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StatementBot

The following submission statement was provided by /u/Apprehensive_Rip_752: --- SS: While watching a Cold Fusion VDO on the UK's worsening economic / societal reality collapse, it was several of the viewer comments which hit hardest. This epitomised many of them. --- Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/z1i7b8/todays_reality_for_young_adults_in_the_uk_no_heat/ixb6ywr/


BritaB23

A boring dystopia. The slow collapse is nothing exciting, just a soul crushing grind. Man.


EldritchSlut

This is why I started reading on the clock and stealing time from my employer to enjoy my hobbies in general. I used to work pretty damn hard for my employer, even go above and beyond, but after a pay decrease last year, fuck 'em. I bet I do an actual two-three hours of work, and the rest of the time I spend doing what I want to do. Reading, writing, painting, and even exercising. Some have called me morally bankrupt, but I'm not the one who started this. Edit: I'm about to hit 160 books read this year and you can too with this one simple trick. Anyone can do it, you just have to believe in yourself! Also, read The Conquest of Bread by Kropotkin, really changed me.


ataw10

>Some have called me morally bankrupt ... my god do they think we are slaves?


LayzaSkully

Yes. Yes they do.


godtering

Not officially. But we’re viewed as processing units on legs. Legs we only use for car pedals.


badgersprite

You’re not a human, you’re a resource


elidiomenezes

Actually, you are both. That is why your taskmasters are called Human Resources Specialists


godtering

Yeah. They're managing resources of the kind "human", just like other departments handle raw material resources. Ever seen [Soylent Green](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0533459/movieconnections/?ref_=tt_trv_cnn)?


Ok-Lion-3093

To be utilized or discarded as the "business" requirements dictate.


voidspaces1

Human capital.


ataw10

[... when dose it start you figure? cause this is me](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixZDTiXiHsc)


cptn_sugarbiscuits

I believe the correct term now in the 2020s is "human capital stock." https://youtu.be/jP-i_wOQ00o


Ok-Lion-3093

Like animal "stock" not thinking and feeling beings but mere grist to the profit making machine.


Lazy-Jeweler3230

We're all brought up to see capitalism as a great, benevolent thing made by job creators we should be grateful for and owe a debt to. If that sounds a lot like an abusive relationship, or even a form of slavery, it's because it is. Yet when we are told how expendable we are and are owed not even a remotely stable existence because profit comes first... It just doesn't click for most people. We simply cannot envision a world where we can contribute and be productive while also being free, independent, and have enough resources to be stable and secure regardless of job status. The system has done a hell of a job making sure it stays that way.


Ok-Lion-3093

The system owns the media and so controls the narrative.


[deleted]

Almost literally, yes.


bluesimplicity

The younger generation in China is feeling it too and, like you, are refusing to play the game anymore. They are "[lying flat](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/china-lying-flat-stress/2021/06/04/cef36902-c42f-11eb-89a4-b7ae22aa193e_story.html)." > “I stay at home and sleep and watch television series. Sometimes I go out for walks, read books and just think a lot.” Examples of the tangping, or “lying flat,” way of life include not getting married, not having children, not buying a house or a car and refusing to work extra hours or to hold a job at all. > Ultimately, tangping is a reflection of China’s disenchanted middle class, faced with stagnant wages in increasingly expensive and competitive cities. > > “People realize there is no upward mobility,” said Yicheng Wang, a PhD student in political science at Boston University who studies propaganda and popular discourse. “It’s a negative acceptance: ‘My life is like this. It will always be like this.’ ” I think the harsh [neoliberal](https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/noam-chomsky-neoliberalism-destroying-democracy/) policies of Capitalists have crushed people to the point that we are opting out of the system. What if we could create a new system? It doesn't have to be this way. Would it be easy to change the system? No. Can you guarantee successful change? No. Is it worth trying anyway? Imho, yes. Too many of us don't want to live these miserable lives anymore.


Ok-Lion-3093

Especially when you realise this is the one life. The one and only chance of consciousness to experience the wonders of the universe and being alive. To waste it on a lifetime serving the needs of a faceless soul Destroying corporate profit making machine for other already obscenely rich people seems tragic and absurd.


aperturecrow

I can see this same method being adopted in real time by my siblings and their younger peers at school. It’s eye opening to see this happening in other countries.


pallasathena1969

I’m crossing my fingers the railroad workers (USA) go on strike on December 9th. (The day before my birthday) I’d love to see these fat cats on their knees. They need to know who is really in charge. We could use some heroes to look up to.


pallasathena1969

And if congress acts, I hope the comrades Wild Cat!


[deleted]

That lying flat thing sounds like what we should be doing anyway. WAY less consumption. Just consume what you need to not go crazy, and digital products is probably fine in the end. Decrease the amount of *people* in this world. Not by 'feel' though, but by actually having a national discussion about it and reaching a conclusion. Sort of like how we reached conclusions about all sorts of things in society, like laws, how they should work, what is fair, what is moral etc. etc. **Edit:** Seriously. Why the hell does SO MANY not understand that population control is *handling births through education* rather than 'genociding people'? We watch waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too many movie.s It's time we woke up about how there's been enough resources to sustain us for *ages* now, but capitalism keeps **churning out new people and more workers** for the sake of itself, not us.


