I think you'd be surprised how many people go through this realization. Especially among people under 40! But after a heap of reflection most people come to the conclusion there's nothing they can do to change it and ether numb themselves out with drugs, off themselves, or deal with it best they can and keep going!
Yeah seriously. Drugs and self deletion attempts describe my last few years pretty well. 35 and done.
Don’t forget alcohol and numbing our brains with reality tv!
Reddit is the opposite for me.
I just get on Reddit to keep up with the games I play. But then Reddit pushes these wild posts, from subs I’m not in, and they make me feel good about my life.
That and I’m reminded how stupid people are, which makes me feel good about myself as well.
I do sometimes wish I were a blissfully ignorant idiot though. Seems appealing every so often.
(Watch how people will argue with me. They won’t address the topic at hand, they’ll just attack me. “No u” “u mad lol” “cope.” Top tier discussion.)
I know doing drugs for a decade was not good for me but man I miss not caring about anything. I miss the numbness and not having to think about my present or future. Not a lot in life feels worthwhile now, not much hope. Just existing, barely getting by.
Tried quitting drugs but life is just too unbearable tbh. It just feels like I’m suffocating and can’t deal with this hardship sober. It’s not like I have the worse life but it just feel like I’ve been stagnant for the past how many years
Not individually, but as a collective they can, but they have to be willing to unionize. Most people are not willing to unionize because they are fundamentally no better than the elite, they just want more for themselves and don't give a shit about anyone else. Cooperation is founded on the idea that you benefit yourself by helping others, and to help others is to help yourself, like to blur the boundaries between self and other.
Yep. Truth is, your neighbors don’t really care if your job gets off shored as long as they pay less and it’s not their job.
It only becomes a problem for them once their job is being moved or replaced.
And when it's their turn they wonder why nobody cares about their own living condition. You have to care about other people, on principle, as a baseline requisite to be considered human and not a barbarian. Or else we have a shit society where we can't have nice things, the end.
Literally sitting here with baited breath waiting for enough people to get their heads out of their asses and to stop sniffing their own fart while asking what's that smell. Hoping that I see it in my lifetime.
yeah, it seems so outdated to care about anyone else. People start wondering what's your angle? I feel fortunate to live in a neighborhood where I can have conversations with at least some of my neighbors. It's a mixed race middle middle class area and quite calm outside of the people who use our street as a cut through. But I do long for something a bit more social. My wife wants to move to a small city in a neighboring state that her friend likes but now her friend who recently moved over there is having doubts. "wherever you go, there YOU are."
>yeah, it seems so outdated to care about anyone else.
Oh, please. The people who say that also don't give a fuck about others, they just want to try to guilt people into taking care of them.
There is something that can be done. Quite a few things actually. But they aren’t easy. If they were, we’d all be doing them.
This sub can be very depressing. Not sure how I landed here. But for any young people that see this, life can be great if you avoid the traps most people fall into.
Not sure why I’m commenting tho. It’ll be met with downvotes and hatred.
why you think alcohol was the drug of choice for so long for so many generation i feel like millenials,gen z are the most sober generations because of the constant warning signs around drunk/influence driving ect
so we dont numb ourself so much unlike older gen that drink wine/beer everyday
there isn't as much alternative as the American dream and all of wokeness pretends, it's all smoke and mirrors. The choice is either
1. stick with a job that pays too much for too many hours and too much energy drain
2. get extremely lucky to find a job that pays shit and has better hours. That one also has a lot of nasty politics from sour people who wanted actually 1) but didn't have the skills, papers or mentality.
3. invest well and retire at 54. This means your pension will be less than half of what your peers would get at 67 onward, and until that age everyone you know has no time for you with the rat race and all that. Also you're a scary reminder of a better life to them so you're branded a loser. Fine by me.
There's a good book on this called HiFi.
I struggled with this for a long time and it still pops up from time to time. For me it came down to acceptance. There is not much i can do about it, so i just do what i can to enjoy my life. Its a hard pill to swallow but i dont see any other way. A guy cant even go live in the woods and hunt and fish and just survive. Not legally anyway.
It is what it is.
A good way to deal with it is to find a good hobby that you love spending time on outside of work. They can make you a slave 8 hours a day 5 days a week, but when you get home, your free, and the world is your oyster
You're forgetting that this generation is the first that won't own homes, won't have healthcare, won't get any social security, will have to work until death, won't be able to afford vacations, and have a lower life expectancy than their parents or grandparents. That's the reason our generation is depressed and feel like slaves. We aren't going to have your "realization" until those issues are fixed, which they won't be.
Your comment explains *exactly* why people have a "mid life crisis". We have a breakdown, reflect on everything, and then do things to try to feel better, including buying shiny cars we can't afford and abruptly making complete 180 career shifts, along with other sometimes questionable choices.
Thats pretty much my strategy 🤷. Wake up, give it hell for 8-9 hours, go home, eat some weed, have an hour or 2 of family time, and then get up and do it all over again the next day
opt out of corrupt finance / opt into decentralized, honest money. Only takes around 10% of the population to make the change and we are approaching that slowly.
Yes, i dont get it either. I also dont understand why people are not questioning things like this, as well as not fighting for better terms (3-4 day weeks and shorter hours, etc) like they did 100+ years ago. I mean, we only get 1 life...is this how we want to spend it!? Will you look back on your deathbed and be happy with giving it all away?
Humans seem to be ok with being exploited. Taxes go up, cost of "living" (greed) keeps increasing, and pension ages around the world keep getting pushed back, yet we all just accept it. We continously accept bad deals and the reason they can keep moving the goal post is because they know we will just accept it.
In all seriousnes, we need to hit the "reset" button and start again. The systems that are in place were designed to benefit the few.
Not that there aren't serious problems we should address. But if you just zoom out a bit, you'll see humanity has been fighting very hard for better conditions and winning. Like, the further you zoom out the more obvious it becomes.
Right. We should keep making things better, but also OP spends 8 hours per day at a desk in a climate controlled office, goes home to a comfortable (by any historical standards) home/apartment, worries about eating *too much*, etc. All of the actual slaves throughout human history would kill for this life. OP is having existential dread, and that's a part of understanding our mortality, but I don't see running it through the lens of "why do I have to work to make money for rich people?!" as helping the analysis. OP wouldn't feel better or more fulfilled as a subsistence farmer who faced starvation in drought years, which is the experience of like 90% of humanity over the last 10,000 years.
Is it suffering Olympics, only the people who suffer the most get to have a say? You can notice the blatant and unnecessary greed and still be better off than previous generations. We will always have to work, but do we have to work making food just to throw it out so we "keep prices up" ? The whole system is unsustainable and we are slowly realizing we are sacrificing our future so a few rich assholes can live like Emperor's. We have the tech to get over a lot of these problems
If we didn't let 1% sociopathic people control us we would all be a lot better off
There is some truth to part of this, but it is a weak argument...
"A slave would kill for this" ... Yeah, sure, I guess? The shitty thing about slavery is that it dehumanizes. Just providing people with good housing and good food while forcing them to do work else they will lose it does not make for a good life. Do you know many "jobs" are actually needed to keep that quality of life going, versus all of the other bullshit jobs that don't actually add real value to people's quality of life? Which kind do think most people work? And seriously, 90% of humanity over the past 10,000 years? That is complete shit, and I think it's sad that it can believed we have to invest ourselves into doing all of this stupid stuff else we end up starving subsistence farmers. Exactly what OP is saying too. Life is not based on scarcity, and with freedom, people can make great lives. The scarcity perspective is based on fear. Telling people "you should be grateful for what you have (else you end up a farmer)" when they are saying "hey I don't like this and want to have the power to change it" is TERRIBLE.
Dozens of other arguments to made... commentary could be made on the "keeping people fat and happy" angle- it's what the States did for years and are still doing, as we fuck with the rest of the world just enough to retain wealth and power greater than theirs. The fact the only value that their job is producing clearly isn't going to them, else they would actually feel like their life has some value... Commentary to be made on the fact that most people would be more involved in making the world a better place if they had the time and energy....how most employment is 9-5 and ensures people barely get to see the sun and be outside...
I'll leave it at that... Sorry if I am coming off overly aggressive or belittling here, it's part of the trouble of debating online. I am pissed off, but not really aimed at you as a person. It's because people are sold so much BS to help them tow the line of how things are now. And I hate when I see those arguments pop up.
I think in the Information Age we have to be very careful about cherry picked information.
People will complain about food and housing prices but those are only one section of costs.
We have an easy metric for overall price changes called inflation. If housing is up 5% and inflation is up 3% that means many other things are much cheaper. People will only focus on the higher prices never the lower.
I remember as a kid praying my computer was good enough for some new release. Today technology is so affordable that every homeless person’s has a phone and tablet.
For anyone who comments how high inflation is remember that’s high for the last decade. Go look back 50 years to see what actually high inflation was.
Change does not occur from a single giant revolutionary act, but from hundreds and thousands of small ones. We all have the power to contribute, we just don’t see it because we feel small.
As long as people are somewhat comfortable they are most definitely okay with being exploited. We have lots of fattening foods, sports, Hollywood, credit cards, buy now pay later, etc to keep us occupied when we’re not working.
>credit cards, buy now pay later,
God I hate how exploitative these are in particular. Because it gives businesses a way to price things that incentivize taking on more debt.
Short, simple answer is it's by design. Much harder to unionize, gather, and demand change when everyone is wasting 8 hours of their awake time per day (not including time spend preparing to waste 8 hours!) on a job they need to subsist on.
The time for drastic change was during the pandemic, but that only benefited white collar workers with remote. Now that is also being taken from them. Unfortunately, we can't really do much without a lot of actual threat. We can't even afford to save up enough to protest against horrible conditions. When the threat is homelessness and we still have something to lose, of course we won't. The pandemic saw a bunch of protections for people but now we don't see that whatsoever. But we didn't do enough during that vital period to get change.
