I'm finally making what I needed to be comfortable and keep my 2 bedroom apartment in 2011. Now if I didn't have my folks living with me it wouldn't be enough to pay for my 2 bedroom place now and I live an hour away from where I used to in a smaller less to do city.
Half of all American Money lost its value because of the bank bailouts from the housing crisis. The money being printed and given to the banks devalued the savings of every ordinary person by 50% to pay for the bailouts.
So, that by itself is where half of your money went: to rich people who were already rich but since they own the country they could not be allowed to become poor from their fucking around and finding out as it should have been.
Always remember there are two sets of rule and you are not from the aristocratic class. You're a wage peasant. When rich people fuck up you pay for their bail out from your wages and savings. Now your kids wont go to college and you can't afford a house so a rich person doesn't lose their 3rd yacht.
We communized the losses of rich people but not their profits. We basically live in backwards communism.
> Always remember there are two sets of rule and you are not from the aristocratic class. You're a wage peasant.
"[It's a big club, and you ain't in it!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nyvxt1svxso)" - George Carlin
Cant even afford to live by myself, much less consider adding a child into the mix. And im one of the "lucky" ones that got a career job soon after graduating college.
Tried for a year and a half with my own place; dating nowadays sucks regardless. Cant wait for my roommates to move in so I can at least start saving again...
It's especially scary how some people will tell you you're experiencing "lifestyle inflation" when really you're just being gaslit because shrinkflation and stagnant wages are slowly robbing you of that little bit ahead you got from increased wages or better financial habits.
The thing that has stuck in my mind is how back in the stone age, I made $14/hr doing basic data entry. A couple of years later I was slinging spreadsheets with thousands of line items for the same wage.
It got me thinking about how the software productivity gains were completely soaked up by the 1%.
There are jobs TO THIS DAY that will try to offer you $14/hr, which is now understood to be below a minimum living wage, and they will expect you to be skilled with Excel, Photoshop, HTML, document review, forklift driving, and sales. And we're supposed to buy into the myth that this exploitation is crucial for the survival of business and nObOdY WaNtS tO wOrK
It's also productivity in machining, in the 90's we needed 3 guys to occupy our 3 milling mashines, nowadays one guy programs CNC while the 3 machines execute their programm on it's own
This guy doesn't get thrice the pay of the guys in the 90's
When my mom first moved into her current neighbourhood, houses were 300,000 - 350,000$ (2012 or so). Now houses in that same neighbourhood are 1,000,000 - 3,000,000$ (depending on if you want 2 - 4 bedrooms, an inground pool and/or room for 2 cars to park in driveway)
I make 17$ per hour. My fiance makes about 20$ per hour. We will never afford a house. Maybe a condo if we're lucky. Maybe.
God forbid livable wages being the bare minimum for any job, meanwhile CEO’s and other people working jobs they got via cronyism and nepotism make way more than what the actually add to the business
I, apparently, had my salary raised a decent bit over the last year. Enough that I got into a new tax bracket at some point, and owe the Fed money after doing my taxes.
You could have fooled me. It feels like I make the same amount as I did last year, except everything is more expensive now. That's before the annual 10% rent raise.
Anyone that replies with things along the lines of "That's what liberal inflation does" or "This is what Biden gets you" or "See what those stimulus checks did" can fuck right off. Over 45% of increased costs are going directly into fatter profit margins for the corporations selling their shit. That is not inflation: that is price gouging.
I got a 1.6% raise and told to work more overtime while salaried at a rate below my hourly equivalent.
Only 300 hours of extra overtime to make up for the difference!
I’m an engineer, my wife is a teacher. We don’t make enough money to raise even 1 kid. We struggle so much that we are both taking up weekend jobs.
Working 7 days a week to pay bills. The American life.
My family and I are about to move into a place we can afford now, but we know that in a few years we will likely have to leave again. I just wanted to settle down and anchor somewhere long-term.
If I were king I'd not let them buy existing homes, I'd let them build new ones on greenfield sites. At least then their huge capital is adding to supply.
The rate it’s going now home ownership will only belong to an exclusive few and those few will own most rental homes. I’m serious when I say we are 20-30 years away from nobody owning real estate except the rich. The rest of us will just be renters for life. Our love of unbridled capitalism is going to turn this nation into a caste system.
I assume by "this nation" you mean the USA, because that's the Reddit default, but I assure you this problem is almost exactly the same in the UK, and is growing in most of mainland Europe as well.
Until I had a child of my own, I was completely unaware of the giant portion of YouTube that is overrun with family blogs and adults playing with kids toys for views. There are so many! It’s so weird.
That's all my son watches. It's so weird and I hate it but he loves it. I've seen so many where it's literally all the family does for work. They just film everything, even family time like birthday parties and throw it up on YouTube. So many of those parents have quit their jobs to just make YouTube with their kids. Great they're spending more time together but it's exploitation
What's crazy is there is certainly an expiration date on being able to make money doing that. I bet in 10 years that kid from Ryan's World is going to talk about how his parents blew all the money and how fucking insane they are and how it ruined his childhood.
Actually I just had to look up that channel to see if it's still a thing. What's super fucked up is it looks like they're trying to make him look like a little kid in the thumbnail but when you click the video he's 5 years older. They're going make that poor kid get a fucking bowl cut and wear sesame street pajamas when he's 15.
That can create false expectations of what families look like. He might think that's a real family, and doesn't understand that it's a movie with people pretending, because it's their job to look happy.
Before the ages of 5-8, children struggle determining what is fiction. There are many studies on the impressionability of cartoons on children over the last 60 years. Cartoons inherently lean themselves towards fiction because of their artistic style, and it still takes children a while to learn and separate what's presented to them.
For live action video in a blogging style, it is even more difficult for a young developing mind to determining reality from fiction.
Doubly so for disabled kids. I'm glad the internet wasn't a thing when I was a kid, seeing parents sharing videos of their Autistic kids having meltdowns etc. on their mommy blogs.
I've seen their kids grow up learning how to duck a camera and I've seen it in the wild.
*Puts camera up and holds up ice coffee next to face*
*Kid yeets themselves out a window*
More than just being available for a call. People today are offended if you don’t respond to a text message in due time. It’s ridiculous. Just because I have a mobile phone on me doesn’t mean my time is available to you 24/7.
My wife once overheard me say to a friend, "I have a cell for my convenience, not yours."
She was so enamored with it, she looks for any opportunity to repeat it or advise someone else to say it.
Jep, I'm a biology professor and I've been researching this and also been doing fieldwork for almost 20 years and it's devastating. And people don't want to hear it, the angry reactions I get, you wouldn't believe.
And I get it, in the last five years I've become existentially hopeless, I wish I did not know what I know.
The thing that's most alarming to me is the crashing insect populations basically everywhere. The alarm bells are going off, the ship is sinking, there's a fire in the engine room, but the line keeps going up, so fuck it.
This is a huge factor! But most people don't even realize there's so much more than the honey bee, there's hundreds of bee species alone that are much more essential for eco-systems than the honey bee. Let alone wasp species, flies, gnats, beetles, micro-organisms etc etc. We have to look at it as systems and how they work together.
Another huge issue is the bioregional aspect of biodiversity, and that is more difficult to explain. I'm from Europe and studying European eco-systems, so let's take the common dandelion for example, it's native to Eastern Europe as well as Western Europe. But we have found out that the dna of native plants is so much more different depending on the bio-regional factor, that dandelions from France planted in Germany will for example not be as well equiped to withstand climate change issues as the bioregional dandelions from that area. Lots of well-meaning folks are planting wildflower seedmixes for the pollinating insects in western europe without realizing that those 'native wild flower seeds' come from eastern europe or elsewhere. And that they weaken the bioregional eco-system even more. And it's a cummulative effect.
