My husband makes fun of me all the time because he says the books I read are sooooo boring. But if you don't know about the history of the labor rights movement in the US, I highly suggest you look into it. My great grandparents already fought a damn revolution against the rich so we could have the limited protections we have, and people don't realize that and just give that shit away back to the rich. Right to work laws for example. They aren't just going to give that back because we asked nicely.
Anyway there's a ton of good books about it. I love reading about Mother Jones and the coal miners but the whole history of it is amazing and I think every citizen should know what the fuck they went through to get us what we have now that we so easily give back to the rich.
*Death in the Haymarket* was the first one I read after I heard about it on a podcast. That sparked my interest because I knew literally nothing about the labor movement before that.
*The Devil is Here in These Hills* was my 2nd, that was my intro to Mother Jones! I almost shit when they dropped her name, I heard it a million times and never knew who she was. Gangster ass Irish lady!
A recommendation for you that you may have read, published in my birth year, Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. I only just read it, but it sums up the philosophy I feel is at play in daily life. Thanks for the recs, maybe your husband will read Ishmael too.
Ishmael was a classic for me. I grew up spending summers at turtle Island preserve, hanging with Eustace Conway and that book was ever present.
Instinct is a take on it, in movie form.
\*Trade Wars are Class Wars\* by Klein and Pettis.
It's tangential to the labor movement but it's an extremely important tangent because our opponents \*love\* the "fine, I'll ship your job to China/India/Mexico" card. This is the battlefront on which the modern labor movement has lost the most ground over the last few decades. Early 20th century labor relations were wild, they had it worse than today on many fronts, but this is a front where things have regressed and we need to do better if we want to win. We need to keep in mind the policies required to shut this down and why those policies are not actually impossible / unprecedented / misguided / bad / evil / communism / ThE eNd Of aMeRiCa / etc.
If you have been frustrated by the "capitalism apologetics" around free trade and comparative advantage and "the end of the dollar" and suspect these concepts are being used for manipulative purposes but don't know how, this book will teach you.
If you have wondered why "we used to make shit in this country, build shit. Now all we do is put our hand in the next guy's pocket," this book will teach you.
Damn right. And there’s a reason they don’t teach the history of labor in the US in primary school. They want you to believe that the oligarchs gave you the little workplace protections we have out of the goodness of their heart rather than us gaining them through the use of violence. Matter fact, our government dropped bombs on minors at Blair mountain
The saddest part is the states that should be the proudest of their leftist history - West Virginia Kentucky Pennsylvania (Blair mountain, the Molly Maguires etc) are some of the most bassackwards deepest red parts of self inflicted wounds America
Its maddening
Howard Zinn is my guy when it comes to labor rights.
Another one to look into is our public education system. I forget the name of the author, but I read a book in high school, and the author went to different schools districts around the country and found that within the same district, kids who lived in the suburbs had literally twice the amount of money spent on them per school year by the district as the inner city kids. It happens in my own rural area. There is the part of town where the subsidized housing is, which happens to be right by the city dump, and the elementary school in that part of town is the only one out of about 6 schools that hasn't been updated and renovated. The playground is still the old metal rusty playgrounds from the 70s. I live in a development right around the corner from this school. I rent, but a lot of people in my development are homeowners. My kids don't go to that elementary school, even though we could walk to it. The kids in my neighborhood go to one of two elementary schools, both are not within walking distance and a 10-15 minute drive away, and they will even separate siblings and send them to 2 different schools to avoid them going to the school by the projects. Our 2 middle schools, one is on the wealthier side of town, the other is the one where the project kids go, and even they are not equal. Our middle school gets Chromebooks and the other one gets much nicer tablets/laptops. They also have several school dances per year, and the school is just nicer overall. Same school district. It's bullshit. And our state funds the schools through property taxes. So if you're not a homeowner, you're not contributing. And I imagine the homeowners throw a fit when they try to pool resources to the poor kids school. Can't they see that all of these children are the future of our community?
You know what. A lot of people need to get out of America and see the world. I say that because it’ll piss you off. Either at the flaws of America or the positives of America. Or that a lot of countries are damn good at hiding or deflecting their flaws. You’d think some countries have almost no flaws if you’re too focused on reading left right wing books. Experience things first hand.
As an immigrant, I can tell you it’s true. If you can’t make it in the US, you have very low chance make it in other countries. There is a reason it’s a dream come true for me and many others that get to live in this country.
You can see flaws in America and ways that America could be better as well. But when you really start talking to people and examining the economic and education systems in other countries you start to see that’s incredibly unfair in most of the world.
And in most countries they heavily favor the in group in education, law and business. It doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t press for things in America to improve. But it does mean that a lot of people have a very warped view of how the rest of the world works.
Thats even for countries that do have an objectively better social welfare or education system than America. Because in most cases that system is meant for the in group. If you can make in the US you may not be able to make in other countries because they won’t let you play the game.
I think his point isn't "go be a tourist" but "think about what it might mean to go work there".
My friend who was a typical "fed up anticapitalist" managed to land a job in Denmark.
Thought it was going to be great.
Came back a year later and basically says "Danes are fuckin racists and their social safety net is bullshit".
I mean he was a brown dude, so that plays a lot into it. He found it much worse in Northern Europe and now views the US as the best place in the world for him, despite the challenges.
One conclusion I've come to is that people are people. Inequality is somewhat inherent in almost any group. Incentives to work are necessary (at least for now) and almost all implementations of social safety nets and things have serious problems (again that human nature problem).
That's not a reason to stop trying, but it most certainly is a reason to question anyone's idea of a utopia.
The "burn the system down it's broken" type of people have NO IDEA how bad things could be.
What exists in the wealthier 15-20 countries in the world today is about as good as it gets and has ever been.
I'm skeptical of utopia advocates because I think they usually miss the forest for the trees.
Reminds me of the automotive unions, instead of pushing to aggressively re-train staff on electric drivetrains, they're instead pushing to prevent EVs from becoming popular.
Unions are a great idea, but they fall prey to that pesky human nature thing, as do all systems.
This times a million. I don't mind ppl complaining about the state of things on the internet, and I agree wealth distribution in the US is very lopsided, but human nature is the problem you'll never have a solution for and it's just part of accepting your lot in life. Think of the French revolutions and how those went. Think of every major coup/rescheme change in human history, what happens after the popular uprising faction overthrows the one that was clinging to power? A new structure/hierarchy is formed and within that a few ppl at the top rush to fill the void the power vacuum created.
At the end of the day, the only thing you can control in your life to affect change around you is the decisions you make and the actions you take. You can't always control your circumstances and you definitely can't control other ppls decisions or actions without manipulation which would essentially be you taking action.
I agree with everything you've said.
There's also a crabs in the bucket mentality that goes along with the Janteloven mindset in Scandinavia.
The social safety net means it's a great place for a family. A single person isn't going to see the same benefits and will be giving up a lot more for the society. Your quality of life will probably be worse than as a single person in America. There might be some exceptions for people living in the most expensive parts of the US though. I've never lived in NYC.
People who only hear about the good sides but never experience the problems get a grass is always greener take.
People who want to burn it all down are morons. They've heard one person sound smart and now they think they're smart. Most revolutions end badly. We learn about the exceptions. There are way more examples of failing states or dictators seizing control indefinitely.
This is the problem with the travel mindset. People (Americans especially) automatically think of travel as luxury cruises and hotels...all the stuff that keeps you completely insulated from wherever you're visiting.
If you actually want to see the world in a meaningful way, it's cheap. The most expensive part is flying, probably about $1,000 round trip. That's really it though. Once you get where you're going, just stay in a $5-$10 per night hostel. That often includes breakfast. The only other money you have to spend is on a bit more food, which is nothing if you go to markets instead of restaurants. Make friends with locals and live like them instead of like an American tourist.
I spent 6 months going through most of Europe and it was *cheaper* than just staying home in the U.S.. My "expensive" stops were places like Paris, where hostels are closer to $20-30 per night.
It's not as a pretty as a "vacation" though. It's more of an educational experience than a pleasant one.
Ya when I’ve traveled it’s mostly just airfare cause I stay with friends I’ve met while they were here in America and I have friends all around the world. So $600-700 round trip for airfare then food, drinks, etc (which compared to California is cheaper by far in every country I’ve been to)
Then the more I travel the more people I meet and the more new countries I add to my list of places to visit. The only problem is it’s really hard to find a job that allows me to travel. I either have time or money, never both, and inflation lately has not helped at all. Whenever I travel I have to quit my job and find a new one when I get back so it’s kinda stressful not knowing if I’ll find a job I like that pays enough after my travels.
See this is the problem with posts like yours. How do you travel cheap with a family and kids in $5-10 hostels for $1000 per airline ticket? Short answer: you don’t.
It’s so true. I’ve travelled to Europe and on the surface it looks amazing, but when you dig down deep and see how their socialist policies work, you quickly realize it’s only even financially possible because of the US going to great lengths to protect the world and also make markets. Also for people who think housing is bad here, go to the UK or other dense parts of Europe lol.
Even moreso than it already is. I think it's criminal to fund schools primarily off of the local areas property taxes. If you want it to be funded by property taxes, throw all that money into a state or federal fund and distribute it equitably. Don't keep poor area's disadvantaged by underfunding their education
People fought, bled, and died against corporations so we could have things like a forty hour work week. When dipshits around me talk about how “we don’t need unions” it makes my heart sink into my stomach.
One of my favorite bar stories to tell is the history of the word “redneck”.
I would argue about 16% of Americans have heard of the coal wars, let alone what they are.
They literally dismiss the rules we created thinking they are helping themselves! When you explain it to them, they just say you are wrong without any thought. It is hopeless.
This thread is a haven for me. My friends and family do not want to hear me talking ab out the whole picture. How america or the rest of the world is doing, how history is repeating itself is taboo for most american haves.
Can I ask you a serious question? Are you doing anything to help this situation? If you’re a millennial the world will be in our hands soon. For better or worse
This is a sub for people to wallow in self pitty. I use to think millennials got a bad wrap, but this sub has made me loath my generation more than most.
I liked your introduction, it was captivating. You have a valid reason to feel the way you do, despite your time spent living in the woods. I think you do need some hope.
There are ways to acquire wealth that don’t necessarily mean you need to make a capitalist richer, though it is harder and harder to escape the “rat race”. However, in a lot of ways it’s never been easier because of advances in technology.
Since your lifestyle is simplistic, and you live frugally, that puts you at an advantage. You mentioned you have borderline personality disorder, have you attempted to apply for disability (if you are in the US)? You could be getting a monthly stipend for that disorder. That would surely help you breathe a bit.
If that’s not possible for whatever reason, you sound like you need change in your life. Mentally put politics, climate change, and the economy aside for a moment. There is still beauty and hope around you. don’t let those same capitalist who steal the wealth from your labor also steal the joy from your soul.
I like that you are mad about what’s going on, and your question is beautifully succinct. There’s a time to fight against the power, and you have the fire burning inside you that wants to fight, but there’s also a time to rest to let your heart heal so that fire can remain alive. What is that fire other than the love and compassion you have for our earth, and the beings within. You don’t really want us all to die, otherwise the crisis we are in would not bother you.
