I'm 35. I make enough to pay bills but a home is still out of reach for me and my gf, together we pull about 175k
When I was 21, expensive drafts were $5/16oz. Cheap ones were $1. Rent was ~$750/mo, utils and stuff brought you close to $1000. I worked 40 hrs a week in a kitchen making $15/hr. I got free food the burritos there were $9.99, fair at the time.
Today, someone makes the same wage, gets 12 hrs a week, the food isn't free when you work there a burrito is $17.99, and the apt I was in is $1750/mo
I wanted to die plenty in my 20s. I can only imagine the bleak hellhole they see and exist in.
...the clear answer is more opportunity, more money, more education, less burdens.
What the fuck happened? Like it was bad for me and my friends. Our parents pitied us. But now a draft beer is line $11 for 10 oz. A cheap McDonald's order is $15.
It's clickbait. There was an article like this a while ago about teens and suicide and they were like, "we have no idea why this is happening!", even though for years people were saying social media was harming teens.
Social media is not the cause. There are so many problems that young people are helpless to do anything about. Congress's desire to restrict and censor internet access for minors has to be more impactful than social media itself.
even though for years people were saying social media was harming teens.
And that article, had you bother to read it, pointed out that there was plenty of conflicting evidence as to whether social media was the cause, and warned that by mindlessly blaming social media because it is easy might lead us to overlook the real culprit.
Sorry, they meant no clear answers that preserve the wealth of the wealthy and the profits of corporations and shareholders while squeezing young people for every drop of their labor and every penny of what little money they have. The only clear answers would involve actual change.
Jesus wept, if I earned HALF that I'd be very comfortable for the rest of my life. That's an insane income.
Imagine earning almost two hundred grand a year as a family and then suggesting it's a struggle. That's wild.
I mean sure, if you live in a gated wealthy community and only buy the finest things, and have very high wealthy standards, then I imagine that would seem like pocket change.
But 14,500 dollaroos a MONTH? That's enough to support multiple families. That's equivalent to SIX adults working a full time minimum wage job. SIX!
Imagine being two people, bringing in the wage of six people, and suggesting it's a tough life. I would kill to be in that highly privileged position haha.
It can't be the soul crushing capitalism, commoditization of everything (love included), and isolation guys, right? It's definitely not our corporate profits.
Can't be added on with multiple "Once in a generation" natural disasters happening on a yearly basis with temp records breaking yearly, nations with the power to demolish the world rattling sabers over a fight that's been going before we were born, zero chance of moving upwards in the crushing capitalism, all the while the leadership is fighting over identity politics instead of acknowledging any of the problems. Surely none of those are add on factors.
I think it mostly comes down to increasingly unfair distribution of wealth, which leaves people with no hope to better their standards of living.
Our civilization creates things with constantly increasing productivity, which should lead to better pay and less time spent working, and more time to live a fulfilling life.
Instead, all this added wealth is funneled towards a few mindbogglingly rich individuals.
This happens with the help of a sizable fraction of the population, which has become convinced that their mediocre situation is in fact caused by even poorer and more miserable people, rather than the assholes siphoning everything and everyone from the top of their already obscene piles of riches. And there's no sign of this changing anytime soon. No wonder people are desperate.
Nope, it's full spectrum. An asshole cashier that manages to fudge their drawer so the next shift comes up short and they get the cash in their pocket is considered "clever" for pulling one over on the rube. Arbitrary division and competition has soaked through all levels of America.
Itâs a lot of things. Climate hopelessness, a political system that seems hellbent on maintaining this negative feedback loop, yes, the economic situation, but also a soulless life under late stage capitalism where itâs proven over and over again you matter less than a line going up, we are commodified at every turn, our personality traits are nothing more than economic indicators or data points to sell us more shitâŠwe live in a hostile world. And itâs hostile by humanityâs own making. And itâs soulless by our own making. Maybe humans used to die at 25 by a mountain lion attack more frequently, but some kind of purpose was found in that survival life. Depression and anxiety and a feeling of pointlessness are capitalism-made.
This problem seems so framed by experts as âwhy do these kids want to die?â When the question they should be asking is âwhat is society giving them to live for?â
I'm on a train trip across the U.S. today, so I will add what I see out the window: A landscape systematically strip-mined of beauty, meaning, and sense of place in service of extracting maximum profit from the people who have to exist in it.
We're being robbed of stability, autonomy, and sleep. Economical demands are above our physical capability. Also the legal system is predatory. What's to live for?
Music is cool for the limited time I have where my ears belong to me. Maybe when I can afford furniture I'll be able to relax between shifts.
I'm saying all this even when I practically hit the jackpot with rent cost and work for a pretty decent company. I'll be ok but the rest of my life before this has just been a demonstration that life outside my control isn't worth anything.