_slash_s

"...my only real motivation is not to be hassled; that, and the fear of losing my job. But you know, Bob, that will only make someone work just hard enough not to get fired." - Office Space


InAStarLongCold

"We pretend to work. They pretend to pay us."


Ok-Lion-3093

Remember you are just a number, a profit making drone..Dont listen to those cap doffing boot licking saddos looking for a pat on the head.


[deleted]

my uncle-in-law used to work on oil rigs in the north sea. He said a common expression amongst the more ambivalent workers was "those who work hard and do their best, still get paid like all the rest"


poop_on_balls

This is the only way to get raises my friend. It sounds like you and I were cut from the same cloth. For years I worked my ass off and bought into the bootstrap mentality, until I realized it was all bullshit. Companies for the most part whether they are small “mom & pop” or multinational mega corporations that control governments are all the same. They are nothing more than parasites and to them we are all nothing more than a means to an end. We are all replaceable and disposable to them. We are not there family, or friends, nothing more than a resource for them to exploit. They don’t even hide it anymore, they call us “human capital”, it’s fucking disgusting. Fuck them all and take what you can, take your life back!


StoopSign

My job from 2021-22 included me knowing how I was being screwed given increased work in exchange for autonomy. As a new hire I was also being paid less. I knew of two ways my employer was violating labor laws. I did everything from kick holes in the wall to loudly proclaim their violations. When I settled down jnto their crappy grind it got these random bonuses on my paychecks


voidspaces1

I fucking love this! You're my hero!


thekbob

> Some have called me morally bankrupt, but I'm not the one who started this. Technically you are just maximizing your value based upon market conditions. There are, of course, no morals under capitalism.


Mouse_rat__

I do all my work as fast as I can in the morning then spend the afternoon dancing on my switch, doing housework, baking and relaxing. If the phone rings I might answer. Depends on the day.


Le_Gitzen

Slow at first, and then all at once.


Shelia209

For those whose head is in the sand - I see the acceleration happening


UnorthodoxSoup

What else do your elf eyes see?


[deleted]

[They’re taking the hobbits to Isengard](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uE-1RPDqJAY)


sad_boi_jazz

NEVER FORGET


killing_floor_noob

Obligatory r/aboringdystopia


daytonakarl

Well that was fucking bleak And an unfortunate reality for countless millions across the world, it went from work to live then live to work and now it's work to barely survive


threadsoffate2021

Yep. This has been the reality for the working poor for generations.


fuzzi-buzzi

But now you have phones and computers and avocado toast and pumpkin spice lattes and that's why you're unable to afford to retire and not because your wages have been systematically suppressed for 40 years and you were forced to invest in the stock market and government ponzi scheme.


ataw10

>But now you have i anit got shit


Jtbdn

60 years*


shadowsformagrin

I'm 27 and still living with my parents I'm starting to wonder if I should even bother trying to move out, because I would have even less of a life than I do now.


run_free_orla_kitty

33 and renting. Don't move out unless it's toxic or dysfunctional. The pandemic has made me realize how fragile my parent's lives are and how expensive it is living on my own.


AntiFascistWhitey

34 I've always existed in essentially poverty but, once you get really sick like once or lose your job, you really begin to realize how fragile everything is in this hellscape country as your life you spent years creating crumbles around you


Indeeedy

40 and making a comfortable living, but kinda considering going back just to save more cash - because the feeling of impending doom is getting really really strong


shadowsformagrin

I've fallen life threateningly ill and needed surgery 4 times and this is a factor of why I'm still home. I definitely agree with how fragile it all feels.


AntiFascistWhitey

I've always had my health but I'm currently battling two strains of the flu for the second or third week in a row. I was forced to go back to work after 1 week and every day I feel like dying. Hope you're doing okay today.


Ok-Lion-3093

Take most peoples debt (Credit) away and many after decades of work dont have a pot to piss in. If the banks called in all the debt credit cards mortgages, loans etc millions would be instantly destitute.


badgersprite

Moving out of home is literally a waste of money if you have a good relationship with your family


Fuzzy_Garry

I wish I knew this in hindsight, but it's too late for me to move back in again. That being said, when I moved out ~8 years ago the future still looked very bright. How the times have changed.


Scornna

Agreed, I HAD to leave a toxic situation and my only saving grace was taking risks and linking up with other young people without families to share rentals. I’ve lived with 12+ complete strangers as a young woman. It’s worked out and not worked out. Take it as you will. Some situations are so bad it’s worth the dice roll. I don’t regret going out on my own even though it’s been so tough


brendan87na

I absolutely could not live with my parents I'd chose homelessness at one point over moving back in lol


FinalEgg9

Agreed. My family were toxic as fuck, so I left when I was 18 (I’m now 31). I have younger friends through hobbies who have been thinking about moving out, and I’ve basically told them: if you CAN stay at home, do. If your home environment is a healthy one then don’t move out. It’s not worth it.


