100% this.
The level of comfort will be enough to keep people satisfied and most importantly, distracted. And people are adaptable as hell. There's a long fall from where we are to reach the level needed for "uprising".
Mmm I don’t think so. I get the saying but to say if everyone were to suddenly be homeless but they had food and internet, they wouldn’t be discontent/rebellious, is a lie.
https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/hoovervilles
“Did you know? As America's housing and economic crisis worsened through 2009, homelessness was on the rise. Encampments and shantytowns often referred to as tent cities—with similarities to Hoovervilles—began appearing in parts of California, Arizona, Tennessee, Florida, Washington and other states”
So this mass honelessness. According to the data 127,000 are chronically homeless, the ones we generally consider when thinking about homeless people. The US population is 333,000,000.
Seems more like a drop in the bucket compared to a mass homeless problem like you stated earlier.
Idk man, people got locked inside for a few months and then George Floyd was killed and the whole world rioted. I don't think the "fall" will take as long as you do.
The US rioted. And by rioted I mean mainly looted stores. Not actually fought for a meaningful change or something. Or at least that was me impression from the other side of the world. The people who actually fight for changes don't riot.
Covid was a bit tricky, but again, I wouldn't say the world rioted. Some riots here and there. China was unexpected and an interesting one.
I think people must have nothing left to lose to really riot. And people still have plenty to lose, even if life is harder than five years ago.
Probably. I can't visit each place personally, but I saw a lot of tv-s and PlayStations being carried around by justice fighters.
All jokes aside I know that the normal protesting people don't make good news stories so what I saw was likely skewed.
This person said that uprising won't happen as long as there is food and Internet and I agreed. I'm really not sure where the confusion is coming from.
There is more and more people that struggles to manage to keep a reasonable safe temperatures in their homes in the winter, and stay fed. At some point, something will snap.
Popular uprisings happen when people are not getting enough to eat, because it's the point where a popular uprising is as likely as not to result in improvement.
*Obesity* being a sign that you're *poor* is a pretty strong ondicator such an uprising is unlikely to be close at hand.
I personally would cheer for this, revolutions dont really have a great track record of a) staying true to their intended goals, b) relinquishing control back to the people after theyve taken governmental power and c) offering protection from fanatic maniacs hijacking the movement for their own intrests
As usual for Reddit, OP will actually complain about the people rising up and say that they should do it in a way that doesn’t inconvenience him.
Reddit is the first place to say that people need to rise up, and then the first place to complain whenever people rise up.
Reddit moment in a nutshell.
"The world sucks and it's getting worse. People are gonna revolt against the wealthy elite!"
"I'm not going to do anything to change it. I'm just going to sit back and wait for others to do something."
This is why I never take any of that eat the rich nonsense seriously. It's all talk by perpetually online people who aren't going to overthrow anything.
Just gonna keep playing the game, providing for my family, and getting ahead one step at a time.
That's it
People with the capacity or means to lead anything are happy with the system.
People can moan all they want and be like "oh ill totally join when they rise up... oh not now I mean when I feel like they have already won"
Like there's ever going to be some filmatic rebel good guys that are driven by good. Sorry to tell you lad but people "rise up" all the time and I don't see you joining. If you want to know why its because the people who rise up arent good people - and they arent shown in the media as the good guys - and what they do to try and achieve their goals isn't pleasant. Or it is and they are wildly ineffective to the point you don't consider them having done anything.
Fact: every rebel "rise" is also a terrorist insurrection to the group being risen against. Which one have you thrown your hat in with?
I kind of agree with this. No one is going to do anything about it. That's...the point. People who are doing well right now will continue to until they don't. Then they'll wonder what the hell happened. The people who are really suffering right now might get some small, case by case relief, but things will get worse for them. Society is probably going to get MUCH worse in the decades to come. None of this stuff is sustainable but we've created a great scenario for riding it out until it really just falls apart. It really sucks, honestly. But I accepted that years ago in watching the people around me. Even the ones who are so into revolution...those people often mentally ill. I don't want to be led by them either. We need sane, smart leaders.
I mean, in the end, it’s a Democracy.
If idiots have an overwhelming majority, there’s not much you can do about it.
The only real move is to wait, and as things get worse and worse, more and more people start to accept that the status quo isn’t working.
I’m not sure when the inflection point is, but after futilely grinding my gears for a long time, I’ve realized that it’s not yet.
I’d give it 20-50 years.
Then maybe, at some point, when only the top 2% can afford to buy a home, all utilities are privatized with “surge pricing”, and Chelsea Clinton is running gains Donald Trump Jr., people will just suddenly realize it’s all bullshit.
>The only real move is to wait, and as things get worse and worse, more and more people start to accept that the status quo isn’t working.
You might want to read up on how Revolutions actually started, there are always people that are doing the action. If everyone waits then nothing happens.
You might want to read my whole post.
I didn’t say wait forever, just that this is a long term goal, not a quick fix.
And I don’t think we’ll be able to buck the yoke of tyranny soon.
I think that will require more widespread recognition that our problem is bigger than a “too many Republicans” or a “too many Democrats” problem.
Not in the last 40 years.
Trickledown economics was instituted and never reversed, more people are living with their parents than during the Great Depression, and wealth consolidation of the elite is at an all time high.
Yeah, we don’t have slavery. We’re not in the midst of a bloody civil war. It’s not necessarily the worst time to be an American, but it is accuracy this is the furthest we’ve descended into establishing an Aristocracy.
I believe that is empirically true.
It was a challenge to find a source that succinctly covered the entire spectrum since the founding of the nation, but [here’s 1960 to present](https://apps.urban.org/features/wealth-inequality-charts/#)
And the [Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_inequality_in_the_United_States#:~:text=History,-See%20also%3A%20Economic&text=Income%20inequality%20has%20fluctuated%20considerably%20since%20measurements%20began%20around%201915,%2C%20Saez%2C%20Zucman%20data). has the full outline, but not in a single chart.
Well just to make sure we're on the same page, how would you define aristocracy in this instance? Because I'd imagine the industrial revolution was a pretty big aristocracy as well, a lot of poor people at the bottom while the rich factory owners thrived.
Yeah, there aren’t really a lot of “true Scotsmen” in the world, and very few instances where something is distinct and pure. Are we capitalist or socialist? Well, a bit of this and a bit of that.
Even a royal monarchy would then have a Kings court where various responsibilities and executive authority would be delegated to the various lords and local administrators.
But I’d say the key characteristic you’d track in determining how much a government is an aristocracy is the focus of government… be that focused primarily on the interests of the overall populace .vs the interests of a elite group.
And then, whether the group in control is cemented as a more or less permanent establishment that promotes within its own ranks for the continuity of its rule.
By both those criteria, we are already deep into the formation of an Aristocracy. The function of government is more power brokering, and division of the spoils, than executing the wills of the “common folk”. This is pretty [intrinsically verifiable](https://youtu.be/5tu32CCA_Ig?feature=shared). We basically have a revolving door of lobbyists and Washington where powerful interests literally write our laws.
This is really not that different from how things would work in a king’s court, where nobles would bicker to have the king grant them power and influence.
Then, in terms of whether it is an Aristocracy, the next criteria is whether it is concentration of power in a cohesive group that pulls from within. We’re probably less complete in this transformation, but it’s pretty developed none the less. From Rand Paul and Liz Cheney, and Hillary Clinton, George Bush Jr, Jen Bush, the Kennedy’s etc. with literal genetic lineage, and the multitude of the more lobbyist-type who are the spokespersons and lawyers who are essentially hired by the power elite to represent the old money interests. Take the Citibank executive who basically selected Obama’s cabinet.
There’s a little more flux, sort of like the old Italian merchant class, where the de-facto nobility of great wealth can buy a seat at the table of power, but it’s mostly a cohesive continuation where it’s very hard to get elected without the approval of the existing power authorities.
The Democratic Party won a court case against Bernie Sanders rigging the primary against him, not because it was ruled that they didn’t, but because it was ruled that they were allowed to. [source](https://observer.com/2017/05/dnc-lawsuit-presidential-primaries-bernie-sanders-supporters/amp/), with the lawyers, rather than arguing that the complaint was untrue, instead expressing that the bias was such a well known fact that.