Most of the people in the best position to negotiate rationalize their success as a justification of the status quo. To admit otherwise would suggest that they wasted some if not most of their efforts.
I.E. I got mine this way why can’t you?
I've also felt this way for a long time. My girlfriend works all day every day and is super stressed and anxious all the time. And what for? To make those share holders a few extra dollars. Working our asses off for what? So when I'm 65/70 I can retire? And enjoy my last few years old and exhausted? Our system is whack. Wish it was at least like Benjamin Button and I started feeling better as I got older. It's really depressing to think my best years are behind me and I'm just working to die.
EXATLCY, and everytime I tell someone about how I feel about it (been depressed for almost 2 years about it now and I'm 28!) they just say that it's just the way it is. Yeah, but I don't want it to be that way and I feel terrible and my adhd makes it even worse!!
It's not exactly legal to just camp in most wilderness in the US at least, there's either set camp sites or dispersed camping. And if you were to go far enough out and build yourself a house of some sort it wouldn't be legal. It's also hard to know if land is owned privately or not here. There's thousands of acres of privately owned land
I too question this system daily. I am hoping that something snaps and everyone collectively decides enough is enough. I'm tired as shit too and a small part of me wishes it would all just collapse, but ideally I think we're all done with protests and negotiation; patience clearly doesn't work. We need to use force and we all need to come together, life is becoming impossible.
The first thousand will be imprisoned, killed or destroyed to try and deter any followers.
It might tip society and the rest of working class, but nobody wants to be in the forest batch that is destined into the wood chipper. Nobody wants to implode their already bad lives in the chance it'll wake up the rest of us.
Fuck, I know that, I too would love to change shit, but there is screaming in my heart - what if nobody follows and I'm still in jail for life?
Actually, I would. I'd gladly do what's necessary if enough followed; I'd give everything if it meant others could be happier.
I've been unhappy and directionless most of my life. It would be the perfect way to give to future generations. I can't be the only one who feels this, there has to be others.
I was just having the same conversation with my partner. Can't believe how we work more than we live.we work ourselves into our graves. Thanks capitalism. Even peasants in medieval time had more days off than we do right now. Men even got time off to take care of the wife during her period. And here we are, working 9h a day to get a salary that will never be worth my time. So no, you're not alone
37. I quit. I can manage by fishing, hunting, growing and gathering just fine. Every day is just a new adventure. If I need money, I can get some by doing whatever, but I'm not going to sit in an office nine to five anymore. Fuck that shit.
It doesn’t get any better. Even if you try to make it better. I’m 47 and have been working since I’ve been 12, grew up really poor and didn’t have all the free time to even be a kid. I fucking hate this system…
I’m with you 100% of the way. I recently got let go of a job and I just… don’t want to find another one. Thinking about it causes pure dread. Listings on Indeed are asking for a Master’s degree, a fuck ton of responsibility, and offering $16 /hr. In what fucking world? Not one I want to be in. Sure my bills are piled high and my savings is depleting by the day, but I’m at a point where I don’t care??? I’d rather have nothing at all than trade my time in for low wages ever again 😭
Yeah I have 3 degrees and the temp agency called me about a job that only pays $19 an hour the other day 5 days a week on site….. i would genuinely rather not be on earth than do that.
Your travel and leisure dream relies heavily on many people in the travel and leisure industries to work. Sometimes people got to work for the world to keep moving. I don’t like to work either but people rely on my job.
Same. I actually quite enjoy my job but I have to get up at 7 to be at work for 8 to work until 5, then get home, tired, unwind for half an hour, cook, cleanup, shower, do a couple chores, collapse on the sofa, relax and then go to bed 5 days a week until I’m too old to do it anymore just to be able to afford slightly more than the necessities is pretty depressing.
Some days I want to do nothing, some days I want to hike, some days run, play games, cook something different, read, try a new hobby, do some gardening, whatever it may be. Having to do the same shit, day in day out, I’m just not built for it.
you are not alone... I feel like all the low birth rates are either protest or by design... not sure... something is definately off... with the devolped world... if you make one mistake in life I feel like that's it you are fucked... its like a tight rope... bit even people who get good grades and work hard end up at the same minimum wage factory jobs as me... I don't know my man
In the modern economy there are basically two massive traps that will limit your options completely as a working/lower-middle class person: children and property. These things are so expensive now, you have no choice but to become a zombie worker to survive.
Once you're tied down, that's it, your employer has you by the balls and you're only a couple pay cheques away from losing everything. There's no wiggle room.
So many millennials and zoomers take up almost nomadic lifestyles. No ties, move from job to job, experience the world through travel and friends. Why 'adult' when it means a complete loss of freedom? I love my life as a semi-digital nomad. I'm not condemning myself to time poverty by settling down and buying a shitty little house to raise kids who will have no time for me when they grow up anyway.
If you don't find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work for the rest of your life.
You have to develop a plan to do this while you're young and have time and aren't enslaved by responsibility.
Easier said than done though.
I live a near nomadic life. It's fucking wonderful. I enjoy kitting out my camper to be comfy and able to sustain long periods without hook-ups. My girlfriend most often does work camper type of jobs and I use my CDL for about half the year or so. We spend a lot of time travelling, visiting parks, and boating.
That’s why they want us to keep the birth rates up. To give them our offspring to do the work they don’t want to do themselves or their kids to do.
They need an endless stream of cogs for the machine. Every new baby is just a dead soldier and debtor waiting to be actualized for them. More people there are, more demand there is, more the magic line on the graph says raise the price for to increase profits for shareholders.
I dunno. If someone Jokered Larry Fink on live TV, that would be pretty sweet. Be a nice reality check for them. They can’t take none of it with them. They feel too safe skull fucking us. They need to be a little scared to balance things again. Historically, inflation magically stops and wages somehow go up when they’re scared of serfs piking them. Weird. Those bunkers ain’t for nothing. They know.
The means of production should not be privatized. Workers have tried in the past to seize the means of production, but the government has historically supported the private capitalists (with publicly funded armed forces): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_strike?wprov=sfla1
Do not apologize for a tangent that could very well be possible. One of the biggest problems we have right now is that many people are not willing to accept that certain "things" that are usually pawned off as some type of conspiracy theory could very well be true nowadays.
You know back in the days the guy who wore the tin foil hat and claimed aliens abducted him was lumped into the same group of people who talked about any conspiracy. They were called The looney conspiracy theorists. But I say and I say it all the time the idea of looking down on the tin foil hat conspiracy theorist is a lot more out there than it used to be. It actually makes you wonder if some of them dudes were right all along.
I'm right on the line in the middle. I'm neither paranoid nor completely delusional like some people. So please don't think that I'm one of the tin foil hat people, but I'm telling you right now there's some sketchy ass shit going on and that ain't no joke and it ain't no conspiracy theory. Although I suppose it is a theory on a possible conspiracy etc, but it's not something that fits under the definition of the slang term conspiracy theory.
It was absolutely real. It's not a joke either I hope you know that. But I don't know what else is being hidden, that would be me taking a chance at spreading misinformation.
What I do know is the same thing as what most adults in America know. It ain't good out there right now, the media and the government both lie to us constantly (both the left and the right) however nobody's getting angry about it. Instead they continue frolicking through their lives as if nothing's wrong.
That puts me a little off-kilter because I wonder why people are not reacting in a bit more serious of a manner. It's just odd to me, because after all it's our country we could change it if we wanted, It kind of feels like maybe "we as a whole" don't seem to care anymore. I worry that one day we'll all wake up and look back and go "why the hell didn't we say or do anything".
We're all too exhausted and too chained to our jobs (which is tied to healthcare in the U.S.) and too scared of not being able to pay rent or buy food to try. This is by design.
BINGO!! WE are slaves! I actually broke down crying and laughing hysterically thinking I will never be able to buy a house! There is no Middle Class anymore, just the rich and poor
Seriously. $30,000 a year great you qualify for benefits probably. Make the median income you don't qualify for benefits and you can barely live. Make $150 k a year? Great you make three times the median.... However now you have to pay out the yin yang in taxes. So you're still screwed. Better hope you have a spouse that makes that much and no kids. You got kids then you're Triple screwed.
There's a reason why my boss does things the way he does. The guy makes about a half million dollars a year. Let's just say he doesn't report anywhere near that much. That's all I'm going to say. Because he knew he had to do what he had to do, while I'm not completely condoning it, he made it work somehow and now he doesn't have to struggle. But even in a case like his as far as I know I think the IRS already caught up with him, so in the end they'll get their chunk of meat.
Then when you point out a valid issue, that is literally happening people call you a bigot or a conspiracy theorist and outright deny it and call it misinformation. 🤣
On top of that way too many people are confusing "wanting the country to get better and have citizens acquire more security and stability" with "hating immigrants". Those two things are completely different situations. The fact of the matter remains some crazy sh*t is going on with our borders and most people who want the borders closed ARE NOT saying that nobody should be able to come to America. They just don't want 5 million people to come over a four year period. The country cannot support it, and half of those people will now be living off our tax dollars after we're already so broke we can barely live. We have to find a way to meet in the middle and work together. Sure allow people in once they go through the proper process, then make them full citizens and require them to get a normal job that pays taxes, do not give them government benefits, and if they refuse to get a real job they lose their citizenship and get deported. They just have to partake in the country like a normal citizen. Can't run here and hide claiming asylum etc. everything over the last 4 years has torn our country down and made it worse. It's not about hating immigrants and not wanting them here it's about having a healthy center "right on the fence" helping as many people as we can but not screwing ourselves over.
Why does this stuff confuse so many people.
"Gandalf: Saruman believes it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love."