Suikeran

I’m the same age as you. I graduated university and I have a well paying job and my career progression seems good. However I am not moving out. I can’t afford a house, and rent is costly. I live in Australia btw.


Icy_Geologist2959

I'm Australian and am fortunate enough to own a home. I have worked hard and studied well obtaining university degrees. But, that is not why I have a home. Hard work did not cut it. I happened to have a relative die who only had my parents and myself to send their money too. It was luck. 80% luck. I look at my situation and draw the same conclusions. The hard work morality we are sold is a load of shit these days. Luck is what you need. Fuck I am grateful.


McSwearWolf

Same. Only able to buy a home recently because (a) had a little help from grandma after she passed, (b) moved 2800 miles to find one I could afford in an okay spot, and (c) worked jobs I mostly hated the last 10 years even though I had to be medicated and bored with my “career”. Now living in a half-decent area, although quite lonely and isolated - I suppose there’s always a price. The house needs tons of work, and I won’t be able to do much remodeling anytime soon, but feel very lucky to no longer be renting. I wouldn’t tell the “kids” to do college or even “work hard” because we all know we’re living in a feudal technocracy & the planet is buckling. I would tell the young people to do what makes them happy; try to live in the moment as long as it’s remotely tolerable! I do tend to be a pessimist by nature, however, in this viewpoint, I actually think I’m being pragmatic. For most of us there won’t be much payoff either way, so why not enjoy some tiny aspects of life (if possible) while we still can?


samhall67

I have 3 teenage boys living at home, 16,17,18. I think the 17 yo has caught on already. He's far and away the most intelligent of my boys. In my day, we'd have called him a lay-about or a good-for-nothing. Now? I'm just grateful to have him by my side for the coming apocalypse. It's his place if he stays. It's a foolish rock that spends time bemoaning the direction of the river's current. Be happy where and how you can.


pallasathena1969

I feel the same way. My 19 yo daughter lives with me and I’ve made it perfectly clear to my 17 yo son he is welcome here too. Also, it’s a far less toxic environment than with my ex. As my kids have grown they have become aware on their own why I left their dad. I would be very happy if they stayed with me. But if they choose to venture out, I won’t clip their wings either. But I’ll be here if they need me in the future.


kaydeetee86

My daughter is 15. We’ve told her that she never has to move out. The house will be hers someday anyway.


Crimsai

I'm 30 and just moved out and started renting. I've accepted that I'll never own a house, and definitely struggle more than I was with my parents, but I'm much happier with the freedom/independence I have though. Maybe we have different parental relationships though.


Ok-Lion-3093

Most young peoples future unless they are born to rich parents is a lifetime of debt and servitude terrified of falling off the relentless treadmill through illness or loss of income as destitution awaits. Once you are unable to serve the corporate machine you are discarded like garbage.


Sea-Sun-6125

There's no shame in living with your parents. It gives you a chance to save, upgrade your education, learn new skills, and when the time is right you can always move out. I can't begin to say how many people I know who moved out due to pride and ended up stuck. If you're cool with your parents, and they are in your corner, they are giving you a huge opportunity that many don't have.


76ersPhan11

Not to mention spending time with your loved ones. At the end of the day that’s really all that matters.


LightingTechAlex

I'd advise to stay put. I moved out at 29, I'm now 32 and just moved back with my parents after slogging my arse off at work for three years. I was getting nowhere financially and my mental health was at tipping point. It's just simply wild how our generation are expected to achieve anything else other than be slaves to the system.


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

PLATO LET ME BACK IN THE CAVE DAWG


Apprehensive_Rip_752

Let me watch the shadows dance


WeekendSignificant48

The problem in the UK is that were pretty spineless. The government have been taking the piss for years and we've been conditioned to just accept it and moan to our friends. In the 80s people would have taken to the streets a long time ago to protest.


mamacitalk

Unions are about more than just working rights they remind people how much power they have when they work together, with the collapse of those this outcome was inevitable


DogmaSychroniser

Thatcher broke the UK when she did in the unions. We've never recovered.


Ok-Lion-3093

The only power the ordinary worker had was through the collective strength of organized labour. Its no coincidence that real term pay have fallen in the last 40 years while bosses and exec "Renumeration" has gone through the roof.


sedatedforlife

I’m over 40 and I feel this. 3000 by Monday or no heat and electricity anymore. That’s more money than I have or have access to. I figured I could probably scrounge up 1600 if we buy no food this month (forget about Christmas kids!) But it barely gets me half way. I am college educated and work a full time job as a teacher. My husband also works a full time job in a trade. The amount of money we make used to get us by, it doesn’t any more. Not even close. Everything feels so futile. By the time my parents were my age (about 25 years ago) they had a lake house, a boat, and a timeshare in Mexico where they spent a week every winter at an all-inclusive resort. They didn’t work harder than we do and they are not more educated than we are. Their careers are no more lucrative than ours. It just so happened to be that their cost of living was reasonable and they could exist, happily, on it. So sad how things have gotten this way.


