what happens when the minimum wage paid to people working full time isn't enough to cover their basic needs? Nate and Jerry take a look at the state of minimum wage in the United States. They discuss some of the messed up and peculiar state laws before leading into some ingenius ideas on how to fix the system.

Ever wonder where your money goes when you donate to a charity? It goes to helping people or animals in need right? Well not always and that's what Non-profiteering is all about. Jerry and Nate discuss the incredibly bad ways some charities use the money given to them including Nate's own experience while working for a non-profit. They also discuss the way billionaires are taking advantage of something called a Donor-advised Fund.

Jerry and Nate discuss the way that corporate fines have become just the cost of doing business. Fines are not the swift blow to companies that wrong society. They have just become a minor inconvenience and are ever more becoming part of corporate business planning. 

Fancy a free fall in business? Didn't think so. Now what if you could throwing open your golden parachute to lessen the impact. Well you better be a high level executive otherwise you're probably gonna hit hard enough to leave a mark on the ground. In this episode Nate and Jerry discuss the origin of the golden parachute and share some of history's greatest examples of just how absurd they can get. 

Your time is being stolen. In this episode, Nate and Jerry tell you how.

In this episode, Nate and Jerry break down Boomer economics and give a very brief overview of their research into Boomer culture and ideology. After reviewing the driving forces behind Boomer choice making, they apply their findings to how it's driven the latest trend in GameStop stonks. In the end, it's the logical path we all followed to get here given the Boomer mindset but we're still glad to see what's happening and share that feeling with a Titantic reference. Godspeed and 💎 🤲

Jerry and Nate discuss the joys of office Ice Breakers, speculate about the origins of greco-roman wrestling, and create enhanced ultimate ice-breakers deluxe edition.

Jerry and Nate jump into the topic of just why your office hands out all that cool (or not so cool) swag. They also talk about just why things that might not cost your company anything are still treated as a privilege. There just may be some psy-ops at play.

Jerry and Nate discuss the finer points of some "incentives" work may be throwing your way to keep you in the office longer. Also, Nate tells a disturbing urinal story.

You're surrounded by ways that a company may try to adjust your attitude in the workplace. In this episode, Jerry and Nate discuss a couple ways you may not have noticed. Featuring topics such as "state sponsored" TV, the sounds of the office, and music to adjust your mood. 

Riding high on the fame garnered from the first episode, Jerry and Nate dive even deeper into the realms of bad business dealings done in the name of Covid. This time they go after the crazy corporate bonuses paid to execs while filing bankruptcy.