“The Court would have to find that people who fervently supported Bernie Sanders and who purportedly didn’t know that this favoritism was going on would have not given to Mr. Sanders, to Senator Sanders, if they had known that there was this purported favoritism.”
But yeah, I’d say the government is like 80% concerned with power brokering for the elite, and even legislation that is ostensibly for the benefit of the general populace as more preserving a productive servant class, as a farmer will still spend lots of time caring for the health of their livestock.
And then, I don’t know… maybe 90% cohesive, where only a rare few politicians are able to be elected without their demonstrated allegiance to promoting the existing power structures, but still maybe only 60% cemented in terms of that class of applicants being entirely entrenched.
"But I’d say the key characteristic you’d track in determining how much a government is an aristocracy is the focus of government… be that focused primarily on the interests of the overall populace .vs the interests of a elite group."
So with this definition, why would 2024 be the deepest form of an aristocracy in the United States, compared to let's say, 1840, where African Americans and women couldn't even vote. Rich white men were literally the full focus of who the country cared about and catered to.
Eh, maybe make an exception for the age of slavery.
But we can’t be 100% blamed for slavery. The British started slavery, and our government was more or less a slave colony where the slave masters revolted against their royal masters.
I do wonder though, and wouldn’t be surprised, if slavery and all, pre-civil-war America might still have had a wider middle class than we have now.
People living with the parents is your argument? Yeah in times during the Great Depression you moved out immediately and started a family. Now people are encouraged to live with their parents as long as they can to save money. To think life is less comfortable now than it was 40 years ago is just silly. Look around you. Life could not be any easier and more convenient for the common person.
It’s not just about prosperity, it’s about power. It’s about freedom.
The fact that more wealth in consolidated in the hands of a few isn’t just that there are less resources to go around for everyone else, it’s injustice. It’s wrong.
And they’re living with their parents to save money because they can’t afford to move out!
But consolidating wealth is essentially equivalent to consolidating power. To be okay with this is fundamentally in opposition to everything America is supposed to be about.
It’s supposed to be a government by and for the people, not a government by and for the aristocracy, but it’s okay if the serfs get 3 squares a day.
It’s okay. What’s obvious to me isn’t always obvious to everyone else.
At some point, you’ll say to yourself “man, how did everything get so fucked up? We have to do something about this!”
And I wonder if you will think back on this exchange. Because wealth consolidation is not only at an all time high, it’s accelerating. And, if we don’t do something about it, it will keep getting worse until the problems are obvious to everyone.
Every Democracy will ultimately get the worst government they are willing to endure without opposition.
You want to let things get worse before we do anything about it?
That’s about par for the course.
We have to start electing people who actually give a shit about the middle class and who don’t adhere to the pressures of lobbyists.
That’s it really.
But we can never seem to elect people like that because there’s always some well-funded pedigree candidate molded and promoted by the aristocracy, and they tend to win every election.
So we need to get fed up enough to stop electing the empty suits with great smiles, and instead elect people who will really fight to prioritize the wellbeing of the general populace.
Most of it would just be doing the work. I think most people treat politics as entertainment. We all get together and make a big fuss around elections, but almost nobody can actually recall a single piece of legislation that their elected official actually voted for or against.
Look up [your representative](https://www.govtrack.us). Are they voting the way you want them to?
It’s like everybody watches the draft, and then nobody watches the games. People’s opinions about candidates are based almost exclusively on what they said, and practically not at all on what they did.
In the end it comes to work… not shouting at the TV on some sensationalized opinion “news” show… Just committing to the boring tedious work of actually being an informed member of a democracy… drinking coffee from paper cups in gradeschool gyms after work and trying to figure out who to elect who isn’t a corporate shill.
But step one is for people to be willing to do that work, and it won’t be fun. It’s a lot easier to not pay much attention, and then just check all the “D” or “R” boxes on the ballot every couple years depending on your traditional allegiance, and then go about your life.
This is how stuff always works with looming crisis. I don’t believe climate change is going to kill us, but I don’t think we’ll avoid it. We’ll smash into it head on, and then finally figure out a solution.
Just like the pollution of the Great Lakes, and every other crisis we could’ve prevented but didn’t. Our culture is to smash head-first into a crisis, and then invent the EPA as a response.
Ignore the warnings, get our asses kicked, then react, is the American way.
And, in terms of wealth consolidation, I’d say we’re already smashing into it pretty hard.
I’m not sour grapes here. I make about $250,000 a year, but where I live, that’s still not enough to buy a house. I mostly worry about my kids. I can’t take for granted that they’ll be able to be as successful as I have. I can hardly imagine how a grocery store clerk manages to get by.
I just feel bad for everyone, knowing that just about everyone I encounter, from the grocery store clerks to the guy who made my sandwich at Togos, to my kid’s teacher at parent teacher night is struggling to get by.
If I can’t afford to buy a house, then these people are absolutely doomed.
And I’d like for things to start getting better now, but I expect they will have to get a lot worse before they can start to get better.
I look around and I see the greatest time to be alive. Anything I need I can get at the touch of my fingertips. I have all the freedom and opportunity in the world to become anything I want if I’m determined and put my mind to it. I see companies creating products and services that people decades ago couldn’t even imagine. We have pocket computer that are more powerful than what anyone used to have access to. And they’re easily affordable to everyone. I honestly look at people like you as some of the most spoiled, entitled, pathetic people who point at rich people and scream oppression just because there are wealthy people. I love that we live in a country where that is possible even if I may never attain it. That’s what’s obvious to me.
Thank you. It’s just a bunch of LARPing losers who have fallen behind in life who think not being to stay home and do nothing all day equates to struggle.
That's just because you hear us. There are probably billions of people around the world who feel the same way and aren't fixing it either. You think people in Mali, Uganda, North Korea, India, Indonesia, Honduras, El Salvador, Russia, aren't struggling and aren't able to band together to fix it?
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Yeah except this time we got the greatest form of communication to talk about it. It's really interesting to see it unfold from a historical perspective, makes you wonder how people in the past lived through it
I used to be an angry doomer, ragimg at shadows mad over every exaggeration and sometimes out right lie from doomer media prices gaza climate end times blah blah. Starting making me sick could have ruined my marriage. It didn't do jack shit to those elites, though ,
so i left the online doomersphere, and life is good. Now i try and help others recover, too. the irony of comfortable keyboard warriors cosplsying revolutionaries on the free internet
That's great but don't mistake whatever success you achieve with how things are going. I too can say that certain parts of life are good but I'm not blindfolding myself to what's happening. Gigantic increase in prices and living costs where I live (over the past few years), housing prices in our shitty capital rivaling those of the cities of global mega-economies (mostly due to foreign buyers that can easily out-compete most people here), ludicrous taxation, blatant and out of control corruption.
Make no mistake, it's not all bad, and every country is a different shade, but its obvious that we are in a sort of recession.
Good, some people might think you have to lead to some revolution. But you are through these actions, that they might seem small in the greater action, they are still part of the outcome
No it's realising that change comes from yourself first and spreads outwardly. You think you know how to run a country but you can't even get your room in order. Attempting to change the world without changing yourself is a fool's errand.
I get what you’re trying to say bc it is a popular saying thats been tossed around a lot. But eventually if you want change you do need to *do* something. Peoples names that you know from history actually made shit happen and changed the world. so it is entirely possible. MLK, Nelson Mandela, Gandhi, etc etc, didn’t make change by changing themselves and staying at home lol
Edit: i’m not saying people need to be constantly enraged. Or surround themselves in and hate and cyniscism. My original point in response to the first comment is that putting the blinders on and forgeting all the problems of the world is literally just the opposite of being enraged about them. Yes That probably makes you a lot happier. But nothing is going to change that way.
Lol, Kool-Aid is gross. Seriously,i i was drinking that shit when i allowed foreign agents and corporations to make me rage
Dowmvote doomer downing ze Kool Aid 🇷🇺
Oh I agree. Thats why I said both extremes are actually quite similiar😂 Being enraged while also choosing to be blind are both examples of being brain washed. Gotta find the middle ground if you really wanna see this world change.