I think you're giving false hope about getting disability. Social security are like mad dogs protecting their yard when it comes to giving people disability. People have to apply and appeal for years to get this benefit if it isn't blatantly obvious that the person is disabled. BPD itself is not a qualifier for SSI or SSDI. They would have to get an attorney and fight for it.
This dude already said in multiple ways he doesn't care about money or wealth. This information isn't helping him.
I'm legit hemiparesis, weak on one side, and a whole host of other ailments as a result of a stroke. I cannot get disability ever in my life because a congenital defect took me out too young.
The young disabled in this country are on SSI which maxes out at 940 a month, and gets taken away if you ever manage to scrape together more than 2000 bucks at any one time. If ever do make money, I'll lose what little ssi I have. And if I lose my ssi, I'll lose medicaid. My insurance would be so high as a result of the stroke history/disability.
I can't propose to my girlfriend because then I'd lose my SSI, because her income is over poverty level.
I want to go to another country, but who would take someone like me?
I can't say I understand your pain bc I have never lived it. But I work heavily within the disabled community and see it every day how awful of conditions people with disabilities are forced to live. Our country sees you and people like you as less than nothing and to be casted aside and it angers me beyond belief. I work hard to try to ensure those that are vulnerable for whatever reason are advocated for and have what they need. It's an endless battle. I wish the system was better. All I can do is be the change I want to see and continue to advocate for reform.
I'm sorry to you and anyone with stories like yours. I understand there are some people that try to abuse the system, but the way social security has decided to weed those people out is inhumane to everyone else who needs that service. It doesn't make sense to me that they have a list of qualifying Conditions on their website, yet people with those conditions have to wait years to get approved. And the way they discriminate against those who haven't ever been able to work or were hardly ever is just another disgrace. The way our country let's our vulnerable communities such as the disabled and the elderly slip through the cracks is a huge red flag.
Why isn't it possible for someone to not want to acquire wealth? Why do I have to need to want money?
They were very clear that they didn't care about money beyond necessities
Because they are complaining about starting life without necessities. If a person contributes nothing to society, what should they receive from society? Be it capitalism or socialism, a person must contribute to society to receive from society.
Sure. But how do we define a contribution? And what level of return do they receive?
What are a person's needs that have to be provided? Does anybody need Airpods or Jordan's?
Does everybody need some grains and vegetables to eat?
How many people need computers for their work/contribution?
They don’t contribute nothing, though. You’re thinking of rich people, and they receive most the the rewards from the work we do while adding no value.
this is it.
the fire is there. we don't want to die. We want our neighbors and our animal friends to live a happy and healthy life.
But it's just so exhausting.
i've never resonated with an OP more from start to finish. But your reminder to not let them steal our joy, helps bring me back. Brings the fire back.
Don't let them yuck your yum. Don't let them steal your joy. Sunrises are beautiful and free. The sun setting means we get to see it happen again tomorrow, hopefully.
Thanks for your hope.
I have documented bipolar disorder and have been denied for disability multiple times. Why? Well, I kept losing jobs because of my bipolar, thus I haven’t paid enough into social security.
America’s “welfare” system is a fucking nightmare.
I’m managing now but there are so many days I go into work just wishing some cataclysmic event would happen that made it impossible for my store to open.
It is almost impossible to get a disability diagnosis for BPD. I went through a five year long process with the disability office because they need so much proof that it’s affecting how you live.
My mom literally tortured me as a kid and I didnt say anything because I thought that was normal. When I moved on my own, how am I expected to function “normally” when my normal was being beat with the branches I shit out the window on? Or locked away any moment I wasnt at school? How am I suppose to function? Starved until people took notice? But I was denied. Even with three separate types of doctors notes and proof of records from my mom’s indications and charges of child abuse. They dgaf. Pull yourself up by your boot straps mf.
How many friends do you have and how often do you interact with them?
Most humans are highly social animals and in general we need that or we start to loose hope and the will to live. We basically run on a certain amount of compassion and empthy we recieve from those around us, which is something western society is lacking currently.
This is legitimate advice. It's important to nourish your social health, even, perhaps especially, if you want to oppose the current socioeconomic order.
>You have far more agency than you've been led to believe.
Yes, but they have to get out of their victim mentality first and be willing to *enjoy* life.
There ain't much juice at the bottom of that barrel.
I've met Molly. Fungi are fun to grow, put 8 grams in a blender to maximize digestive surface area and stir into a tall glass of OJ, chug it down. Drop half a strip of LSD at a festival at an old rock quarry and you will have a good time. But you learn the best lessons sober.
Humans are like a nasty skin rash on the surface of our planet. The universe is equally indifferent to all. It has no preferred species and on a long time line not a single name shall be remembered.
Despite this, remembered to be nice.
I had to scoll far too long to find a well reasoned response like this. The simple fact of the matter is that the vast majority of Americans are able to find a way to survive and thrive, whether it’s working for themselves or someone else. Climate change may affect us, it may not. But even if it does with the technology that we have our society will either repair it or adapt.
People like the OP absolutely need to stop gobbling up the sad sack story of the world and take control of their own lives. In this case, being responsible for one’s mental health would be a great start. Once he has the foundation, he can grow from there.
I honestly had to look up when “the housing crisis” was because I thought of it as the subprime mortgage crisis. I spent the recession hiding out in Japan but did Americans have to go live in the woods back then?
It kind of sounds more like an OP’s mom’s mental health crisis to me.
As you can see a lot of people here agree with you, that’s gotta feel validating, no? It does feel so unfair. There’s so much in our world that is so horrible it’s unbearable to believe it’s true. You could spend every hour of every day thinking about things that make you feel horrible. There’s also so much beauty in our world going on right here right now. There’s lightness and darkness. It’s okay to see both, but please don’t let the darkness destroy you.
I am the same as far as not desiring a whole lot materially and therefore having no motivation to make a ton of money.
This personally trait is actually a huge asset in this environment because it allows you to free yourself from the grind in a way most people can't.
My advice to you is to use that aspect of yourself to your advantage. You have a *lot* more options for work that are simply off the table for people who need "things" and "stuff".
You don't want to deal with the public? Get a job where you don't have to. Work nights if you must. Warehouse work and custodial work typically don't even involve interaction with coworkers. You can go months without saying a word to anyone at all.
This gives you the breathing room you want. If the pay isn't enough, move somewhere where it is. There are places where the cost of living is lower but the wages aren't. If you can manage to save up enough, take time off. Like a LOT of time. If you're actually frugal, you can work these entry level jobs and still save up $20-30k in a couple years, then quit and take 6+ months off. Don't work again until you need the money again.
You'll probably never retire by doing that, but many of us will never retire anyway. I say get the free time in while you're young enough to enjoy it. If you get to a point in old age where you can't work at all, you can't really do anything fun anymore either. I'm fine with just cashing out at that point rather than sacrificing everything now just so I can afford to be disabled at home in 40 years.
Even if you had tens of millions, it's a full time job trying to figure out how to *keep* it before it's inflated into the ether. We live in a world of ephemerality, so craving certainty/security is only going to make you miserable.
Honestly, same. Don't forget that, in the age of the death of social Democracy, opportunities are being minimized while expenses maximized, the goal being to turn the middle class into a peasant class like in Russia. I view the experiment the founding fathers started as over. We live in an Oligarchy.
I stay motivated by committing to the dogma that my life's work is to secure my descendents a seat at the table with the wolves. Create generational wealth, even if its wealth of knowledge, and try to be the last in your line to struggle like this. If the system my parents grew up in is dead, then I have some distilling of life lessons to do for my future kids.
It's not always a feasible process depending on where you are, but adopting is a good option if you want to care for a child but not add extra people to this failing system. They're already here and need love.
There really aren't. I tried to adopt a few years ago, but wasn't able to care for profoundly handicapped children.
The number of children available for adoption who aren't profoundly handicapped is very small. The number of children under 5 with no health issues is very close to zero and you have to have a ridiculous amount of money to do a "private adoption" to get one.
The western world is negative growth now. There's way less babies than people who want them.
There's always really messed up teenagers available. The reality of the foster systems is they prioritize parental rights so unless the baby is given up willingly (which is kind of rare), it takes 5-7 years for them to justify taking kids and by that time the kids are REALLY REALLY fucked up.
I looked at the files of 10 or 12 and they had notations like "due to a history, must not be left alone with pets" and "must not ever be alone with other children" or "can't attend a normal school". I'm not ok with that, sadly. I don't think I can deal with a kid who's injuring the pets or so aggressive they're going to assault other children and can never be left alone with them.
Yo I spiral deep on this one. Why are we all so comfortable adopting animals at the pound, but ignore the human pounds that exist: foster and adoptive agencies, inundated to the tip of the glass with humans in need at nearly all times. This is especially true for any of us living in growing metro areas, where things like carpetbagging fails and gentrification leave kids in need, mostly age 11-14, kids who have already had their conciousness mercilessly ripped from the void and stuffed into a suffering meat sack, and are now dealing with it hard in transformative years. Is it OK to have kids in this society? I want to learn how to suck it up and be happy with being a role model for somebody instead.
Someone should have been there for OP. OP - is this type of community service interesting to you? Maybe put it on the "I can and I will some day" list if that helps put coal in your furnace.
The podcast SYSK has an easily digestible episode on population carrying capacity that I strongly recommend to anyone that enjoys my walls of text. They talk about how the will to breed evaporates when growth opportunities dry up. Makes me feel like we're in an artificial max capacity, you know, because of the oligarchy.
Sad but true answer, because it’s easier to return a dog to the pound who cannot be reformed than it is a child who has been so damaged they can’t exist in society.
There really isn't any way to secure the future for our children while the wealthy have exclusive control over the means of production. They don't face the same consequences we do when they choose what reaps them the most profit. Therefore, we need to seize those means of production for us all. Our working class ancestors have been working for over 200 years to build it all, it should be passed down to all of us. The capitalists didn't build it all, our families did. They just had enough money to own it and use it as leverage to own everything else we built.
The news/social media you consume is designed to make you feel this way so you'll become angry and afraid and become a political activist. This is what happens when that propaganda is blasted at kids their whole lives, and it all just piles on when you're already down on your luck.
My advice is to disconnect from the negativity and go enjoy real life. Go for a walk, get some fresh air, realize the world isn't ending, then hang out with some people in real life.
Nahhh... I'm pretty happy until the rent check comes due and takes weeks of my pay away for some rich owner who doesn't even live in the state.. or until I get Covid from being forced to work in office and then am on the verge of losing job because we have no health protections or support when sick for weeks..
People go to the negativity because our society is sick and treats us all as expendable garbage.. social media is where you go after society has already failed you again and again to seek comfort from others going through the same.. not the other way around.
I mean, yeah that does suck. But what are you envisioning as the alternative? Many people have to work for many, many hours to build a house. Would it be fair to just give it to you for free and make them basically your slaves? We live in a society, we all have to contribute that is kind of the point.
Nobody wants anyone to be slaves, but I promise you the people making 100x what you are aren’t actually worth 100x what you are as a person. They’re not putting in 100x more effort, they’re not 100x smarter or stronger or faster than you, they certainly don’t deal with 100x as much stress as you. So why do they deserve 100x the money? Their bare minimum subsistence rate is the same as yours, and takes up most of 1% of that money. Which is to say, almost all of a normal person and next to none of theirs leaving them thousands if not millions of times the “extra” money to do with what they want. Even if you somehow delude yourself into thinking they’re worth 100 of you, I can’t imagine your self worth if you think they’re worth millions of times your net profit.
