It feels all but certain that I won’t be able to enjoy a prosperous life or get to retire. All of the wealth is going straight to the top. All of the opportunities to move up in the world are being rug-pulled. All of the federal agencies that help keep us safe and healthy are gone. The social safety net is getting flushed down the toilet. We will live in disease and squalor, and the most vulnerable of us will die.
Because I dared to not be a sociopath, I and anyone else who voted for sanity will be deemed enemies of the state and hunted down - which won’t be hard, because it would be trivial to build the most robust surveillance state in human history if it doesn’t exist already.
I myself have disabilities (which I don’t think qualify for benefits) that make it hard, but not impossible, to find a job. The problem is that I just can’t bring myself to do it because I don’t get what the fucking point is anymore. I have to work so hard to get out of this rut just for some fascist fuck to kill me or toss me into a torture facility before I can even experience life on my own.
Have you been in a similar headspace and were able to escape it? If so, what snapped you out of it?
Have you been in a similar headspace and were able to escape it? If so, what snapped you out of it?
Presently and no.
Leave the country
You need to have a moderately high income to move anywhere with a good safety net. Moving somewhere without a safety net does not sound like a good idea for someone with disabilities like OP.
Not to mention most places are down the same pipeline. Looking at you Germany, Netherlands, Italy and Slovakia, amongst others
It’s not easy. What I found helpful is if you can separate work and personal life. Only work for money unless you start your own business.
Separating the two allows you not to care if the business does poorly, it allows you to not feel guilty when your boss fails or the business does poorly, or needs extra help but you have a date that night.
I was laid off in September from a company, started a new company on Monday, they announced layoffs on Tuesday, and found out Wednesday my job is safe. Suffice to say, companies don’t care about you so get in, cash out.
Capitalist Wage-Labor is a scam. Surplus value comes from labor. Labor is a commodity just like anything else on the market, but the price of labor itself is tied to general subsistence plus replacement, it isn’t tied to how much value is created. Differences in wages come from various factors but regulate around cost to replace, ie training requires a lot of time, so this is represented by higher wages.
Instead, we should be advocating for public ownership, so that the people get the spoils of their labor, and can pay into a general fund of sorts to provide safety nets, infrastructure, and more that don’t rely on the profit motive.
I recommend you read theory. I wrote an introductory reading list for Marxism if that appeals to you or anyone else.
I get the sense from your wording that you might be in the younger end of the spectrum. Although the world can feel pretty shitty and messed up, it’s often worth remembering “this too shall pass”. Obviously no one wants the world to be awful, and living through hard times isn’t desirable, but just like the good stuff never lasts, the bad stuff changes too. The Great Depression lasted a decade, the Nazis ran Germany for just a bit longer.
Those were presumably fucking dreadful times to live through. But the decades that followed were comparatively prosperous for the countries. What’s happening in the US is depressing as all hell, but it’ll change, and all you can do is the best you can to make it less dreadful, for yourself and the people around you.
The difference this time, is that it doesn’t recover. Maybe bursts of recovery in specific places but on the whole, for the world, there is no recovery. Just subsiding into desolation.
I am literally sitting in the truck after having basically quit my job. I feel this post in my bones and I’m 30.
Sorry OP, wish I could give you some advice other than try to save some money and get a gun. Either to end the life of those who would do you harm, or for yourself when things become truly unbearable. Hard times are coming for all of us and they will last until we die, how bad things get is partially up to us. Do we just let them steamroll over us? I should hope not.
It’s really not that bad lol. America is still the richest country. I’m in the best financial and health spot I’ve ever been in.
I work to have money for shelter and food and, just as importantly, some spending money for hobbies and travel. The freedom to be able to drive basically anywhere any time is a great thing to have.
The inequalities today are large but also the standard of living for even the lower class is probably higher than any other time in history. You can go your entire life without holding a shovel or hammer or piece of firewood, now imagine instead having to build your own house, grow your own food, and cut firewood to stay warm. Things aren’t so bad.
For a while there I was a homeless alcoholic. Now I’m an alcoholic. Given the choice between the two I know which I’d rather.
“toss me into a torture facility”
What? Step away from the internet for a while.
I feel the same. I found a way to leave the country. Will be leaving in the new year. I have kids and I can’t have them growing up here anymore. Time to try something new.
If I want things, I need money and the only way to get money without practically committing any financial crime that there is, it’s to work for it. Quite frankly, it’s unhealthy to be bathing yourself with this mentality of dreading the reality of the matter. I won’t disagree that it sucks, but there has to be other directions out there for you than just that.
But I do suspect the reason you’re feeling this way is because of you mentioning disabilities and I can’t imagine the kind of world you’re in where, it seems like there’s a layer of disrespect towards the disabled when it comes to work.
You have fallen down a rabbit hole and lost your mind to bad ideology. What you need to do is get your mind right but it’s not a quick or easy process.
TL; DR Get in on the scam.
Pick something you like to do, or have a talent for, and plan a path to make money from it. You may still have to work for someone else initially, to develop skills and get experience, but it will be better than doing a shit job only for money.
Research what resources there are to support your startup. Even in places where there is no help from government or anything else for individuals, you will find they want to support business.
Especially if you have extra challenges, if you get good, they will make a narrative around your success and promote you as an example.
Log out of social media, go outside, interact with real people. Life is not remotely as bad as all that, it just seems that way because social media has told you to be scared. Humans are extremely adaptable, we will overcome whatever the problems are.
Frankly, in my experience the social media has been unreasonably optimistic
Most of the struggles and worries come from real-life expriences
Meanwhile real people: oh you are disabled? Fuck off, and die alone!
Like, are you describing heaven or something?
Like, are you describing heaven or something?
No, just sane parts of the world.
This needs to be an auto comment on every post in Lemmy.
Humans are extremely adaptable, we will overcome whatever the problems are.
Many die so others get to live. I am sure the dead ones are happy for you🤡
You don’t. That’s what the homeless people are for.
But, it’s not impossible to move up. When oil crashed in March 2020, several companies’ stock, which you can purchase on Robin Hood or any app-based exchange, were down to pennies. Those shares are now trading for $15-$25 dollars, so even if you bought a small amount, you made a tidy profit. It’s how I paid off my student loans.
Trump, in his largesse and incompetence, is likely to inadvertently cause a market crash somewhere in the next four years, so I’d encourage you to save at least a few bucks if you can from each check against the possibility of being able to buy stock super-cheap in the wake of a crash. If you have the patience to hold your stock for a year or two, it’s rewarding.
Gambling is your solution?
They didn’t bring a solution, just their own experience, and even that is probably a story.
I feel you, but you need to remember that the world is generally a pretty chaotic place and predicting the future when complex systems pass tipping points and transition to new equilibria (as they are at the moment) is pretty difficult.
Invest in yourself, your ability to cope with new and unfamiliar things, and build resilience. Resilience being the ability to bounce forward when you hit rocky patches. Don’t expect to bounce back and end up where you left off, but learn to adjust to the chaos where you need to.
Develop your capabilities until you have a sense of being a competent, worthwhile and dependable person outside of the circus going on around us. Someone that isn’t quite so dependent on the big bad system we are often forced to be part of.