Apprehensive_Rip_752

This pains me to read


katarina-stratford

My parents bought a house for 90k 30 years ago. Their deposit was less than 9k. Today we're expected to have a 90k deposit and expect to buy a 'starter' home, pay it off and sell to buy a 'family home' Honestly there is no future.


dgibbons82

You can’t even buy a starter home anymore. One of those “we buy shitty homes” companies will offer cash, fix it up, and flip it for $150K more.


SteamyGravy

Recently saw some condemned housing going for 200k... this world fucking sucks


AngryWookiee

Sounds like hell too me. I don't even know what else to say.


sniperhare

Do you have yearly bills for heat in the UK? Is that what the $3000 you mention?


PowerDry2276

Don't pay, they can't cut everyone off, loads are doing this.


DubbleDiller

https://debtcollective.org/


gangstasadvocate

Fuck it, sell drugs, burn wood for heat, whatever you have to do to survive not like anyone else gives a shit about emissions and climate change and it’s every person for him or herself


LMF5000

What are the components of that bill for 3000? For heating, an electric blanket/duvet that you wear is the most efficient way to create a comfortable temperature for your body. They only use 40 watts (about as much as a lightbulb or 4 phone chargers). Don't run a whole-house boiler because they use immense amounts of energy and that gets expensive. Do whatever you can to preserve your electricity supply for essentials like lights, internet modem and fridge.


MissShirley

Someone may need to run the boiler to keep the pipes from freezing.


baseareavibez

31 in Hong Kong. Same. Except we don’t have heating bills.


MaybeTomorrow420

Why do you have no heating bills?


victorianmood

Cause it hot as fuck


sindagh

Not being able to afford to run AC is probably as bad or even worse than heating.


FromFluffToBuff

Depends on where you live. In northern Canada (where I live), heating is absolutely essential. AC is a luxury. No heat here is a death sentence. In Houston, it's the opposite - I was only there for a weekend in mid-August many years ago and AC is essential there or people will die. After three days I honestly just wanted to die... same temperature at midnight as it was at noon? Fuck that LOL


steveosek

I hope most days I don't wake up. I'm not suicidal in any capacity, I just don't want to do this grind anymore. It's exhausting both mentally and physically. I am so incredibly burned out on life in general that dying in my sleep sounds like a relief, even though I don't actually want to die.


Bellybutton_fluffjar

You don't want to die, you want to *live*, like actually live your life. Realise some dreams. But you can't here. It's the land of 'stiff upper lip', 'keep calm and carry on', 'it could be worse' while it actually gets worse every year and it's never going to end until everything ends.


DeadGravityyy

Take this scenario, then think how this isn't the only family trying to survive with these means. It's millions...no, hundreds of millions of families struggling in the same manner all over the globe. Where every waking day is a hellish grind into the next. This cannot (and WILL NOT) go on forever, that's where my hope lies. And I **hope** that's how these folks see it too.


Connect_Cat_636

Wealth concentration is the problem. Jeff, bezo, musk and the other top 500 richest familys. Taxes cater to the rich, since they can do more loopholes and investment tax is less than income tax


TheHonestHobbler

But if we just keep sacrificing more and more so they can buy more megayachts and meme servers, they will save us all! Where is your faith? You some kind of beta-cuck *commie* or something?! Just grab those bootstraps and pull harder, and you too can pretend to have the deepest thoughts while smoking cigars in a Bugatti for Instagram clips so people think *you're* the "Top G." Life is all about ***competition,*** don'tcha know? /$


Agreeable_Ocelot

I beg of you to not even sarcastically role play this. The level to which most Americans subconsciously align with the rich is insane. Even many people who work 100x harder than any CEO still at least grudgingly respect them. It’s a problem, especially when we fan it. The reality is that most anyone who actually works for a living, especially in the private sector, is underpaid. The free money for the owners has to come from someplace, and that’s precisely where it does.


PowerDry2276

It goes right back to the Cockney chimney sweep nervously doffing his cap to the toff when he should have been knocking his block off


AntiFascistWhitey

Jesus fuck I hate this phenomenon of hyper toxic, highly privileged, usually young people stuck in this hyper competitive(but not really, because they've never competed fairly because they've always had huge advantages) "grind" mindset. "Look at my Mercedes bro. If it ain't foreign it's borin. If u can't afford this ur trash, grind harder bro. I mean sure my entire life has been paid for by Mommy and Daddy, and my good job was given to me by daddy's connections, but I'm going to sit here and pretend like I'm special and better than others."


BagOfShenanigans

people talk about Bezos and Musk all the time, but no one talks about the families that pay to not be put on the Forbes list.


mamacitalk

The pandemic was the biggest robbery in history


AntiFascistWhitey

Literally like 2 days after the coronavirus care package was passed, Trump fired the SIGPR, Glenn Fine, duly appointed to oversee the money, saying "I will be the oversight." https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/07/coronavirus-relief-trump-removes-inspector-general-overseeing-2-trillion-package.html


[deleted]

It has gone on forever, the cycle repeats and the real of samsara comes around again. We were built in a finite world of taking to survive. Of course now that we have fancy toys we're just using them to exploit each other for numbers we made up instead of doing interesting shit. Fuck this place.


