this post was submitted on 03 Apr 2025
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[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 110 points 6 days ago (1 children)

It starts to make sense when you realize that each of those events is basically a fire sale for billionaire investors.

Just look at income inequality before/after each of those events.

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 47 points 6 days ago (2 children)

This is the truth.

The economic crisis's have all been real, they all really have been huge events that have restructured life for everyone, it's just that they're not accidental, they're not unforseen consequences of policy decisions nobody could have imagined... they're engineered, or foreseen with great clarity.

And every time, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer and the so-called middle-class shrinks even more. Prices go up, we all have to work a few more hours in the week, we get less in return, our future dreams dwindle, and we plug into social media and AI slop and drugs and alcohol to placate us while we say "I just gotta save up enough so I can..."

And those savings NEVER increase. There is always some event, some family crisis, some medical problem or a car breaks down or your parent dies or the company you work at gets bought out and your 6 years of experience only makes you a liability for the new management team who wants to make a culture of "young, energetic pioneers." (who they can pay less.)

The wealthy are at their happiest and strongest when they exist as they have for centuries, land-owners up high, living off the hard work and struggles of thousands of people beneath them, shaving a bit off everyone's pay, offloading their problems to people who are already struggling. They want to run around in the manor and keep getting wasted and banging winches while we serfs toil in the fields we don't own.

[–] DarkFuture@lemmy.world 10 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I wish upon a star that we could be a generation that takes power back for the average worker and uses our strength in numbers as leverage to have a better quality of life by making the wealthy pay their fair share.

But it's looking like our historic legacy is going to be that of a fool generation that votes against their own interests and refuses to stand up for themselves.

A very embarrassing time to be an American.

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 10 points 6 days ago (2 children)

we could be a generation that takes power back

The bigger problem right now is that unlike revolutions of old, this time there are millions of people who adore and cherish their overlords and would literally fight to the death to protect them for no other reason than ideological.

Even if it all went down tomorrow, even if we all locked arms and marched on Washington and installed a group of compassionate leaders who want to make sure all people are treated fairly and that we all had basic rights... we would still have to share this land with the millions of people who hate us for wanting better outcomes. There would still be hostile, evil forces twisting the minds of the stupid into hating their neighbors.

It's such a larger problem than the wealthy hoarding all the money. We're facing the absolute limit of human capacity to mitigate outside influence, we have every possible entity, commercial or political, trying to make us feel a thing, make us think a thing, make us serve them. We are attacked all day from every side with malicious lies and narratives meant to make us be quiet and hide. Even if it doesn't work on most of us, if it only works on a fraction of a fraction of the people, we still have millions who hate you and want you dead simply because you might think that your tax money should go into making all our lives better equally.

[–] pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip 4 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

The bigger problem right now is that unlike revolutions of old, this time there are millions of people who adore and cherish their overlords and would literally fight to the death to protect them for no other reason than ideological.

This is a message the media owners want us all to accept.

In my experience, very few people want to die or commit violence for some billionaire's agenda.

Most people just want to live their lives and maybe live to see the assholes in charge have to pretend to care what the rest of us think.

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[–] LucasWaffyWaf@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago (3 children)

Seeing shit like this play out just makes it harder to keep going. At this point it's a matter of when I do it, not if. What point is there if it's only getting worse? I've seen my best years by now

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[–] peaceful_world_view@lemmy.world 41 points 6 days ago

and every time the rich get richer, funny that.

[–] tehn00bi@lemmy.world 42 points 6 days ago (2 children)

I don’t think boomers are very good at running things.

[–] nocklobster@lemmy.world 21 points 6 days ago (4 children)

They grew up in a for the most part prosperous time, middle class had 2 cars in the driveway, jobs were easier to obtain, it's no wonder alot of them think the way they do.

[–] skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de 17 points 6 days ago (3 children)

Think about it this way: They were literally the most spoiled highest quality-of-life group of humans to ever exist on Earth in any timeline.

