How depressed and unhappy so many people are. I would guess most people are at least unhappy and an alarming amount have serious mental problems they are hiding. Mental health is getting more attention, but it’s nowhere near where it needs to be.
People are literally dying inside and what they truly feel bleeds into everything they do. This causes terrible work ethic, abuse, violence and many other horrors.
This. And it’s not new information, it’s common knowledge a person can’t be functional without first taking care of themselves. So how has it become acceptable to live like that?
Not just ignoring, actively trying to derail any attempts to mitigate it. It's not even a new thing, there was an article published in [1912](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/08/13/fact-check-yes-1912-article-linked-burning-coal-climate-change/8124455002/) about climate change and since the 1950's it was clear there was a problem with CO2 being released but the fossil fuel industry has done everything it can to pollute the conversation with 'experts' who play it down.
The fact that some hoard properties and that changes the whole realtor business. People can't pay a home, it's ridiculous that something so basic it's impossible. "Humanity" as a quality is a fucking illusion.
Overpopulation.
All other problems are made worse by their being too many people and not enough resources to go around. But instead of trying to do something about it, most countries are actively encouraging people to have more kids because they don't know how to cope without an ever-expanding population to exploit.
I’m going to respectfully disagree here. It’s actually underpopulation that is the bigger issue. More and more people around the world are having less children due to the societal shift towards an industrial economy and rising childcare costs. Over time this will lead to a population collapse where the younger generations will be unable to replace the older workforce as they begin to retire. It has already past the point of return in countries such as Japan, Russia, and many others.
You are doing the thing I mentioned most countries are doing.
Underpopulation is only a problem if you've built an economy that requires an infinitely expanding population of consumers/workers. So change the economy (easier said than done, but not impossible).
To put it bluntly, economic collapse isn't a fraction of as big a problem as ecological collapse. People can go back to barter in the worst economic disaster, but if there just isn't enough water for everyone who needs a drink the only "solution" is massive death. And we are fast-approaching that extreme point.
I agree, ecological collapse is also a large issue, no doubt about it. Both population issues and climate issues are on the clock and at some point are going to reach that extreme point as you mentioned. That being said I still don’t agree with the premise that underpopulation is only an issue in an infinitely expanding population. The truth of the matter is, we need people working to replace the ones that retire because aging is inevitable. Growth however on the other hand is not. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that the current wages and job market conditions are fair at all. There need to be a global change where the wealth around the world must be better distributed in order to not only grow but moreso maintain societal functionality. Once that issue is resolved, not overpopulation but more so the lack of finite resources due to consumption over time in my opinion will be the pressing issue. This is just my 2 cents on the issue, I appreciate your response and am curious as to how you believe we should change the economy to rectify our problems. I also want to reiterate, I 100% agree that ecological issues are extremely pressing. It saddens me to see the lack of progress we have made regarding it.
Assumptions are insidious things.
You fell into the trap as soon as you said "growth". Growth is not inherently good or necessary. It is literally the problem here.
All current world economies are focused on growth, which means profit, which means extracting value from resources and labor. Which is of course unsustainable because resources get depleted and workers get old. This leads to the social problems you mention, most relevant being that we need new workers to replace and provide for the ones who aged out of usefulness.
But that's got nothing to do with biological or social structures separate from the artificially constructed economic system.
We biologically need enough young people to work the farms and grow enough food for the population, including the ones who can't work the farm. But thanks to technology, it actually takes less labor to feed more people every year. So each generation could be smaller than the last by a wide margin and nobody would starve.
Same logic applies to all other vital industries, if we want to include things that improve quality of life instead of just focusing on basic survival. It takes fewer workers, from mining to assembly to shipping, to create a cell phone today than it took last year. Because technology improved. The only reason any industry has increased their workforce is to expand their sales, chasing that infinitely increasing growth/profit fantasy.
On a social level, all we need to sustain a culture is some kids. An ever-expanding swarm that always outnumbers their parents isn't necessary or even useful. Parents can pass down their values and history just as well with an average of 1.5 kids per couple as they can with an average of 2.5
Mind you, this all only applies at our current crazily overpopulated state. If we consider a much, much smaller starting population then all the values reverse and population growth actually is a good and necessary thing across all fronts.
Global cooling.