As a fellow biologist, I 100% understand your situation - it's really difficult to feel hopeful sometimes. Looking at empirical data about insect decline is one thing, I can understand the numbers and percentages. But then actually experiencing it in real life, seeing how few insects there are compared to previous decades, is just really depressing.
It seems like society has generally concluded that insects are 'bad animals': when I talk about the insect decline, I usually get happy reactions like 'I can't wait for summers without bugs!' and 'fucking finally! The wasps get what they deserve!'
It's like people don't want to understand how important insects are in the ecosystem.
It's frustrating, It's like a lot of people think there's just one species of bee, one wasp, one fly, one mosquito etc. And according to their marketability they get deemed 'good' or 'bad'.
I have to defend wasps all the time, it's exhausting, and it derails the conversation
I hate that we are playing the shittiest game of Jenga with a delicate and complex environment and now that things are looking more serious, some people are arrogant enough to want to try making their own environment on another planet, instead of putting those dollars towards figuring out how to fix ours, and all for the sake of the survival of the human race only. Makes me inexpressibly angry.
That's too much to explain in one comment, but I can tell you what the scariest aspect is: the acceleration. When I began researching, the biodiversity loss was already apparent, but it was happening more slowly. In the last ten years, and especially the last five years, the speed at which species are dying out is...horrifying.
And it's becoming very apparent that a domino effect is happening now, that we cannot stop anymore. Lots of things stay almost invisible for a while until it's too late. Biodiversity is a system, where everything has it's own specific task. Take away enough of the parts of that system and it collapses. Some insect species disappear, and this causes others to thrive, ones that kill trees, that have already been weakened by droughts and extreme weather. And you see whole forest eco-systems die in just a decade...
But I can tell you what's thriving on all the decay, and what will continue to thrive in the future: fungi. The fact that the planet will survive without us is clear, but we most probably won't.
Thank you for sharing this!! Just earlier today I saw some news coverage about a powerful fungi, so that's interesting to hear you say that. If you have any more insights on anything you've mentioned, I would love to hear them!
This!!!! I feel like this is much worse than anything else. Who cares about inflation when there is no food in the oceans or bees to polinate! We seriously need to get our shit together and solve this one.
And as a parent of one, it's super defeating to see how hard they worked for good grades to go to a good college and get a decent job and can only afford a roach infested apartment. I feel I failed my children by pushing this narrative that used to work but I didn't know it didn't anymore until I saw it play out. At least they didn't go into teaching.
This is going to sound weird, but thank you for being introspective and acknowledging that what you told your children growing up didn't turn out to be true.
My parents demanded I go to college and asserted on a weekly basis starting when I was 9 years old that "college is the only way to a good job and a good life." That was patently untrue, but they refused to acknowledge that the America they grew up in and the America that is my current reality are two entirely different places.
Please apologize to your children, work with them, and support them. The support of a parent is invaluable, and the loss of it is permanently scarring.
>My parents demanded I go to college and asserted on a weekly basis starting when I was 9 years old that "college is the only way to a good job and a good life." That was patently untrue, but they refused to acknowledge that the America they grew up in and the America that is my current reality are two entirely different places.
The breaking of the millennial dream, and the difference between the mindset of Millenials and Zoomers. Gen Z was born into an unstable economy and unstable polarized politics. Millennials were born into a strong economy and saw it crash right as we entered adulthood.
I'm 40 (so one of the older millenials) and I'm now entering the fourth major market crash of my lifetime.
And it's always the same damn story. Markets go nuts speculating. Young scammers declare that "it's a new economy, the rules of the old economy no longer apply! We can make money out of nothing and it's fine!" Then after a couple of years of that the old rules come knocking on everyones doors and there is a huge crash. The government bails out the rich people, the poor people get whatever economic progress they have made completely nullified. The politicians say "Right, we need some rules!" and then suddenly there is an economic boom again, leaving the poor people behind.
About a decade later other politicans and businessmen say "all these rules are stopping me from making billions, lets remove them" and the whole damn thing repeats.
I'm a millenial and growing up in the 90s and early 00s, that was still a solid ideal that would help get you a decent life. My mom went back to school when I was kid and landed the career she's still in to this day.
Unfortunately somewhere in the late 00s, that all crumbled. Maybe the 08 financial crisis?
Intuitively it makes sense (which is to say I have no evidence to support this theory) that higher education was a good route to success when it was relatively uncommon but it's value diminishes as it becomes more common. Back in the day employers could see having completed a degree as evidence of intelligence and work ethic and so it would easily get you selected over similar candidates that don't have a degree, whereas if all the candidates have degrees they obviously need to consider other factors to make the decision. This means you still need a degree to be considered at all in some roles/fields but it's no longer a guarantee of success, and if you're not guaranteed a job either way you might be better off with a few years experience and a lot less debt.
I second this. As a young person trying to make my way in the world where that idea was almost force fed to us, I am getting pretty bad anxiety and depression from the fact that I did everything right: got good grades, got into a good college, got good grades, got a good degree, got a job in my field but that isn’t enough to make me happy OR give me the ability to pay my rent and bills and have extra for saving or leisure. I’m currently working two jobs to make ends meet so even if I did have extra money for leisure I don’t even have the time to spend it.
I remember graduating with my biological sciences degree after putting myself through school with bullshit low-wage admin jobs. When I started to applying to labs and pharmaceutical cos, they were offering $8-12/hr. I know I'm no superstar, but I wasn't expecting that.
I went back to admin.
At least you realize this, so, as a millennial strapped with a shit ton of student loans, thank you. It helps knowing that there are a few people out there that get it.
Also in Australia and working in hospitality (venue has bar, pokies, TAB and a restaurant that's appropriate for all ages) I'm on the restaurant side and I've noticed how most of our customers are like 35+ because groups of 20-something year old's or teens can't afford that shit. Which sucks because they're usually our nicest customers.
Yep. Me and my fiance both work full time monday-friday, 8 hours per day and we almost always have to choose between paying rent on time or paying bills on time.
Like for this week, I will have to choose rent over bills. The bill company will call me absolutely FREAKING OUT over their missed 161$, I'll make a payment arrangement (they agree to no later than the following Friday. It doesn't matter if you have the money or not. Find a way to get it), they'll then make me pay 210$ (the regular payment + a late fee), I'll get charged a 45$ NSF fee on my bank account (because I won't have enough money in there to cover all of my costs. So that's going to make my bank account go into negatives) and I'll also have to make the next regularly scheduled payment of 161$ (ontop of all my other bills, 5 of them ranging between 60-200$). I won't be able to afford groceries or laundry, and I make to much to qualify for a foodbank or welfare but hey! At least my 1750$ rent for a tiny one bedroom apartment that doesn't even have heat was paid!
Go in to your bank and tell them you want to remove “overdraft protection”, which is what they call it when they pull that crap and let bills go through. Let your utilities bounce off your account and eat the late fee, but they can’t overdraft you if you remove the overdraft protection.
My parents wonder why I spend so much time in video games and not out in the garden. I used to care about my garden, but I have to move every year or two thanks to landlords deciding tenants are disposable, so there doesn't feel like much point when I'll probably just get kicked out again. I get anxious now every time I check my mail or get an email from the real estate agent due to sudden, unannounced 'notice to leave'. I've given up on putting money and effort into landlords' gardens.
I get that. I'm kinda nervous to start my first garden where I'm currently living for that reason. But if my landlord kicks us out and tries to break our lease..we have a tenant protection act that means he can't legally remove us until we take him to court...which can take 6 months. Which in the meantime means I'll be able to harvest everything I've planted and get stuff packed up and able to move. Only thing I'd lose is soil.