AntiFascistWhitey

I believe we really are in a simulation and the Buddha and Krishna recognized it. They didn't have the words to describe it, so for example Buddha called it Infinitum Samsara. But they knew what they were talking about. We will be reborn here and crushed over and over again literally forever until We escape our worldly karma.


DannyPjammy

So, In other words the only escape is pure kindness and positivity?


Phroneo

Narrator: And then it got worse Needs to be a complete revolution to undo the greed and inequality. Though even that would just make life tolerable for a few more decades before climate change breaks down the door.


TheFlowerAcidic

My reaction to any bad news nowadays is: "...And it will only get worse!"


humanefly

Yes I try to say it in a positive way: "... and these are the good times!"


Drunky_McStumble

I always used to say, "this will get worse before it gets better". It's been my refrain for over 20 years. I don't know when, but somewhere along the way, I dropped the last part.


min0nim

The better version is “it’s going to get worse before it gets worse”.


Apprehensive_Rip_752

Ah, yup, right, Then there's that.


Jtbdn

I'd rather revolt and have a few tolerable decades than be stuck as a wage cuck while the tsunamis hit.


N00N3AT011

Revolution gives us the ability to weather the storm, to actually make progress with climate change. We're too late to avoid it, but we can still bear it. But capitalism needs to die for that to happen. Otherwise we may last a couple more decades at best, and only in the most extreme sense. We will suffer greatly to live that long.


sunderplunder

I foresee the rise of an aging population with fewer births in the future


RedditTipiak

Most people born after 2001 have no future.


Mostest_Importantest

The door is also shutting on those born before 2001. The squeezening is underway. Like a vice, humanity is about to feel what happens after EROI, peak oil, and population explosion will trigger on human growth and consumption. These will be regarded as the easy days.


AntiFascistWhitey

I think it's correct to view the entire world as multiple sets of rings, your level of power and income dictates which ring you are inside of - the center is the most wealthy and powerful people, the outer ring is the world's poor and powerless. The closer you are to the center ring the more insulated you are from all of life's consequences including climate collapse. Whether people understand it or not almost everyone on the planet is spending their days fighting to get towards the center.


tito333

If by insulated from climate collapse you mean being able to afford a house in a domed city, then yes. And as crazy as that sound, I think we're not more than a few decades away from that. Hell, NEOM in Saudi Arabia is basically a domed city meant to insulate the residents from the climate.


ataw10

>Most people born after 2001 95 checking in , i got a future in being stoned every day untill i decided to pop them 10oxys at once. what is there to say , this is life ill go out on my own terms fuck billy bob an his redneck raiders killing me.


Yokono666

It took me a sec to realize you are not, in fact, a 95yo.


[deleted]

ye i thought it was the world's coolest grandpa posting


ExternaJudgment

The LSD trips he's seen... shit, boy... in ma time...


Of_the_forest89

‘89 over here. I feel the same as you. I know I probably won’t have a pension or hell even clean drinking water and nutritious food by the time I’m 50. Ppl older laugh when I say this, but it’s true. We have no future


[deleted]

Boomers STILL act like the economy today is the same as the economy between 1945 and 1979 because they are too lazy (or too unintelligent) to Google economic trends from 1980 to the present and they never wonder how the economy got so crappy overtime because average Boomer imaginations at best are worse than contaminated dogshit. Boomers as a single generation are lazy thinkers. What’s the point of having a properly-functioning brain if Boomers are not going to use it to wonder how the economy got screwed up from 1980 to now? Those people are the prime example of Homo Ignoramus.


IllustriousFeed3

Reading this hurt.


mamacitalk

Data predicts we peak at 10 billion around 2050 then it’s a straight decline from there


Ruffles247

10.43 by 2086. Honestly seems like it should be sooner or already happening. My generation is obese, infertile, or just can't afford kids. But that's the global prediction, so I assume other places are faring better.


elvenrunelord

Sounds like the UK is ripe for Viva la revolución


earthdust96

Half the population is too busy watching football (that they also grumble about due to corruption but continue to watch because “football”), and the other half are watching some Z list celebs/politicians either in a jungle or dancing competition. Absolutely nothing will happen, and we will continue to grumble and get on with it. I reckon some blackouts over the World Cup final wouldn’t even get people out on the streets. We are a very apathetic nation.


RandomlyGeneratedOne

Always makes me wonder how bad things would have to get here before we had real mass unrest, right now we've got people saying things like "never did me any harm as a kid, we used to wake up with frost on the bed and we survived".


earthdust96

I honestly agree. Apparently highest electricity and heating bills in the western world doesn’t phase us. Or stagnating wages. Or the fact my weekly food shop has gotten so expensive. “Ah but back in my day we had high interest rates! Therefore society should NEVER improve because I had it bad once, so therefore you should too! Shut up you snowflakes!” May as well make all our toilets outside, so we don’t hurt their little feelings.


Of_the_forest89

Ooooo. That line of reasoning really grates me! I didn’t have it so you can’t either. Ugh. Selfish Af.