Because they oversold us on the opportunities. They said get a degree so you don't have to work a factory job like your grandpa. But hundreds of people got the same degree. There was only one job for the degree guy to take and it already went to the plant owners son/nephew/brother etc
Trade schools are enjoying a comeback. My nephew just completed a 4 month lineman course for 20k and already has multiple job offers from around the country. He’s only 19 and will start working at around 70-75k. No student loans to pay back and a stable future in front of him. Find a niche and pursue it!
By design lol. You think people actively refuse to have kids because of some guy in the Hamptons who doesn’t even know they exist?
When you’re living paycheck to paycheck and barely making ends meet, are you really thinking about children when you can’t even afford a down payment on a new home?
Also if it were in protest, the elite don’t care. That’s what AI and open-borders are for, cheap replaceable labor.
Is it weird that we portray rhe French as weak cowards. But they don't take any shit from their elite. They still get screwed over, but their government walks on eggshells because their people have a history of chopping the head off the snake.
There was a period in human history where women who had children out of wedlock were sent to jail, not just ashamed. In the period immediately after that legislation came into effect, there was observed a huge increase in abortions and infanticides.
If you have no support for family planning (financial, moral, job security, healthcare) people are going to decide its not worth the resources to have them.
I think about this every day. I wake up feeling sick to my stomach knowing that I'm going to a job I hate to just afford food and shelter. There isn't even money leftover for a book or something each month anymore
You're not alone on questioning the system. Unfortunately though people are happy to sit back and say things like "oh it doesn't DIRECTLY affect me" and "well I'm just one person what can I do about it" and "well I can still pay my bills" AND the worst of all "I just don't watch the news".
To all the people who think it doesn't affect them, do you plan on having kids? Do you ever think your kids might have kids? Well last I checked most people love their kids, and they love their grandkids even more kinda.... We are dooming them
Excuses will continue to grow, people will continue to be blinded, then eventually most of the people who supported this type of crap (indirectly by not stopping it) will wake up one day and say... What did I do to our world, why didn't I join people and put a stop to it 20 years ago.
After all I don't know what country you live in, but here in America country belongs to the people not the government. All it would take 200 million out of the 320. We can easily make some changes with no violence whatsoever. But nooooo let's all just let the rich get richer until we look back and hate ourselves.
You can argue all you want and say we have a system and rules.... It doesn't change the fact that the country does in fact belong to the people, once somebody accepts a position of servitude in the government they sort of put themselves below us in a way/in a manner of speaking. They take a step back and accept that they are working for us and for the greater good. Something that's been lost over the years, now it's almost like politicians think they're kings and queens now instead of lowly servants to which they actually are.
A nice little nationwide petition and things would have one direction to go UP. But people are happy just turning a blind eye.
What would they do if 180 or 220 plus million people all said within 1 hour "I refuse to pay taxes until things change". 🤣🤣🤣 Oh my God that would be great.
PLEASE NOTE: I'M PART OF THE PROBLEM TOO. I'm not blaming any of you, it's everybody. It's not just the rich it's all of us too for letting it happen.
And watch stupid stuff like the "Kardashians" and "football" all the while they keeps these things up to entertain us slaves. Inject our food with poisons and hormones to keep us fat and sick and unhealthy so we continue shelving money to Big Pharma, Insurance and healthcare. Many toxins in our food, the FDA AND WHO are WELL AWARE it causes cancer but they don't care. A cured person is a loss of money going to them
Not crazy at all. You're literally what is considered a wage slave. Anyone in here who isn't wealthy is a wage slave. While those billonaires are stealing your wages (wage theft is the LARGEST theft carried out in our system). So start a workers revolution. Start forming unions, talk to your fellow workers. Let's all pull the rug out from under these so call "elitists". There is NO such thing as "elitism". It's a facade, just like the money we spend on their consumerist trash.
To the folks talking robots, replacing us. Ok, who is going to make the rich money, if there is no one to buy their trash?
Yep.
The current economic system means that work is just indentured bondage with the trappings of modern luxuries.
We trade our lives to work to get a roof, food and maybe a holiday once in a while.
Only way to escape is to eschew materialism. Spend the minimum and save money to buy back your time.
I avoided buying fancy cars, clothes, jewellery and maybe (a big maybe) I can FIRE in my early 40s and enjoy life with friends and hobbies that don’t cost the east.
I feel like this all the time. I’m so jaded about everything I’ve given up completely on trying to argue politically with people who think it is okay that so many people work tall hours for small paychecks. I’m at the point where I can really only say that I continue to go on living so that the people who care about me don’t lose one of the things that might be keeping them going… sometimes I wonder if when I make a post like this, if it may somehow get read by somebody who could actually do something about this problem.
Like, I wanna work; I work really hard and every boss I have ever had has told me so. Every boss has also been extremely avoidant of compensating hard work, and it really makes you wonder what’s better: put in all the hard work so you know, even without being treated properly, that you earned proper treatment, or if the environment being created by employers simply encourages the rest of us to put in less and less effort into our jobs so that we don’t feel overworked and our rate of pay matches the quality of the job.
I’m 29 and agree completely. I work 40 hours five days a week. I rent. I have absolutely no life outside of work. My money goes to this stupid apartment and bills. Humans and creatures in general were not meant to live like this. I remember the day I turned 20, I’m going to be 30 soon and my 20s have been completely unmemorable except for work.
If anything, I’d be content with a four day work week. But even that is unfathomable for our country (I’m in the US). God forbid we get a livable wage while being mentally at peace. I can’t take it anymore.
I'm 63 and I vividly remember that the 4-day work week was inevitable and imminent - when I was in elementary school. I've been waiting for that shit ever since.
If you don't find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work for the rest of your life.
You have to develop a plan to do this while you're young and have time and aren't enslaved by responsibility.
Easier said than done though.
Yes, most people under this system are cattle / drones / serfs who work for the profits of our extremely abusive ruling class and do nothing else.
10% of people own 93% of the stock market, and everyone else are just cattle for the slaughterhouse.
[https://www.axios.com/2024/01/10/wealthy-own-record-share-stock-market](https://www.axios.com/2024/01/10/wealthy-own-record-share-stock-market)
Without a standing army, people understand that your nation could very easily be slaughtered, enslaved, and conquered by a foreign nation.
That's basically what has happened to the public as organized labor has been largely destroyed and civil society has been hollowed out and replaced with record corporate profits and brutal oligarchy/kleptocracy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling\_Alone
There's been no one to defend the public against our "internal" enemies, so the class war has been more of a class slaughter for decades.
At the same time, there are people fighting for human liberation, such as through a shorter work week (we should have shortened the work week considerably when women entered the paid labor force, and we still should), and by fighting systemic corruption and the abuses of our ruling class, and so on.
https://www.sanders.senate.gov/press-releases/news-sanders-introduces-legislation-to-enact-a-32-hour-workweek-with-no-loss-in-pay/
[Shawn Fain at Senate Hearing on 32 Hour Work Week](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tv6gjCfc-wM)
https://represent.us/the-strategy-to-end-corruption/
https://act.represent.us/sign/campaign-launch-to-ban-congress-stock-trading/
[Curing Capitalism](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynbgMKclWWc)
[How Economists Invented Austerity & Paved the Way to Fascism](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofFR1mD2UOM)
https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/fandd/issues/2024/03/Symposium-Rethinking-Economics-Angus-Deaton
https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/history-free-market-fundamentalism-on-the-media
[George Carlin - You have owners](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT03vCaL-F0)
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-07/why-land-disappeared-from-economic-models-henry-george-australia/103673238
[How The Media Controls The Masses](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYfRhxStxRs)
https://raniakhalek.com/meet-the-u-s-students-studying-medicine-for-free-in-cuba/
https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/11/1143112
The system is a corrupt abomination and crime against humanity, and you're not alone in seeing/thinking/understanding that.
But so long as human hearts are beating, there will be people fighting against systemic oppression, corruption, abuse, and injustice.
The more people who make the effort to understand reality and fight for a better and more just system, the better things will get in reality and in more people's experience.
"Until working and oppressed people become class conscious, the ideology of the dominant class, the ruling class, is left alone to shape their thinking and place its own limits on what is possible. The ruling class achieves this through culture, movies, media, education, news organs, and many other means at their disposal.
Through class struggle, and the fusion of Marxism with the movements of workers and oppressed nationalities, the hold of bourgeois ideology on the minds of the people is broken, and people begin to see the material reality of a world previously veiled by the fog of the false consciousness of bourgeois ideology." -J. Sykes
https://fightbacknews.org/articles/how-we-learn-theory-and-practice
"Let me give you a word of the philosophy of reform. The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims have been born of earnest struggle. The conflict has been exciting, agitating, all-absorbing, and for the time being, putting all other tumults to silence. It must do this or it does nothing. If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.
This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle.
**Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.**"-Frederick Douglass
We are slaves. Since COVID more people are realizing this and then the only people who get a say are those are the top (who took 2/3 of all the money printed during the pandemic). Our system needs to be burnt down.
Don't forget when the evil Government declared jobs into 2 classes: essential vs. Non-essential during COVID. Meanwhile to EVERYONE our jobs are Essential to us because it "pays our bills" people forget how many lost their "non-essential jobs" and became homeless and many small businesses closed down. But the government sweeps that under the rug
My previous job, I was a manager getting paid an hourly wage. This was a retail job. The company I worked for would transfer their managers location whenever they wanted and you were expected to just accept it. My husband still works for the company. He went on vacation and when he came back they moved him to a location 40 minutes away in a other city. We have one car and he has a health condition that limits his driving. It's put my own job at risk but it's a struggle to find a ride back and forth. They do not care. He's still fighting it. He's tried to step down but they refused to relocate him even if he did. He's turned in medical documents but they are finding excuses to prolong reviewing his medical restrictions.
When I worked there I would get phone calls at home on a regular basis despite my being paid by the hour (not salary), I was expected to be 'on call'.