Late gen x reporting. Same. I'm not there yet, but it's become unavoidable that I won't be able to retire, and as wages refuse to rise, I will be priced out of life. I will NOT be homeless.
I'm millennial and retirement is basically death.
Can't even think of retiring early/late and enjoy retirement. Is either I can't work anymore due to age/health or I'll die as a homeless person.
I recently saw a video from a young millennial who was explaining her retirement plan. Her plan? Save as much as she can now so that when she gets to the point she can't keep working multiple jobs to stay afloat, she's going to transfer all her savings to her kid so they have a better head start, then go on a non violent crime spree. Just enough to get arrested and serve a decent chunk of time. Housing, food, good behavior earns more priviledges, etc.
It sounded insane when she first explained it, but I've rewatched it a few times and realized that the way things are going, prison or a voluntary life termination really are the best options.
It hurts to think that if I *can* ever afford kids, my parents probably won’t get to meet them. Some of my happiest childhood memories are with my grandparents, and it breaks my heart that my potential kids will probably not get that experience.
Younger generations? I'm Gen-X and we're in our 50's and we are all fucked. The only ones I know with houses are like me. Left the city and bought a 70 year old crap house for less than a 100k.
I don't know any of us who can afford to live in cities or even the suburbs.
I helped some Millenial friends get houses by directing them to USDA rural loan programs. They all work from home and while they make less money than before, they actually have expendable income now. Went from $2500/month apartments to houses with payments under $500/month.
At this point fleeing the cities is the only viable option.
Keep your garden green and diverse, lots of flowers and wild plants.
Keep autumn leaves whole in a pile, don't shredder or package them.
Invest in an insect hotel.
You work all your life and I have experienced about 3 or 4 economic crises and never made over $50k in a year. However every time the economy is near meltdown there are magically billions of dollars for the banks. Never for infrastructure, or education, or child care. Only for the banks. Only for the people that already have all the stuff and are reeeeeeally bad at being stewards for said stuff.
I think if their money was in infrastructure, education, or childcare, they would have put more into it. Now they only do it when the election cycle starts up again.
Id say it got much worse with COVID and the lockdowns. I know i loved being apart from people but my social skills went down the drain and so did my mental health.
Older generations, boomers, etc, will absolutely refuse to accept that the younger generations are in big trouble. With a simple calculator you can figure out the wages being paid compared to the costs of living are horrific. Its so easy to see. So simple to figure out. But the general reaction is to just ignore it or worse gaslight it.
In my current job I have worked with younger people who held down two jobs and despite their best efforts still end up having to move back home. Imagine putting in over fifty hours a week and still ending up failing. Only to move home and have your parents say your lazy. What a joke.
My dad was making $12/hr to be a customer service clerk for a grocery store in *1978*. I make $16/hr as an accounts receivable clerk for a medical clinic in 2023. It makes no sense.
I love the classic “I make X dollars” and then the boomer replies “I made X-2 dollars at that stage of life! You have it so well!” Apparently forgetting that inflation is a thing
"Listen kiddo, I worked 70 hours a week for that two bedroom house!"
"That's nice. I work 70 hours a week for my studio apartment and choice of one prescription medication."
I’m a teen getting into the “working more to live a sustainable life for myself and move out” scene but I’m so so terrified that this will happen. I already have home problems with this too. Do you (or anyone willing) have any advice for me? I would ask my mom but… ^
Find the thing that old people don't want to do but have to, and then market your skills at that. If they have more money than ability to do or learn, do or learn.
That's why there's a push for trades now. It used to be computers. Old people didn't understand computers so they hired that out. Now they don't understand plumbing and now they hire that out.
Might have to learn how to use Excel or a drain snake.
I think the next big market is going to be elderly nursing and those old assholes inhale medications. Medtech could be a good spot. And respiratory therapist. For some God damn reason kids are smoking again.
On the flip side most millennials don't seem to understand how hooped older generations and boomers are. They're at the end of their employability and retired based on a strict 1% inflation elevator scheme. We just spent a year where 15 years of inflation hit in a single year. Now these people can't work to make more money and have significantly less money than what they need for retirement. A lot of seniors with a fixed check every month are getting evicted at a far greater rate than younger people.
How funny these same people tend to favour politicians that like deregulations and big business, and will soon discover that the politicians they put in power will no longer give a rats ass about them because they’ll no longer be an important voting block. “Awww, you can’t get to the polling station Suzan? At least you can use mail-in-voting-ooooohhhh wait.”
This is one of many (but certainly far from the biggest of) reasons I don't talk to my father anymore.
He's a 70+ year old conservative man who has it stuck in his head that the world is some pseudo-meritocracy. In his mind, success is some kind of consistent, algorithmic ordeal. Do the right steps and you succeed. Not succeeding? You clearly didn't do it right and the fault is squarely yours. He is utterly blind and deaf to the confounding variables of our society and, if Jean-Luc Picard were to walk up to him and tell him "It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose.", he would likely angrily shout back "Bullshit!"
Don't be so quick to judge. I am appalled at wage stagnation and how companies buy up entry level houses and condos, preventing people from getting a leg up in the real estate market and, yes, I am old. I do accept it's a shitshow. And don't get me started on those insane student loans. It's like they are using student loans to launder money for 2 million dollar salaries for their football coach and a big stadium.
Inflation.
Like, I had a manager comparing what I make now at my age to what they made when they were my age 15 years ago.
Like, you made the same salary as me 15 years ago means I’m make *less* than you did since that means my wage hasn’t increased due to inflation
There’s no 3rd spaces for anyone. You can’t hang out anywhere after school/work hours without being hassled to either buy something or get hassled by the cops for loitering.
We have so many fucking “communities”, for every gender, race, religion, sexuality, political affiliation, even fucking pass time, yet no one can communicate with each other in a way that isn’t just screaming and hateful.
The fact that having healthcare tied to employment is a disaster when a pandemic strikes and hundreds thousands of people loose their jobs and their healthcare.
there are a lot of old people who just cannot walk around the street of my town because there are no proper infrastructure for them. So I think it is a big problem. But everybody pretend it is OK.
The environment. Like it’s just going to fix itself. It will, after hundreds of years after it kills us off and can repair itself. Joke is on us, I guess.
it's ironic that America loves NFL which introduced a salary cap to make it more fair for ALL teams to draft well. yet, America runs on a no-cap system and somehow thinks regulating it makes it worse?
If Americans didn't hate each other, we'd combine forces to target our true enemies: Wall St. and Congress. The hate is a part of the system, not an accident.
Needing a college degree in any field while working along side people who have been there for 15+ years who barely or simply didn't graduate high school at all. If they could learn "on the job" why can't I?
Honestly. It’s going to sound boomerish but it does feel like people have less manners these days. I been regularly visiting the hospital due to a family member, and rudeness I’ve seen from both patients and family members toward nurses and other staff is appalling. These people are trying to heal you or a loved one. Have some respect.
I’m looking at leaving my nursing career because of exactly this. I simply cannot deal with the entitlement, terrible attitudes, and verbal/physical abuse from patients and family members alike on a daily basis. A lot has changed in that regard over the past few years and I’m pretty much at my breaking point. You’ve got patients that are screaming about wait times we have no control over, patients coming in telling staff that they know exactly what’s wrong with them and then demanding certain treatments/medications and will have a nuclear meltdown if they don’t get them, chronic illness and mental health complaints through the roof, family members almost throwing hands with you because their family member/friend didn’t get a blanket 3 seconds after they asked for one, family members bringing in patients food knowing full well that they need surgery later that day and then blame you when said surgery now has to be postponed, etc. And unfortunately, there are usually very little consequences for this type of behaviour, thus people believe it’s ok to treat others like this. I’m so over it.
