It is not a flex if your primary job isn't enough to pay the bills. It's a societal failure that wages have not kept up with inflation and that capitalism continues to filter the benefits of increased productivity to ownership at the expense of labor. Being forced to cope with your own exploitation, or worse, figuring out how to exploit others, is not the flex you think it is

And if it ain't about the money, it's definitely not a flex that you filled your free time with more work. Unless you're trying to make your side gig into your 9-5, there is a world of activities, hobbies, and pastimes to better yourself that you are missing out on.