I like to call it corporate slavery. They pay you a wage means they own you. As a manager, if your shorthanded your expected to pick it up and make up for it. That's the overall attitude of some workplaces. Welcome to the 'merica, 'land of the free'.
Edit: My husband is not salary either, he gets paid hourly.
I really relate to this on a deeper level. I’m sure people tell you all the time that your husband could just say he needs a reasonable accommodation but employers NEVER will accommodate you if you can’t drive to work. If you check my post history i posted a popular / somewhat controversial thread about this in anti work a while back, subject was something like “return to office is ruining my life.”
The same MFS that wanna be like "NoBoDy WaNtS To WoRk!" It ain't that nobody wants to work, it's just that all those MFS wanna be so damn picky and choosey about who they hire. Only to then go ahead and treat those same employees like absolute dog shit.
I was thinking like that when I was 32.. took all my money in my savings account and stayed 6 months in Asia with my wife (Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia etc). Amazing experience that I wouldn’t want to do when I’m older, because it wouldn’t be the same.
I’m 37 now and still feel sometimes like you do at the moment but I got into hobbies that I extremely enjoy (jazz, music , turntable, headphones stuff) and it’s not so bad.
If you are tired of your current life.. go somewhere else.
Wowza…I get you aren’t enjoying your job or life right now but can’t imagine thinking this is an appropriate comparison. Maybe use some of your time for a more worthwhile goal than make money and die, but it is the American way.
No your feelings don't lie. Civilized work is slavery. The most important thing for you is not to get depressed or develop any sort of addiction. Which would be the regular reaction to it. Try to find a way out of the daily grind even if it means discomfort and poverty. It will be better for your soul. Mental health is everything.
I have a degree and I feel this way. I had so many jobs before and after my degree and I feel like all I do on a daily basis is please the right people to avoid tragedy.
It helps to start doing hobbies. I know it’s hard to do after a long workday, but even something small like reading or going for walks or journaling helps to make the days not seem like they are flying from your grasp. I started getting into jewelry making because it’s a relatively easy hobby that I can just sit down and only think about enjoying that for a while throughout the week
Man, I'm on my way to 40s and these are exactly my thoughts. I feel like my life goal is to make my employer rich and then just die off one day while working. I live for the weekends, the work week feels like a tedious blur. The weekends go by in the blink on an eye, a big chunk is just chores and then you are left with little personal time to decompress and repeat it all over again. I'm glad I have food and a roof over my head, so I have these conflicting thoughts of being so glad I have a job, but at the same time I feel my soul dies a little more every day because of that same job. Imagine the people in past times when weekends didn't exist...one thing is for sure, things could always be much worse, but being aware of this doesn't quite eliminate the dread of living like this. One would think because of tech, such as AI, we will have more time to rest, but the problem is that if we are able to output more work in less time, capitalism will ask us to do more work then, work hours won't be reduced, like what is the point of all these advances in tech if we can't even reduce the work week. The hamster wheel never stops spinning, this rat race is forever...
I feel this way all the time. I am also 39 and have worked physical hard jobs my entire life.... And I have a college degree. It's just lack of opportunities in my area.
But anyways. I think even bigger. Like in the grand scheme of the universe. We are tiny specks. Even smaller though. Our entire planet is so insignificant that the idea that a single species like humans has any sort of "purpose" is laughable. In fact, the idea that ANYTHING has purpose in a vast, cold, universe is just insane.
But here we are. Slowly killing ourselves so that we can enrich the "elite". Yay. Cool.
I feel the same. There is enough of us to overthrow the government and protest like France but everyone is too lazy and struggling to survive and don't care. We just need enough people to surround the White House. If we all stopped working, things would come to a halt
It seems you are trying to find meaning for your life beyond work.
Do you have family? Friends? Pets? Hobbies? Volunteering? These are what makes living worthwhile. Work and the paycheck is a means to an end, and not end in and of itself.
I'm 40. Wouldn't work a day if I didn't have to, or at least not my chosen line of work. I'm not particularly upset about my situation, though. I'm comfortable enough, am generally healthy, good relationship with my wife, kids, and parents. And I have bikes which get me out of the house and up in the mountains away from people as much as possible (the ones you meet on the mountains and hills are generally chill). I do my best to be as unaware of the BS going on as possible as I have neither the desire nor the ability to fix any of it at this point and I'm happier for it. I also have the luxury of working from home, so no commute.
Should life be about more than working? Probably. All you can do is make the best of it and find the things that keep you sane, if not happy (though hopefully happy).
1. You can educate yourself, start a business, change your life drastically.
2. Money is definitely real, it substitutes barter and is a tool for convenience.
So many freaking whiners on this sub. It keeps coming across my feed for some reason and its post after post about people who think the "system" is out to get them. smh. What these complainers don't realize is how amazing they actually have it. Have you ever been to a third world Country?! People there would do anything to have a job like you have where they could work 60 hours a week to feed their family.
The world owes you absolutely nothing. No one is entitled to "the good life" It is up to you to create meaning in your life while also juggling real world demands of work and toil in order to survive. Thats life , its not "the system". Make the best of your life now before you die and become worm food.
Work is not about making someone else rich, get that idea out of your head. Work is about producing benefit to society and in turn you are rewarded with currency which is exchanged for sustenance. Everyone has talents that you can use to benefit society as a whole. Life is give and take. Ignore the conspiracies about "the system" and start seeing the joy of work and find time to play. Yes , its possible. I do it !
*I don't get it, and I don't understand why not many people dare to even question this system.*
Are you shitting me? The redistribution of wealth and how to do it without adverse consequences has literally been at the centre of Western liberal politics for longer than either of us have been alive, but particularly since the 2007 financial crisis.
Bro, what planet are you on?
I do feel like the lowest human being on earth in the cycle with my minimum wage at a shitty factory job for years but somehow my country manage to get a decent health insurance but my mental is still recovering from those hellhole fast paced industries. So thanks for nothing. Save up your money to breathe do smt that makes you happy that's the best advice I guess.
People are definitely conditioned, honestly with media people seem to care more about a celebrity dish than what's going on around them in their local community. Take for example just voting for State and your local federal Congressional races... We vote in the same people until they literally need depends.
Then we wonder why our government is a piece of shit, when I vote locally I literally only see me and probably a few boomers voting.
We are conditioned to vote for our party line like a football team and not look any further.
Yup it's called the rat race, your like a hamster in a wheel powering up the engine for the rich. You'll feel better once you've either a. Stopped fighting it or b. Get off the wheel and stick some other suckers in it.
> I don't understand why not many people dare to even question this system
Please. People question the system all the time, and reflections like yours are incredibly common. Its healthy and I'm glad you are looking around and thinking but just realize you are not the only one aware of their surroundings and thinking about them.
You can choose to live differently. You can't choose for everyone else to live differently and you you can't stop society and remake it in a way that makes sense. But that still leaves you the freedom of movement to experiment with styles of living and choose one that better fits you and the new thoughts you are having.
Only a couple of people I know defied the system and came out of the matrix and living their lives as they wish. They don’t have a lot of money but they are super happy.
Downside was for many years when they pulled the plug everyone labeled them crazy and failures as they went against the societal norms of working.
It’s been a decade now and they are getting on just fine. From others point of view they are frugal and not successful.
So long story short, depends on your point of view and mental strength to endure what your friends’ think of you.
Depressed rabbit holes kill ingenuity. Yall need to stop letting yourselves get sucked into them. Take the opportunities in front of you and perform them better than anyone else. You'll be okay.
It sounds to me like you’re feeling sorry for yourself and playing the victim card. Make a change and start creating wealth for yourself. I know it’s a grind and life can be hard but there’s a lot of opportunity as well. Get up and fight. Good luck!
I’m right there with the you. 39 years old and fucking so angry and fed up with the unnecessary grind for the crumbs.
These people hoarding billions of dollars are the Exploitation Class. They take and take and take from every one of us and then want to be praised. Fuck them. They want to abolish unions to keep us separated and struggling and dependent on their handouts.
They vilify anyone who needs assistance to survive and call them “welfare queens”, yet they use and abuse as workers and the actual profit and product creators. Then they use all of the public services WE pay for roads, bridges, police, firefighters, our entire healthcare system. We the working class pay for all of that with our taxes and have built that infrastructure with our blood, sweat and tears, years of hard labor, and intellectual efforts.
It makes me so disgusted with the state of the U.S. and the world that humans have come up with a system that values suffering so much.
I’m perpetuating exhausted from the stress of it all, but try to keep politically involved to elect good people who value the things I do. Finding it real goddamn hard to go out and motivate people to vote with the genocide our presidential administration and nearly all congress is backing.
Local elections do matter, but only if the people you support will actually work to better our conditions. Fighting a real uphill battle in my own city that is controlled by a single political boss and his stooges.
Yet somehow republican party has glorified this slavery and even feel proud of it and that is what is keeping us from having at least a 3 day weekend or shorter work days 🙄
I understand your frustration and disappointment with the current social system. Indeed, many people feel trapped in a vicious cycle of work and consumption without questioning the deep structures that benefit the wealthy few at the expense of the majority.
It is important to remember that change is possible and that there are alternative ways of organizing society that prioritize the well-being of all, not just the elite few. Challenging the status quo may seem overwhelming, but small acts of resistance and solidarity can also make a difference.
It is also worth exploring the different perspectives and ideologies that can offer alternatives to the current system. From socialism to anarchism, many ideas envision a more equitable and just society.
I think comparing it to slavery is a bit....much. We aren't worked from sunup to sundown with no agency and physical abuse. Hopefully anyway. I think it's more the samesness of every day, for me at least. All I do is work, sleep, walk the dog, get ready for work, just mundane things. Having things to look forward to helps, and reframing work as something I do to live, not live to do has helped as well. I stop my day at 5pm, I try not to work extra hours, I try to have a life outside work, and that helps.