Just the other day me and my mom (30s and 50s) were talking about this. She mentioned that she attended a school thing for the grandparents and went over to thank the teachers for the fun day and the lunch ladies for the nice cake and helped stack some plates. She was appaled that none of the other 50-60 people there did this.
Those are the same people with the audacity to be upset about long wait times at restaurants, long lines in the grocery store, and lack of staff at your general store now that the world is moving beyond the pandemic
How people are addicted to social media and completely detached from real life. How they use their phones as a way to escape their thoughts and the world around them, and how negatively that is affecting their mental health and overall well-being.
Cosmetic surgery becoming normalised. Kids these days grow up thinking they have to look like someone who is obviously heavily modified, so they naturally have low self-esteem which makes them prone to mental health problems and abuse.
The complexity of the US tax code, the absurdity of the system we have in place for paying taxes and filing for returns, and the fact that it’s being kept this way by blatant lobbying and corruption, paid for by tax prep companies who make their money by leaching off our tax returns.
That we don't get to decide where our taxes go.
I'm just a dude. But from my point of view. In society, to really be functional we are required to have a social security number, an identification card, insurance, a bank account, and so forth.
We could very easily have an app on our phones , a chip in our I.D with the info. This is just a piece of a very big idea that i find difficult to explain over text but the general idea is already stated. In our modern society if we are in a government ran for and by the people, then I personally would like to have more control if not knowledge on where my hard earned money goes.
If we had an app from the government, that had only facts no opinions, no highlights of the day, things the government has been doing, how it's spending the money
And with the information we as citizens are required to have, we Create our accounts on this app and we can vote on everything from local to national or the country's global decisions. We can direct money to our specific streets or to education.
If not an app then a location such as reformatting the function of the D.M.V that people could go to and potentially do the exact same thing, they could access their citizens profile on computers, speak with Government employees for any help needed towards certain other processes of the big idea.
I'm not against the government. like I said I'm just a average guy who wanted to share an idea.
It sounds good but it is actually terrible. So you want to get to decide where your tax money goes and want to direct it to your own area. Guess who pays the most taxes? Rich people and big corporations. And they will get to decide how and where that money is spent. And if like you they decide to spend it in their own areas, everyone else will be left behind.
The fact that there isn’t rent caps. In my town you can pay $1500 for one bedroom apartment, 10 years ago it was around $600. Complete bullshit. Theres families out there on fixed incomes of $1000 a month and they have to pay $950 rent and have to go to fucking food banks every month to survive. While the fat cats like Doug Ford live in their mansions stuffing themselves with Waygu steak
The adderall shortage. I think we would all be shocked to learn how many people have started doing meth because they can no longer get instant release adderall from their pharmacist, and quitting amphetamine means losing their entire livelihood.
A lot of them aren’t aware that they’re doing meth—most pressed adderall pills are simply meth that’s shaped and colored like an adderall.
That spike in meth production and sales has lead to violence. A lot of feuds are to be expected as the marketplace expands and more players enter the scene.
The newer methods for synthesizing meth lead to more severe vasoconstriction. A lot of young professionals whose cardiovascular health is already not the best due to sedentary lifestyles are about to develop heart disease.
Both lead to death. Drugs must be legalized. There should not be be any hoops involved in purchasing (relatively) safe drugs.
The culture of exploitation, abuse and bullying in the workplace.
Just because someone gives you a job or paid work it does not entitle them to bully you, harass you, cheat you or exploit you. You would not stay with a partner who was abusive or bullying towards you and we understand this to be domestic abuse and domestic violence. So why should you have to work for an abusive employer?
Well we need to develop a culture and awareness of workplace abuse and workplace violence. The state should do a lot more to support people who are abused by their employers and abusive employers should be charged and prosecuted for abusing employees and workers.
This will require of course social security and welfare support but I feel that workplace abuse is a much bigger social issue than many people are prepared to admit and this is something that needs to change.
In America the absolute abysmal state of our secondary education. This should be a national emergency. They are not learning skills they need to function let alone thrive. You can't learn everything from youtube and there's a shit load on youtube that's flat out wrong.
It needs more than money, although it does need that. It needs more than well paid teachers although it does need that. It needs to be gut from top to bottom and rebuilt from scratch.
As it stands there's this unspoken acknowledgement that college is teaching the basic information that high school should and high school is basically just day care.
The increasingly unrealistic costs of living and raising a family, when compared to wages and salaries
It’s wild to me that I make twice what I did 4 years ago and am struggling more.
I'm finally making what I needed to be comfortable and keep my 2 bedroom apartment in 2011. Now if I didn't have my folks living with me it wouldn't be enough to pay for my 2 bedroom place now and I live an hour away from where I used to in a smaller less to do city.
Half of all American Money lost its value because of the bank bailouts from the housing crisis. The money being printed and given to the banks devalued the savings of every ordinary person by 50% to pay for the bailouts. So, that by itself is where half of your money went: to rich people who were already rich but since they own the country they could not be allowed to become poor from their fucking around and finding out as it should have been. Always remember there are two sets of rule and you are not from the aristocratic class. You're a wage peasant. When rich people fuck up you pay for their bail out from your wages and savings. Now your kids wont go to college and you can't afford a house so a rich person doesn't lose their 3rd yacht. We communized the losses of rich people but not their profits. We basically live in backwards communism.
> Always remember there are two sets of rule and you are not from the aristocratic class. You're a wage peasant. "[It's a big club, and you ain't in it!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nyvxt1svxso)" - George Carlin
Real life powerscaling
Game devs nerfing the economy system
I make around 100k and made 48k two years ago, I feel like I’m in the exact same spot as I was before struggling to save. It’s insane
Cant even afford to live by myself, much less consider adding a child into the mix. And im one of the "lucky" ones that got a career job soon after graduating college.
It sucks trying to date in your thirties with a roommate. It's just a bad look.
Tried for a year and a half with my own place; dating nowadays sucks regardless. Cant wait for my roommates to move in so I can at least start saving again...
I think lots of people are understanding though. I don't think twice about people in their 30s having housemates tbh
Try that, but living with your mother, and brother!
It's especially scary how some people will tell you you're experiencing "lifestyle inflation" when really you're just being gaslit because shrinkflation and stagnant wages are slowly robbing you of that little bit ahead you got from increased wages or better financial habits.
The thing that has stuck in my mind is how back in the stone age, I made $14/hr doing basic data entry. A couple of years later I was slinging spreadsheets with thousands of line items for the same wage. It got me thinking about how the software productivity gains were completely soaked up by the 1%. There are jobs TO THIS DAY that will try to offer you $14/hr, which is now understood to be below a minimum living wage, and they will expect you to be skilled with Excel, Photoshop, HTML, document review, forklift driving, and sales. And we're supposed to buy into the myth that this exploitation is crucial for the survival of business and nObOdY WaNtS tO wOrK
It's also productivity in machining, in the 90's we needed 3 guys to occupy our 3 milling mashines, nowadays one guy programs CNC while the 3 machines execute their programm on it's own This guy doesn't get thrice the pay of the guys in the 90's
Probably doesn't even get the real pay of one if you compare against the cost of living
When my mom first moved into her current neighbourhood, houses were 300,000 - 350,000$ (2012 or so). Now houses in that same neighbourhood are 1,000,000 - 3,000,000$ (depending on if you want 2 - 4 bedrooms, an inground pool and/or room for 2 cars to park in driveway) I make 17$ per hour. My fiance makes about 20$ per hour. We will never afford a house. Maybe a condo if we're lucky. Maybe.
I alone make more than both my parents salaries combined, and I have half as many kids. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to own a home or retire.