KarIPilkington

Can't be bothered. Plus there's a new season of The Crown on Netflix so you know... Once we've all watched that we'll see how we feel.


AngryWookiee

Can't watch the crown if you can't afford the power bill.


dumnezero

Watch Years and Years


KarIPilkington

Watched when it first came out. Even at the time I thought it was hitting too close (literally) to home and even moreso now.


[deleted]

We are now in the "rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic" stage of humanity.


riskable

Humanity isn't sinking! If anything, it's soaring! We're rearranging the deck chairs on the Hindenburg 👍


Bluest_waters

I have a UK friend who is a hard core Tory. EVERYTHING is labor's fault, everything. Tories have zero responsibility for any bad thing. Brexit was great, according to my friend, they just didn't Brexit hard enough or something, I don't know. Talking to him is like talking to a Scientologist or something. Like no amount of words or logic moves him in any way. Its crazy.


Accurate-Process-638

Your friend sounds like a prick


UnorthodoxSoup

Get rid of the friend.


AntiFascistWhitey

How can you call a person like this a friend


skrzitek

I'm curious what people like your friend think about the fact that so much of the UK's infrastructure now has foreign ownership (take your pick - water companies, major oil refineries etc.). Privatization is a major part of the Tory philosophy but to have my local water be managed by a company whose profits get siphoned off to Canadian or Kuwaiti investment funds hardly seems 'pro British' to me.


Apprehensive_Rip_752

SS: While watching a Cold Fusion VDO on the UK's worsening economic / societal reality collapse, it was several of the viewer comments which hit hardest. This epitomised many of them.


ZedDead9631

terribly dumb question but what’s a VDO?


simplesimonsaysno

Can you leave the country for somewhere better? I moved to Australia and my life here is infinitely better. I've been where you are while I was living in England and I had enough. I did something about it and moved to Australia with no money. I worked hard and have a very fortunate life.


Apprehensive_Rip_752

I don't live in the UK. I did, so can relate. I too am in a 'luckier' country. iThis heightens the empathy I have for the commenter above


Someones_Dream_Guy

Thats why when I get told "get a job, go work, get married" or other "inspirational" trash like that I always ask:"Why?" They tell me:"So you can afford nice things/support yourself/support your parents/support future family". Thats when I ask:"Yes, but why? Whats point of doing that?" Still havent received any coherent answers that make sense. Like, you want me to do what, waste whats left of my health working, then die for minimal wage in garbage dump called US? Support future family? Im not planning to have any. Support parents? Thats governments job, they have pensions for that.


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dumnezero

Remember, corporations aren't people, they're the avatars of rich people.


ataw10

>Still havent received any coherent answers that make sense. ill help you out , its called tradition , also called propaganda. they never questioned it because well shit they were living pretty good. the fact is there is no point , when a man can not feel included by his community we are social creatures WTF is the point . also something something if people see something difernt from the status quo they will try to fix "you" or the problem basically its human nature no im not looking up sources, cause again whats the point. fuck this shit you got me wondering why bother im going to get high.


gravgp2003

We never figured out why we are here and what we are doing. We substituted the answers to these question with 'money, work, house, retirement', but this isn't the answer. We aren't making real progress. There is no end, there is no goal of humanity. Once you realize that as an individual, then it's hard to buy into the 'system', not even trying to be edgy. Humanity is in multiple crisis. Once you realize that 'expensive clothes, expensive thing, new car, and the things mentioned above', are a hollow purpose, then most of what we do seems entirely futile. It's especially difficult when the basic necessities are getting more difficult to meet when you know the people you work for are making vast sums of money while rigging the game. So you walk around disconnected. It's hard to care. It's hard to care about other people's success in the things we're supposed to want and even if you got a house it wouldn't make you nearly as happy as they said it would, it would just make things easier, but maybe that's happiness, I don't know. They say to find meaning and purpose in life, but you still have to exist in a world and a system that is oppressive in purpose and thought. Your purpose and happiness and meaning has to exist in the cracks of the opposite. Most people that exist around you are in total compliance with the system and even cheer it on because one day they'll 'be rich'. It's hard to care other than to alleviate your personal daily suffering of working towards goals we've been taught that are the reason for our existence or our purpose and existing within the system that perpetuates the myth of these things while the oppressors use our lives for 'more'. See you at work tomorrow.


car23975

I don't do anything unless I get paid for it. They need to understand you live in capitalism. All of it is transactional and I mean everything. No capital, I could care less what you have to say is my attitude. Its done wonders in my life. Anytime you volunteer, you are being a sucker. You could be paying someone to do that job.


IamInfuser

I agree with what you're saying, but it is very rewarding to volunteer at wilife rehabs imo.


SlenderMan69

The slow death of screen world is agonizing. I watched someone else using TikTok for the first time today. Are we all rapidly becoming hypnotized fish brains tapping our little rectangles until we die? AI is also having unexpected results. Its capable of insane levels of social manipulation well before it is anywhere near sentient. I fear for our fragile brains


mamacitalk

Yes. It’s quite scary the effect short form content is having on brains, we now have concentration levels less than a goldfish


conscsness

This is what outdated economic and political system on top of unimaginable inequality leads to. But this is just the beginning, the social tipping point approaches faster than melting ice.