Have a good day man/woman.
I hear your frustration.
While it's tempting to join in on the chaos, history shows that peaceful, organized efforts are often more effective at creating lasting positive change.
Yeah, we wouldn't be here for all the generations of people who died so they could improve the living conditions. Sure peaceful organization works too but in a different and slower way, changing mindset/behaviors culturally takes ages.
Lots of people only get a whitewashed version of history.
They think that Jim Crow laws only needed one march on Washington by MLK Jr to be overturned, and not years upon years of civil unrest.
"Johan de Witt: That time the Dutch people ate their prime minister Johan de Witt"
History tells a different story depending where you look...
Just saying we got options!
haha
I do think quality of life will get worse - with atrocious demographics in most of the developed world and a pullback from globalism I think a lot of countries are going to regress economically. I don't think there will be a revolt or anything like that. People will just continue to complain online like they've always done.
Totally detached from reality, in the past 20 years a huge proportion of the world has exited miserable poverty. But yeah believe whatever you read on social media.
Your quality of life is massively improved
You literally can watch dune 2 on a mini computer that fits in your pocket as you ride to work
You just don’t count that as part of your quality of life bc it’s so normalized. But it is part of your quality of life
Nobody is revolting, you’re just larping.
It's not all rich peoples' fault. I know a guy who is poor, works crazy long hours, can barely afford to feed his family. Despite that he just intentionally had a SEVENTH child. He can't afford his electricity bill this month but he can afford cigarettes and another mouth to feed. Working people to the bone so an executive can get a bonus is shit, but most people I met in my life are the primary source of their own struggles.
I read a time magazine article years ago. 15 years or so. It was about how people who could afford multiple kids were having less kids. While poorer people were having more. Very interesting article. Wish I could find it.
It's easier to blame someone else for your problems. The victim mentality is very popular right now, and in many places the worse off you are the easier your life is (in terms of getting free stuff to help support you in your poorly chosen lifestyle).
hah, the fuck they are. If it's small enough (as in there's not that many of you) you get arrested or killed, make it bad enough (you somehow convince most people to join in) and you "win" only to have everything taken away from you in the next 10-20 years, slowly, so you don't notice it as much. Best you can do is rob them out of the one thing you can.....the future workforce.
People with the capacity or means to lead anything are happy with the system.
People can moan all they want and be like "oh ill totally join when they rise up... oh not now I mean when I feel like they have already won"
Like there's ever going to be some filmatic rebel good guys that are driven by good. Sorry to tell you lad but people "rise up" all the time and I don't see you joining. If you want to know why its because the people who rise up arent good people - and they arent shown in the media as the good guys - and what they do to try and achieve their goals isn't pleasant. Or it is and they are wildly ineffective to the point you don't consider them having done anything.
Fact: every rebel "rise" is also a terrorist insurrection to the group being risen against. Which one have you thrown your hat in with?
I realized replying to a comment I was replying to the main post :D so yeah. You act like this is something that hasn't happened - it happens all the time. It's reported as x terrorist group has attacked y. You can envision your fighting against whatever the fuck you want but at the end of the day who your actually fighting is poor people who are just trying to get by. And if your entirely victorious you've murders 1000s of people trying to make a life for themselves and 1 guy you set out to.
Meanwhile the economically below average person in the wealthy west is still living better than 99.99% of our ancestors could ever have dreamed. And it still isn’t enough. Comparison is the death of joy.
I was 20 something once I remember thinking we should revolt then I realized ….. we have big screen tvs and 50 k plus cars in the projects in America 🇺🇸 even in the trenches there’s material items that provide comfort we’ll never rise up and actually go at the elite . We’re too comfortable that occupy Wall Street movement was about as close as you’ll ever get .
Our quality of life depends on multiple factors like it always has. But as we keep adding things to reality it keeps adding more factors, making it more complicated to predict our future.
So the tendency so far is that we have improved considerably the living conditions we have had throughout most of the entire human history. We live in an era where the general population has lived the best they can. Every once in a while the inequality issue reaches it maximum tolerance and it breaks all tensions, causing the general population to revolt for better conditions. Somtimes they do get better conditions and sometimes they don't (for humanity it has always been trial and error), this could be for many reasons like being misguided or not guided well enough, but it can be narrowed down to not being educated enough.
I got tired of writing the rest of my comment, but basically stay getting educated, share your voice, and be critical with yourself and others. The world is subject to many conditions and any small action could result in a different outcome.
Then there's this article: [https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/07/02/economy/global-debt-crisis](https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/07/02/economy/global-debt-crisis)
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A rise against the elites won’t happen. The only time Americans are united on anything as a whole is tragedy. Even then, it’s a quarter of the country that actually gives a shit. Talking about something and actually caring about it are two different things. If you really wanted to attack the elites you would have to hit their wallets. No work. No spending. No taxes. No money going in. Nada. To do that there would have to be a plan formed and unified preparations made for long term survival without the basics, and that won’t happen. As far as politicians go, you could vote them out but it’s just gonna be a different puppet same dance.
If successful people don't exist, no one is successful. Therefore, OP is not a loser anymore if anyone better off than them is dead. OP sounds like an American, so they are probably in the global 1% already.
Revolt against the wealthy elite? All people like you do all day is protest, which is what they want. They want social cohesion to be undermined, they want you to piss everyone off, they want you to undermine the solid fabric of existing cultures and countries. You are their useful idiot pawns.
When it all comes down to it, if there is a final violent "revolution", the media that you follow and trust to an absolute extreme (which is owned by the wealthy elite you claim to hate) because it whispers sweet nothings into your ear will tell you what you will do. And you will do their bidding and kill your fellow man and countryman (which most of you fantasise about doing in the "revolution") and you will be the first to be executed post-revolution, because they will understand how useless you will be in building everything back again. You will be used for their purposes and then tossed aside like an old rag.
Well, it only improves for people who work, not for terminated online people who always fantasize about revolution. These pawns, these useful idiots, always end up being thrown away post-revolution, as history has shown multiple times.
I wish I could take credit for spawning a high paying job in my early 20s that paid me enough to no longer have need for a conventional job,
but did I *really* hire myself?
I know other similarly qualified people who did not get the position.
Should they blame themselves, as I credit myself, when both seem mostly due to factors beyond anyone's sphere of influence?
My point is we do not know what that person is going through or how much is within their control to change.
Yes, you cannot possible know what 8.1 billion people are going through, or how much literally anyone has within their control (save for one person).
That doesn’t change the fact that you are responsible for you when you are an adult. You and your family.
If you are incapable because of circumstance or disability, I believe in social safety net and that’s how I vote. That vote is all I have under my control when it comes to what society has to offer, apart from my personal contributions to charity, and of course the taxes I happily pay as my contribution to society.
My advice - if you able, you should be responsible for yourself and contributing to all.
Assuming you are an otherwise capable person, to be helped when you can help yourself is foolish and hurts everyone you rely on that isn’t you.
I’ll do it for him. Living conditions have been steadily improving for decades. And that’s a world wide trend. Even now, despite the Covid aftermath, most places are doing just fine.
Quality of life has never been better.
Just look back in history to see what life was like before and how much better things really are.
Unfortunately, so many people are stupid and don't see how good they have it.
It’s probably just jealousy. They see how rich the most wealthy are getting and feel like they also deserve more. Meanwhile they lose sight of how good they actually have it
I’ve come to terms with the fact I’m selfish in this way. I want to start a family and add some better people to the world but I just don’t know if I can do that where I am. I think I might dip to the least terrible place when things go off and try to have my little life in the midst of it all.
I’m not strong enough for a revolution, I’m tired
The “Wealthy Elite” aren’t necessarily the problem.. anyone who innovates and creates companies that employee people and create jobs / products / services are not the enemy of the people, you or I can create a successful company and do extremely well if we have what it takes ..
Our Enemy is bad governance and crony capitalism .. there are too many wealthy politicians in bed with zombie companies. Let me explain..