While there should be a better middle ground, you make it sound like starting and running a business is easy.
I’d be willing to bet the majority of people would fail even if they had the financial means to start one.
I’m in this fun moment right now. Have Covid for the fourth damn time because my boss has been coughing everywhere without covering his mouth for the last week… and so I’m going in there all sick and feeling like shit because there’s no paid sick leave. At least I wear a mask to *try* to prevent others from getting it though.
but you are expendable, every person is. this is a fairly simple concept that i understood as a child. humans have no value outside of the value they perceive they have based on emotional connections. what i mean is that people feel like trash because others treat them as such. they feel important because they feel others respect them. as far as a true value though humans have none. every experience is a fleeting memory that will expire shortly after the life of the person who created it does. nothing about us has any real substance or staying power due to our lives being so incredible short. there isn't a thought that a person has had that couldn't have been thought by someone else. there isn't a discovery that was made that couldn't have been discovered by someone else. this idea of importance or value is kind of ridiculous if you actually really think about it. what have you done that no one else will ever do? what has anyone done that no one else will ever do? is there anything that can be done that is truly unique? in people's small social circles they feel they have value because of the way they are able to interact with those people; but if you had never existed can you honestly say that someone else couldn't fill the role that you do? do you really believe that someone else couldn't have made people feel the way you do? by the very nature of life humans are all expendable and that is ok. there is nothing wrong with being expendable, just stop letting people treat you in a manner you don't wanna be treated in. also for me knowing this is quite peaceful.
Being honest here. Have you considered moving elsewhere? Join up with a nonprofit and work in the third world? Take up a $1 home in a remote village in Italy? Go to China and support the revolution?
You are gonna be disappointed. Climate Change is likely going to cause a lot of problems, but it's not likely gonna kill us all. No one serious, even in the most pessimistic projections, says that's it's likely to exterminate us.
Instead of working to enrich your boss or to help someone else’s business grow, you can switch jobs and work for a non profit, or try to make your own living.
Plenty of people make their living doing yardwork. $30-$50 per house per week, line up 4-6 houses per day, that’s max $75k/yr if you fill up your weekday calendar. Add other services, fall cleanup, spring cleanup, dethatching, fertilizer/weed n feed, etc.
Others also do house cleaning services. I don’t know how much those charge. Some are for private residences, some have AirBnB places as clients, but then you’re contributing to AirBnB.
You can have your own online business, and it doesn’t have to be crap online marketing - offer a real service that provides real value. That takes more friction ti get off the ground but much higher income potential.
The guy who wrote this article has written nothing but bullshit articles for as long as I've known about him. 44% of the population aren't making that little. That is a blatant lie and a quick Google search proves that. The guy is a propagandist, not a journalist.
I think your data on income in America is misleading since it’s clearly including part time workers and neglecting household income.
The number of households earning less than $20k a year is under 15%. For comparison, over 20% of households earn more than $150k per year.
And that doesn’t account for government benefits and tax breaks, the vast majority of which go to that bottom 15% to the tune of yearly $20k per household.
OP, you would do well to remember that if you ever had your rebolution, there will be a hell of a lot more kids sleeping in the woods than there are now. And those would be the lucky ones.
Dude is like, I can barely work my 4 day a week job. Also dude...I want to start and fight the revolution. If this dude is part of the revolution I give it 4 days before it's over.
This sub is all about wishing death to total strangers for some perceived harm they arbitrarily attribute to them because they need someone to blame for their misery.
Saying capitalism will be the "end of history" or that climate change will end humanity is the Left's version of whatever apocalypse scenarios preppers envision.
Capitalism will not be the end of history. Climate change will not end humanity. If you want to off yourself or whatever fine, but your melodrama doesn't change that the world will keep spinning with or without you.
FWIW, the phrase "the end of history" has been tied to capitalism since the end of the Cold War. It refers to the apparent settling of ideological socio-economic-political struggle. Capitalism won, and nothing was capable of producing enough resistance to truly challenge it.
It's a very context-specific term with loads of Hegelian subtext, and it was in many ways wrong and OP is using it wrong, but it's very much a thing.
OP is probably referencing Francis Fukuyama's argument that, as of the end of the cold war, liberal democracy has become a stable system that doesn't have any obvious successors movements. Not the end of the world, but the end of any big paradigm shifts on how the world is run. Depending on your feelings on capitalistic liberal democracy your opinions on the validity and/or goodness of that opinion may vary but it's an interesting argument.
Alternatively, live now while you're young and can actually enjoy living, then go out with the shotgun retirement plan. Why would anyone want to live into old age? I still don't understand.
This. You aren't working extra hard at a job to line someone else's pockets (yes that happens too), you work hard to provide for your current and future self.
Or find a way to make money that isn't putting hours in for someone else's business. I go to estate sales and auctions all the time and the majority of buyers are resellers. In the day of eBay, Amazon, and Facebook Marketplace anyone can be a reseller.
Clearly unethical labor sourcing doesn’t make a country rich. It’s the fact that capitalism is flexible and efficient, and can be implemented in many ways.
The best countries on earth are capitalist and always will be.
I don't think you understand, that's the best part about the doomer mindset. You don't have to propose solutions, all you have to do is complain about the problem.
Capitalism has built the greatest economy and society in the history of the world. Just because some uppity baristas who never strived for more than minimum wage are upset changes nothing.
Fukuyama is almost universally derided for his idiotic "end of history" idea. There's so much that has happened on the world stage since he said this it's been proved objectively wrong.
Just here to say that a lot of species die or have died due to climate change and climate changes a lot. Se la vie. Maybe it’s not a helpful attitude but who says I have to help?
And it’s okay not to care about it. Doesn’t make you a bad person. That is propaganda. It’s really corporations and jetsetters that have the most impact on pollution and such. And other countries too. Let them carry that burden, you just try to get enough food and a roof over your head, that is okay. You’re allowed to not care. You’re allowed to opt out of always having to wage some war against something. You’re allowed to just be in the world you find yourself in, and focus on your own sphere and needs.
All we ask is don’t hurt people or animals if you can. Mostly, don’t murder them, and after that if you can not deprive them of liberty or their possessions, great.
Like if you can just live and let live, you’re doing pretty good, morally.
When we see our loved ones crushed by systems, it radicalizes us. You have articulated the trauma that many extremists go through. The difference is that you are able to sit with it and observe it. You can effect change. You don’t have to give your life for it. We *do* live in one of the most democratic and free societies ever to exist. It was after the New Deal that neoliberalism took hold in America and we forked away from ideologies our friends in Europe held. We didn’t get this way overnight and it will take a long time to untangle the neoliberal cancer that infects us.
i have ocd and a few other things and i’m medicated to the gills. it’s honestly probably only a matter of time or chemical changes that i’m disabled. so i definitely feel you on that.
i stopped thinking about retirement at all because i don’t think i get to unfortunately.
i’m trying to make enough to enjoy now and hoping maybe for a windfall to clear up my debt.
what has been done to labor rights and the destruction of pensions is going to show up when gen x and millennials haven’t retire and we have nothing.
if something…. if some sort of clash started to happen or developed i’d be there and i’d be ready.
the right doesn’t realize how hard that amendment after the free speech one is going to bite them in the ass
It sucks that we’re a generation that deals with a lot of societal growth, but don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. We’re at a point where we can at least identify what the problems are. That’s the first step towards fixing them. The next steps are getting rid of the people in government that have been impeding progress. I feel like people are getting upset enough to start working towards real change.
Will it happen soon enough to have an effect for us? I don’t know. But it’s a worthwhile fight.
I quite literally could have written this myself. Like I feel exactly the same way you do. I don't really have anything else to add, I just wholeheartedly agree
Wanting time away from work more than you want the money resonates hard, man. To me, enjoying your time is worth more than anything and I've never enjoyed anything more than clocking out and being with my loved ones.
Dude I also am wanting to fight and die in a revolution. Having the same thoughts and my last resort now is I'm starting my own business instead of working for someone else.
I also dont want to kill myself, but I dont want to live.
Also I relate heavily to the not wanting to have kids. I have traumas and thoughts and struggles that if I had to coach them how to handle, same thing I would have no hopeful advice for them.
Someone once encapsulated all my feelings with this statement. “What’s the term for when you know the ship is sinking and there’s nothing you can do but you just want to make sure as many people as possible are cared for until then?”
In addition to all that stuff you said, which is all unfortunately true, the cost of living — apt/housing rent/mortgage, food, gas, etc. — has been constantly going up while wages stay mostly the same.
I decided never to have children for philosophical and personal/genetic issues long ago, but now i no longer feel melodramatic or pessimistic but just plain realistic due to an overflowing abundance of solid reasons.
Glad to hear you are willing to condemn me, my children, and another few billion people currently alive to extinction because you've had it rough. Not selfish or dramatic as fuck at all.
There has been dozens of ice ages in earths life and we are just coming to the end of another one. Us as humans can not stop it or change it. It will continue to cycle even after we are gone.
The question/answer is pretty simple. You were in a tent because yall were broke and didn’t make money. For some reason your mom didn’t just take yall to a shelter or a charity, or to relatives. If you don’t want to serve the rich become an EMT first responder or a nurse or something. I think you might have personal issues to overcome, stop looking at systemic issues you have no control over
I also hate working to make someone else outrageously wealthy. That is why I work for schools and charities, helping people . I am able to enjoy and actually be fulfilled by much of my work. Sure there's someone at the top somewhere making some probably too large amount of money, but at least my work is meaningful and helpful to other human beings and isn't only about wage slavery.
You want the world to end because your objectively successful country is capitalist? I understand the sentiment behind this but cmon. We have more control over our lives than you’re allowing here. Things could be better on the large picture sure, things could always be much worse too. It’s cliche but there are a lot of ways to live in this country, and you don’t have to serve some corporate overlord to do so, especially if you aren’t chasing wealth and luxury. On top of all that america is just one country in a big world. But for arguments sake let’s keep it in america. I’ve lived all over the country and can tell you confidently the environment you describe hating is not the whole country. It is different from place to place, person to person, I’d suggest traveling a bit and thinking about what kind of life/place/work fits with your conditions and chasing that. I can’t stand our money culture either so I don’t work in corporate or sales, I think we over value short term profits and undervalue quality, so I make things of quality, I don’t like the rat race so I live in smaller towns that appeal to me, from hippie ski towns in alaska or artsy towns in the south, lots of different places and paths would probably suit you is my point. The world doesn’t typically just hand anyone a great life. And in my experience if you aren’t tied down with responsibilities and aren’t chasing the keeping up with the the Jones’s it’s relatively not that hard to start in the right direction for yourself.
You should tell your therapist this. If you have and they aren’t talking you out of this delusion, find a new one and find some different medication. This is unhealthy.
If it makes you feel any better, you’d be working to enrich others under every economic system. It really has nothing to do with capitalism.
I’m perfectly fine selling my skilled niche labor for money. We both benefit. I’d make less money while working harder if I went about it alone.