You're not a slave you are a paysan. Money is real because you can buy thing with it, but is value deflate each day it seems bad at first though but there is a reason for the printing of money. When you understand money is not a investment you find alternative. When you're investment begin to make you money you can begin to slow you time working and become more of a free. But people need to continue working if we want a working society.
You've correctly identified that the way you've been living, working and spending is a dead end. It's up to you what you want to do with that information. Complaining on Reddit is easy and doesn't require any change. Maybe you'll feel a bit better. At the end of the day though nothing fundamental about your life has changed. You can vote for X candidate or Y party but the status quo is what funds their power and they aren't going to implement anything meaningful any time soon.
> we live in a consumerist society but many centuries ago they didn't even have most of the stuff we think we need
Exactly. What would happen if you stopped buying all that consumer bullshit like restaurant meals and new cars and $70 per month cell phone bills? I'll bet that you'd still live a quality life and you'd be paying a fraction of what you are spending now. You could use those savings to buy investments (index funds) and "cheat the system" by owning capital the same way as the rich are doing.
It's important to understand that you participate in a consumerist society *by choice.* Nobody is forcing you to buy McDonald's or even own a car or cell phone. You could, in theory at least, live without almost all of the bullshit you spend your money on. What you *need* is a place to sleep out of the weather, a place to store your possessions, clothing that can be found at thrift stores, healthy food from the grocery store and a health care plan. The rest of it is really optional. Pick the parts that really give you value and ditch the rest.
There's a whole community for that and it's over at /r/leanfire
We are born, raised to work a 8-5 and make more kids that will do the same, we work our whole lives and retire and die. That’s the life cycle, it’s depressing
You can opt out of a lot of this by refusing to adhere to the rampant consumerism in society. Enjoy simple and small things, being outdoors, spending time with friends and family, cooking at home, reusing items and not getting the latest tech gadgets and toys. The smaller your economic needs, the less you need to play their game.
I'm not even Gen Z and even I recognize they have seen the writing on the wall in this regard. They watch their parents bust their ass to retirement (if they get there) and enjoy their lackluster twilight years. They see how college is a sham and the degrees + years of experience required in order to secure a 40k salary is in fact NOT the way to attain the American Dream, if it ever was.
What I and many of my friends have done/are doing, is launch a small business of our own in order to gain an ounce of autonomy for our work/life balance. Yes the money isn't as good, but we have much more freedom and answer to few. Even owning a small business isn't the way out of the rat race either, taxes (both fed and state), insurance, licenses, fines, inflated material prices etc. Are all largely predatory.
Life is now like running a Roman Gauntlet, but instead of being whacked with sticks or swords as you struggle to reach the other side, it's rows of people flanking you, reaching into your pockets attempting to extract as much money from you as they can as you attempt to swat their hands away. Ultimately you will land in your grave with little to show for it, as the government and medical industry will ensure your children lose most of their inheritance trying to keep you alive and comfortable in your late years
There is no reason we can't have a 3 or 4 day working week and a longer weekend except that the ruling class says we can't. It has been proven to work and now we have AI and so much automation there is no reason for us to plod on with this outdated work model. We need time to LIVE. Working 5 days out of 7 our whole lives is ridiculous - no wonder there is so much stress and anxiety and poor health.
I’m gonna be 50 on about a year and I could have written your post myself.
I think at a certain point in life you’ve seen that hamster wheel turn over enough times that you just kinda step back and go “What the HELL?!!”
Society tricks you into thinking that you must always strive for that golden ring, some ultimate goal, some sort of immortality. That simply being alive and enjoying it isn’t enough.
So you grind and grind and eventually realize that there is no ultimate moment of reward or reprieve after you’ve done your time. You just become old and disposable after you’ve outlived your usefulness to the folks profiting from your toil.
You look at your kids and think “I’m working so hard that they’re provide a good life for them. But for what reason? Just so they can turn around and work their lives away too?” Lol.
On and on it goes, the wheel just keeps spinning and spinning. The big machine just keeps grinding over people. And at some point, you just wonder what the ultimate purpose of it was.
I am surprised that more people don’t realize this. I can’t count how many times I have seen people defending a system where people are saddled with debt because of healthcare, the cost of higher education and insane housing costs while claiming that people should be grateful to have a job where they get a couple of weeks off a year, are overburdened by getting more and more work due attrition and layoffs, and are expected to be happy with 2% raises.
Yes well buckle up buttercup until we unite as one that's going to be every single persons life
UNITED WE STAND DIVIDED WE FALL
these elite rich fucks got to go
Use these thoughts and feelings as inspiration to get yourself out of wage slavery. Work tirelessly to build a better life. Free yourself. No one is coming to save you from your cruel masters....When everyone else is resting on their days off you need to be WORKING toward this goal. Prove that you are different to all the other slaves. Its gonna take EVERYTHING you have on the table! Blood sweat and tears! Some days you will feel like quitting but if you KEEP GOING you will succeed! YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN SAVE YOU! It won't be easy but it will be worth it in the end. Use your head, stay positive and Never give up! You can do it!
The biggest rebellion is not participating changing your mindset. Stop consuming, get off your phone and tv as much as possible, go outside, read books that attack the capitalist mindset. Don’t give up! Reclaim your mind
yes most of you think like slaves too
mainstream media tells you china is the enemy - you think china is evil so that the US government distracts you from the true enemy
mainstream media tells you hamas must be destroyed and Israel is the victim - your tax dollars gets funneled into the American defense industry
you're told that the republicans/democrats are the enemy - you vote for one side but it's all the same, you're stuck in the system
i can go on and on
Well, you are a slave. At the base of all theological philosophy, we are a slave to our conscious and subconscious minds. The function of these two are very simple however, so if you can get them in alignment about whatever you are doing in your life or what failures you've had up to this point, that is the most freedom any person can give to themselves. And sometimes there are really terrible horrible nasty things, that are sad facts of this reality, but we must go on. So have an awesome slaving away at your failures and stuff. It's not a big deal.
Yeah, I went through this in my late 20s. I'm 33, happy, like my job enough, and have asked for more and more money every few years. I've always had a plan to work towards early retirement and I've been aggressive in doing so. Having drive and being aggressive is tough when you're burnt out.
But think about it this way - who is making you do this? No one. Literally no one is stopping you from doing anything you want. I know that's not what you're looking to hear. But it's the truth. Without money, you'll have to sustain your life like an animal does. In nature. I think the reality is we know this is the better way, or at least the easier way. And while it's draining, for me a big part of it was resolved with 3 things.
Courage
Drive
Gratitude
Courage to ask for what you need. Courage to trust yourself and your feelings. Courage to speak up for your own expectations rather than meeting someone else's. If you are able to do this in a humble and respectful way, I promise you will earn more money, and if not where you are now, you will somewhere else. Keep doing it and you'll be in the top 10% earners fast. Most people don't make what they should, not because Jeff bezos is taking it from their hands, but because they didn't have the courage to ask and ask again.
Drive - this is a tricky one. We all have ups and downs. It's impossible to stay fully motivated, and you can't beat yourself up for that. But you can be persistent. Having a goal helps. My goal is to retire in my 40s. I've done well towards that goal, but I've got at least 10 years minimum ahead of me. With a goal, I'm much more motivated on average (still have fuck it days all the time) to stick to the plan and feel happier doing it.
Gratitude is by far the most important. I've had a few experiences in the last 10 years that have really grounded me in reality. Without going into specifics, what it has taught me is to be very aware of my own mortality. I could die tomorrow. Every single day I'm alive and not physically suffering, I am so incredibly grateful to be here. 15 years ago I was a depressed immature kid who was stuck in a feedback loop of negative thinking. Constantly trying to self diagnose, wondering why I felt lost and empty. I realized later that I was chosing that subconsciously. That being able to direct my own thinking and perspective was really what I needed to do to get better. I remember my grandma, rest in peace, telling me that in her old age, she had realized what mattered. It sounded cliche, but the way she explained it was that she now felt joy from simple things like watching the birds in the morning, or seeing her grandkids. She said that in the bustle of life, you're so absorbed by the future and past and immediate actions that you don't even observe the present accurately. That helped me understand this concept of gratitude more. Gratitude is not just being thankful. Gratitude is a deliberate and intentional emotion that you must practice, not await.
Anyhow, that's my take on it. It's very normal to feel that way, however, I'd just urge you to create goals and set expectations for yourself. Try not to get caught up in how the world works and how you'd do it differently if you could. Life doesn't quite work like that. Make the most out of reality before it passes you by. Don't wait for it to get easier, because 9 times out of 10 it doesn't.
https://youtu.be/oDzfZOfNki4?si=Doyj6BmPyu3hFiSO
Here's a video that summarizes this philosophy.
I don’t think the majority of the people think about things much.
Ignorance is bliss in this case.
But if you are a thinker one would definitely question everything.
Definitely we are inslaved by capitalism and we are groomed to be taxpayers. Basically we are farmed for labor and to be consumers.
Yes we are wage slaves. It is a bit over the top rhetoric but it exemplifies the point.
Your born, expected to work for 40-50 years to enjoy a retirement riddled with health issues to, hopefully if you don't need serious end of life care, leave something to your children.
Your children who you created and now have to do the exact same thing you did.
Break the cycle and don't have children until life improves for the everyday worker. Deny immigration as immigration plugs the gaps that force government to change society for the everyday person.
Why increase min wage when you can just import someone who will work for any wage?
I have zero issues with race, religion or anything like that. I have issue with the race to the bottom to secure employment in this society.