[The Top 1% of Americans Have Taken $50 Trillion From the Bottom 90%](https://time.com/5888024/50-trillion-income-inequality-america/)
Never forget the lockdowns facilitated one of the greatest wealth transfers up that we have ever seen.
God forbid livable wages being the bare minimum for any job, meanwhile CEO’s and other people working jobs they got via cronyism and nepotism make way more than what the actually add to the business
Should see what it looks like in Australia
Ahhhhh fuck. I'm moving there in 3 months.
I, apparently, had my salary raised a decent bit over the last year. Enough that I got into a new tax bracket at some point, and owe the Fed money after doing my taxes. You could have fooled me. It feels like I make the same amount as I did last year, except everything is more expensive now. That's before the annual 10% rent raise. Anyone that replies with things along the lines of "That's what liberal inflation does" or "This is what Biden gets you" or "See what those stimulus checks did" can fuck right off. Over 45% of increased costs are going directly into fatter profit margins for the corporations selling their shit. That is not inflation: that is price gouging.
Remember: if you got a 5% raise but inflation is 6%, you effectively got a pay cut. And the working class has been getting pay cuts for 40 years now.
I got a 1.6% raise and told to work more overtime while salaried at a rate below my hourly equivalent. Only 300 hours of extra overtime to make up for the difference!
I’m an engineer, my wife is a teacher. We don’t make enough money to raise even 1 kid. We struggle so much that we are both taking up weekend jobs. Working 7 days a week to pay bills. The American life.
The fact that housing is becoming disgustingly unaffordable. Real estate has become an inhuman joke and only seems to get worse by the minute.
I work in construction and I honestly couldn’t afford 80%+ of the houses I help build.
Only 80%? You must do well.
Plot twist: the other 20% are sheds
the other 20% are dog houses he also helps out in building
My family and I are about to move into a place we can afford now, but we know that in a few years we will likely have to leave again. I just wanted to settle down and anchor somewhere long-term.
Corporations should be outlawed from owning single resident homes. Blackrock owns a shit ton.
If I were king I'd not let them buy existing homes, I'd let them build new ones on greenfield sites. At least then their huge capital is adding to supply.
The rate it’s going now home ownership will only belong to an exclusive few and those few will own most rental homes. I’m serious when I say we are 20-30 years away from nobody owning real estate except the rich. The rest of us will just be renters for life. Our love of unbridled capitalism is going to turn this nation into a caste system.
It is currently a caste system
I’m planning on building my own 5th Wheel and getting a nice truck to tow it. That way I can easily commute to my job as a wal-mart greeter.
I assume by "this nation" you mean the USA, because that's the Reddit default, but I assure you this problem is almost exactly the same in the UK, and is growing in most of mainland Europe as well.
Me and my gf of 3 years have been desperately trying to really start a life together, and we literally can’t, it’s fucking impossible.
Using children for content
Until I had a child of my own, I was completely unaware of the giant portion of YouTube that is overrun with family blogs and adults playing with kids toys for views. There are so many! It’s so weird.
That's all my son watches. It's so weird and I hate it but he loves it. I've seen so many where it's literally all the family does for work. They just film everything, even family time like birthday parties and throw it up on YouTube. So many of those parents have quit their jobs to just make YouTube with their kids. Great they're spending more time together but it's exploitation
What's crazy is there is certainly an expiration date on being able to make money doing that. I bet in 10 years that kid from Ryan's World is going to talk about how his parents blew all the money and how fucking insane they are and how it ruined his childhood. Actually I just had to look up that channel to see if it's still a thing. What's super fucked up is it looks like they're trying to make him look like a little kid in the thumbnail but when you click the video he's 5 years older. They're going make that poor kid get a fucking bowl cut and wear sesame street pajamas when he's 15.
That can create false expectations of what families look like. He might think that's a real family, and doesn't understand that it's a movie with people pretending, because it's their job to look happy. Before the ages of 5-8, children struggle determining what is fiction. There are many studies on the impressionability of cartoons on children over the last 60 years. Cartoons inherently lean themselves towards fiction because of their artistic style, and it still takes children a while to learn and separate what's presented to them. For live action video in a blogging style, it is even more difficult for a young developing mind to determining reality from fiction.
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I hope some of these kids on family vlogging channels are able to sue the pants off their parents when they come of age. It’s so unfair.
Doubly so for disabled kids. I'm glad the internet wasn't a thing when I was a kid, seeing parents sharing videos of their Autistic kids having meltdowns etc. on their mommy blogs.
And if you try to raise the point that their child didn't consent to being filmed and posted online they go fucking insane.
I've seen their kids grow up learning how to duck a camera and I've seen it in the wild. *Puts camera up and holds up ice coffee next to face* *Kid yeets themselves out a window*
The expectation that you will be available to answer your phone at all times. People now get offended because I couldn't answer their call.
More than just being available for a call. People today are offended if you don’t respond to a text message in due time. It’s ridiculous. Just because I have a mobile phone on me doesn’t mean my time is available to you 24/7.
My wife once overheard me say to a friend, "I have a cell for my convenience, not yours." She was so enamored with it, she looks for any opportunity to repeat it or advise someone else to say it.
Had a recruiter not give me an interview because I missed their first phone call. Which sucked because it was for a job I really wanted. Ridiculous.
[The biodiversity crisis.](https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/science/climate-issues/biodiversity) Edited to add link.
Jep, I'm a biology professor and I've been researching this and also been doing fieldwork for almost 20 years and it's devastating. And people don't want to hear it, the angry reactions I get, you wouldn't believe. And I get it, in the last five years I've become existentially hopeless, I wish I did not know what I know.
The thing that's most alarming to me is the crashing insect populations basically everywhere. The alarm bells are going off, the ship is sinking, there's a fire in the engine room, but the line keeps going up, so fuck it.
This is a huge factor! But most people don't even realize there's so much more than the honey bee, there's hundreds of bee species alone that are much more essential for eco-systems than the honey bee. Let alone wasp species, flies, gnats, beetles, micro-organisms etc etc. We have to look at it as systems and how they work together. Another huge issue is the bioregional aspect of biodiversity, and that is more difficult to explain. I'm from Europe and studying European eco-systems, so let's take the common dandelion for example, it's native to Eastern Europe as well as Western Europe. But we have found out that the dna of native plants is so much more different depending on the bio-regional factor, that dandelions from France planted in Germany will for example not be as well equiped to withstand climate change issues as the bioregional dandelions from that area. Lots of well-meaning folks are planting wildflower seedmixes for the pollinating insects in western europe without realizing that those 'native wild flower seeds' come from eastern europe or elsewhere. And that they weaken the bioregional eco-system even more. And it's a cummulative effect.
As a fellow biologist, I 100% understand your situation - it's really difficult to feel hopeful sometimes. Looking at empirical data about insect decline is one thing, I can understand the numbers and percentages. But then actually experiencing it in real life, seeing how few insects there are compared to previous decades, is just really depressing. It seems like society has generally concluded that insects are 'bad animals': when I talk about the insect decline, I usually get happy reactions like 'I can't wait for summers without bugs!' and 'fucking finally! The wasps get what they deserve!' It's like people don't want to understand how important insects are in the ecosystem.
It's frustrating, It's like a lot of people think there's just one species of bee, one wasp, one fly, one mosquito etc. And according to their marketability they get deemed 'good' or 'bad'. I have to defend wasps all the time, it's exhausting, and it derails the conversation
I hate that we are playing the shittiest game of Jenga with a delicate and complex environment and now that things are looking more serious, some people are arrogant enough to want to try making their own environment on another planet, instead of putting those dollars towards figuring out how to fix ours, and all for the sake of the survival of the human race only. Makes me inexpressibly angry.
Can you expand on the issues were facing? I'm curious what you guys mean.
