this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2023
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A Boring Dystopia
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Quick question, what percentage of jobs in America do you think pay below a living wage?
Say you're a single parent. Say you have to take medication for your mental health, say you have ADHD and can't work without it. And your job doesn't provide health insurance. Say your job pays less than minimum wage. There are entire industries that avoid minimum wage legislation in the United States. Say your parents are minorities and have spent the entirety of their lives in a country legally discriminating against them in governance, finances, employment, housing, Healthcare, transportation, education, and in social programs meant to help the poor.
You have no fallback. You are only ever offered debt that you can never return, and eventually they offer you nothing. You can't afford even a single bedroom apartment. You pick between feeding your children and taking your meds. And if you can't take your meds you can't work. You spend every single day perched precariously on a knife edge, one single Healthcare bill or car repair bill away from homelessness starvation and death.
These people are real. There is no possible financial adaption that will alleviate this situation. And if we count up all the people unfairly treated in this society, if we track everyone and see the way all disenfranchised oppressed people suffer injustice - it becomes immediately apparent that the vast majority of the working class is in a perpetual state of near homelessness barely scraping by even as they slave themselves away for the interests of corporations who have proven time and time again they see human life itself as worthwhile only in its ability to generate capital.
The bare minimum before falling into poverty.
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/living_wage.asp#:~:text=The%20term%20living%20wage%20refers,them%20from%20falling%20into%20poverty.
You sound like somebody who had an incredibly fortunate childhood and you don't understand anything about people who actually had to work to get where they are.
You claim that your parents didn't support you but they paid your college. It sounds like you got supported a lot.
The people who really had to pull themselves up by their bootstraps are people like me. I quit a full ride scholarship to go back home and get a job to support my father and family after he broke his back at work and it took two years before his disability paid out.
From there I was destitute and I've had to work my way back up to a point where I can afford to pay college out of pocket by myself while also affording all of my other expenses (like purchasing a house, and supporting my own family as an adult.) I've had to make serious sacrifices in my life.
You really should be less judgmental about other people because you sound ignorant when you make those comments.
You started you adult life with education and without being indebted for 20 years? You are a privileged one. That's just how it is. I am too. That's just life, but you should have the honesty to recognise that most people don't have this privilege. They can't be conservative and plan their life because they don't have the education or the resources (social or monetary) to do it.
You are oblivious to reality. There's nothing to do with you, you are blind. Hopefully one day you'll discover social sciences and you will learn some facts about your society.
Actually, I was thinking about what I said and that was way more harsh than I should speak to anyone.
I apologize for acting like a jerk. I appreciate what you said and hope you have a good day.
I was being far too sensitive, and that's on me.
Uphill in the snow barefoot both ways, and so on...
Bless your heart