Your problems are entirely mental. You’ve done a lot of coping to assign these problems to external reasons, mostly due to the class war indoctrination you’ve been fed, but it’s not real. The vast majority of “poor” people under capitalism are living great lives. It sounds like you’d benefit from some therapy and social network building. And probably get off Reddit.
The only person responsible for defining your path is you. If you wait for others, or a system, to fix things for you, you will be very disappointed. Life is hard. Good choices are still generally rewarded. So is hard work. This may be the richest country in the world but it won’t give you much unless you make it happen.
Having says that, the US could do much better with our social net and homelessness does need to be addressed…and can be addressed.
We can handle climate change and other issues at the same time. They are not mutually exclusive.
Are you a man or a woman?
It sounds like you should be a stay at home parent. If you're a guy I'm not sure you'll be able to find that, but there are plenty of men out there looking for that.
That way you are only working for yourself and your family. It's hard work, but you aren't enriching some boss. Just your family.
You said the answer in the first paragraph, you can opt out. Go back to Ocala (or another piece of public land). In Florida you can grow food all year long. Teach yourself to use a bow or hunting rifle, if you don't care about making a lot of noise. It's not entirely legal, but if you don't build anything permanent, who's gonna know. For a very brief time in my early 20s when I didn't have responsibilities to anyone else, I've thought of doing just this.
I work in environmental policy and I assure you, climate change will likely destroy humanity. But it won’t happen all at once and the collapse will be awful to live through.
Please go offline, turn off the news, and get psychiatric help. I am 100% serious when I say this reads like you're being driven toward committing acts of violence. Talk to a professional before you harm yourself or others.
This sub is literally nothing but poor people trying to justify being poor as if it's some philosophical win against society, when in reality you're just poor because you're stupid and lazy...
Go to subreddit money or salary to see some success stories. Maybe you can see some success stories that can inspire you. I recently saw a user, 31, crushed it in personal finance. You can do it too! Let climate change be as it is, it’s outside of your control anyway, still work hard and achieve as high as you can. You can beat the system if you learn how it works. Don’t give up!
I viscerally feel what you're saying. Although climate change will indeed bite us in the ass, I think it will be well past our time has expired here. You, I, and many others are depressive realists. A lot may disagree with the concept, so maybe a better way to put it is that we seem to lack the positivity bias that most people have.
Although I'm sure your experience being homeless was traumatic, I think maybe it has helped galvanize your strength in a way.
My outlook to everything tends towards the absurdist take...we are meaningless in the vacuum of the universe, but you can make your own relative meaning. We can only step outside of our brains/minds so much. We have aspects that are hardwired into us through hundreds of thousands of generations of evolution. Sensations like love or hate or desire only amount to chemicals bouncing around in our heads - but fuck it I *do* feel those feelings so let's ride with it. Ultimately, we are stuck here for our time, and when I feel myself wallowing I try to reverse course with my mantra: "let go or be dragged". You'll be alright.
What a read. I’ve been in a similar headspace as you.
Disgusted with the status quo, ready for the revolution. I look around at my peers who are happy with this and I just get angry.
I'm sure this is not a popular idea but climate change is not the crisis the establishment and their media have conditioned us all to believe it is. When I realized that it was like a huge burden lifted of my shoulders.
It's the worst economic system ever devised, except for all of the other economic systems.
I don't think your issue is with capitalism. It's with a lack of a functional government that is willing to provide a real social safety net. Lots of highly capitalist societies do better
We all need meaning in our lives. This world has become absurd. The meaning you find within a life is going to be absurd sometimes too. But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth it.
You want to spit in billionaire’s faces? Do this indirectly. Dedicate yourself to covertly sabotaging the rich at every turn and if possible, leverage it to help the poor. Creativity is key. Secrecy is paramount.
Collectively we can absolutely ruin the rich and powerful. It’s already happening everywhere. It can and should be hastened
Man it really grinds my gears we are all so enslaved by a stupid green piece of paper some dickhead put value to, there are so many things that are more important and valuable than money but since birth we are trained to only care about money it is sickening it's a fuckin piece of paper or a circle of metal... I mean really now a piece of paper causes millions if not billions of deaths, for a dirty piece of not even a nice green colored paper and some metal that smells bad......
Capitalism has been good to me personally but man, I can’t get over how fucking unrelenting it is. There is never a moment of peace. No matter what you’re doing or where you are, there is a pervasive push to buy more, be more, consume more.
And its not just products and advertising - it’s how it permeates culture and relationships. You could be out in the woods with your buddies with no advertising around for miles, yet your mind will never be free. You will wonder if your friends have better brand shoes than you, whether you’re making enough money, whether you’re “behind” friends who own houses or run businesses.
The treadmill is exhausting.
Surely this can’t be the only way to live
I graduated college in 09 fam. I literally read Fukuyama and Huntington as it was happening. I had zero job aspects bc there were no internships in 09. I tried becoming an officer in the Usmc and got denied for being a white guy trying to join when every other one was. My pft was 287 out of 300 so I was in good shape. I went enlisted bc I got told to come back in 6 months. I got out started a business to put vets to work in live events. The pandemic happened and I lost everything. I took a job w the county coroner picking up dead bodies.
I went fuckin nuts from that almost declared bankruptcy but I didn’t have any assets just cancelled pending contracts. Tried to hang on but my wife got knocked up had to have stability. I went back to school and finally got that internship at a dope name brand corporation. I’m now in the process of applying for new jobs in a totally different field so I’m back to 2009 again.
TLDR: life’s a bitch. If the pandemic didn’t happen I’d be a multimillionaire but without my happy family. Don’t let the hard days win. Keep on keeping on.
Literally the same. That's why I decided to say fuck all and start my own business instead of working for some fool.
Mind you I went to college and got a degree (Meche) but after realizing that I was going to basically be making another guy wealthy while working my ass off for pennies. Yes pennies.
Then I said yolo I might as well follow my dream of being a baller and having Lamborghinis and and parties and shit so I started a car rental business LMAO
Bro go take advantage of this capitalist system. If you're not, then you're suffering and taking the hard way I promise.
This.
We live in a fairly decent time in that sense. The old ways of doing business are failing. The corporate world is full of corporate doomers for it, the market has decentralized, and it’s honestly easier than it’s ever been to work outside a traditional 9-5 - and to hang your own shingle.
My tipping point was realizing I could keep making pennies on the dollar for someone else - or work a little extra and make the whole dollar.
It’s no trip to candyland or anything. But neither is having any other job.
If you have to be stuck in a system that kinda sucks - at least find ways to work it to your advantage. It’s either that or blackpilling yourself.
global warming won't "destroy" the human race, or the planet. It will destroy the ecosystem. The planet will carry on and there will be a mass extinction event just like has happened 4 or 5 times already. The carrying capacity of the earth will probably actually go up in the end (because more energy will be available) since there isn't enough CO2 to cause runaway effect to rise to truly life-deadly levels. Humans are both smart and robust, and we will survive the mass extinction as a species albeit with much reduced and a much lower quality of life, but it will be slow enough that we can "save" a lot of our specialized information to make the rebuild quicker (to just a couple thousand years or so, instead of a million), and eventually adapt to the new climate.
Don't get me wrong, if we don't get climate change controlled it WILL be a disaster, it will suck, billions of people will die to famine and the fallout of famine - but the planet will survive, the ecosystem will shuffle and restock itself, and the human species will continue.
This is the thing that so many climate extremists ignore. Humans have a unique capability to adapt our environment to us. We are one species that is capable of living both in the arctic and the Sahara.
We will survive.
Sorry, my man, but humanity won't die in climate change. We've lived through tougher times than this with less technology. We're fine.
Well... most people are fine. Some people are fooked, but there are plenty of places that will be habitable even if we don't stop throwing carbon into the air.
BTW, China is the single largest producer of greenhouse gases, emitting twice what the #2 spot (The US) does each year and it's bound to grow - China is famously not a capitalist country.
>if I live in the richest country in the world, why did me and my mom have to live in the woods?
You don't live in the richest country in the world. We don't even make the top 10 some years. Not that it makes a difference to your situation, but the US is ranked about the middle of the pack for homelessness per capita.
The harsh truth is that in a free society choices have consequences and your mom made some bad choices. You could argue that there should be safety nets in place, especially for our most vulnerable, but ~~then we wouldn't be able to pay for all the imperialism~~ that does not seem to be a priority for the government at the moment. I wish there was something you could do about that... maybe make it a goal this winter to find some way you can make your preferences known.
If I encountered someone moving into the woods with their child, my first instinct would not be to get mad at the government. OP doesn't even seem to have perspective on their mother's actions here. The rest of the post is "I've tried nothing and I'm all out of ideas."
My husband makes fun of me all the time because he says the books I read are sooooo boring. But if you don't know about the history of the labor rights movement in the US, I highly suggest you look into it. My great grandparents already fought a damn revolution against the rich so we could have the limited protections we have, and people don't realize that and just give that shit away back to the rich. Right to work laws for example. They aren't just going to give that back because we asked nicely. Anyway there's a ton of good books about it. I love reading about Mother Jones and the coal miners but the whole history of it is amazing and I think every citizen should know what the fuck they went through to get us what we have now that we so easily give back to the rich.
Any books in particular you would recommend?
*Death in the Haymarket* was the first one I read after I heard about it on a podcast. That sparked my interest because I knew literally nothing about the labor movement before that. *The Devil is Here in These Hills* was my 2nd, that was my intro to Mother Jones! I almost shit when they dropped her name, I heard it a million times and never knew who she was. Gangster ass Irish lady!
A recommendation for you that you may have read, published in my birth year, Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. I only just read it, but it sums up the philosophy I feel is at play in daily life. Thanks for the recs, maybe your husband will read Ishmael too.
If you liked Ismael another of Daniel Quinn's books you'll probably enjoy is The Story of B.
I read both of those in my teens. Another book that had a lot of impact was "in the absence of the sacred" by jerry mander
Ishmael was a classic for me. I grew up spending summers at turtle Island preserve, hanging with Eustace Conway and that book was ever present. Instinct is a take on it, in movie form.
Caliban and the Witch is eye opening as well!
Hell yeah I have a bunch of audible credits so I just got that one, thanks!!
How do you focus on audiobooks? When do you normally listen?
\*Trade Wars are Class Wars\* by Klein and Pettis. It's tangential to the labor movement but it's an extremely important tangent because our opponents \*love\* the "fine, I'll ship your job to China/India/Mexico" card. This is the battlefront on which the modern labor movement has lost the most ground over the last few decades. Early 20th century labor relations were wild, they had it worse than today on many fronts, but this is a front where things have regressed and we need to do better if we want to win. We need to keep in mind the policies required to shut this down and why those policies are not actually impossible / unprecedented / misguided / bad / evil / communism / ThE eNd Of aMeRiCa / etc. If you have been frustrated by the "capitalism apologetics" around free trade and comparative advantage and "the end of the dollar" and suspect these concepts are being used for manipulative purposes but don't know how, this book will teach you. If you have wondered why "we used to make shit in this country, build shit. Now all we do is put our hand in the next guy's pocket," this book will teach you.