  • Ubiquitous access to healthcare and vaccinations for longer life.
  • Access to pensions and retirement options no longer available where the employer did all the legwork to ensure they had a future post-work so they didn't have to learn a thing about investing or retirement savings.
  • Infrastructure that was borne from the Great Depression, so they had roads, bridges, dams all built up to last their lifetime with no care about maintenance, as they figure, "oh it was always there, it will always be there," so no money was committed to maintenance we are now having to do, freeing that money up to live like kings and queens in the short-term.
  • Easy to access jobs, homes, boats, cars with little to no education or financial acumen. Just that "walk in and hand them a resume" trope they love to perpetuate.
  • The most modern travel technology and geopolitical climate to go on vacation pretty much anywhere on the planet, and access to time to have vacation.
  • Relatively calm planetary climate so they didn't have to worry about things like today's weather weirding with tornadoes where they shouldn't be, hurricanes going inland, hail everywhere, and on and on, all the while driving their 5 MPG giant SUVs all over the country while tossing their food wrappers on the side of the road.
  • Cheap (during the majority of their lives) to relocate anywhere in the US or abroad if they wanted to work or live somewhere else, or be "snowbirds" when they're too wimpy to tolerate the winter in their home states.
  • The same geopolitical climate prevented them having to grow up in war-torn anywhere.
  • Access to any kind of entertainment imaginable any time anywhere.
  • Artificially post-world-war inflated US economy that took some decades to spin down (that "Great Again" they fap to) - which only happened because the US joined so late and had few losses ourselves. The war never happened at home, so we got out for minimal effort/casualties/infrastructure loss.
  • And they got to adult in an age of computer technology that enables them as olds to not have to drive their car, pick up food, or do any errands they don't want to do themselves, all without having to learn any technical skills because the tech was designed for idiots.

No human generation before or after them got to, or likely will ever, experience such a prosperous story-arc. They should consider themselves damn lucky and act like it, while supporting future generations to have a sliver of what their spoiled asses were able to enjoy.

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[–] Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 7 points 6 days ago

Boomers grew up in a world with a 91% top-tier income tax rate that drove businesses to spend their excess income on products and services, which became their parents' paychecks.

[–] TacoButtPlug@sh.itjust.works 4 points 6 days ago

Exactly what my depression era grandma says of them.

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[–] beliquititious@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 6 days ago (4 children)

Take heart, in 10 years the worst of the boomers in power today will be dead. In 20 years there will be almost no boomers left. Hopefully there will be enough of a country left to fix once they're all dead.

[–] Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee 16 points 6 days ago (1 children)

You're forgetting that there are many brainwashed younger people who totally bought the bullshit. It won't be easy.

Not so much forgetting as ignoring and downplaying for my own mental health.

[–] SuperSaiyanSwag@lemmy.zip 8 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I’m in the prime time of of my life, waiting 10-20yrs just sounds very depressing

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[–] Sergio@slrpnk.net 7 points 6 days ago

in 10 years the worst of the boomers in power today will be dead.

I remember thinking this about the WW2 generation back in the 90s. The result:

[–] superniceperson@sh.itjust.works 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

In about 25 years most countries will be warzones and anyone that cant afford whatever the elite are charging for the few freshwater sources left on the planet will be dead or enslaved. anyone within twenty degrees of the equator will have fled or be dead, and anyone living above ground anywhere else will live in nonpermanent shelters due to the yearly storms that destroy standing structure.

boomers will be taking the worlds habitable range with them, and leaving us with a nightmare.

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[–] HaiZhung@feddit.org 44 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

It’s the same crisis, in various stages of escalation. The rich are squeezing more and more of the lower and middle class all over the world, and there is almost nothing left to squeeze.

The next few years will bring a massive collapse in government services (the USA is starting) for ordinary people, because that is one of the last things that the rich can still squeeze out.

After that, there will be only the ultra rich and the destitute poor left; and the ultra rich will only be able to take from each other.