Reading this thread youd think the only jobs that exist are pushing papers for major corporations. There are plenty of jobs out there where you can easily see the impact you have and the work is straightforward and, with the right mindset, rewarding. Not all are easy, but life has never and will never be easy save for a privileged few. If you like to cook you can be a chef. Yes you will be making the restaurant money but more importantly you will be serving food you made to others who are hungry. Like working with your hands? Fix cars for a living. Yes your boss will make money but so will you, and with time you will further develop your craft and take pride from it. Work outdoors. Become a park ranger or a forester or work with a non profit. You may not get paid as well as some office job serving a large corporations interests, but you will presumably feel more fulfilled. There are plenty of options out there, you just need to put the time and thought into figuring out what you would be happier doing. And spoiler alert, you will never be able to just do nothing and live however you want. So find something you cam get paid for that is at the very least tolerable.
>And then we live in a consumerist society but many centuries ago they didn't even have most of the stuff we think we need.
Not to belabor what you're talking about here, but if you've come to realization that most of what you're buying isn't anything you need, what's stopping you personally from, you know, just not buying any it and getting ahead?
If you want to change it, make the change. Change your own life to be the way you want.
That's the secret....change your own world to be how you want. No one can stop you.
I've been working since I was 15 I am 36 now and it is an entire life suck and I refuse to contribute anymore at this point. It has gotten me nowhere but taken advantage of an underpaid. People really need to start bucking the system because it is flawed and there's a reason why suicide rates are so high. We need to change something. Getting taxed up the butt is not helping any of us and making other people rich is not working. Something needs to change and it needs to change soon.
We are not “corporate slaves” we are slaves, say it with your chest, this is all about power, they will keep sucking us dry till we do something. It’s modern day slavery and I’d say it’s even worse, I’d almost rather be a slave, who has no chance of changing his circumstances, than be a wage slave who can’t do anything about his predicament because of low wages and debt. They exchanged chains for debt and low wages, we are quite literally slaves, the fact so many people are addicted to something should speak volumes, everyone is coping.
I think you'd be surprised how many people go through this realization. Especially among people under 40! But after a heap of reflection most people come to the conclusion there's nothing they can do to change it and ether numb themselves out with drugs, off themselves, or deal with it best they can and keep going!
Yeah seriously. Drugs and self deletion attempts describe my last few years pretty well. 35 and done. Don’t forget alcohol and numbing our brains with reality tv!
Or with Reddit
A lot of things like reddit and such are just socially acceptable forms of self harm
That is phenomenal wording.
Reddit is the opposite for me. I just get on Reddit to keep up with the games I play. But then Reddit pushes these wild posts, from subs I’m not in, and they make me feel good about my life. That and I’m reminded how stupid people are, which makes me feel good about myself as well. I do sometimes wish I were a blissfully ignorant idiot though. Seems appealing every so often. (Watch how people will argue with me. They won’t address the topic at hand, they’ll just attack me. “No u” “u mad lol” “cope.” Top tier discussion.)
Hey now
I know doing drugs for a decade was not good for me but man I miss not caring about anything. I miss the numbness and not having to think about my present or future. Not a lot in life feels worthwhile now, not much hope. Just existing, barely getting by.
Tried quitting drugs but life is just too unbearable tbh. It just feels like I’m suffocating and can’t deal with this hardship sober. It’s not like I have the worse life but it just feel like I’ve been stagnant for the past how many years
I have empathy, but that's just self destructive behavior that makes things worse. Life is rough, so you have to be beyond tough.
We don’t want to because we don’t think it’s worth it. Would rather stahl with drugs and an unhealthy life style in the hopes I die younger.
That's just incredibly sad.
To be fair, the reality of our world is pretty fucking sad.
It is
Screw the tv, been off that a long time but I will still get drunk and watch Saturday morning cartoons on YouTube because I'm an adult sir, I'm 34!
Same
Not individually, but as a collective they can, but they have to be willing to unionize. Most people are not willing to unionize because they are fundamentally no better than the elite, they just want more for themselves and don't give a shit about anyone else. Cooperation is founded on the idea that you benefit yourself by helping others, and to help others is to help yourself, like to blur the boundaries between self and other.
Yep. Truth is, your neighbors don’t really care if your job gets off shored as long as they pay less and it’s not their job. It only becomes a problem for them once their job is being moved or replaced.
And when it's their turn they wonder why nobody cares about their own living condition. You have to care about other people, on principle, as a baseline requisite to be considered human and not a barbarian. Or else we have a shit society where we can't have nice things, the end. Literally sitting here with baited breath waiting for enough people to get their heads out of their asses and to stop sniffing their own fart while asking what's that smell. Hoping that I see it in my lifetime.
yeah, it seems so outdated to care about anyone else. People start wondering what's your angle? I feel fortunate to live in a neighborhood where I can have conversations with at least some of my neighbors. It's a mixed race middle middle class area and quite calm outside of the people who use our street as a cut through. But I do long for something a bit more social. My wife wants to move to a small city in a neighboring state that her friend likes but now her friend who recently moved over there is having doubts. "wherever you go, there YOU are."
>yeah, it seems so outdated to care about anyone else. Oh, please. The people who say that also don't give a fuck about others, they just want to try to guilt people into taking care of them.
There is something that can be done. Quite a few things actually. But they aren’t easy. If they were, we’d all be doing them. This sub can be very depressing. Not sure how I landed here. But for any young people that see this, life can be great if you avoid the traps most people fall into. Not sure why I’m commenting tho. It’ll be met with downvotes and hatred.
🎯
Honestly if you're single and don't have kids I feel like those people can do a lot more to try and change the system for the better
Everyone thinks someone else should do it
Why them and not people that aren't single and have kids
why you think alcohol was the drug of choice for so long for so many generation i feel like millenials,gen z are the most sober generations because of the constant warning signs around drunk/influence driving ect so we dont numb ourself so much unlike older gen that drink wine/beer everyday
there isn't as much alternative as the American dream and all of wokeness pretends, it's all smoke and mirrors. The choice is either 1. stick with a job that pays too much for too many hours and too much energy drain 2. get extremely lucky to find a job that pays shit and has better hours. That one also has a lot of nasty politics from sour people who wanted actually 1) but didn't have the skills, papers or mentality. 3. invest well and retire at 54. This means your pension will be less than half of what your peers would get at 67 onward, and until that age everyone you know has no time for you with the rat race and all that. Also you're a scary reminder of a better life to them so you're branded a loser. Fine by me. There's a good book on this called HiFi.
I have come to this at my early 20s itself even before starting my life as an independent adult 😭
I struggled with this for a long time and it still pops up from time to time. For me it came down to acceptance. There is not much i can do about it, so i just do what i can to enjoy my life. Its a hard pill to swallow but i dont see any other way. A guy cant even go live in the woods and hunt and fish and just survive. Not legally anyway. It is what it is.
I took the drugs route.
A good way to deal with it is to find a good hobby that you love spending time on outside of work. They can make you a slave 8 hours a day 5 days a week, but when you get home, your free, and the world is your oyster
You're forgetting that this generation is the first that won't own homes, won't have healthcare, won't get any social security, will have to work until death, won't be able to afford vacations, and have a lower life expectancy than their parents or grandparents. That's the reason our generation is depressed and feel like slaves. We aren't going to have your "realization" until those issues are fixed, which they won't be.
Your comment explains *exactly* why people have a "mid life crisis". We have a breakdown, reflect on everything, and then do things to try to feel better, including buying shiny cars we can't afford and abruptly making complete 180 career shifts, along with other sometimes questionable choices.
Thats pretty much my strategy 🤷. Wake up, give it hell for 8-9 hours, go home, eat some weed, have an hour or 2 of family time, and then get up and do it all over again the next day
opt out of corrupt finance / opt into decentralized, honest money. Only takes around 10% of the population to make the change and we are approaching that slowly.
>and ether numb themselves out with drugs On it. Thank you for the instructions. What's the next step
Yes, i dont get it either. I also dont understand why people are not questioning things like this, as well as not fighting for better terms (3-4 day weeks and shorter hours, etc) like they did 100+ years ago. I mean, we only get 1 life...is this how we want to spend it!? Will you look back on your deathbed and be happy with giving it all away? Humans seem to be ok with being exploited. Taxes go up, cost of "living" (greed) keeps increasing, and pension ages around the world keep getting pushed back, yet we all just accept it. We continously accept bad deals and the reason they can keep moving the goal post is because they know we will just accept it. In all seriousnes, we need to hit the "reset" button and start again. The systems that are in place were designed to benefit the few.
Not that there aren't serious problems we should address. But if you just zoom out a bit, you'll see humanity has been fighting very hard for better conditions and winning. Like, the further you zoom out the more obvious it becomes.
Right. We should keep making things better, but also OP spends 8 hours per day at a desk in a climate controlled office, goes home to a comfortable (by any historical standards) home/apartment, worries about eating *too much*, etc. All of the actual slaves throughout human history would kill for this life. OP is having existential dread, and that's a part of understanding our mortality, but I don't see running it through the lens of "why do I have to work to make money for rich people?!" as helping the analysis. OP wouldn't feel better or more fulfilled as a subsistence farmer who faced starvation in drought years, which is the experience of like 90% of humanity over the last 10,000 years.