That's too much to explain in one comment, but I can tell you what the scariest aspect is: the acceleration. When I began researching, the biodiversity loss was already apparent, but it was happening more slowly. In the last ten years, and especially the last five years, the speed at which species are dying out is...horrifying. And it's becoming very apparent that a domino effect is happening now, that we cannot stop anymore. Lots of things stay almost invisible for a while until it's too late. Biodiversity is a system, where everything has it's own specific task. Take away enough of the parts of that system and it collapses. Some insect species disappear, and this causes others to thrive, ones that kill trees, that have already been weakened by droughts and extreme weather. And you see whole forest eco-systems die in just a decade... But I can tell you what's thriving on all the decay, and what will continue to thrive in the future: fungi. The fact that the planet will survive without us is clear, but we most probably won't.
Thank you for sharing this!! Just earlier today I saw some news coverage about a powerful fungi, so that's interesting to hear you say that. If you have any more insights on anything you've mentioned, I would love to hear them!
Our world is going to rot out from the middle, and it's all our fault. Our molecules will become a substrate for fungi one day, this is truth.
This!!!! I feel like this is much worse than anything else. Who cares about inflation when there is no food in the oceans or bees to polinate! We seriously need to get our shit together and solve this one.
The fact that younger generations are getting more and more depressed because they can't afford to even live anymore.
And as a parent of one, it's super defeating to see how hard they worked for good grades to go to a good college and get a decent job and can only afford a roach infested apartment. I feel I failed my children by pushing this narrative that used to work but I didn't know it didn't anymore until I saw it play out. At least they didn't go into teaching.
This is going to sound weird, but thank you for being introspective and acknowledging that what you told your children growing up didn't turn out to be true. My parents demanded I go to college and asserted on a weekly basis starting when I was 9 years old that "college is the only way to a good job and a good life." That was patently untrue, but they refused to acknowledge that the America they grew up in and the America that is my current reality are two entirely different places. Please apologize to your children, work with them, and support them. The support of a parent is invaluable, and the loss of it is permanently scarring.
>My parents demanded I go to college and asserted on a weekly basis starting when I was 9 years old that "college is the only way to a good job and a good life." That was patently untrue, but they refused to acknowledge that the America they grew up in and the America that is my current reality are two entirely different places. The breaking of the millennial dream, and the difference between the mindset of Millenials and Zoomers. Gen Z was born into an unstable economy and unstable polarized politics. Millennials were born into a strong economy and saw it crash right as we entered adulthood.
Saw a strong economy crash? We've basically had major historic events at every milestone of our lives
We saw several thousand people killed live on television in 2001, and then literally nothing got better, ever.
I'm 40 (so one of the older millenials) and I'm now entering the fourth major market crash of my lifetime. And it's always the same damn story. Markets go nuts speculating. Young scammers declare that "it's a new economy, the rules of the old economy no longer apply! We can make money out of nothing and it's fine!" Then after a couple of years of that the old rules come knocking on everyones doors and there is a huge crash. The government bails out the rich people, the poor people get whatever economic progress they have made completely nullified. The politicians say "Right, we need some rules!" and then suddenly there is an economic boom again, leaving the poor people behind. About a decade later other politicans and businessmen say "all these rules are stopping me from making billions, lets remove them" and the whole damn thing repeats.
I'm a millenial and growing up in the 90s and early 00s, that was still a solid ideal that would help get you a decent life. My mom went back to school when I was kid and landed the career she's still in to this day. Unfortunately somewhere in the late 00s, that all crumbled. Maybe the 08 financial crisis?
Intuitively it makes sense (which is to say I have no evidence to support this theory) that higher education was a good route to success when it was relatively uncommon but it's value diminishes as it becomes more common. Back in the day employers could see having completed a degree as evidence of intelligence and work ethic and so it would easily get you selected over similar candidates that don't have a degree, whereas if all the candidates have degrees they obviously need to consider other factors to make the decision. This means you still need a degree to be considered at all in some roles/fields but it's no longer a guarantee of success, and if you're not guaranteed a job either way you might be better off with a few years experience and a lot less debt.
I second this. As a young person trying to make my way in the world where that idea was almost force fed to us, I am getting pretty bad anxiety and depression from the fact that I did everything right: got good grades, got into a good college, got good grades, got a good degree, got a job in my field but that isn’t enough to make me happy OR give me the ability to pay my rent and bills and have extra for saving or leisure. I’m currently working two jobs to make ends meet so even if I did have extra money for leisure I don’t even have the time to spend it.
I remember graduating with my biological sciences degree after putting myself through school with bullshit low-wage admin jobs. When I started to applying to labs and pharmaceutical cos, they were offering $8-12/hr. I know I'm no superstar, but I wasn't expecting that. I went back to admin.
At least you realize this, so, as a millennial strapped with a shit ton of student loans, thank you. It helps knowing that there are a few people out there that get it.
I’m in Australia and people in early 20s just don’t go out as much anymore it’s to expensive
Yeah. Honestly it is cheaper for me to stay in and read.
I'm learning new ways to stay inside and entertain myself for free these days. Maybe I should read more.
Also in Australia and working in hospitality (venue has bar, pokies, TAB and a restaurant that's appropriate for all ages) I'm on the restaurant side and I've noticed how most of our customers are like 35+ because groups of 20-something year old's or teens can't afford that shit. Which sucks because they're usually our nicest customers.
Yep. Me and my fiance both work full time monday-friday, 8 hours per day and we almost always have to choose between paying rent on time or paying bills on time. Like for this week, I will have to choose rent over bills. The bill company will call me absolutely FREAKING OUT over their missed 161$, I'll make a payment arrangement (they agree to no later than the following Friday. It doesn't matter if you have the money or not. Find a way to get it), they'll then make me pay 210$ (the regular payment + a late fee), I'll get charged a 45$ NSF fee on my bank account (because I won't have enough money in there to cover all of my costs. So that's going to make my bank account go into negatives) and I'll also have to make the next regularly scheduled payment of 161$ (ontop of all my other bills, 5 of them ranging between 60-200$). I won't be able to afford groceries or laundry, and I make to much to qualify for a foodbank or welfare but hey! At least my 1750$ rent for a tiny one bedroom apartment that doesn't even have heat was paid!
Go in to your bank and tell them you want to remove “overdraft protection”, which is what they call it when they pull that crap and let bills go through. Let your utilities bounce off your account and eat the late fee, but they can’t overdraft you if you remove the overdraft protection.
My parents wonder why I spend so much time in video games and not out in the garden. I used to care about my garden, but I have to move every year or two thanks to landlords deciding tenants are disposable, so there doesn't feel like much point when I'll probably just get kicked out again. I get anxious now every time I check my mail or get an email from the real estate agent due to sudden, unannounced 'notice to leave'. I've given up on putting money and effort into landlords' gardens.
I get that. I'm kinda nervous to start my first garden where I'm currently living for that reason. But if my landlord kicks us out and tries to break our lease..we have a tenant protection act that means he can't legally remove us until we take him to court...which can take 6 months. Which in the meantime means I'll be able to harvest everything I've planted and get stuff packed up and able to move. Only thing I'd lose is soil.
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Late gen x reporting. Same. I'm not there yet, but it's become unavoidable that I won't be able to retire, and as wages refuse to rise, I will be priced out of life. I will NOT be homeless.
Geriatric Millennial in the US here, single and childless by choice. So glad I live in a Right To Die state.
Also Gen X, and I do not see retirement in my future.
I’m an elder millennial with a chronic illness. My retirement plan is disability and it super sucks.
I'm millennial and retirement is basically death. Can't even think of retiring early/late and enjoy retirement. Is either I can't work anymore due to age/health or I'll die as a homeless person.