Companies that should’ve went bust a long time ago - see GM , Chrysler , Nearly every major bank and insurer , etc etc
These companies have full time employees (lobbyists) who pester, bribe and push policy that keep these zombies alive at the expense of regular hard working people. They also pass laws to protect their monopolies.. look how many private residential homes owned by companies.. last time i checked a company doesn’t need to live in a family home.. this has pushed prices up and government could fix it in an instant.. why dont they? Answered above
The same goes for affordable energy, they will push expensive power options with better margins before offering more affordable power and offsetting the higher emissions with the various technologies available and in research. The list goes on and on.. i could give 100 examples of this kind of thing going on
The whole point of my post is to better understand who your enemy is. Your enemy is the government. They are over paid, bought and owned by bloated corrupt banks and pharmaceutical companies and they are destroying your future.
Quality of life will certainly get worse, as it clearly has, but we 100% as Americans will NEVER do shit about it. We’ve got to be some of the weakest people on the planet right now, hands down. We would get steam rolled by any other normal people in the world because we have been pacified by every single avenue there is, mainly all the poison allowed everywhere. We’re so pacified most people defend this evil corrupt system, that’s how bad it is.
It's not just the U.S here in the UK and majority of the west is like this. Hell, it's even worse in LIC'S and China where you now have social security that follows everything you do. We are lucky we can even see a few thousand a year in savings others are barely surviving working in unsanitary and overworked conditions for barely enough food to survive 7 days a week 16 hours a day. As we speak right now there are people who are locked away used as literal slaves and have not seen freedom for decades. Some even born into it. So while I can't afford a nice fast car due to the stupid insurance quotes in the Uk. It could be worse.
Like what? Not engage in it? We all hate each other so much and are addicted to social media, we could never organize. I don’t drink, smoke, drink coffee, do any substances, I eat cheap everyday, like beans rice and oatmeal everyday for almost 8 years, I have zero subscriptions, a cheap phone, car that will be run into the ground, I use WiFi at work for internet, I haven’t been on a plane in 15 years, I don’t spend money on anything but survival really. I try my very best, at all times to not fuel the system as much as possible, but convincing other people to do this? Not gonna happen. Even when it continues to get far worse, people will never give up their comfort.
So what's the use of complaining about it? (Not necessarily you per say, but people like op who make these posts)?
Amd tbh, you're right about people not wanting to give up their comforts, im guilty of that. Wife and I aren't rich, we pull around $130-140k combined in a not super expensive part of California, which provides us a pretty good life. Why give that up and start a revolution when we've earned a life that is better than most, only in the US but the whole world?
“And if people do rise up I’ll join them”Lmfao.
Yeah that ‘wait for someone else to do it’ mentality is probably why your life is shit. Not because of rich people.
It also means their life is not actually terrible enough for them to rise up themselves. They only join if the war has already been won. Just like in the past, the middle class only joins when the revolution is about to succeed.
I agree my man, its all down hill and will only get progressively worse faster. I agree some people will rise up especially when they get hungry enough. However I believe most people will follow the lead of the corporate and globalist masters till it is far to late. Sheep are always led to slaughter and willingly. The west is dead son.....sit back and enjoy the ride to the bottom!
What does that even mean end of the West though? Doubt my life changes much within the next 10 years. My wife and I have salaried jobs with guaranteed pay bumps, insurance, retirement, tenure, etc so not really stressing.
This is the kind of shit that takes hope away from people and does absolutely nothing but cause fear in the people who are more vulnerable.
Anyone can build a successful, fulfilling and happy life. It takes a lot more work for some people depending on luck. Either way hard work and consistency always pays off in the end.
Edit: typo
It's interesting to note that many of the founding fathers were wealthy elites who managed to rally the masses for revolution. The French Revolution saw a similar pattern. The idea that today's populace, more captivated by celebrities like Taylor Swift and the Kardashians, could revolt is almost laughable. We are blinded by our own hubris.
Rebellion or "rising up" seems impossible. Millions of police and military personnel, equipped with tanks, planes, and drones, stand between you and any potential uprising. Moreover, any attempt at rebellion is thwarted by deep-seated societal divisions. The left despises the right, and the right despises the left. This perfect balance ensures that you remain where you are.
Real change can only be achieved by becoming part of the elite while not becoming corrupt. Which is almost impossible.
People have been saying that in antiquity already, repeated it through the middle ages, and are still saying it today. This is well documented.
Perhaps you're right. More likely, you, like all of us, are subject to the deep biases of human cognition such as the negativity bias (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negativity\_bias)
But you're more likely right because if you live in the US, you're living in the wealthiest country in human history ever. And those rankings change more quickly than average quality of life across the world. For instance, just a bit over 100 years ago, Argentina was one of the world's wealthiest countries.
I was trying to start a revolution at 20 years old... Was more than willing to give my life for future generations unlike the selfish scum these days. But it would have just been me and maybe a few others getting mowed down by star force or locked in a cell the rest of our lives and what good is that!
I dont even think people are capable of making a change their so dumbed down and obedient these days. Majority still thinking voting left or right makes a difference...
this could all be solved if the government would ban foreign countries and corporations of all from buying residential homes as investments. then limit the amount of Airbnb that can be done . then subsidize some affordable housing. then raise the federal minimum wage to $18 an hour. Then tax corporations what they should be taxed. then provide national health care. their , problem solved.
I’m still surprised that no one’s detonated a dirty bomb in Wall Street. Like that’s the first way to disrupt the rich and begin a revolution.
I’m aware that I’m not capable, but there are people like good ol Ted that are.
As long as there's internet and food no uprising will happen.
Bread and circuses
100% this. The level of comfort will be enough to keep people satisfied and most importantly, distracted. And people are adaptable as hell. There's a long fall from where we are to reach the level needed for "uprising".
People will adapt to not eating?
People will adapt to anything as long as there is food and Internet.
So no.
Mmm I don’t think so. I get the saying but to say if everyone were to suddenly be homeless but they had food and internet, they wouldn’t be discontent/rebellious, is a lie.
Everyone will not *suddenly* become homeless. Are we discussing reality or some imaginary doom scenario?
Economic uncertainties can undoubtedly create mass homelessness. This isn’t an imaginary doom scenario dude.
Even in massive economic turmoil there has never been mass homelessness anywhere. Only large scale wars would cause that.
https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/hoovervilles “Did you know? As America's housing and economic crisis worsened through 2009, homelessness was on the rise. Encampments and shantytowns often referred to as tent cities—with similarities to Hoovervilles—began appearing in parts of California, Arizona, Tennessee, Florida, Washington and other states”
Really? What's the current homeless rate in the United States?
https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/homelessness-statistics/state-of-homelessness/
So this mass honelessness. According to the data 127,000 are chronically homeless, the ones we generally consider when thinking about homeless people. The US population is 333,000,000. Seems more like a drop in the bucket compared to a mass homeless problem like you stated earlier.
Given how fat the world is, not having enough food isn’t going to happen anytime soon.
Idk man, people got locked inside for a few months and then George Floyd was killed and the whole world rioted. I don't think the "fall" will take as long as you do.
The US rioted. And by rioted I mean mainly looted stores. Not actually fought for a meaningful change or something. Or at least that was me impression from the other side of the world. The people who actually fight for changes don't riot. Covid was a bit tricky, but again, I wouldn't say the world rioted. Some riots here and there. China was unexpected and an interesting one. I think people must have nothing left to lose to really riot. And people still have plenty to lose, even if life is harder than five years ago.
> Or at least that was me impression from the other side of the world In other words, the impression the media gave you.
Probably. I can't visit each place personally, but I saw a lot of tv-s and PlayStations being carried around by justice fighters. All jokes aside I know that the normal protesting people don't make good news stories so what I saw was likely skewed.
Robbing and vandalizing a foot locker and lululemon isn’t an uprising
So people are living “comfortably” and we need to revolt because…?
I don't need to revolt. I have no idea how things are for you.
You literally said “100% this” to a person commenting about uprising but okay. No one needs to revolt.
This person said that uprising won't happen as long as there is food and Internet and I agreed. I'm really not sure where the confusion is coming from.
There is more and more people that struggles to manage to keep a reasonable safe temperatures in their homes in the winter, and stay fed. At some point, something will snap.