This will mean war, and they will send you all into it.

Unless we stop it now. Tax the rich.

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 13 points 6 days ago (5 children)

After that, there will be only the ultra rich and the destitute poor left; and the ultra rich will only be able to take from each other.

It's already starting to happen. Half of consumer spending in the US is done by just the top 10% of earners. For an economy built on consumer spending this means that you get more economic growth by giving those rich people more money to spend, not by lifting up the other 90%.

[–] Bytemeister@lemmy.world 8 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (3 children)

For an economy built on consumer spending this means that you get more economic growth by giving those rich people more money to spend, not by lifting up the other 90%.

You've gone and mixed up correlation and causation here.

The top 10% arent spending 50% of the money because they are the glorious saviors of the economy, protecting and nurturing it while us poor people thoughtlessly hoard and save all our wealth. It's actually quite the opposite.

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[–] ManOMorphos@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago

this means that you get more economic growth by giving those rich people more money to spend, not by lifting up the other 90%.

This is probably true for industries like fashion, but I disagree with this point applying in general. There is only so much food, gasoline, and paper products an individual is willing to buy, no matter how rich.

The restaurant industry, for example, would collapse as we know it if most non-wealthy people suddenly don't have any extra income to spend on prepared food. They need velocity in orders just to remain open at all. I doubt most places could remain open off of a few rich people buying a lot.

This isn't to say that they won't stop extracting more from the lower earners. Many of them would be fine killing off industry if it makes themselves richer. I personally think all of it's a short-sighted cash grab that's gonna keep poisoning the economy until something changes.

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[–] grrgyle@slrpnk.net 29 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Crisis seems like the natural operating mode of c*pitalism

[–] LMurch@thelemmy.club 31 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I don't mean to be that guy, but look which US political party was in charge for each of those dates...

[–] Bytemeister@lemmy.world 59 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

2002 - Bush II, Republican

2008 - Bush II, Republican

2020 - Trump, Republican

2025 - Trump, Republican

Cheat sheet.

[–] OmegaLemmy@discuss.online 19 points 6 days ago

Trump approves, "The economy does better under Democrats than the Republicans"

Donald Trump, 2004, on the CNN Show 'The Apprentice'

[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 32 points 6 days ago (2 children)

This hits too hard. I was born in 83, so even the ages line up.

[–] bitjunkie@lemmy.world 15 points 6 days ago (1 children)

82 here and obligatory fuck this timeline

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[–] Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.world 24 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (2 children)

If it worked to funnel money to the wealthy the first time why not the second? Or third... and so on.

[–] edvardgm@lemm.ee 3 points 6 days ago

well new time iwth gen z, people dont want to work for the richest people for minium salary and opputinity, meanwhile boomer generation just work to work and earn some money, and get some children to fight for even more spare jobs......... AI days coming sooner or later yep yep. still respect them for building our country. but honestly idk why your life should be the job your working on, when the job treats you like bad fish that when you do something to get any attention, your fired.

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[–] EFrances@lemmy.eco.br 19 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (2 children)

what did you expect? You were born in 1984 ;)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four

edit: added link to book

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[–] surph_ninja@lemmy.world 23 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Capitalism cannot continue to exist without it begging for socialist bailouts.

Just proves that socialism is superior. It can even float a shit system like capitalism as it continues to fail.

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[–] Rusty@lemmy.ca 18 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

I don't know who came up with this "once a generation" bullshit, but you can see that economic crises were more often than once a decade in 20th century https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_economic_crises#20th_century

They were every fifteen years pretty regularly

[–] DarkFuture@lemmy.world 16 points 6 days ago

I'm tired, boss.

[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago

Sounds like it's time to stop believing the way headlines and pundits phrase things.

[–] takeiteasypolicy@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Well, if US attacks Canada, Greenland, Panama, Greenland and Iran, then we will see once in 10 generation stuff !

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[–] cholesterol@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago (21 children)

Kind of seems like the lesson is to buy the dip.

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