This account is a throwaway. I don't want people to harass me on my main account because I posted here.

This post is just some kid bitching and complaining about the world, so if you are uninterested in hearing that then I would suggest moving on.

It seems to be getting really hard for a young man out there. I got a certification in basic welding. I had to pay out of pocket of course. Everywhere seems to need more. More experience and more education mostly. There are few new openings because men can work the same jobs for decades, and when a position opens I'm in direct competition with men who have been in the field for 20 years. It seems that the only jobs I can take are menial construction jobs that pay close to minimum wage with no guarantee of upwards movement.

I cant pay to get more education, and I can't afford to leave my currents position at a hardware store (about 15 an hour). I am seriously beginning to question why I got the cert in the first place. Rent and utilities are incredibly high. So opportunities to save any money are rare. I'm still working thank God, I don't know what I would do if corona shut down my store.

Money aside. It seems impossible to get a girl. It seems every girl is in 3 categories. Above my league, dating above theirs, Lesbian. It also seems girls are totally uninterested in poor men living in small apartments. I would love to get a house one day. Get a girl to move in and be a housewife, and have lots of kids. American dream and such, but I don't see it being financially feasible even if I scored a position paying twice as much as I make now.

Although the thing that's been on my mind isn't all of that. I'm sure that's the experience of most 20' something-year-olds in the US. What's been bothering me is the fact that older men actively try to sabotage young guys like me. Many older men seem like they would do anything to screw over anyone under 30. Deny jobs, fire guys for nothing, lie to other bosses about performance, deny promotions.

(A quick tangent. It seems that nowadays women receive promotions easily 3 times more often than men do.)

I don't understand the mentality. Do some of these older men not realize how close I am to homelessness? I would be on the streets in a month if I hypothetically got a fresh new higher paying job, and were suddenly let go after a week because "I don't like the look on your face, and I'm the boss around here" I don't understand. I don't know what to do other than get a lucky break.

I don't understand what I'm doing wrong.