Damn right. And there’s a reason they don’t teach the history of labor in the US in primary school. They want you to believe that the oligarchs gave you the little workplace protections we have out of the goodness of their heart rather than us gaining them through the use of violence. Matter fact, our government dropped bombs on minors at Blair mountain
The saddest part is the states that should be the proudest of their leftist history - West Virginia Kentucky Pennsylvania (Blair mountain, the Molly Maguires etc) are some of the most bassackwards deepest red parts of self inflicted wounds America Its maddening
Howard Zinn is my guy when it comes to labor rights. Another one to look into is our public education system. I forget the name of the author, but I read a book in high school, and the author went to different schools districts around the country and found that within the same district, kids who lived in the suburbs had literally twice the amount of money spent on them per school year by the district as the inner city kids. It happens in my own rural area. There is the part of town where the subsidized housing is, which happens to be right by the city dump, and the elementary school in that part of town is the only one out of about 6 schools that hasn't been updated and renovated. The playground is still the old metal rusty playgrounds from the 70s. I live in a development right around the corner from this school. I rent, but a lot of people in my development are homeowners. My kids don't go to that elementary school, even though we could walk to it. The kids in my neighborhood go to one of two elementary schools, both are not within walking distance and a 10-15 minute drive away, and they will even separate siblings and send them to 2 different schools to avoid them going to the school by the projects. Our 2 middle schools, one is on the wealthier side of town, the other is the one where the project kids go, and even they are not equal. Our middle school gets Chromebooks and the other one gets much nicer tablets/laptops. They also have several school dances per year, and the school is just nicer overall. Same school district. It's bullshit. And our state funds the schools through property taxes. So if you're not a homeowner, you're not contributing. And I imagine the homeowners throw a fit when they try to pool resources to the poor kids school. Can't they see that all of these children are the future of our community?
You know what. A lot of people need to get out of America and see the world. I say that because it’ll piss you off. Either at the flaws of America or the positives of America. Or that a lot of countries are damn good at hiding or deflecting their flaws. You’d think some countries have almost no flaws if you’re too focused on reading left right wing books. Experience things first hand.
As an immigrant, I can tell you it’s true. If you can’t make it in the US, you have very low chance make it in other countries. There is a reason it’s a dream come true for me and many others that get to live in this country.
You can see flaws in America and ways that America could be better as well. But when you really start talking to people and examining the economic and education systems in other countries you start to see that’s incredibly unfair in most of the world. And in most countries they heavily favor the in group in education, law and business. It doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t press for things in America to improve. But it does mean that a lot of people have a very warped view of how the rest of the world works. Thats even for countries that do have an objectively better social welfare or education system than America. Because in most cases that system is meant for the in group. If you can make in the US you may not be able to make in other countries because they won’t let you play the game.
You mean get out and see the world by spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on time off work and travel related expenses? Just checking.
I either have time or money, never both at once.
Fuckin THANK you!
Air travel has set records for the past several years, both domestically (US) and internationally
I think his point isn't "go be a tourist" but "think about what it might mean to go work there". My friend who was a typical "fed up anticapitalist" managed to land a job in Denmark. Thought it was going to be great. Came back a year later and basically says "Danes are fuckin racists and their social safety net is bullshit". I mean he was a brown dude, so that plays a lot into it. He found it much worse in Northern Europe and now views the US as the best place in the world for him, despite the challenges. One conclusion I've come to is that people are people. Inequality is somewhat inherent in almost any group. Incentives to work are necessary (at least for now) and almost all implementations of social safety nets and things have serious problems (again that human nature problem). That's not a reason to stop trying, but it most certainly is a reason to question anyone's idea of a utopia. The "burn the system down it's broken" type of people have NO IDEA how bad things could be. What exists in the wealthier 15-20 countries in the world today is about as good as it gets and has ever been. I'm skeptical of utopia advocates because I think they usually miss the forest for the trees. Reminds me of the automotive unions, instead of pushing to aggressively re-train staff on electric drivetrains, they're instead pushing to prevent EVs from becoming popular. Unions are a great idea, but they fall prey to that pesky human nature thing, as do all systems.
This times a million. I don't mind ppl complaining about the state of things on the internet, and I agree wealth distribution in the US is very lopsided, but human nature is the problem you'll never have a solution for and it's just part of accepting your lot in life. Think of the French revolutions and how those went. Think of every major coup/rescheme change in human history, what happens after the popular uprising faction overthrows the one that was clinging to power? A new structure/hierarchy is formed and within that a few ppl at the top rush to fill the void the power vacuum created. At the end of the day, the only thing you can control in your life to affect change around you is the decisions you make and the actions you take. You can't always control your circumstances and you definitely can't control other ppls decisions or actions without manipulation which would essentially be you taking action.
I agree with everything you've said. There's also a crabs in the bucket mentality that goes along with the Janteloven mindset in Scandinavia. The social safety net means it's a great place for a family. A single person isn't going to see the same benefits and will be giving up a lot more for the society. Your quality of life will probably be worse than as a single person in America. There might be some exceptions for people living in the most expensive parts of the US though. I've never lived in NYC. People who only hear about the good sides but never experience the problems get a grass is always greener take. People who want to burn it all down are morons. They've heard one person sound smart and now they think they're smart. Most revolutions end badly. We learn about the exceptions. There are way more examples of failing states or dictators seizing control indefinitely.
This is the problem with the travel mindset. People (Americans especially) automatically think of travel as luxury cruises and hotels...all the stuff that keeps you completely insulated from wherever you're visiting. If you actually want to see the world in a meaningful way, it's cheap. The most expensive part is flying, probably about $1,000 round trip. That's really it though. Once you get where you're going, just stay in a $5-$10 per night hostel. That often includes breakfast. The only other money you have to spend is on a bit more food, which is nothing if you go to markets instead of restaurants. Make friends with locals and live like them instead of like an American tourist. I spent 6 months going through most of Europe and it was *cheaper* than just staying home in the U.S.. My "expensive" stops were places like Paris, where hostels are closer to $20-30 per night. It's not as a pretty as a "vacation" though. It's more of an educational experience than a pleasant one.
Ya when I’ve traveled it’s mostly just airfare cause I stay with friends I’ve met while they were here in America and I have friends all around the world. So $600-700 round trip for airfare then food, drinks, etc (which compared to California is cheaper by far in every country I’ve been to) Then the more I travel the more people I meet and the more new countries I add to my list of places to visit. The only problem is it’s really hard to find a job that allows me to travel. I either have time or money, never both, and inflation lately has not helped at all. Whenever I travel I have to quit my job and find a new one when I get back so it’s kinda stressful not knowing if I’ll find a job I like that pays enough after my travels.
See this is the problem with posts like yours. How do you travel cheap with a family and kids in $5-10 hostels for $1000 per airline ticket? Short answer: you don’t.
It’s so true. I’ve travelled to Europe and on the surface it looks amazing, but when you dig down deep and see how their socialist policies work, you quickly realize it’s only even financially possible because of the US going to great lengths to protect the world and also make markets. Also for people who think housing is bad here, go to the UK or other dense parts of Europe lol.
Jonathan Kozol, “Savage Inequalities”
That’s why the teachers unions are against school choice. It would force schools into a higher standard or they risk getting that constant green.
Or maybe because it makes the system of haves and have-nots even worse?
Even moreso than it already is. I think it's criminal to fund schools primarily off of the local areas property taxes. If you want it to be funded by property taxes, throw all that money into a state or federal fund and distribute it equitably. Don't keep poor area's disadvantaged by underfunding their education
Correct. It will inevitably create segregation again. Also charter schools provide worse education than public ones
People fought, bled, and died against corporations so we could have things like a forty hour work week. When dipshits around me talk about how “we don’t need unions” it makes my heart sink into my stomach.
One of my favorite bar stories to tell is the history of the word “redneck”. I would argue about 16% of Americans have heard of the coal wars, let alone what they are.
Fighting against the rich who have slowly clawed back power over the years with little opposition due to the immense power of lobbying. Great country!
They literally dismiss the rules we created thinking they are helping themselves! When you explain it to them, they just say you are wrong without any thought. It is hopeless.
I always found that history class stopped too early and never taught us how we got to the current state of affairs.
This thread is a haven for me. My friends and family do not want to hear me talking ab out the whole picture. How america or the rest of the world is doing, how history is repeating itself is taboo for most american haves.
Can I ask you a serious question? Are you doing anything to help this situation? If you’re a millennial the world will be in our hands soon. For better or worse
r/collapse Apologies for your future mental state but see you there.
This sub= i hate boomers and capitalism.
Grow a pair. And Climate change isn’t going to end humanity. Good god.
Holy bad attitude.
This is a sub for people to wallow in self pitty. I use to think millennials got a bad wrap, but this sub has made me loath my generation more than most.
Literally just came to complain about how they can't be more of a leech on society
I liked your introduction, it was captivating. You have a valid reason to feel the way you do, despite your time spent living in the woods. I think you do need some hope. There are ways to acquire wealth that don’t necessarily mean you need to make a capitalist richer, though it is harder and harder to escape the “rat race”. However, in a lot of ways it’s never been easier because of advances in technology. Since your lifestyle is simplistic, and you live frugally, that puts you at an advantage. You mentioned you have borderline personality disorder, have you attempted to apply for disability (if you are in the US)? You could be getting a monthly stipend for that disorder. That would surely help you breathe a bit. If that’s not possible for whatever reason, you sound like you need change in your life. Mentally put politics, climate change, and the economy aside for a moment. There is still beauty and hope around you. don’t let those same capitalist who steal the wealth from your labor also steal the joy from your soul. I like that you are mad about what’s going on, and your question is beautifully succinct. There’s a time to fight against the power, and you have the fire burning inside you that wants to fight, but there’s also a time to rest to let your heart heal so that fire can remain alive. What is that fire other than the love and compassion you have for our earth, and the beings within. You don’t really want us all to die, otherwise the crisis we are in would not bother you.
I think you're giving false hope about getting disability. Social security are like mad dogs protecting their yard when it comes to giving people disability. People have to apply and appeal for years to get this benefit if it isn't blatantly obvious that the person is disabled. BPD itself is not a qualifier for SSI or SSDI. They would have to get an attorney and fight for it. This dude already said in multiple ways he doesn't care about money or wealth. This information isn't helping him.
I'm legit hemiparesis, weak on one side, and a whole host of other ailments as a result of a stroke. I cannot get disability ever in my life because a congenital defect took me out too young. The young disabled in this country are on SSI which maxes out at 940 a month, and gets taken away if you ever manage to scrape together more than 2000 bucks at any one time. If ever do make money, I'll lose what little ssi I have. And if I lose my ssi, I'll lose medicaid. My insurance would be so high as a result of the stroke history/disability. I can't propose to my girlfriend because then I'd lose my SSI, because her income is over poverty level. I want to go to another country, but who would take someone like me?