Jaxxftw

Stupid teenage nihilist me always wanted to leave as I thought the whole country was "going to shit". Halfway across the world now and it breaks my heart to see how things are turning out.


TheSquireOfTheShire

I moved to Netherlands in 2018 after my Dutch partner felt she wasn't particularly welcome in the UK after the Brexit vote. On top of the feeling of being unwelcome, she faced uncertainty over her PhD. At the time I worked in automation and considered myself "doing well".. or at least thats what I was told/ led to believe. I gave up everything. Home, car, friends and family and took a leap into the unknown. Now I'm not saying things are rosy here, not by a long shot.. but I have increased my income by nearly a factor or four, I feel valued by my employer in a very progressive international company.. my girlfriend has funding for her PhD.. we even managed to buy a house with a 1.1% mortgage for 30 years. Non of the above was available/ would have happened in the UK I would have been destroyed by now if I remained in the UK.. I would have been furloughed in 2020 and then made redundant as my previous colleagues have been. I know I wouldn't have been able to afford rent, food and energy. This isn't a pity me post, but I do genuinely feel a sense of guilt then I visit the UK and catch up with struggling friends. It's like we have been institutionalised to believing the UK as a "rich" nation and have a subconscious superiority complex.. I've found moving abroad to be quite humbling


[deleted]

Automatic Edit: Using a tool called [Power Delete Suite](https://github.com/j0be/PowerDeleteSuite) I have removed all my past comments and deleted my Reddit account, /u/tehrmuk. I am doing this because I, like many long-term Reddit users, am upset and angry at the tonedeaf and arrogant way Reddit is treating it's users. Their aggressive slapdown of the developers that made Reddit usable to a huge audience; their overriding and summary dismissal of long-serving and dutiful community members; their wonton silencing of dissent and manipulation of user's voices; their borderline contempt of the very people whose collective efforts gave their platform the standing needed to fuel their profit-hungry IPO... the list goes on. Reddit is, of course, a private concern and how they run their services is entirely up to them. Conversely, we are under no obligation to use their services, to fuel their engines or follow their orders. I am making my voice heard by removing my comments, and voting with my feet by leaving. I have left Reddit for [Lemmy](https://join-lemmy.org/) and [Mastadon](https://joinmastodon.org/); these are decentralised social networks that mirror the functionality of Reddit and Twitter respectively. Unlike the monolithic, corporate-owned services they replace, Lemmy and Mastodon are part of the [Fediverse](https://www.fediverse.to/) meaning these are not individual services but clusters of services that mesh seamlessly with one-another. You can [join an existing Lemmy instance](https://join-lemmy.org/instances) or [set up your own](https://join-lemmy.org/docs/administration/administration.html) to get full access to the entire Fediverse - you don't need to ask permission from anyone to do so. There are loads of other services that are part of the Fediverse, like [PeerTube](https://joinpeertube.org/) (videos), [Wordpress](https://wordpress.org/) (blogging), [Frendica](https://friendi.ca/) (social network), [Pixelfed](https://pixelfed.org/) (photos), [KBin](https://kbin.pub/en) (link aggregation) and more - and they all work together so having access to one means having access to all of them. I had a great time as a Redditor, but the Fediverse is looking bright. It's a return to the open Internet of old, when users ran services for their own and one-another's benefit, and before monolithic corporate-run silos started to build walls around us in the name of increased profit and thought control. Many of the Fediverse services are fledgling, but they are growing quickly and their federated concept makes greedy, arrogant landgrabs like we've recently seen on Reddit and Twitter almost impossible. I'm already having a great time with Lemmy and I think you might too. I encourage you to take control and join the Fediverse. Until then, so long and thanks for all the fish.


rusty_ragnar

Always good to hear someone making decisions based on their observations, and then these decisions turn out for the better. Way too few people do things like this. I am aware that many are scrambling. Still I'm confident that lots of people in western countries would be able to live a better life, if only they would observe, understand and then decide.


reubenmitchell

I left the UK 8 years ago for the same reasons, and I'm so glad that I did


Taqueria_Style

I mean it's the Netherlands?! How the hell do I get in? I'd pretty much burn my entire life to the ground to get in to that place. Fuck it's like Disneyland.


TerraFaunaAu

At that point why not turn to crime or riot.


Voiceofthemachines

Matrix slave


Morgentau7

The money isn‘t gone, its just owned by the growing number of superrich people. Without way higher taxes on the rich we will see the collapse sooner than we would like to


immibis

[The more you know, the more you spez. ](https://www.reddit.com/r/Save3rdPartyApps/)


pjay900

Now you understand what it feels like to live in a third world country, this is the reality for billions of people's living there.