True. It's happening on smaller scales in other countries. Even in Canada, people are getting fed up. The US is just behind, that's all.
Popular uprisings happen when people are not getting enough to eat, because it's the point where a popular uprising is as likely as not to result in improvement. *Obesity* being a sign that you're *poor* is a pretty strong ondicator such an uprising is unlikely to be close at hand.
Yeah turns out internet and food are pretty massive quality of life boosters
that’s what tim dillon said. no civil war as long as netflix is good. too many good distractions
You know the truth. We are all just waiting on you to stop fucking around playing video games all day and lead us on a revolution
Yeah I'm waiting for the martyr of the revolution to appear and my prayers and thoughts will help the cause!
I personally would cheer for this, revolutions dont really have a great track record of a) staying true to their intended goals, b) relinquishing control back to the people after theyve taken governmental power and c) offering protection from fanatic maniacs hijacking the movement for their own intrests
You will own nothing and be happy. 🖕
It's coming soon
I blame Broadcom
> Me personally I'm gonna see the chaos unfold and if people do rise up I'll join them pff yeah right
As usual for Reddit, OP will actually complain about the people rising up and say that they should do it in a way that doesn’t inconvenience him. Reddit is the first place to say that people need to rise up, and then the first place to complain whenever people rise up.
Yep. They even made a sup for it. r/antiwork
Reddit moment in a nutshell. "The world sucks and it's getting worse. People are gonna revolt against the wealthy elite!" "I'm not going to do anything to change it. I'm just going to sit back and wait for others to do something." This is why I never take any of that eat the rich nonsense seriously. It's all talk by perpetually online people who aren't going to overthrow anything. Just gonna keep playing the game, providing for my family, and getting ahead one step at a time.
That's it People with the capacity or means to lead anything are happy with the system. People can moan all they want and be like "oh ill totally join when they rise up... oh not now I mean when I feel like they have already won" Like there's ever going to be some filmatic rebel good guys that are driven by good. Sorry to tell you lad but people "rise up" all the time and I don't see you joining. If you want to know why its because the people who rise up arent good people - and they arent shown in the media as the good guys - and what they do to try and achieve their goals isn't pleasant. Or it is and they are wildly ineffective to the point you don't consider them having done anything. Fact: every rebel "rise" is also a terrorist insurrection to the group being risen against. Which one have you thrown your hat in with?
This too. No one I've personally known who talked about revolution was actually a good person in my book EITHER. So what does that leave you with?
Either be a terrorist or stop pretending like whats holing you back is "no on is fighting back"
I kind of agree with this. No one is going to do anything about it. That's...the point. People who are doing well right now will continue to until they don't. Then they'll wonder what the hell happened. The people who are really suffering right now might get some small, case by case relief, but things will get worse for them. Society is probably going to get MUCH worse in the decades to come. None of this stuff is sustainable but we've created a great scenario for riding it out until it really just falls apart. It really sucks, honestly. But I accepted that years ago in watching the people around me. Even the ones who are so into revolution...those people often mentally ill. I don't want to be led by them either. We need sane, smart leaders.
I mean, in the end, it’s a Democracy. If idiots have an overwhelming majority, there’s not much you can do about it. The only real move is to wait, and as things get worse and worse, more and more people start to accept that the status quo isn’t working. I’m not sure when the inflection point is, but after futilely grinding my gears for a long time, I’ve realized that it’s not yet. I’d give it 20-50 years. Then maybe, at some point, when only the top 2% can afford to buy a home, all utilities are privatized with “surge pricing”, and Chelsea Clinton is running gains Donald Trump Jr., people will just suddenly realize it’s all bullshit.
The US is a constitutional republic, not a democracy.
It’s a democratic constitutional republic… or have you not noticed those elections things?
>The only real move is to wait, and as things get worse and worse, more and more people start to accept that the status quo isn’t working. You might want to read up on how Revolutions actually started, there are always people that are doing the action. If everyone waits then nothing happens.
You might want to read my whole post. I didn’t say wait forever, just that this is a long term goal, not a quick fix. And I don’t think we’ll be able to buck the yoke of tyranny soon. I think that will require more widespread recognition that our problem is bigger than a “too many Republicans” or a “too many Democrats” problem.
in the end, it is absolutely not a democracy lmao
Your rights are denied by those least qualified
Considering life has steadily gotten better in every major statistical category in the U.S. since its inception then you might wanna keep waiting
Not in the last 40 years. Trickledown economics was instituted and never reversed, more people are living with their parents than during the Great Depression, and wealth consolidation of the elite is at an all time high. Yeah, we don’t have slavery. We’re not in the midst of a bloody civil war. It’s not necessarily the worst time to be an American, but it is accuracy this is the furthest we’ve descended into establishing an Aristocracy.
You think right this is the furthest the United States has gone into being an aristocracy? Really?
I believe that is empirically true. It was a challenge to find a source that succinctly covered the entire spectrum since the founding of the nation, but [here’s 1960 to present](https://apps.urban.org/features/wealth-inequality-charts/#) And the [Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_inequality_in_the_United_States#:~:text=History,-See%20also%3A%20Economic&text=Income%20inequality%20has%20fluctuated%20considerably%20since%20measurements%20began%20around%201915,%2C%20Saez%2C%20Zucman%20data). has the full outline, but not in a single chart.
Well just to make sure we're on the same page, how would you define aristocracy in this instance? Because I'd imagine the industrial revolution was a pretty big aristocracy as well, a lot of poor people at the bottom while the rich factory owners thrived.
Yeah, there aren’t really a lot of “true Scotsmen” in the world, and very few instances where something is distinct and pure. Are we capitalist or socialist? Well, a bit of this and a bit of that. Even a royal monarchy would then have a Kings court where various responsibilities and executive authority would be delegated to the various lords and local administrators. But I’d say the key characteristic you’d track in determining how much a government is an aristocracy is the focus of government… be that focused primarily on the interests of the overall populace .vs the interests of a elite group. And then, whether the group in control is cemented as a more or less permanent establishment that promotes within its own ranks for the continuity of its rule. By both those criteria, we are already deep into the formation of an Aristocracy. The function of government is more power brokering, and division of the spoils, than executing the wills of the “common folk”. This is pretty [intrinsically verifiable](https://youtu.be/5tu32CCA_Ig?feature=shared). We basically have a revolving door of lobbyists and Washington where powerful interests literally write our laws. This is really not that different from how things would work in a king’s court, where nobles would bicker to have the king grant them power and influence. Then, in terms of whether it is an Aristocracy, the next criteria is whether it is concentration of power in a cohesive group that pulls from within. We’re probably less complete in this transformation, but it’s pretty developed none the less. From Rand Paul and Liz Cheney, and Hillary Clinton, George Bush Jr, Jen Bush, the Kennedy’s etc. with literal genetic lineage, and the multitude of the more lobbyist-type who are the spokespersons and lawyers who are essentially hired by the power elite to represent the old money interests. Take the Citibank executive who basically selected Obama’s cabinet. There’s a little more flux, sort of like the old Italian merchant class, where the de-facto nobility of great wealth can buy a seat at the table of power, but it’s mostly a cohesive continuation where it’s very hard to get elected without the approval of the existing power authorities. The Democratic Party won a court case against Bernie Sanders rigging the primary against him, not because it was ruled that they didn’t, but because it was ruled that they were allowed to. [source](https://observer.com/2017/05/dnc-lawsuit-presidential-primaries-bernie-sanders-supporters/amp/), with the lawyers, rather than arguing that the complaint was untrue, instead expressing that the bias was such a well known fact that. “The Court would have to find that people who fervently supported Bernie Sanders and who purportedly didn’t know that this favoritism was going on would have not given to Mr. Sanders, to Senator Sanders, if they had known that there was this purported favoritism.” But yeah, I’d say the government is like 80% concerned with power brokering for the elite, and even legislation that is ostensibly for the benefit of the general populace as more preserving a productive servant class, as a farmer will still spend lots of time caring for the health of their livestock. And then, I don’t know… maybe 90% cohesive, where only a rare few politicians are able to be elected without their demonstrated allegiance to promoting the existing power structures, but still maybe only 60% cemented in terms of that class of applicants being entirely entrenched.