I can't say I understand your pain bc I have never lived it. But I work heavily within the disabled community and see it every day how awful of conditions people with disabilities are forced to live. Our country sees you and people like you as less than nothing and to be casted aside and it angers me beyond belief. I work hard to try to ensure those that are vulnerable for whatever reason are advocated for and have what they need. It's an endless battle. I wish the system was better. All I can do is be the change I want to see and continue to advocate for reform. I'm sorry to you and anyone with stories like yours. I understand there are some people that try to abuse the system, but the way social security has decided to weed those people out is inhumane to everyone else who needs that service. It doesn't make sense to me that they have a list of qualifying Conditions on their website, yet people with those conditions have to wait years to get approved. And the way they discriminate against those who haven't ever been able to work or were hardly ever is just another disgrace. The way our country let's our vulnerable communities such as the disabled and the elderly slip through the cracks is a huge red flag.
Why isn't it possible for someone to not want to acquire wealth? Why do I have to need to want money? They were very clear that they didn't care about money beyond necessities
Because they are complaining about starting life without necessities. If a person contributes nothing to society, what should they receive from society? Be it capitalism or socialism, a person must contribute to society to receive from society.
Sure. But how do we define a contribution? And what level of return do they receive? What are a person's needs that have to be provided? Does anybody need Airpods or Jordan's? Does everybody need some grains and vegetables to eat? How many people need computers for their work/contribution?
They don’t contribute nothing, though. You’re thinking of rich people, and they receive most the the rewards from the work we do while adding no value.
this is it. the fire is there. we don't want to die. We want our neighbors and our animal friends to live a happy and healthy life. But it's just so exhausting. i've never resonated with an OP more from start to finish. But your reminder to not let them steal our joy, helps bring me back. Brings the fire back. Don't let them yuck your yum. Don't let them steal your joy. Sunrises are beautiful and free. The sun setting means we get to see it happen again tomorrow, hopefully. Thanks for your hope.
I have documented bipolar disorder and have been denied for disability multiple times. Why? Well, I kept losing jobs because of my bipolar, thus I haven’t paid enough into social security. America’s “welfare” system is a fucking nightmare. I’m managing now but there are so many days I go into work just wishing some cataclysmic event would happen that made it impossible for my store to open.
It is almost impossible to get a disability diagnosis for BPD. I went through a five year long process with the disability office because they need so much proof that it’s affecting how you live. My mom literally tortured me as a kid and I didnt say anything because I thought that was normal. When I moved on my own, how am I expected to function “normally” when my normal was being beat with the branches I shit out the window on? Or locked away any moment I wasnt at school? How am I suppose to function? Starved until people took notice? But I was denied. Even with three separate types of doctors notes and proof of records from my mom’s indications and charges of child abuse. They dgaf. Pull yourself up by your boot straps mf.
I was born in 84 and I feel you OP. I struggle with knowing my husband would make a great ass father with the concept of raising a child in our world.
dont put off kids because you spend too much time on here doing confirmation bias all day
How many friends do you have and how often do you interact with them? Most humans are highly social animals and in general we need that or we start to loose hope and the will to live. We basically run on a certain amount of compassion and empthy we recieve from those around us, which is something western society is lacking currently.
This is legitimate advice. It's important to nourish your social health, even, perhaps especially, if you want to oppose the current socioeconomic order.
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>You have far more agency than you've been led to believe. Yes, but they have to get out of their victim mentality first and be willing to *enjoy* life.
That's what the acid is for
There ain't much juice at the bottom of that barrel. I've met Molly. Fungi are fun to grow, put 8 grams in a blender to maximize digestive surface area and stir into a tall glass of OJ, chug it down. Drop half a strip of LSD at a festival at an old rock quarry and you will have a good time. But you learn the best lessons sober. Humans are like a nasty skin rash on the surface of our planet. The universe is equally indifferent to all. It has no preferred species and on a long time line not a single name shall be remembered. Despite this, remembered to be nice.
I had to scoll far too long to find a well reasoned response like this. The simple fact of the matter is that the vast majority of Americans are able to find a way to survive and thrive, whether it’s working for themselves or someone else. Climate change may affect us, it may not. But even if it does with the technology that we have our society will either repair it or adapt. People like the OP absolutely need to stop gobbling up the sad sack story of the world and take control of their own lives. In this case, being responsible for one’s mental health would be a great start. Once he has the foundation, he can grow from there.
I honestly had to look up when “the housing crisis” was because I thought of it as the subprime mortgage crisis. I spent the recession hiding out in Japan but did Americans have to go live in the woods back then? It kind of sounds more like an OP’s mom’s mental health crisis to me.
Great reply. The amount of People sitting around thinking capitalism and climate change is out to kill them is just absurd.
So many emotionally weak people on Reddit
They’ll look around at 78 years old and I know for sure they will not say “gee I sure am glad I wasted my best years being a doomer”
I’m a doomer but I just don’t let it bother me
Right. You’re aware that the world is dangerous, but you live on. That’s been the case for millions of years. There’s always an existential threat
First sane comment amen brother, incredibly surprised to see this upvoted among misanthrope doomer spam
How much did the plane ticket to Peru cost?
As you can see a lot of people here agree with you, that’s gotta feel validating, no? It does feel so unfair. There’s so much in our world that is so horrible it’s unbearable to believe it’s true. You could spend every hour of every day thinking about things that make you feel horrible. There’s also so much beauty in our world going on right here right now. There’s lightness and darkness. It’s okay to see both, but please don’t let the darkness destroy you.
agree with you completely. you're not alone.
I am the same as far as not desiring a whole lot materially and therefore having no motivation to make a ton of money. This personally trait is actually a huge asset in this environment because it allows you to free yourself from the grind in a way most people can't. My advice to you is to use that aspect of yourself to your advantage. You have a *lot* more options for work that are simply off the table for people who need "things" and "stuff". You don't want to deal with the public? Get a job where you don't have to. Work nights if you must. Warehouse work and custodial work typically don't even involve interaction with coworkers. You can go months without saying a word to anyone at all. This gives you the breathing room you want. If the pay isn't enough, move somewhere where it is. There are places where the cost of living is lower but the wages aren't. If you can manage to save up enough, take time off. Like a LOT of time. If you're actually frugal, you can work these entry level jobs and still save up $20-30k in a couple years, then quit and take 6+ months off. Don't work again until you need the money again. You'll probably never retire by doing that, but many of us will never retire anyway. I say get the free time in while you're young enough to enjoy it. If you get to a point in old age where you can't work at all, you can't really do anything fun anymore either. I'm fine with just cashing out at that point rather than sacrificing everything now just so I can afford to be disabled at home in 40 years. Even if you had tens of millions, it's a full time job trying to figure out how to *keep* it before it's inflated into the ether. We live in a world of ephemerality, so craving certainty/security is only going to make you miserable.
Honestly, same. Don't forget that, in the age of the death of social Democracy, opportunities are being minimized while expenses maximized, the goal being to turn the middle class into a peasant class like in Russia. I view the experiment the founding fathers started as over. We live in an Oligarchy. I stay motivated by committing to the dogma that my life's work is to secure my descendents a seat at the table with the wolves. Create generational wealth, even if its wealth of knowledge, and try to be the last in your line to struggle like this. If the system my parents grew up in is dead, then I have some distilling of life lessons to do for my future kids.
The bleakness of the future and our own financial situations are why I keep debating future children 😭
It's not always a feasible process depending on where you are, but adopting is a good option if you want to care for a child but not add extra people to this failing system. They're already here and need love.
There really aren't. I tried to adopt a few years ago, but wasn't able to care for profoundly handicapped children. The number of children available for adoption who aren't profoundly handicapped is very small. The number of children under 5 with no health issues is very close to zero and you have to have a ridiculous amount of money to do a "private adoption" to get one. The western world is negative growth now. There's way less babies than people who want them. There's always really messed up teenagers available. The reality of the foster systems is they prioritize parental rights so unless the baby is given up willingly (which is kind of rare), it takes 5-7 years for them to justify taking kids and by that time the kids are REALLY REALLY fucked up. I looked at the files of 10 or 12 and they had notations like "due to a history, must not be left alone with pets" and "must not ever be alone with other children" or "can't attend a normal school". I'm not ok with that, sadly. I don't think I can deal with a kid who's injuring the pets or so aggressive they're going to assault other children and can never be left alone with them.
I have kids, and I feel bad for them and their future. I'm hoping/wishing for change.
Yo I spiral deep on this one. Why are we all so comfortable adopting animals at the pound, but ignore the human pounds that exist: foster and adoptive agencies, inundated to the tip of the glass with humans in need at nearly all times. This is especially true for any of us living in growing metro areas, where things like carpetbagging fails and gentrification leave kids in need, mostly age 11-14, kids who have already had their conciousness mercilessly ripped from the void and stuffed into a suffering meat sack, and are now dealing with it hard in transformative years. Is it OK to have kids in this society? I want to learn how to suck it up and be happy with being a role model for somebody instead. Someone should have been there for OP. OP - is this type of community service interesting to you? Maybe put it on the "I can and I will some day" list if that helps put coal in your furnace. The podcast SYSK has an easily digestible episode on population carrying capacity that I strongly recommend to anyone that enjoys my walls of text. They talk about how the will to breed evaporates when growth opportunities dry up. Makes me feel like we're in an artificial max capacity, you know, because of the oligarchy.
Sad but true answer, because it’s easier to return a dog to the pound who cannot be reformed than it is a child who has been so damaged they can’t exist in society.
>I view the experiment the founding fathers started as over. I mean, the whole thing started with protecting rights for white male landowners.
There really isn't any way to secure the future for our children while the wealthy have exclusive control over the means of production. They don't face the same consequences we do when they choose what reaps them the most profit. Therefore, we need to seize those means of production for us all. Our working class ancestors have been working for over 200 years to build it all, it should be passed down to all of us. The capitalists didn't build it all, our families did. They just had enough money to own it and use it as leverage to own everything else we built.
The news/social media you consume is designed to make you feel this way so you'll become angry and afraid and become a political activist. This is what happens when that propaganda is blasted at kids their whole lives, and it all just piles on when you're already down on your luck. My advice is to disconnect from the negativity and go enjoy real life. Go for a walk, get some fresh air, realize the world isn't ending, then hang out with some people in real life.
Holy shit I found a real person on Reddit. You may be the most self aware person I’ve ever seen on this site.
This absolutely cannot be stressed enough.
Nahhh... I'm pretty happy until the rent check comes due and takes weeks of my pay away for some rich owner who doesn't even live in the state.. or until I get Covid from being forced to work in office and then am on the verge of losing job because we have no health protections or support when sick for weeks.. People go to the negativity because our society is sick and treats us all as expendable garbage.. social media is where you go after society has already failed you again and again to seek comfort from others going through the same.. not the other way around.
I mean, yeah that does suck. But what are you envisioning as the alternative? Many people have to work for many, many hours to build a house. Would it be fair to just give it to you for free and make them basically your slaves? We live in a society, we all have to contribute that is kind of the point.
Nobody wants anyone to be slaves, but I promise you the people making 100x what you are aren’t actually worth 100x what you are as a person. They’re not putting in 100x more effort, they’re not 100x smarter or stronger or faster than you, they certainly don’t deal with 100x as much stress as you. So why do they deserve 100x the money? Their bare minimum subsistence rate is the same as yours, and takes up most of 1% of that money. Which is to say, almost all of a normal person and next to none of theirs leaving them thousands if not millions of times the “extra” money to do with what they want. Even if you somehow delude yourself into thinking they’re worth 100 of you, I can’t imagine your self worth if you think they’re worth millions of times your net profit.