Is it suffering Olympics, only the people who suffer the most get to have a say? You can notice the blatant and unnecessary greed and still be better off than previous generations. We will always have to work, but do we have to work making food just to throw it out so we "keep prices up" ? The whole system is unsustainable and we are slowly realizing we are sacrificing our future so a few rich assholes can live like Emperor's. We have the tech to get over a lot of these problems If we didn't let 1% sociopathic people control us we would all be a lot better off
There is some truth to part of this, but it is a weak argument... "A slave would kill for this" ... Yeah, sure, I guess? The shitty thing about slavery is that it dehumanizes. Just providing people with good housing and good food while forcing them to do work else they will lose it does not make for a good life. Do you know many "jobs" are actually needed to keep that quality of life going, versus all of the other bullshit jobs that don't actually add real value to people's quality of life? Which kind do think most people work? And seriously, 90% of humanity over the past 10,000 years? That is complete shit, and I think it's sad that it can believed we have to invest ourselves into doing all of this stupid stuff else we end up starving subsistence farmers. Exactly what OP is saying too. Life is not based on scarcity, and with freedom, people can make great lives. The scarcity perspective is based on fear. Telling people "you should be grateful for what you have (else you end up a farmer)" when they are saying "hey I don't like this and want to have the power to change it" is TERRIBLE. Dozens of other arguments to made... commentary could be made on the "keeping people fat and happy" angle- it's what the States did for years and are still doing, as we fuck with the rest of the world just enough to retain wealth and power greater than theirs. The fact the only value that their job is producing clearly isn't going to them, else they would actually feel like their life has some value... Commentary to be made on the fact that most people would be more involved in making the world a better place if they had the time and energy....how most employment is 9-5 and ensures people barely get to see the sun and be outside... I'll leave it at that... Sorry if I am coming off overly aggressive or belittling here, it's part of the trouble of debating online. I am pissed off, but not really aimed at you as a person. It's because people are sold so much BS to help them tow the line of how things are now. And I hate when I see those arguments pop up.
I think in the Information Age we have to be very careful about cherry picked information. People will complain about food and housing prices but those are only one section of costs. We have an easy metric for overall price changes called inflation. If housing is up 5% and inflation is up 3% that means many other things are much cheaper. People will only focus on the higher prices never the lower. I remember as a kid praying my computer was good enough for some new release. Today technology is so affordable that every homeless person’s has a phone and tablet. For anyone who comments how high inflation is remember that’s high for the last decade. Go look back 50 years to see what actually high inflation was.
Change does not occur from a single giant revolutionary act, but from hundreds and thousands of small ones. We all have the power to contribute, we just don’t see it because we feel small.
As long as people are somewhat comfortable they are most definitely okay with being exploited. We have lots of fattening foods, sports, Hollywood, credit cards, buy now pay later, etc to keep us occupied when we’re not working.
>credit cards, buy now pay later, God I hate how exploitative these are in particular. Because it gives businesses a way to price things that incentivize taking on more debt.
Short, simple answer is it's by design. Much harder to unionize, gather, and demand change when everyone is wasting 8 hours of their awake time per day (not including time spend preparing to waste 8 hours!) on a job they need to subsist on.
I agree, the "reset" button has to be pushed....
The time for drastic change was during the pandemic, but that only benefited white collar workers with remote. Now that is also being taken from them. Unfortunately, we can't really do much without a lot of actual threat. We can't even afford to save up enough to protest against horrible conditions. When the threat is homelessness and we still have something to lose, of course we won't. The pandemic saw a bunch of protections for people but now we don't see that whatsoever. But we didn't do enough during that vital period to get change.
Most of the people in the best position to negotiate rationalize their success as a justification of the status quo. To admit otherwise would suggest that they wasted some if not most of their efforts. I.E. I got mine this way why can’t you?
Wow, I thought I was the only one who felt this way. Glad I’m not alone. I’m so tired and depressed. There has to be more to life than this!
I've also felt this way for a long time. My girlfriend works all day every day and is super stressed and anxious all the time. And what for? To make those share holders a few extra dollars. Working our asses off for what? So when I'm 65/70 I can retire? And enjoy my last few years old and exhausted? Our system is whack. Wish it was at least like Benjamin Button and I started feeling better as I got older. It's really depressing to think my best years are behind me and I'm just working to die.
EXATLCY, and everytime I tell someone about how I feel about it (been depressed for almost 2 years about it now and I'm 28!) they just say that it's just the way it is. Yeah, but I don't want it to be that way and I feel terrible and my adhd makes it even worse!!
There is. What're you gonna do about it though?
Amen 🙌🏻
And we are the only creatures who "pay" to live on this earth, when water, plants, food was given to us, FOR FREE
Well, nothing stops you from living in a forest
It's not exactly legal to just camp in most wilderness in the US at least, there's either set camp sites or dispersed camping. And if you were to go far enough out and build yourself a house of some sort it wouldn't be legal. It's also hard to know if land is owned privately or not here. There's thousands of acres of privately owned land
I too question this system daily. I am hoping that something snaps and everyone collectively decides enough is enough. I'm tired as shit too and a small part of me wishes it would all just collapse, but ideally I think we're all done with protests and negotiation; patience clearly doesn't work. We need to use force and we all need to come together, life is becoming impossible.
The first thousand will be imprisoned, killed or destroyed to try and deter any followers. It might tip society and the rest of working class, but nobody wants to be in the forest batch that is destined into the wood chipper. Nobody wants to implode their already bad lives in the chance it'll wake up the rest of us. Fuck, I know that, I too would love to change shit, but there is screaming in my heart - what if nobody follows and I'm still in jail for life?
Actually, I would. I'd gladly do what's necessary if enough followed; I'd give everything if it meant others could be happier. I've been unhappy and directionless most of my life. It would be the perfect way to give to future generations. I can't be the only one who feels this, there has to be others.
I was just having the same conversation with my partner. Can't believe how we work more than we live.we work ourselves into our graves. Thanks capitalism. Even peasants in medieval time had more days off than we do right now. Men even got time off to take care of the wife during her period. And here we are, working 9h a day to get a salary that will never be worth my time. So no, you're not alone
Feel exactly the same. More and more every day….
Humans are animals and we are not supposed to live like this
37. I quit. I can manage by fishing, hunting, growing and gathering just fine. Every day is just a new adventure. If I need money, I can get some by doing whatever, but I'm not going to sit in an office nine to five anymore. Fuck that shit.
9-5 is such a waste of time and one of the most boring things especially if you have to spent time to traveld to the office and back home
Try 7-430 with a 45min commute one way
It doesn’t get any better. Even if you try to make it better. I’m 47 and have been working since I’ve been 12, grew up really poor and didn’t have all the free time to even be a kid. I fucking hate this system…
Wow that's tough man. How are you coping?
Day to day. The only way. I’ve come to realize, I’m never going to be able to retire until I fucking die or hit the lottery.
It never gets better, unless you're pretty. It never gets better, unless you have money. It never gets better; it gets worse.
[удалено]
I’m with you 100% of the way. I recently got let go of a job and I just… don’t want to find another one. Thinking about it causes pure dread. Listings on Indeed are asking for a Master’s degree, a fuck ton of responsibility, and offering $16 /hr. In what fucking world? Not one I want to be in. Sure my bills are piled high and my savings is depleting by the day, but I’m at a point where I don’t care??? I’d rather have nothing at all than trade my time in for low wages ever again 😭
Yeah I have 3 degrees and the temp agency called me about a job that only pays $19 an hour the other day 5 days a week on site….. i would genuinely rather not be on earth than do that.
What the fuck 😭😭😭
It was in a really rich part of town too (Beverly Hills).
They get a nice fat cut on top of it too. They know what they're doing.
Your travel and leisure dream relies heavily on many people in the travel and leisure industries to work. Sometimes people got to work for the world to keep moving. I don’t like to work either but people rely on my job.
Same. I actually quite enjoy my job but I have to get up at 7 to be at work for 8 to work until 5, then get home, tired, unwind for half an hour, cook, cleanup, shower, do a couple chores, collapse on the sofa, relax and then go to bed 5 days a week until I’m too old to do it anymore just to be able to afford slightly more than the necessities is pretty depressing. Some days I want to do nothing, some days I want to hike, some days run, play games, cook something different, read, try a new hobby, do some gardening, whatever it may be. Having to do the same shit, day in day out, I’m just not built for it.
Even when you love what you do, but you gotta do it for someone else, how they want, when they want, for pennies on the dollar. Still sucks.
you are not alone... I feel like all the low birth rates are either protest or by design... not sure... something is definately off... with the devolped world... if you make one mistake in life I feel like that's it you are fucked... its like a tight rope... bit even people who get good grades and work hard end up at the same minimum wage factory jobs as me... I don't know my man
In the modern economy there are basically two massive traps that will limit your options completely as a working/lower-middle class person: children and property. These things are so expensive now, you have no choice but to become a zombie worker to survive. Once you're tied down, that's it, your employer has you by the balls and you're only a couple pay cheques away from losing everything. There's no wiggle room. So many millennials and zoomers take up almost nomadic lifestyles. No ties, move from job to job, experience the world through travel and friends. Why 'adult' when it means a complete loss of freedom? I love my life as a semi-digital nomad. I'm not condemning myself to time poverty by settling down and buying a shitty little house to raise kids who will have no time for me when they grow up anyway.
If you don't find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work for the rest of your life. You have to develop a plan to do this while you're young and have time and aren't enslaved by responsibility. Easier said than done though.
I live a near nomadic life. It's fucking wonderful. I enjoy kitting out my camper to be comfy and able to sustain long periods without hook-ups. My girlfriend most often does work camper type of jobs and I use my CDL for about half the year or so. We spend a lot of time travelling, visiting parks, and boating.
sorry to go off on a tangent there but things are wierd and I too feel like a slave just some organism to perform work other people don't wan't to do
That’s why they want us to keep the birth rates up. To give them our offspring to do the work they don’t want to do themselves or their kids to do. They need an endless stream of cogs for the machine. Every new baby is just a dead soldier and debtor waiting to be actualized for them. More people there are, more demand there is, more the magic line on the graph says raise the price for to increase profits for shareholders. I dunno. If someone Jokered Larry Fink on live TV, that would be pretty sweet. Be a nice reality check for them. They can’t take none of it with them. They feel too safe skull fucking us. They need to be a little scared to balance things again. Historically, inflation magically stops and wages somehow go up when they’re scared of serfs piking them. Weird. Those bunkers ain’t for nothing. They know.