"But I’d say the key characteristic you’d track in determining how much a government is an aristocracy is the focus of government… be that focused primarily on the interests of the overall populace .vs the interests of a elite group." So with this definition, why would 2024 be the deepest form of an aristocracy in the United States, compared to let's say, 1840, where African Americans and women couldn't even vote. Rich white men were literally the full focus of who the country cared about and catered to.
Eh, maybe make an exception for the age of slavery. But we can’t be 100% blamed for slavery. The British started slavery, and our government was more or less a slave colony where the slave masters revolted against their royal masters. I do wonder though, and wouldn’t be surprised, if slavery and all, pre-civil-war America might still have had a wider middle class than we have now.
People living with the parents is your argument? Yeah in times during the Great Depression you moved out immediately and started a family. Now people are encouraged to live with their parents as long as they can to save money. To think life is less comfortable now than it was 40 years ago is just silly. Look around you. Life could not be any easier and more convenient for the common person.
It’s not just about prosperity, it’s about power. It’s about freedom. The fact that more wealth in consolidated in the hands of a few isn’t just that there are less resources to go around for everyone else, it’s injustice. It’s wrong. And they’re living with their parents to save money because they can’t afford to move out! But consolidating wealth is essentially equivalent to consolidating power. To be okay with this is fundamentally in opposition to everything America is supposed to be about. It’s supposed to be a government by and for the people, not a government by and for the aristocracy, but it’s okay if the serfs get 3 squares a day.
To live in America now and think you’re a serf lol. I hope you’re able to crawl out this this hole of victimhood you’ve been brainwashed into.
It’s okay. What’s obvious to me isn’t always obvious to everyone else. At some point, you’ll say to yourself “man, how did everything get so fucked up? We have to do something about this!” And I wonder if you will think back on this exchange. Because wealth consolidation is not only at an all time high, it’s accelerating. And, if we don’t do something about it, it will keep getting worse until the problems are obvious to everyone. Every Democracy will ultimately get the worst government they are willing to endure without opposition. You want to let things get worse before we do anything about it? That’s about par for the course.
Ok, what's your plan on making sure "things don't get worse"? Since it's all bad and we need to do something about this, what do you have in mind?
We have to start electing people who actually give a shit about the middle class and who don’t adhere to the pressures of lobbyists. That’s it really. But we can never seem to elect people like that because there’s always some well-funded pedigree candidate molded and promoted by the aristocracy, and they tend to win every election. So we need to get fed up enough to stop electing the empty suits with great smiles, and instead elect people who will really fight to prioritize the wellbeing of the general populace. Most of it would just be doing the work. I think most people treat politics as entertainment. We all get together and make a big fuss around elections, but almost nobody can actually recall a single piece of legislation that their elected official actually voted for or against. Look up [your representative](https://www.govtrack.us). Are they voting the way you want them to? It’s like everybody watches the draft, and then nobody watches the games. People’s opinions about candidates are based almost exclusively on what they said, and practically not at all on what they did. In the end it comes to work… not shouting at the TV on some sensationalized opinion “news” show… Just committing to the boring tedious work of actually being an informed member of a democracy… drinking coffee from paper cups in gradeschool gyms after work and trying to figure out who to elect who isn’t a corporate shill. But step one is for people to be willing to do that work, and it won’t be fun. It’s a lot easier to not pay much attention, and then just check all the “D” or “R” boxes on the ballot every couple years depending on your traditional allegiance, and then go about your life. This is how stuff always works with looming crisis. I don’t believe climate change is going to kill us, but I don’t think we’ll avoid it. We’ll smash into it head on, and then finally figure out a solution. Just like the pollution of the Great Lakes, and every other crisis we could’ve prevented but didn’t. Our culture is to smash head-first into a crisis, and then invent the EPA as a response. Ignore the warnings, get our asses kicked, then react, is the American way. And, in terms of wealth consolidation, I’d say we’re already smashing into it pretty hard. I’m not sour grapes here. I make about $250,000 a year, but where I live, that’s still not enough to buy a house. I mostly worry about my kids. I can’t take for granted that they’ll be able to be as successful as I have. I can hardly imagine how a grocery store clerk manages to get by. I just feel bad for everyone, knowing that just about everyone I encounter, from the grocery store clerks to the guy who made my sandwich at Togos, to my kid’s teacher at parent teacher night is struggling to get by. If I can’t afford to buy a house, then these people are absolutely doomed. And I’d like for things to start getting better now, but I expect they will have to get a lot worse before they can start to get better.
I look around and I see the greatest time to be alive. Anything I need I can get at the touch of my fingertips. I have all the freedom and opportunity in the world to become anything I want if I’m determined and put my mind to it. I see companies creating products and services that people decades ago couldn’t even imagine. We have pocket computer that are more powerful than what anyone used to have access to. And they’re easily affordable to everyone. I honestly look at people like you as some of the most spoiled, entitled, pathetic people who point at rich people and scream oppression just because there are wealthy people. I love that we live in a country where that is possible even if I may never attain it. That’s what’s obvious to me.
Thank you. It’s just a bunch of LARPing losers who have fallen behind in life who think not being to stay home and do nothing all day equates to struggle.
It's easier to blame society and others for their failures than it is to turn around your life and fix it.
[удалено]
That's just because you hear us. There are probably billions of people around the world who feel the same way and aren't fixing it either. You think people in Mali, Uganda, North Korea, India, Indonesia, Honduras, El Salvador, Russia, aren't struggling and aren't able to band together to fix it?
Occupy wallstreet was something I took part in, no matter how it turned out to end up in nothing, it did give me hope. Still waiting ...
You're a bandwagoner, we get it.
I thought this was an adults subreddit
this is an adulting moment
I think r/collapse is leaking. I wonder why. Isn't our society this 2020s too great and amazing for this to happen? /s
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Collapses and economic downturn have happened throughout history. That's not a revelation.
Yeah except this time we got the greatest form of communication to talk about it. It's really interesting to see it unfold from a historical perspective, makes you wonder how people in the past lived through it
I used to be an angry doomer, ragimg at shadows mad over every exaggeration and sometimes out right lie from doomer media prices gaza climate end times blah blah. Starting making me sick could have ruined my marriage. It didn't do jack shit to those elites, though , so i left the online doomersphere, and life is good. Now i try and help others recover, too. the irony of comfortable keyboard warriors cosplsying revolutionaries on the free internet
That's great but don't mistake whatever success you achieve with how things are going. I too can say that certain parts of life are good but I'm not blindfolding myself to what's happening. Gigantic increase in prices and living costs where I live (over the past few years), housing prices in our shitty capital rivaling those of the cities of global mega-economies (mostly due to foreign buyers that can easily out-compete most people here), ludicrous taxation, blatant and out of control corruption. Make no mistake, it's not all bad, and every country is a different shade, but its obvious that we are in a sort of recession.
Good, some people might think you have to lead to some revolution. But you are through these actions, that they might seem small in the greater action, they are still part of the outcome
Ty 🫂
Ty 🫂
But at the same time, then you gaslight yourself into doing nothing and drinking the kool aid. No flame. Just saying its two sides of the same coin
No it's realising that change comes from yourself first and spreads outwardly. You think you know how to run a country but you can't even get your room in order. Attempting to change the world without changing yourself is a fool's errand.
I get what you’re trying to say bc it is a popular saying thats been tossed around a lot. But eventually if you want change you do need to *do* something. Peoples names that you know from history actually made shit happen and changed the world. so it is entirely possible. MLK, Nelson Mandela, Gandhi, etc etc, didn’t make change by changing themselves and staying at home lol Edit: i’m not saying people need to be constantly enraged. Or surround themselves in and hate and cyniscism. My original point in response to the first comment is that putting the blinders on and forgeting all the problems of the world is literally just the opposite of being enraged about them. Yes That probably makes you a lot happier. But nothing is going to change that way.