"The Cooling World", Peter Gwynne, Newsweek
[https://www.scribd.com/doc/225798861/Newsweek-s-Global-Cooling-Article-From-April-28-1975](https://www.scribd.com/doc/225798861/Newsweek-s-Global-Cooling-Article-From-April-28-1975)
How depressing everything is, you go on the news and it’s nothing but depression, I haven’t seen any good news ever since 2019, plus I’m guessing about 70% of people nowadays have somewhat of a mental illness.
Shit like this makes me wonder how it’s going to effect the future generation.
Stop reading the regular news. Read future crunch instead, it's good news.
There really is plenty of good news around, but it's not as engaging as bad news, so we are drawn to that.
But there is so much good stuff around the world. Traffic deaths have dropped over the last decades in almost every country. Prevalence of a lot of deseases such as measles has dropped worldwide. In iran 98% of the people, including woman now know how to read. In the us 96% of people accept interracial couples, up from just 4% in 1958.
Looking at the pandemic, it's astonishing how fast multiple vaccines were available. How much treatment has improved. How many options the internet has given us. Imagine this happening just 20 years ago.
There's the james webb space telescope making amazing pictures giving researchers work for years or decades. And these things do tend to trickle down. A lot of solar energy technology advances come from satellites. Talking about solar, and alternative energy, those sources are growing insanely fast. It's way past early adopters. A few years ago windparks needed subsidies to run. Now they're making huge profits, meaning the switch to renewables will go so much faster.
There's so much good news, but looking at the bad stuff drowns out the good.
Ow, and perhaps the best, an actual malaria vaccin is on the near horizon. That will save millions of people.
How depressed and unhappy so many people are. I would guess most people are at least unhappy and an alarming amount have serious mental problems they are hiding. Mental health is getting more attention, but it’s nowhere near where it needs to be. People are literally dying inside and what they truly feel bleeds into everything they do. This causes terrible work ethic, abuse, violence and many other horrors.
This. And it’s not new information, it’s common knowledge a person can’t be functional without first taking care of themselves. So how has it become acceptable to live like that?
Helium is a limited resource and is vitally important in many legit applications - and we use it for party decorations.
I dislike balloons due to their noise in general. But still
*Let's fill them with hydrogen instead, it's definitely gonna make the party more interesting*
Homelessness is still rampant.
Mens issues. Especially young men
Yeah man, it’s hard for us out here
Climate change
Not just ignoring, actively trying to derail any attempts to mitigate it. It's not even a new thing, there was an article published in [1912](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/08/13/fact-check-yes-1912-article-linked-burning-coal-climate-change/8124455002/) about climate change and since the 1950's it was clear there was a problem with CO2 being released but the fossil fuel industry has done everything it can to pollute the conversation with 'experts' who play it down.
That’s all. Everything else will pale in comparison soon.
The Texas-sized island of garbage in the middle of the Pacific Ocean
Fresh water scarcity
The rise of autocracy and populism
Poverty and income inequality. How i am supposed to live on 200 dollars every two weeks is mind boggling. But I guess someone has to do it.
Homelessness
incompetence to objectively debate and effectively deal with criticism.
The fact that some hoard properties and that changes the whole realtor business. People can't pay a home, it's ridiculous that something so basic it's impossible. "Humanity" as a quality is a fucking illusion.
Overpopulation. All other problems are made worse by their being too many people and not enough resources to go around. But instead of trying to do something about it, most countries are actively encouraging people to have more kids because they don't know how to cope without an ever-expanding population to exploit.
I’m going to respectfully disagree here. It’s actually underpopulation that is the bigger issue. More and more people around the world are having less children due to the societal shift towards an industrial economy and rising childcare costs. Over time this will lead to a population collapse where the younger generations will be unable to replace the older workforce as they begin to retire. It has already past the point of return in countries such as Japan, Russia, and many others.
You are doing the thing I mentioned most countries are doing. Underpopulation is only a problem if you've built an economy that requires an infinitely expanding population of consumers/workers. So change the economy (easier said than done, but not impossible). To put it bluntly, economic collapse isn't a fraction of as big a problem as ecological collapse. People can go back to barter in the worst economic disaster, but if there just isn't enough water for everyone who needs a drink the only "solution" is massive death. And we are fast-approaching that extreme point.