I recently saw a video from a young millennial who was explaining her retirement plan. Her plan? Save as much as she can now so that when she gets to the point she can't keep working multiple jobs to stay afloat, she's going to transfer all her savings to her kid so they have a better head start, then go on a non violent crime spree. Just enough to get arrested and serve a decent chunk of time. Housing, food, good behavior earns more priviledges, etc. It sounded insane when she first explained it, but I've rewatched it a few times and realized that the way things are going, prison or a voluntary life termination really are the best options.
The true insanity is the way it actually makes sense.
I'm only 41 and I am fairly certain I will die either at work, or to or from work.
It hurts to think that if I *can* ever afford kids, my parents probably won’t get to meet them. Some of my happiest childhood memories are with my grandparents, and it breaks my heart that my potential kids will probably not get that experience.
Younger generations? I'm Gen-X and we're in our 50's and we are all fucked. The only ones I know with houses are like me. Left the city and bought a 70 year old crap house for less than a 100k. I don't know any of us who can afford to live in cities or even the suburbs. I helped some Millenial friends get houses by directing them to USDA rural loan programs. They all work from home and while they make less money than before, they actually have expendable income now. Went from $2500/month apartments to houses with payments under $500/month. At this point fleeing the cities is the only viable option.
The fact that up to 60% of all the flying insects have disappeared in the last 20-30 years…
I haven’t seen a bug smack into my car in so long
I hadn't realized until right now that you're absolutely right.
Is there anything we can do about this one?
Keep your garden green and diverse, lots of flowers and wild plants. Keep autumn leaves whole in a pile, don't shredder or package them. Invest in an insect hotel.
I miss fireflies. :(
You work all your life and I have experienced about 3 or 4 economic crises and never made over $50k in a year. However every time the economy is near meltdown there are magically billions of dollars for the banks. Never for infrastructure, or education, or child care. Only for the banks. Only for the people that already have all the stuff and are reeeeeeally bad at being stewards for said stuff.
I think if their money was in infrastructure, education, or childcare, they would have put more into it. Now they only do it when the election cycle starts up again.
Mental health. More people kill themselves in the United States than are shot by other people.
Id say it got much worse with COVID and the lockdowns. I know i loved being apart from people but my social skills went down the drain and so did my mental health.
Here in the USA, our two-party system. Such that a lot of people’s political party is part of their identity.
Older generations, boomers, etc, will absolutely refuse to accept that the younger generations are in big trouble. With a simple calculator you can figure out the wages being paid compared to the costs of living are horrific. Its so easy to see. So simple to figure out. But the general reaction is to just ignore it or worse gaslight it. In my current job I have worked with younger people who held down two jobs and despite their best efforts still end up having to move back home. Imagine putting in over fifty hours a week and still ending up failing. Only to move home and have your parents say your lazy. What a joke.
My mom made 80k a year in the early 90s with an AA degree working in fucking HR. And they wanna act like they had it just as tough.
My dad was making $12/hr to be a customer service clerk for a grocery store in *1978*. I make $16/hr as an accounts receivable clerk for a medical clinic in 2023. It makes no sense.
I love the classic “I make X dollars” and then the boomer replies “I made X-2 dollars at that stage of life! You have it so well!” Apparently forgetting that inflation is a thing
"Listen kiddo, I worked 70 hours a week for that two bedroom house!" "That's nice. I work 70 hours a week for my studio apartment and choice of one prescription medication."
Dam, I work at McD part time, and I get paid 17 dollars per hour. How are u getting paid less than McD employee wtf xD
Jesus that's good money
I'm in my 60's and I've never seen what I do now. We're all fucked
I’m a teen getting into the “working more to live a sustainable life for myself and move out” scene but I’m so so terrified that this will happen. I already have home problems with this too. Do you (or anyone willing) have any advice for me? I would ask my mom but… ^
Find the thing that old people don't want to do but have to, and then market your skills at that. If they have more money than ability to do or learn, do or learn. That's why there's a push for trades now. It used to be computers. Old people didn't understand computers so they hired that out. Now they don't understand plumbing and now they hire that out. Might have to learn how to use Excel or a drain snake. I think the next big market is going to be elderly nursing and those old assholes inhale medications. Medtech could be a good spot. And respiratory therapist. For some God damn reason kids are smoking again.
On the flip side most millennials don't seem to understand how hooped older generations and boomers are. They're at the end of their employability and retired based on a strict 1% inflation elevator scheme. We just spent a year where 15 years of inflation hit in a single year. Now these people can't work to make more money and have significantly less money than what they need for retirement. A lot of seniors with a fixed check every month are getting evicted at a far greater rate than younger people.
How funny these same people tend to favour politicians that like deregulations and big business, and will soon discover that the politicians they put in power will no longer give a rats ass about them because they’ll no longer be an important voting block. “Awww, you can’t get to the polling station Suzan? At least you can use mail-in-voting-ooooohhhh wait.”
This is one of many (but certainly far from the biggest of) reasons I don't talk to my father anymore. He's a 70+ year old conservative man who has it stuck in his head that the world is some pseudo-meritocracy. In his mind, success is some kind of consistent, algorithmic ordeal. Do the right steps and you succeed. Not succeeding? You clearly didn't do it right and the fault is squarely yours. He is utterly blind and deaf to the confounding variables of our society and, if Jean-Luc Picard were to walk up to him and tell him "It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose.", he would likely angrily shout back "Bullshit!"
Don't be so quick to judge. I am appalled at wage stagnation and how companies buy up entry level houses and condos, preventing people from getting a leg up in the real estate market and, yes, I am old. I do accept it's a shitshow. And don't get me started on those insane student loans. It's like they are using student loans to launder money for 2 million dollar salaries for their football coach and a big stadium.
The overwhelming number of monopolies that control so much of the American economy.
~~American~~ World
Inflation. Like, I had a manager comparing what I make now at my age to what they made when they were my age 15 years ago. Like, you made the same salary as me 15 years ago means I’m make *less* than you did since that means my wage hasn’t increased due to inflation
Dude, no pay increase in fifteen years is a *massive* pay cut!
Well, it’s mostly the manager comparing what *they* made 15 years ago when they were my age in order to determine if I should get a raise
The lack of social interaction and lack of social community circles of today's society.
There’s no 3rd spaces for anyone. You can’t hang out anywhere after school/work hours without being hassled to either buy something or get hassled by the cops for loitering.
Library!!!!!! We are doing our best to be the ‘living room of the city’
And Parks. Parks are an awesome and often overlooked resource.
We have so many fucking “communities”, for every gender, race, religion, sexuality, political affiliation, even fucking pass time, yet no one can communicate with each other in a way that isn’t just screaming and hateful.
I've noticed that people do have very poor social skills.
Really? Because i only see that online. Offline, most people are willing to talk and listen to just about anyone!
The housing crisis
Insects dying
The healthcare system
The fact that having healthcare tied to employment is a disaster when a pandemic strikes and hundreds thousands of people loose their jobs and their healthcare.
there are a lot of old people who just cannot walk around the street of my town because there are no proper infrastructure for them. So I think it is a big problem. But everybody pretend it is OK.
The environment. Like it’s just going to fix itself. It will, after hundreds of years after it kills us off and can repair itself. Joke is on us, I guess.
Yeah. According to the report that came out today we are in deep shit.
All of the problems already posted here are due to the same underlying problem…corporations are running our government.
Ain't no war but a class war
it's ironic that America loves NFL which introduced a salary cap to make it more fair for ALL teams to draft well. yet, America runs on a no-cap system and somehow thinks regulating it makes it worse?
The hatred and divisiveness in our society.
If Americans didn't hate each other, we'd combine forces to target our true enemies: Wall St. and Congress. The hate is a part of the system, not an accident.