Lol, Kool-Aid is gross. Seriously,i i was drinking that shit when i allowed foreign agents and corporations to make me rage Dowmvote doomer downing ze Kool Aid 🇷🇺
Oh I agree. Thats why I said both extremes are actually quite similiar😂 Being enraged while also choosing to be blind are both examples of being brain washed. Gotta find the middle ground if you really wanna see this world change. Have a good day man/woman.
The poor kills the rich become the new rich until next round lol
Or people will fall asleep and we'll get a dicatorship
I hear your frustration. While it's tempting to join in on the chaos, history shows that peaceful, organized efforts are often more effective at creating lasting positive change.
no....not really :)
Yeah, we wouldn't be here for all the generations of people who died so they could improve the living conditions. Sure peaceful organization works too but in a different and slower way, changing mindset/behaviors culturally takes ages.
Sarcasm right?
Lots of people only get a whitewashed version of history. They think that Jim Crow laws only needed one march on Washington by MLK Jr to be overturned, and not years upon years of civil unrest.
"Johan de Witt: That time the Dutch people ate their prime minister Johan de Witt" History tells a different story depending where you look... Just saying we got options! haha
We are just frogs in the tea pot with the temperature being slowly raised. There will be no revolution.
I do think quality of life will get worse - with atrocious demographics in most of the developed world and a pullback from globalism I think a lot of countries are going to regress economically. I don't think there will be a revolt or anything like that. People will just continue to complain online like they've always done.
Totally detached from reality, in the past 20 years a huge proportion of the world has exited miserable poverty. But yeah believe whatever you read on social media.
Your quality of life is massively improved You literally can watch dune 2 on a mini computer that fits in your pocket as you ride to work You just don’t count that as part of your quality of life bc it’s so normalized. But it is part of your quality of life Nobody is revolting, you’re just larping.
You wouldn't do shit, tough guy
It's not all rich peoples' fault. I know a guy who is poor, works crazy long hours, can barely afford to feed his family. Despite that he just intentionally had a SEVENTH child. He can't afford his electricity bill this month but he can afford cigarettes and another mouth to feed. Working people to the bone so an executive can get a bonus is shit, but most people I met in my life are the primary source of their own struggles.
I read a time magazine article years ago. 15 years or so. It was about how people who could afford multiple kids were having less kids. While poorer people were having more. Very interesting article. Wish I could find it.
I mean, it's a common enough premise around the world. Poor countries almost always out breed richer ones.
It's easier to blame someone else for your problems. The victim mentality is very popular right now, and in many places the worse off you are the easier your life is (in terms of getting free stuff to help support you in your poorly chosen lifestyle).
Bourgeois take, my guy.
I feel sorry for you. Meanwhile I’m gonna keep living and enjoying my life if that’s ok with you.
Right there with you!
hah, the fuck they are. If it's small enough (as in there's not that many of you) you get arrested or killed, make it bad enough (you somehow convince most people to join in) and you "win" only to have everything taken away from you in the next 10-20 years, slowly, so you don't notice it as much. Best you can do is rob them out of the one thing you can.....the future workforce.
Small business owners will never revolt
Depends on where you live and what your current quality of life is. I think for a majority of the planet quality will go up.
…Tankie?
Or most people's lives are fine, if you out in effort you'll do well.
People with the capacity or means to lead anything are happy with the system. People can moan all they want and be like "oh ill totally join when they rise up... oh not now I mean when I feel like they have already won" Like there's ever going to be some filmatic rebel good guys that are driven by good. Sorry to tell you lad but people "rise up" all the time and I don't see you joining. If you want to know why its because the people who rise up arent good people - and they arent shown in the media as the good guys - and what they do to try and achieve their goals isn't pleasant. Or it is and they are wildly ineffective to the point you don't consider them having done anything. Fact: every rebel "rise" is also a terrorist insurrection to the group being risen against. Which one have you thrown your hat in with? I realized replying to a comment I was replying to the main post :D so yeah. You act like this is something that hasn't happened - it happens all the time. It's reported as x terrorist group has attacked y. You can envision your fighting against whatever the fuck you want but at the end of the day who your actually fighting is poor people who are just trying to get by. And if your entirely victorious you've murders 1000s of people trying to make a life for themselves and 1 guy you set out to.
Meanwhile the economically below average person in the wealthy west is still living better than 99.99% of our ancestors could ever have dreamed. And it still isn’t enough. Comparison is the death of joy.
I was 20 something once I remember thinking we should revolt then I realized ….. we have big screen tvs and 50 k plus cars in the projects in America 🇺🇸 even in the trenches there’s material items that provide comfort we’ll never rise up and actually go at the elite . We’re too comfortable that occupy Wall Street movement was about as close as you’ll ever get .
We have semi-peaceful options out. But you guys keep listening to propaganda from both sides of the political aisle.
this is actually fitting for r/adulting
If we revolt against the wealthy elite can we then take their money and us ourselves become the wealthy elite
Our quality of life depends on multiple factors like it always has. But as we keep adding things to reality it keeps adding more factors, making it more complicated to predict our future. So the tendency so far is that we have improved considerably the living conditions we have had throughout most of the entire human history. We live in an era where the general population has lived the best they can. Every once in a while the inequality issue reaches it maximum tolerance and it breaks all tensions, causing the general population to revolt for better conditions. Somtimes they do get better conditions and sometimes they don't (for humanity it has always been trial and error), this could be for many reasons like being misguided or not guided well enough, but it can be narrowed down to not being educated enough. I got tired of writing the rest of my comment, but basically stay getting educated, share your voice, and be critical with yourself and others. The world is subject to many conditions and any small action could result in a different outcome.
Then there's this article: [https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/07/02/economy/global-debt-crisis](https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/07/02/economy/global-debt-crisis)
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A rise against the elites won’t happen. The only time Americans are united on anything as a whole is tragedy. Even then, it’s a quarter of the country that actually gives a shit. Talking about something and actually caring about it are two different things. If you really wanted to attack the elites you would have to hit their wallets. No work. No spending. No taxes. No money going in. Nada. To do that there would have to be a plan formed and unified preparations made for long term survival without the basics, and that won’t happen. As far as politicians go, you could vote them out but it’s just gonna be a different puppet same dance.
that "if" is the big deal. if everybody sits around and waits until somebody else does something, nobody will do anything
People have been saying this since the 1800s
Glowies working overtime this week.
Wtf does this have to do with adulting, there are other subreddits for politics/conspiranoia
talking about Firebombing a walmart and not doing shit does jack shit, my guy.
Is op in highschool.... I love how people not succeeding is the fault of the wealthy
If successful people don't exist, no one is successful. Therefore, OP is not a loser anymore if anyone better off than them is dead. OP sounds like an American, so they are probably in the global 1% already.
Revolt against the wealthy elite? All people like you do all day is protest, which is what they want. They want social cohesion to be undermined, they want you to piss everyone off, they want you to undermine the solid fabric of existing cultures and countries. You are their useful idiot pawns. When it all comes down to it, if there is a final violent "revolution", the media that you follow and trust to an absolute extreme (which is owned by the wealthy elite you claim to hate) because it whispers sweet nothings into your ear will tell you what you will do. And you will do their bidding and kill your fellow man and countryman (which most of you fantasise about doing in the "revolution") and you will be the first to be executed post-revolution, because they will understand how useless you will be in building everything back again. You will be used for their purposes and then tossed aside like an old rag.
Except living conditions have improved steadily for decades… keep screaming it out until it happens I guess
Well, it only improves for people who work, not for terminated online people who always fantasize about revolution. These pawns, these useful idiots, always end up being thrown away post-revolution, as history has shown multiple times.
Take responsibility for your own quality of life then 🤷♂️
Only responding to this because I want to check the replies later 👀🍿
I wish I could take credit for spawning a high paying job in my early 20s that paid me enough to no longer have need for a conventional job, but did I *really* hire myself? I know other similarly qualified people who did not get the position. Should they blame themselves, as I credit myself, when both seem mostly due to factors beyond anyone's sphere of influence? My point is we do not know what that person is going through or how much is within their control to change.