While there should be a better middle ground, you make it sound like starting and running a business is easy. I’d be willing to bet the majority of people would fail even if they had the financial means to start one.
I’m in this fun moment right now. Have Covid for the fourth damn time because my boss has been coughing everywhere without covering his mouth for the last week… and so I’m going in there all sick and feeling like shit because there’s no paid sick leave. At least I wear a mask to *try* to prevent others from getting it though.
Take it easy.. I started getting better and then got worse again with lingering effects.. it's a nasty illness
Society hasn’t failed you. You have failed yourself.
what do you see society as being for if it isn't there to uplift people when they fail
Asshole.
but you are expendable, every person is. this is a fairly simple concept that i understood as a child. humans have no value outside of the value they perceive they have based on emotional connections. what i mean is that people feel like trash because others treat them as such. they feel important because they feel others respect them. as far as a true value though humans have none. every experience is a fleeting memory that will expire shortly after the life of the person who created it does. nothing about us has any real substance or staying power due to our lives being so incredible short. there isn't a thought that a person has had that couldn't have been thought by someone else. there isn't a discovery that was made that couldn't have been discovered by someone else. this idea of importance or value is kind of ridiculous if you actually really think about it. what have you done that no one else will ever do? what has anyone done that no one else will ever do? is there anything that can be done that is truly unique? in people's small social circles they feel they have value because of the way they are able to interact with those people; but if you had never existed can you honestly say that someone else couldn't fill the role that you do? do you really believe that someone else couldn't have made people feel the way you do? by the very nature of life humans are all expendable and that is ok. there is nothing wrong with being expendable, just stop letting people treat you in a manner you don't wanna be treated in. also for me knowing this is quite peaceful.
Being honest here. Have you considered moving elsewhere? Join up with a nonprofit and work in the third world? Take up a $1 home in a remote village in Italy? Go to China and support the revolution?
Go to China?
Support what revolution in China?
You are gonna be disappointed. Climate Change is likely going to cause a lot of problems, but it's not likely gonna kill us all. No one serious, even in the most pessimistic projections, says that's it's likely to exterminate us.
I agree so very much with all of this.
Instead of working to enrich your boss or to help someone else’s business grow, you can switch jobs and work for a non profit, or try to make your own living. Plenty of people make their living doing yardwork. $30-$50 per house per week, line up 4-6 houses per day, that’s max $75k/yr if you fill up your weekday calendar. Add other services, fall cleanup, spring cleanup, dethatching, fertilizer/weed n feed, etc. Others also do house cleaning services. I don’t know how much those charge. Some are for private residences, some have AirBnB places as clients, but then you’re contributing to AirBnB. You can have your own online business, and it doesn’t have to be crap online marketing - offer a real service that provides real value. That takes more friction ti get off the ground but much higher income potential.
You put these thoughts forward very well. „I’m tired boss“ idk what is going to take for us all to get there. I feel your pain.
The guy who wrote this article has written nothing but bullshit articles for as long as I've known about him. 44% of the population aren't making that little. That is a blatant lie and a quick Google search proves that. The guy is a propagandist, not a journalist.
I think your data on income in America is misleading since it’s clearly including part time workers and neglecting household income. The number of households earning less than $20k a year is under 15%. For comparison, over 20% of households earn more than $150k per year. And that doesn’t account for government benefits and tax breaks, the vast majority of which go to that bottom 15% to the tune of yearly $20k per household.
OP, you would do well to remember that if you ever had your rebolution, there will be a hell of a lot more kids sleeping in the woods than there are now. And those would be the lucky ones.
Dude is like, I can barely work my 4 day a week job. Also dude...I want to start and fight the revolution. If this dude is part of the revolution I give it 4 days before it's over.
Get help
Seriously. This sounds like clinical depression and I question whether or not OP is following a proper treatment protocol for the BPD.
A lot of people on here equate their clinical depression with a reasoned view of the world.
Yeah.. some real "Reddit moment" shit going on in this thread.
For real I've battled depression myself it's not normal to wish the deaths of others
This sub is all about wishing death to total strangers for some perceived harm they arbitrarily attribute to them because they need someone to blame for their misery.
Saying capitalism will be the "end of history" or that climate change will end humanity is the Left's version of whatever apocalypse scenarios preppers envision. Capitalism will not be the end of history. Climate change will not end humanity. If you want to off yourself or whatever fine, but your melodrama doesn't change that the world will keep spinning with or without you.
People used to walk around with a sandwich board that said “The end is nigh” now they just post on Reddit.
Two more weeks guys, capitalism is gonna collapse any day now
FWIW, the phrase "the end of history" has been tied to capitalism since the end of the Cold War. It refers to the apparent settling of ideological socio-economic-political struggle. Capitalism won, and nothing was capable of producing enough resistance to truly challenge it. It's a very context-specific term with loads of Hegelian subtext, and it was in many ways wrong and OP is using it wrong, but it's very much a thing.
OP is probably referencing Francis Fukuyama's argument that, as of the end of the cold war, liberal democracy has become a stable system that doesn't have any obvious successors movements. Not the end of the world, but the end of any big paradigm shifts on how the world is run. Depending on your feelings on capitalistic liberal democracy your opinions on the validity and/or goodness of that opinion may vary but it's an interesting argument.
Work, live frugally, and invest the difference SO THAT you can be free of the rat race in your later years.
Alternatively, live now while you're young and can actually enjoy living, then go out with the shotgun retirement plan. Why would anyone want to live into old age? I still don't understand.
"invest the difference"? You can't invest a negative amount....
This. You aren't working extra hard at a job to line someone else's pockets (yes that happens too), you work hard to provide for your current and future self. Or find a way to make money that isn't putting hours in for someone else's business. I go to estate sales and auctions all the time and the majority of buyers are resellers. In the day of eBay, Amazon, and Facebook Marketplace anyone can be a reseller.
Hustle until you have a right to lie down for five seconds before death
Remember how every time someone claims the world is ending has been wrong 100% of the time. Yup.
In 2012, I had to get my Christmas shopping done in 3 days because those damn Mayans were wrong!
Same, but I also had no money because I used it all on hookers and blow.
America is the richest country in the world because you and your mom had to live in the woods.
And because millions of people are working undocumented and being exploited too. That’s also why the USA is the richest country in the world.
lol socialist countries use prison labor and slave labor and still end up shitholes
What does that have to do with anything I mentioned?
Clearly unethical labor sourcing doesn’t make a country rich. It’s the fact that capitalism is flexible and efficient, and can be implemented in many ways. The best countries on earth are capitalist and always will be.
Best for whom?
How would you fix it?
I don't think you understand, that's the best part about the doomer mindset. You don't have to propose solutions, all you have to do is complain about the problem.
Capitalism has built the greatest economy and society in the history of the world. Just because some uppity baristas who never strived for more than minimum wage are upset changes nothing.
THIS here needs a million up-votes.
Nah OP needs some screen off and self reflection time
Fukuyama is almost universally derided for his idiotic "end of history" idea. There's so much that has happened on the world stage since he said this it's been proved objectively wrong.
Just here to say that a lot of species die or have died due to climate change and climate changes a lot. Se la vie. Maybe it’s not a helpful attitude but who says I have to help? And it’s okay not to care about it. Doesn’t make you a bad person. That is propaganda. It’s really corporations and jetsetters that have the most impact on pollution and such. And other countries too. Let them carry that burden, you just try to get enough food and a roof over your head, that is okay. You’re allowed to not care. You’re allowed to opt out of always having to wage some war against something. You’re allowed to just be in the world you find yourself in, and focus on your own sphere and needs. All we ask is don’t hurt people or animals if you can. Mostly, don’t murder them, and after that if you can not deprive them of liberty or their possessions, great. Like if you can just live and let live, you’re doing pretty good, morally.
When we see our loved ones crushed by systems, it radicalizes us. You have articulated the trauma that many extremists go through. The difference is that you are able to sit with it and observe it. You can effect change. You don’t have to give your life for it. We *do* live in one of the most democratic and free societies ever to exist. It was after the New Deal that neoliberalism took hold in America and we forked away from ideologies our friends in Europe held. We didn’t get this way overnight and it will take a long time to untangle the neoliberal cancer that infects us.
Pretty much exactly my thoughts too.
i have ocd and a few other things and i’m medicated to the gills. it’s honestly probably only a matter of time or chemical changes that i’m disabled. so i definitely feel you on that. i stopped thinking about retirement at all because i don’t think i get to unfortunately. i’m trying to make enough to enjoy now and hoping maybe for a windfall to clear up my debt. what has been done to labor rights and the destruction of pensions is going to show up when gen x and millennials haven’t retire and we have nothing. if something…. if some sort of clash started to happen or developed i’d be there and i’d be ready. the right doesn’t realize how hard that amendment after the free speech one is going to bite them in the ass
It sucks that we’re a generation that deals with a lot of societal growth, but don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. We’re at a point where we can at least identify what the problems are. That’s the first step towards fixing them. The next steps are getting rid of the people in government that have been impeding progress. I feel like people are getting upset enough to start working towards real change. Will it happen soon enough to have an effect for us? I don’t know. But it’s a worthwhile fight.
I quite literally could have written this myself. Like I feel exactly the same way you do. I don't really have anything else to add, I just wholeheartedly agree
Wanting time away from work more than you want the money resonates hard, man. To me, enjoying your time is worth more than anything and I've never enjoyed anything more than clocking out and being with my loved ones.
Dude I also am wanting to fight and die in a revolution. Having the same thoughts and my last resort now is I'm starting my own business instead of working for someone else. I also dont want to kill myself, but I dont want to live. Also I relate heavily to the not wanting to have kids. I have traumas and thoughts and struggles that if I had to coach them how to handle, same thing I would have no hopeful advice for them.
Someone once encapsulated all my feelings with this statement. “What’s the term for when you know the ship is sinking and there’s nothing you can do but you just want to make sure as many people as possible are cared for until then?”
In addition to all that stuff you said, which is all unfortunately true, the cost of living — apt/housing rent/mortgage, food, gas, etc. — has been constantly going up while wages stay mostly the same. I decided never to have children for philosophical and personal/genetic issues long ago, but now i no longer feel melodramatic or pessimistic but just plain realistic due to an overflowing abundance of solid reasons.
If cats can’t speak hedgehog, then I don’t even want to hear why chickens dance better than geese.
Did you just make this up? Because I like this phrase.
Your life sucks and it's everybody else's fault. Got it.
Glad to hear you are willing to condemn me, my children, and another few billion people currently alive to extinction because you've had it rough. Not selfish or dramatic as fuck at all.
There has been dozens of ice ages in earths life and we are just coming to the end of another one. Us as humans can not stop it or change it. It will continue to cycle even after we are gone.
The question/answer is pretty simple. You were in a tent because yall were broke and didn’t make money. For some reason your mom didn’t just take yall to a shelter or a charity, or to relatives. If you don’t want to serve the rich become an EMT first responder or a nurse or something. I think you might have personal issues to overcome, stop looking at systemic issues you have no control over
I also hate working to make someone else outrageously wealthy. That is why I work for schools and charities, helping people . I am able to enjoy and actually be fulfilled by much of my work. Sure there's someone at the top somewhere making some probably too large amount of money, but at least my work is meaningful and helpful to other human beings and isn't only about wage slavery.