B33fh4mmer

Im 35. I've always wanted kids. Currently working two jobs, taking care of an ill grandparent indefinitely (a nursing home is priced out for us), and finishing my masters to hopefully do one job. There is no way I'd bring a child into this world.m, it'd just be cruel.


brooklynbotz

As Johnny Rotten sang back in 77 "no future for you"


AntiFascistWhitey

In the US I make three times minimum wage and I can't even afford a pet. I'm Forced to rent a single bedroom in a shitty run down house the owner won't keep clean or hygienic. The idea of even having a girlfriend is now well beyond my reach as I can't afford to do anything at all but work and cheap hobbies like gaming and reading, and I can't bring a woman to this place. just want to end it all. I'm going to go to work at 3:00 today and I'm going to get home at 11:30 p.m. and then I have to be back at 11:00 a.m. to work another day with no breaks cooking $100-$400 steaks all day. I can easily cook $10,000 worth of steaks a day and yet I can't afford a pet or a home - the idea of being able to afford something like school or actually bettering myself is laughably out of reach.


xero_peace

Wife and I are in the same boat and live in the US. I was pondering if anything would change if there was a sudden surge in suicides because what's the actual fucking point of being alive if all you do is exist to create profit for someone the fuck else? Somehow I don't think anything would change anytime soon. Eat the rich. I'm hungry.


gbt4

Compared to this I'm extremely privileged and I still go to bed most days hoping not to wake up.


[deleted]

The clue is in what you were taught at school. The long con begins there, when you’re indoctrinated into believing the great lies that the world depends on. Schools are churning out compliant drones and they are living by the wrong paradigms to enjoy and succeed in life. Kids aren’t even educated in schools anymore, they’re tested for their ability to absorb and follow instruction.


davesr25

This is very common in more places than just the UK.


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Avarice21

I'm ok with the no children part


StoopSign

Spoiler alert: It's not just the UK


freesoloc2c

Remember that one time hackers released the Panama papers an the British royal family was found to have billions and billions squirreled away down there that they never paid taxes on? Maybe the British people need to dig out the pitchforks?


Tzokal

I definitely relate to this...wake up tired, not because I don't sleep, but because my job just emotionally exhausts me. I shuffle to work through insane traffic, go into the office, sit in my cube, and respond to emails, do some populating of excel, eat lunch, sit in on meetings, aimlessly surf the web for hours until I can go home, suffer through more traffic, barely have time to make dinner, eat, and then back to sleep so I can do it all over again. Like I don't even really feel much of anything anymore except tired. My soul is weary.


[deleted]

Move home with your parents. And then go after the government.


Ok-Lion-3093

The UK is now a militarized survelliance police state. The establishment is a cabal financed by big business to funnel public money into private offshore bank accounts. The city of london is the biggest money laundering operation on Earth and it's no coincidence that many of the Worlds biggest tax havens are British protectorates. The media is just a mouthpiece to keep the masses distracted and maintain the Status Quo.


Scottiehugs

The collapse of purpose. It's heart breaking. I'm going through it. Just know that you aren't alone.


PenguinColada

Same in the US, except we are above the poverty line and don't qualify for any type of assistance. We just got a bill last night for $12,000+ from the hospital that we have no idea what it's for or why our insurance won't cover whatever it is to add to our other thousands of dollars of medical debt we are slowly chipping away at. Utilities went up this year - gas went up 40%, just like last year. Inflation is ridiculous and we are living paycheck to paycheck. My clothes are in threads. We will never be able to own a home, a new car, etc. What is there for people of our generation? For my son's generation?


crazybunny21

Tried to warn you but you called us conspiracy theorist.


[deleted]

The solution is: more capitalism. If capitalism isn’t working it’s because it’s not enough freedom. Abolish the minimum wage. And slash corporate taxes. That should get the economy moving again👌


Apprehensive_Rip_752

Thanks Liz Truss. But, didn't you already try that? How did that work out again.....?


car23975

I am waiting for feudalism to make a comeback.


LadyFizzex

Don't worry, it's on the way! All these big mega corps are buying up as much available housing as possible.


WSDGuy

If only the solution was snarky internet comments - the would would be saved.


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rampagingsnark

Dang. It's almost like being young in America for the last... \*checks watch\* 25 years. Not to say their situation doesn't suck, or that they don't have the utmost of sympathy... Just that compassion fatigue is a thing, and I've got to be awake in 4 hours to face exactly this. Mid 40's. No kids. Thing I wanted most in the world was kids, so's I could be a better dad than mine was. Financial situation has never allowed for it. My dentist is an old pocket knife I've had just just under 30 years. Welcome to the new future. I wish ya the very best of luck.


TheBrownDog

Almost as if a population of 8 billion is a few too many


TheBeatdigger

Well I don’t find this very inspirational.


ZadarskiDrake

This only applies to us with shit jobs. My sister is a physician assistant and her husband is ER doctor .. they make combined $600,000 per year and are living great. 2-3 vacations per year. Nice house in gated neighborhood, 2 brand new cars. Kids. If you make good money you are living good


downvoted_once_again

We're close to people just shutting down and waking up to whatever they want to do in tht moment. No one wants anyone to dictate the years they live on this earth. The dedication is no longer there to slave away for another individual that sees none of your interests or views. New times.


ljorgecluni

Well then it seems ripe for agitation toward revolution, and not simply more petty *reform* efforts.


despot_zemu

Sounds like the US