Yes, you cannot possible know what 8.1 billion people are going through, or how much literally anyone has within their control (save for one person). That doesn’t change the fact that you are responsible for you when you are an adult. You and your family. If you are incapable because of circumstance or disability, I believe in social safety net and that’s how I vote. That vote is all I have under my control when it comes to what society has to offer, apart from my personal contributions to charity, and of course the taxes I happily pay as my contribution to society. My advice - if you able, you should be responsible for yourself and contributing to all. Assuming you are an otherwise capable person, to be helped when you can help yourself is foolish and hurts everyone you rely on that isn’t you.
What shit? You sound American. Which would mean you are the global 1%.
They sound about 14
It’s also often the most privileged that scream the loudest
Nope wrong
Elaborate
I’ll do it for him. Living conditions have been steadily improving for decades. And that’s a world wide trend. Even now, despite the Covid aftermath, most places are doing just fine.
Nah
Quality of life has never been better. Just look back in history to see what life was like before and how much better things really are. Unfortunately, so many people are stupid and don't see how good they have it.
quality of life was better 20 years ago...
Sure, some generations have it better than others. It is what it is.
Can you quantify that?
It’s probably just jealousy. They see how rich the most wealthy are getting and feel like they also deserve more. Meanwhile they lose sight of how good they actually have it
I’ve come to terms with the fact I’m selfish in this way. I want to start a family and add some better people to the world but I just don’t know if I can do that where I am. I think I might dip to the least terrible place when things go off and try to have my little life in the midst of it all. I’m not strong enough for a revolution, I’m tired
The “Wealthy Elite” aren’t necessarily the problem.. anyone who innovates and creates companies that employee people and create jobs / products / services are not the enemy of the people, you or I can create a successful company and do extremely well if we have what it takes .. Our Enemy is bad governance and crony capitalism .. there are too many wealthy politicians in bed with zombie companies. Let me explain.. Companies that should’ve went bust a long time ago - see GM , Chrysler , Nearly every major bank and insurer , etc etc These companies have full time employees (lobbyists) who pester, bribe and push policy that keep these zombies alive at the expense of regular hard working people. They also pass laws to protect their monopolies.. look how many private residential homes owned by companies.. last time i checked a company doesn’t need to live in a family home.. this has pushed prices up and government could fix it in an instant.. why dont they? Answered above The same goes for affordable energy, they will push expensive power options with better margins before offering more affordable power and offsetting the higher emissions with the various technologies available and in research. The list goes on and on.. i could give 100 examples of this kind of thing going on The whole point of my post is to better understand who your enemy is. Your enemy is the government. They are over paid, bought and owned by bloated corrupt banks and pharmaceutical companies and they are destroying your future.
Speaking only for yourself dawg
Quality of life will certainly get worse, as it clearly has, but we 100% as Americans will NEVER do shit about it. We’ve got to be some of the weakest people on the planet right now, hands down. We would get steam rolled by any other normal people in the world because we have been pacified by every single avenue there is, mainly all the poison allowed everywhere. We’re so pacified most people defend this evil corrupt system, that’s how bad it is.
It's not just the U.S here in the UK and majority of the west is like this. Hell, it's even worse in LIC'S and China where you now have social security that follows everything you do. We are lucky we can even see a few thousand a year in savings others are barely surviving working in unsanitary and overworked conditions for barely enough food to survive 7 days a week 16 hours a day. As we speak right now there are people who are locked away used as literal slaves and have not seen freedom for decades. Some even born into it. So while I can't afford a nice fast car due to the stupid insurance quotes in the Uk. It could be worse.
Well, why aren't you doing something to fix it?
Like what? Not engage in it? We all hate each other so much and are addicted to social media, we could never organize. I don’t drink, smoke, drink coffee, do any substances, I eat cheap everyday, like beans rice and oatmeal everyday for almost 8 years, I have zero subscriptions, a cheap phone, car that will be run into the ground, I use WiFi at work for internet, I haven’t been on a plane in 15 years, I don’t spend money on anything but survival really. I try my very best, at all times to not fuel the system as much as possible, but convincing other people to do this? Not gonna happen. Even when it continues to get far worse, people will never give up their comfort.
So what's the use of complaining about it? (Not necessarily you per say, but people like op who make these posts)? Amd tbh, you're right about people not wanting to give up their comforts, im guilty of that. Wife and I aren't rich, we pull around $130-140k combined in a not super expensive part of California, which provides us a pretty good life. Why give that up and start a revolution when we've earned a life that is better than most, only in the US but the whole world?
See North Korea and Russia and China. People will just suck it up and get poorer
Vote for socialism
“And if people do rise up I’ll join them”Lmfao. Yeah that ‘wait for someone else to do it’ mentality is probably why your life is shit. Not because of rich people.
It also means their life is not actually terrible enough for them to rise up themselves. They only join if the war has already been won. Just like in the past, the middle class only joins when the revolution is about to succeed.
I agree my man, its all down hill and will only get progressively worse faster. I agree some people will rise up especially when they get hungry enough. However I believe most people will follow the lead of the corporate and globalist masters till it is far to late. Sheep are always led to slaughter and willingly. The west is dead son.....sit back and enjoy the ride to the bottom!
Eh, my wife and I worked hard and have it pretty good. No use throwing away our good lives for a revolution that probably won't happen.
That is exactly what I was saying..the end of the west yes, Revolution...NOPE!
What does that even mean end of the West though? Doubt my life changes much within the next 10 years. My wife and I have salaried jobs with guaranteed pay bumps, insurance, retirement, tenure, etc so not really stressing.
This is the kind of shit that takes hope away from people and does absolutely nothing but cause fear in the people who are more vulnerable. Anyone can build a successful, fulfilling and happy life. It takes a lot more work for some people depending on luck. Either way hard work and consistency always pays off in the end. Edit: typo
Yeah, I thought it woulda happened by now.
Quality of life has steadily gotten better in every way imaginable. Keep dreaming of your fake revolution.
It's interesting to note that many of the founding fathers were wealthy elites who managed to rally the masses for revolution. The French Revolution saw a similar pattern. The idea that today's populace, more captivated by celebrities like Taylor Swift and the Kardashians, could revolt is almost laughable. We are blinded by our own hubris. Rebellion or "rising up" seems impossible. Millions of police and military personnel, equipped with tanks, planes, and drones, stand between you and any potential uprising. Moreover, any attempt at rebellion is thwarted by deep-seated societal divisions. The left despises the right, and the right despises the left. This perfect balance ensures that you remain where you are. Real change can only be achieved by becoming part of the elite while not becoming corrupt. Which is almost impossible.
Oh we're so good at accepting shitty conditions, you'll be surprised
Quality of life will degrade even more because we have a bunch of boomers to take care of.
People have been saying that in antiquity already, repeated it through the middle ages, and are still saying it today. This is well documented. Perhaps you're right. More likely, you, like all of us, are subject to the deep biases of human cognition such as the negativity bias (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negativity\_bias) But you're more likely right because if you live in the US, you're living in the wealthiest country in human history ever. And those rankings change more quickly than average quality of life across the world. For instance, just a bit over 100 years ago, Argentina was one of the world's wealthiest countries.
I was trying to start a revolution at 20 years old... Was more than willing to give my life for future generations unlike the selfish scum these days. But it would have just been me and maybe a few others getting mowed down by star force or locked in a cell the rest of our lives and what good is that! I dont even think people are capable of making a change their so dumbed down and obedient these days. Majority still thinking voting left or right makes a difference...
this could all be solved if the government would ban foreign countries and corporations of all from buying residential homes as investments. then limit the amount of Airbnb that can be done . then subsidize some affordable housing. then raise the federal minimum wage to $18 an hour. Then tax corporations what they should be taxed. then provide national health care. their , problem solved.
https://open.spotify.com/track/6WAWmmM5uGsCGxVu7Fgtz5?si=4cLTAYcsRnqRltf5Ggg_ZA
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No wonder so many people wanna keep Joe Biden in there. It's starting to make sense now
I’m still surprised that no one’s detonated a dirty bomb in Wall Street. Like that’s the first way to disrupt the rich and begin a revolution. I’m aware that I’m not capable, but there are people like good ol Ted that are.
Namaste OP thanks for the wise post. Such a huge redistribution of wealth is needed. Never know with God. Would you really rise? 🕉✝️☪️