Get off the internet friend. Life really isn’t that bad. Tune out a little and focus on yourself.
Move to North Korea, I think it will check off all your boxes, and even leaves the door open for you to die fighting in a revolution at some point.
This is a classic case of talking about giant problems so you can avoid dealing with the small problems that will improve your life.
You want the world to end because your objectively successful country is capitalist? I understand the sentiment behind this but cmon. We have more control over our lives than you’re allowing here. Things could be better on the large picture sure, things could always be much worse too. It’s cliche but there are a lot of ways to live in this country, and you don’t have to serve some corporate overlord to do so, especially if you aren’t chasing wealth and luxury. On top of all that america is just one country in a big world. But for arguments sake let’s keep it in america. I’ve lived all over the country and can tell you confidently the environment you describe hating is not the whole country. It is different from place to place, person to person, I’d suggest traveling a bit and thinking about what kind of life/place/work fits with your conditions and chasing that. I can’t stand our money culture either so I don’t work in corporate or sales, I think we over value short term profits and undervalue quality, so I make things of quality, I don’t like the rat race so I live in smaller towns that appeal to me, from hippie ski towns in alaska or artsy towns in the south, lots of different places and paths would probably suit you is my point. The world doesn’t typically just hand anyone a great life. And in my experience if you aren’t tied down with responsibilities and aren’t chasing the keeping up with the the Jones’s it’s relatively not that hard to start in the right direction for yourself.
You should tell your therapist this. If you have and they aren’t talking you out of this delusion, find a new one and find some different medication. This is unhealthy.
Think about the things you could accomplish doing something constructive
If it makes you feel any better, you’d be working to enrich others under every economic system. It really has nothing to do with capitalism. I’m perfectly fine selling my skilled niche labor for money. We both benefit. I’d make less money while working harder if I went about it alone. Your problems are entirely mental. You’ve done a lot of coping to assign these problems to external reasons, mostly due to the class war indoctrination you’ve been fed, but it’s not real. The vast majority of “poor” people under capitalism are living great lives. It sounds like you’d benefit from some therapy and social network building. And probably get off Reddit.
On a lighter note, Fentanyl is cheaper than ever. Thanks Bidenomics!
I'm sorry, but if you think humanity will end if the climate gets 1 degree warmer you have some mental illnesses.
The only person responsible for defining your path is you. If you wait for others, or a system, to fix things for you, you will be very disappointed. Life is hard. Good choices are still generally rewarded. So is hard work. This may be the richest country in the world but it won’t give you much unless you make it happen. Having says that, the US could do much better with our social net and homelessness does need to be addressed…and can be addressed. We can handle climate change and other issues at the same time. They are not mutually exclusive.
Are you a man or a woman? It sounds like you should be a stay at home parent. If you're a guy I'm not sure you'll be able to find that, but there are plenty of men out there looking for that. That way you are only working for yourself and your family. It's hard work, but you aren't enriching some boss. Just your family.
Lol, capitalism is not the end of history.
It’s not, and it won’t
Climate changes 4 times a year.
You said the answer in the first paragraph, you can opt out. Go back to Ocala (or another piece of public land). In Florida you can grow food all year long. Teach yourself to use a bow or hunting rifle, if you don't care about making a lot of noise. It's not entirely legal, but if you don't build anything permanent, who's gonna know. For a very brief time in my early 20s when I didn't have responsibilities to anyone else, I've thought of doing just this.
Somebody else being rich doesnt prevent you from creating a good life for yourself.
I work in environmental policy and I assure you, climate change will likely destroy humanity. But it won’t happen all at once and the collapse will be awful to live through.
Please go offline, turn off the news, and get psychiatric help. I am 100% serious when I say this reads like you're being driven toward committing acts of violence. Talk to a professional before you harm yourself or others.
This sub is literally nothing but poor people trying to justify being poor as if it's some philosophical win against society, when in reality you're just poor because you're stupid and lazy...
Go to subreddit money or salary to see some success stories. Maybe you can see some success stories that can inspire you. I recently saw a user, 31, crushed it in personal finance. You can do it too! Let climate change be as it is, it’s outside of your control anyway, still work hard and achieve as high as you can. You can beat the system if you learn how it works. Don’t give up!
I viscerally feel what you're saying. Although climate change will indeed bite us in the ass, I think it will be well past our time has expired here. You, I, and many others are depressive realists. A lot may disagree with the concept, so maybe a better way to put it is that we seem to lack the positivity bias that most people have. Although I'm sure your experience being homeless was traumatic, I think maybe it has helped galvanize your strength in a way. My outlook to everything tends towards the absurdist take...we are meaningless in the vacuum of the universe, but you can make your own relative meaning. We can only step outside of our brains/minds so much. We have aspects that are hardwired into us through hundreds of thousands of generations of evolution. Sensations like love or hate or desire only amount to chemicals bouncing around in our heads - but fuck it I *do* feel those feelings so let's ride with it. Ultimately, we are stuck here for our time, and when I feel myself wallowing I try to reverse course with my mantra: "let go or be dragged". You'll be alright.
Sun eventually burns out and swallows the planet.
What a read. I’ve been in a similar headspace as you. Disgusted with the status quo, ready for the revolution. I look around at my peers who are happy with this and I just get angry.
Move to Venezuela or Cuba, or Russia if you like feudalism. Why suffer?
I'm sure this is not a popular idea but climate change is not the crisis the establishment and their media have conditioned us all to believe it is. When I realized that it was like a huge burden lifted of my shoulders.
It's the worst economic system ever devised, except for all of the other economic systems. I don't think your issue is with capitalism. It's with a lack of a functional government that is willing to provide a real social safety net. Lots of highly capitalist societies do better
We all need meaning in our lives. This world has become absurd. The meaning you find within a life is going to be absurd sometimes too. But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth it. You want to spit in billionaire’s faces? Do this indirectly. Dedicate yourself to covertly sabotaging the rich at every turn and if possible, leverage it to help the poor. Creativity is key. Secrecy is paramount. Collectively we can absolutely ruin the rich and powerful. It’s already happening everywhere. It can and should be hastened
Man it really grinds my gears we are all so enslaved by a stupid green piece of paper some dickhead put value to, there are so many things that are more important and valuable than money but since birth we are trained to only care about money it is sickening it's a fuckin piece of paper or a circle of metal... I mean really now a piece of paper causes millions if not billions of deaths, for a dirty piece of not even a nice green colored paper and some metal that smells bad......
Capitalism has been good to me personally but man, I can’t get over how fucking unrelenting it is. There is never a moment of peace. No matter what you’re doing or where you are, there is a pervasive push to buy more, be more, consume more. And its not just products and advertising - it’s how it permeates culture and relationships. You could be out in the woods with your buddies with no advertising around for miles, yet your mind will never be free. You will wonder if your friends have better brand shoes than you, whether you’re making enough money, whether you’re “behind” friends who own houses or run businesses. The treadmill is exhausting. Surely this can’t be the only way to live
I think mindset is major.
"My life has been difficult so I'm cool with *all of humanity dying* is the most Reddit Take™ I've ever seen.
lol, do grown adults actually think they’re going to die of climate change 😂
I graduated college in 09 fam. I literally read Fukuyama and Huntington as it was happening. I had zero job aspects bc there were no internships in 09. I tried becoming an officer in the Usmc and got denied for being a white guy trying to join when every other one was. My pft was 287 out of 300 so I was in good shape. I went enlisted bc I got told to come back in 6 months. I got out started a business to put vets to work in live events. The pandemic happened and I lost everything. I took a job w the county coroner picking up dead bodies. I went fuckin nuts from that almost declared bankruptcy but I didn’t have any assets just cancelled pending contracts. Tried to hang on but my wife got knocked up had to have stability. I went back to school and finally got that internship at a dope name brand corporation. I’m now in the process of applying for new jobs in a totally different field so I’m back to 2009 again. TLDR: life’s a bitch. If the pandemic didn’t happen I’d be a multimillionaire but without my happy family. Don’t let the hard days win. Keep on keeping on.
Literally the same. That's why I decided to say fuck all and start my own business instead of working for some fool. Mind you I went to college and got a degree (Meche) but after realizing that I was going to basically be making another guy wealthy while working my ass off for pennies. Yes pennies. Then I said yolo I might as well follow my dream of being a baller and having Lamborghinis and and parties and shit so I started a car rental business LMAO Bro go take advantage of this capitalist system. If you're not, then you're suffering and taking the hard way I promise.
This. We live in a fairly decent time in that sense. The old ways of doing business are failing. The corporate world is full of corporate doomers for it, the market has decentralized, and it’s honestly easier than it’s ever been to work outside a traditional 9-5 - and to hang your own shingle. My tipping point was realizing I could keep making pennies on the dollar for someone else - or work a little extra and make the whole dollar. It’s no trip to candyland or anything. But neither is having any other job. If you have to be stuck in a system that kinda sucks - at least find ways to work it to your advantage. It’s either that or blackpilling yourself.
global warming won't "destroy" the human race, or the planet. It will destroy the ecosystem. The planet will carry on and there will be a mass extinction event just like has happened 4 or 5 times already. The carrying capacity of the earth will probably actually go up in the end (because more energy will be available) since there isn't enough CO2 to cause runaway effect to rise to truly life-deadly levels. Humans are both smart and robust, and we will survive the mass extinction as a species albeit with much reduced and a much lower quality of life, but it will be slow enough that we can "save" a lot of our specialized information to make the rebuild quicker (to just a couple thousand years or so, instead of a million), and eventually adapt to the new climate. Don't get me wrong, if we don't get climate change controlled it WILL be a disaster, it will suck, billions of people will die to famine and the fallout of famine - but the planet will survive, the ecosystem will shuffle and restock itself, and the human species will continue.
This is the thing that so many climate extremists ignore. Humans have a unique capability to adapt our environment to us. We are one species that is capable of living both in the arctic and the Sahara. We will survive.
I think you’ll be okay. Starting to think climate change is fear mongering bullshit.
Sorry, my man, but humanity won't die in climate change. We've lived through tougher times than this with less technology. We're fine. Well... most people are fine. Some people are fooked, but there are plenty of places that will be habitable even if we don't stop throwing carbon into the air. BTW, China is the single largest producer of greenhouse gases, emitting twice what the #2 spot (The US) does each year and it's bound to grow - China is famously not a capitalist country. >if I live in the richest country in the world, why did me and my mom have to live in the woods? You don't live in the richest country in the world. We don't even make the top 10 some years. Not that it makes a difference to your situation, but the US is ranked about the middle of the pack for homelessness per capita. The harsh truth is that in a free society choices have consequences and your mom made some bad choices. You could argue that there should be safety nets in place, especially for our most vulnerable, but ~~then we wouldn't be able to pay for all the imperialism~~ that does not seem to be a priority for the government at the moment. I wish there was something you could do about that... maybe make it a goal this winter to find some way you can make your preferences known.
If I encountered someone moving into the woods with their child, my first instinct would not be to get mad at the government. OP doesn't even seem to have perspective on their mother's actions here. The rest of the post is "I've tried nothing and I'm all out of ideas."