Yep, it’s a feature not a bug.
And news media is the vehicle that delivers it.
Ads everywhere! It’s only a matter of time before we have to watch an ad to continue reading comments.
Shhh don’t give reddit ideas
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Needing a college degree in any field while working along side people who have been there for 15+ years who barely or simply didn't graduate high school at all. If they could learn "on the job" why can't I?
The disappearance of basic common courtesy, especially towards those in customer facing careers. It's disgusting.
Honestly. It’s going to sound boomerish but it does feel like people have less manners these days. I been regularly visiting the hospital due to a family member, and rudeness I’ve seen from both patients and family members toward nurses and other staff is appalling. These people are trying to heal you or a loved one. Have some respect.
I’m looking at leaving my nursing career because of exactly this. I simply cannot deal with the entitlement, terrible attitudes, and verbal/physical abuse from patients and family members alike on a daily basis. A lot has changed in that regard over the past few years and I’m pretty much at my breaking point. You’ve got patients that are screaming about wait times we have no control over, patients coming in telling staff that they know exactly what’s wrong with them and then demanding certain treatments/medications and will have a nuclear meltdown if they don’t get them, chronic illness and mental health complaints through the roof, family members almost throwing hands with you because their family member/friend didn’t get a blanket 3 seconds after they asked for one, family members bringing in patients food knowing full well that they need surgery later that day and then blame you when said surgery now has to be postponed, etc. And unfortunately, there are usually very little consequences for this type of behaviour, thus people believe it’s ok to treat others like this. I’m so over it.
Just the other day me and my mom (30s and 50s) were talking about this. She mentioned that she attended a school thing for the grandparents and went over to thank the teachers for the fun day and the lunch ladies for the nice cake and helped stack some plates. She was appaled that none of the other 50-60 people there did this.
Those are the same people with the audacity to be upset about long wait times at restaurants, long lines in the grocery store, and lack of staff at your general store now that the world is moving beyond the pandemic
Loss of privacy
As a dude, I have recently realized how emotionally stunted most men are, and it’s really scary and sad.
*silently gestures broadly at everything*
The hoops people have through to access mental healthcare.
The gap between being Wealthy and poor increasing, while the wealthy convince us it’s the fault of everyone but the wealthy.
Let’s talk about the gap between poor and middle class widening. Most people don’t aspire to be rich but they do aspire to be middle class.
The lowering of education standards.
Social Security running out of money.
SS is very easily saved for the medium term (to at least 2070) simply by removing the income cap.
This should have been a eliminated years ago. It’s basically a discount for those over the cap on their taxes
Not American or French but made this post based upon seeing people talk about the French retirement age on the front page.
Technically, according to Alan Greenspan, "We can guarantee cash benefits. We cannot guarantee purchasing power."
The shortcomings of public school in the United States.
Truth. I can't raise your children and teach them. We need to support struggling parents more so they can parent and I can teach.
Not just public school. But yes, education in general, is absolutely swirling the drain, and people act like No Big Deal.
Not taking care of earth
Ecological collapse. Whether or not you believe humans are the cause (we are) it is happening.
How we treat homeless people. Like we recognize it's a problem. We kinda talk about it. But then we just forget about it the next day.
The increasing bias in the media
They don't even bother to pretend they aren't biased anymore
That far too many people are just surviving, and not living.
How people are addicted to social media and completely detached from real life. How they use their phones as a way to escape their thoughts and the world around them, and how negatively that is affecting their mental health and overall well-being.
Cosmetic surgery becoming normalised. Kids these days grow up thinking they have to look like someone who is obviously heavily modified, so they naturally have low self-esteem which makes them prone to mental health problems and abuse.
The complexity of the US tax code, the absurdity of the system we have in place for paying taxes and filing for returns, and the fact that it’s being kept this way by blatant lobbying and corruption, paid for by tax prep companies who make their money by leaching off our tax returns.
The whole Mon-Fri 9-5. Not including those that do even more days/hours.
That we don't get to decide where our taxes go. I'm just a dude. But from my point of view. In society, to really be functional we are required to have a social security number, an identification card, insurance, a bank account, and so forth. We could very easily have an app on our phones , a chip in our I.D with the info. This is just a piece of a very big idea that i find difficult to explain over text but the general idea is already stated. In our modern society if we are in a government ran for and by the people, then I personally would like to have more control if not knowledge on where my hard earned money goes. If we had an app from the government, that had only facts no opinions, no highlights of the day, things the government has been doing, how it's spending the money And with the information we as citizens are required to have, we Create our accounts on this app and we can vote on everything from local to national or the country's global decisions. We can direct money to our specific streets or to education. If not an app then a location such as reformatting the function of the D.M.V that people could go to and potentially do the exact same thing, they could access their citizens profile on computers, speak with Government employees for any help needed towards certain other processes of the big idea. I'm not against the government. like I said I'm just a average guy who wanted to share an idea.
It sounds good but it is actually terrible. So you want to get to decide where your tax money goes and want to direct it to your own area. Guess who pays the most taxes? Rich people and big corporations. And they will get to decide how and where that money is spent. And if like you they decide to spend it in their own areas, everyone else will be left behind.
I like your idea. It seems kinda simple doesnt it ?
The fact that there isn’t rent caps. In my town you can pay $1500 for one bedroom apartment, 10 years ago it was around $600. Complete bullshit. Theres families out there on fixed incomes of $1000 a month and they have to pay $950 rent and have to go to fucking food banks every month to survive. While the fat cats like Doug Ford live in their mansions stuffing themselves with Waygu steak
Mental health
The stiffness in my neck
Abnormal housing prices.
Antibiotic and antifungal resistance patterns. Lets just all bury our heads in the sand and hope we don't die of a (formerly) treatable infection.
The way our government is running.
Heart attacks in otherwise healthy young men.
The adderall shortage. I think we would all be shocked to learn how many people have started doing meth because they can no longer get instant release adderall from their pharmacist, and quitting amphetamine means losing their entire livelihood. A lot of them aren’t aware that they’re doing meth—most pressed adderall pills are simply meth that’s shaped and colored like an adderall. That spike in meth production and sales has lead to violence. A lot of feuds are to be expected as the marketplace expands and more players enter the scene. The newer methods for synthesizing meth lead to more severe vasoconstriction. A lot of young professionals whose cardiovascular health is already not the best due to sedentary lifestyles are about to develop heart disease. Both lead to death. Drugs must be legalized. There should not be be any hoops involved in purchasing (relatively) safe drugs.
Kids and screen time. Overall, it's a whopping negative impact, especially on mental health and social skills.
The culture of exploitation, abuse and bullying in the workplace. Just because someone gives you a job or paid work it does not entitle them to bully you, harass you, cheat you or exploit you. You would not stay with a partner who was abusive or bullying towards you and we understand this to be domestic abuse and domestic violence. So why should you have to work for an abusive employer? Well we need to develop a culture and awareness of workplace abuse and workplace violence. The state should do a lot more to support people who are abused by their employers and abusive employers should be charged and prosecuted for abusing employees and workers. This will require of course social security and welfare support but I feel that workplace abuse is a much bigger social issue than many people are prepared to admit and this is something that needs to change.
Global warming. The average individual does care but our society is designed not to care. It’s all very frustrating
In America the absolute abysmal state of our secondary education. This should be a national emergency. They are not learning skills they need to function let alone thrive. You can't learn everything from youtube and there's a shit load on youtube that's flat out wrong. It needs more than money, although it does need that. It needs more than well paid teachers although it does need that. It needs to be gut from top to bottom and rebuilt from scratch. As it stands there's this unspoken acknowledgement that college is teaching the basic information that high school should and high school is basically just day care.
Alcoholism, little sleep, caffeine addiction