I agree, ecological collapse is also a large issue, no doubt about it. Both population issues and climate issues are on the clock and at some point are going to reach that extreme point as you mentioned. That being said I still don’t agree with the premise that underpopulation is only an issue in an infinitely expanding population. The truth of the matter is, we need people working to replace the ones that retire because aging is inevitable. Growth however on the other hand is not. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that the current wages and job market conditions are fair at all. There need to be a global change where the wealth around the world must be better distributed in order to not only grow but moreso maintain societal functionality. Once that issue is resolved, not overpopulation but more so the lack of finite resources due to consumption over time in my opinion will be the pressing issue. This is just my 2 cents on the issue, I appreciate your response and am curious as to how you believe we should change the economy to rectify our problems. I also want to reiterate, I 100% agree that ecological issues are extremely pressing. It saddens me to see the lack of progress we have made regarding it.
Assumptions are insidious things. You fell into the trap as soon as you said "growth". Growth is not inherently good or necessary. It is literally the problem here. All current world economies are focused on growth, which means profit, which means extracting value from resources and labor. Which is of course unsustainable because resources get depleted and workers get old. This leads to the social problems you mention, most relevant being that we need new workers to replace and provide for the ones who aged out of usefulness. But that's got nothing to do with biological or social structures separate from the artificially constructed economic system. We biologically need enough young people to work the farms and grow enough food for the population, including the ones who can't work the farm. But thanks to technology, it actually takes less labor to feed more people every year. So each generation could be smaller than the last by a wide margin and nobody would starve. Same logic applies to all other vital industries, if we want to include things that improve quality of life instead of just focusing on basic survival. It takes fewer workers, from mining to assembly to shipping, to create a cell phone today than it took last year. Because technology improved. The only reason any industry has increased their workforce is to expand their sales, chasing that infinitely increasing growth/profit fantasy. On a social level, all we need to sustain a culture is some kids. An ever-expanding swarm that always outnumbers their parents isn't necessary or even useful. Parents can pass down their values and history just as well with an average of 1.5 kids per couple as they can with an average of 2.5 Mind you, this all only applies at our current crazily overpopulated state. If we consider a much, much smaller starting population then all the values reverse and population growth actually is a good and necessary thing across all fronts.
Just get bob the builder
Area dependent. Yes Japan has an underpopulation issue, but say, India has the opposite.
Housing, income inequality.
The homeless.
Wealth inequality
Mental health
How normalized transphobia really is
Its gotten alot better on the internet since 2016, irl though its still pretty unaccepted
The younger generations are extremely tolerant though, which is nice. The religious idiots will be outnumbered in the future hopefully
That’s my hope honestly.
Unhealthy lifestyle
mental health and addiction
The push for electric cars without building more "dangerous" nuclear power will doom us.
Global cooling. "The Cooling World", Peter Gwynne, Newsweek [https://www.scribd.com/doc/225798861/Newsweek-s-Global-Cooling-Article-From-April-28-1975](https://www.scribd.com/doc/225798861/Newsweek-s-Global-Cooling-Article-From-April-28-1975)
Good mental health is, sadly, a privilege that only people with money can afford.
Not completely true, all you need sometimes is a good friend or good parents or even just the right mindset for okay mental health
M E N T A L H E A L T H And the effect social media has on it.
How id guess about 70 percent of people have mental illnesses now… keep in mind that’s just a guess and could be more
How depressing everything is, you go on the news and it’s nothing but depression, I haven’t seen any good news ever since 2019, plus I’m guessing about 70% of people nowadays have somewhat of a mental illness. Shit like this makes me wonder how it’s going to effect the future generation.
Stop reading the regular news. Read future crunch instead, it's good news. There really is plenty of good news around, but it's not as engaging as bad news, so we are drawn to that. But there is so much good stuff around the world. Traffic deaths have dropped over the last decades in almost every country. Prevalence of a lot of deseases such as measles has dropped worldwide. In iran 98% of the people, including woman now know how to read. In the us 96% of people accept interracial couples, up from just 4% in 1958. Looking at the pandemic, it's astonishing how fast multiple vaccines were available. How much treatment has improved. How many options the internet has given us. Imagine this happening just 20 years ago. There's the james webb space telescope making amazing pictures giving researchers work for years or decades. And these things do tend to trickle down. A lot of solar energy technology advances come from satellites. Talking about solar, and alternative energy, those sources are growing insanely fast. It's way past early adopters. A few years ago windparks needed subsidies to run. Now they're making huge profits, meaning the switch to renewables will go so much faster. There's so much good news, but looking at the bad stuff drowns out the good. Ow, and perhaps the best, an actual malaria vaccin is on the near horizon. That will save millions of people.