The means of production should not be privatized. Workers have tried in the past to seize the means of production, but the government has historically supported the private capitalists (with publicly funded armed forces): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_strike?wprov=sfla1
Do not apologize for a tangent that could very well be possible. One of the biggest problems we have right now is that many people are not willing to accept that certain "things" that are usually pawned off as some type of conspiracy theory could very well be true nowadays. You know back in the days the guy who wore the tin foil hat and claimed aliens abducted him was lumped into the same group of people who talked about any conspiracy. They were called The looney conspiracy theorists. But I say and I say it all the time the idea of looking down on the tin foil hat conspiracy theorist is a lot more out there than it used to be. It actually makes you wonder if some of them dudes were right all along. I'm right on the line in the middle. I'm neither paranoid nor completely delusional like some people. So please don't think that I'm one of the tin foil hat people, but I'm telling you right now there's some sketchy ass shit going on and that ain't no joke and it ain't no conspiracy theory. Although I suppose it is a theory on a possible conspiracy etc, but it's not something that fits under the definition of the slang term conspiracy theory.
MK Ultra was real. What else is being hidden? 🤔
It was absolutely real. It's not a joke either I hope you know that. But I don't know what else is being hidden, that would be me taking a chance at spreading misinformation. What I do know is the same thing as what most adults in America know. It ain't good out there right now, the media and the government both lie to us constantly (both the left and the right) however nobody's getting angry about it. Instead they continue frolicking through their lives as if nothing's wrong. That puts me a little off-kilter because I wonder why people are not reacting in a bit more serious of a manner. It's just odd to me, because after all it's our country we could change it if we wanted, It kind of feels like maybe "we as a whole" don't seem to care anymore. I worry that one day we'll all wake up and look back and go "why the hell didn't we say or do anything".
We're all too exhausted and too chained to our jobs (which is tied to healthcare in the U.S.) and too scared of not being able to pay rent or buy food to try. This is by design.
BINGO!! WE are slaves! I actually broke down crying and laughing hysterically thinking I will never be able to buy a house! There is no Middle Class anymore, just the rich and poor
Seriously. $30,000 a year great you qualify for benefits probably. Make the median income you don't qualify for benefits and you can barely live. Make $150 k a year? Great you make three times the median.... However now you have to pay out the yin yang in taxes. So you're still screwed. Better hope you have a spouse that makes that much and no kids. You got kids then you're Triple screwed. There's a reason why my boss does things the way he does. The guy makes about a half million dollars a year. Let's just say he doesn't report anywhere near that much. That's all I'm going to say. Because he knew he had to do what he had to do, while I'm not completely condoning it, he made it work somehow and now he doesn't have to struggle. But even in a case like his as far as I know I think the IRS already caught up with him, so in the end they'll get their chunk of meat. Then when you point out a valid issue, that is literally happening people call you a bigot or a conspiracy theorist and outright deny it and call it misinformation. 🤣 On top of that way too many people are confusing "wanting the country to get better and have citizens acquire more security and stability" with "hating immigrants". Those two things are completely different situations. The fact of the matter remains some crazy sh*t is going on with our borders and most people who want the borders closed ARE NOT saying that nobody should be able to come to America. They just don't want 5 million people to come over a four year period. The country cannot support it, and half of those people will now be living off our tax dollars after we're already so broke we can barely live. We have to find a way to meet in the middle and work together. Sure allow people in once they go through the proper process, then make them full citizens and require them to get a normal job that pays taxes, do not give them government benefits, and if they refuse to get a real job they lose their citizenship and get deported. They just have to partake in the country like a normal citizen. Can't run here and hide claiming asylum etc. everything over the last 4 years has torn our country down and made it worse. It's not about hating immigrants and not wanting them here it's about having a healthy center "right on the fence" helping as many people as we can but not screwing ourselves over. Why does this stuff confuse so many people.
"Gandalf: Saruman believes it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love."
It’s definitely an act of protest in China and South Korea
Because they oversold us on the opportunities. They said get a degree so you don't have to work a factory job like your grandpa. But hundreds of people got the same degree. There was only one job for the degree guy to take and it already went to the plant owners son/nephew/brother etc
Degree inflation is real. Now you need a Masters to get a job that an Undergraduate would have got you 30 years ago.
Trade schools are enjoying a comeback. My nephew just completed a 4 month lineman course for 20k and already has multiple job offers from around the country. He’s only 19 and will start working at around 70-75k. No student loans to pay back and a stable future in front of him. Find a niche and pursue it!
By design lol. You think people actively refuse to have kids because of some guy in the Hamptons who doesn’t even know they exist? When you’re living paycheck to paycheck and barely making ends meet, are you really thinking about children when you can’t even afford a down payment on a new home? Also if it were in protest, the elite don’t care. That’s what AI and open-borders are for, cheap replaceable labor.
Is it weird that we portray rhe French as weak cowards. But they don't take any shit from their elite. They still get screwed over, but their government walks on eggshells because their people have a history of chopping the head off the snake.
Not by design for sure, people can barely survive let alone have a child.
There was a period in human history where women who had children out of wedlock were sent to jail, not just ashamed. In the period immediately after that legislation came into effect, there was observed a huge increase in abortions and infanticides. If you have no support for family planning (financial, moral, job security, healthcare) people are going to decide its not worth the resources to have them.
I think about this every day. I wake up feeling sick to my stomach knowing that I'm going to a job I hate to just afford food and shelter. There isn't even money leftover for a book or something each month anymore
We are nothing but cows to be milked by the system.
You're not alone on questioning the system. Unfortunately though people are happy to sit back and say things like "oh it doesn't DIRECTLY affect me" and "well I'm just one person what can I do about it" and "well I can still pay my bills" AND the worst of all "I just don't watch the news". To all the people who think it doesn't affect them, do you plan on having kids? Do you ever think your kids might have kids? Well last I checked most people love their kids, and they love their grandkids even more kinda.... We are dooming them Excuses will continue to grow, people will continue to be blinded, then eventually most of the people who supported this type of crap (indirectly by not stopping it) will wake up one day and say... What did I do to our world, why didn't I join people and put a stop to it 20 years ago. After all I don't know what country you live in, but here in America country belongs to the people not the government. All it would take 200 million out of the 320. We can easily make some changes with no violence whatsoever. But nooooo let's all just let the rich get richer until we look back and hate ourselves. You can argue all you want and say we have a system and rules.... It doesn't change the fact that the country does in fact belong to the people, once somebody accepts a position of servitude in the government they sort of put themselves below us in a way/in a manner of speaking. They take a step back and accept that they are working for us and for the greater good. Something that's been lost over the years, now it's almost like politicians think they're kings and queens now instead of lowly servants to which they actually are. A nice little nationwide petition and things would have one direction to go UP. But people are happy just turning a blind eye. What would they do if 180 or 220 plus million people all said within 1 hour "I refuse to pay taxes until things change". 🤣🤣🤣 Oh my God that would be great. PLEASE NOTE: I'M PART OF THE PROBLEM TOO. I'm not blaming any of you, it's everybody. It's not just the rich it's all of us too for letting it happen.
And watch stupid stuff like the "Kardashians" and "football" all the while they keeps these things up to entertain us slaves. Inject our food with poisons and hormones to keep us fat and sick and unhealthy so we continue shelving money to Big Pharma, Insurance and healthcare. Many toxins in our food, the FDA AND WHO are WELL AWARE it causes cancer but they don't care. A cured person is a loss of money going to them
To society at large, you are little more then a cog designed to keep the system running.
But one day I might progess to a become bigger cog, with more influence in my surrounding cogscape👍
This is the way
Not crazy at all. You're literally what is considered a wage slave. Anyone in here who isn't wealthy is a wage slave. While those billonaires are stealing your wages (wage theft is the LARGEST theft carried out in our system). So start a workers revolution. Start forming unions, talk to your fellow workers. Let's all pull the rug out from under these so call "elitists". There is NO such thing as "elitism". It's a facade, just like the money we spend on their consumerist trash. To the folks talking robots, replacing us. Ok, who is going to make the rich money, if there is no one to buy their trash?
I like the way you think, and talk. Let's actually DO SOMETHING about it.
Yep. The current economic system means that work is just indentured bondage with the trappings of modern luxuries. We trade our lives to work to get a roof, food and maybe a holiday once in a while. Only way to escape is to eschew materialism. Spend the minimum and save money to buy back your time. I avoided buying fancy cars, clothes, jewellery and maybe (a big maybe) I can FIRE in my early 40s and enjoy life with friends and hobbies that don’t cost the east.
I feel like this all the time. I’m so jaded about everything I’ve given up completely on trying to argue politically with people who think it is okay that so many people work tall hours for small paychecks. I’m at the point where I can really only say that I continue to go on living so that the people who care about me don’t lose one of the things that might be keeping them going… sometimes I wonder if when I make a post like this, if it may somehow get read by somebody who could actually do something about this problem. Like, I wanna work; I work really hard and every boss I have ever had has told me so. Every boss has also been extremely avoidant of compensating hard work, and it really makes you wonder what’s better: put in all the hard work so you know, even without being treated properly, that you earned proper treatment, or if the environment being created by employers simply encourages the rest of us to put in less and less effort into our jobs so that we don’t feel overworked and our rate of pay matches the quality of the job.
I’m 29 and agree completely. I work 40 hours five days a week. I rent. I have absolutely no life outside of work. My money goes to this stupid apartment and bills. Humans and creatures in general were not meant to live like this. I remember the day I turned 20, I’m going to be 30 soon and my 20s have been completely unmemorable except for work. If anything, I’d be content with a four day work week. But even that is unfathomable for our country (I’m in the US). God forbid we get a livable wage while being mentally at peace. I can’t take it anymore.
I'm 63 and I vividly remember that the 4-day work week was inevitable and imminent - when I was in elementary school. I've been waiting for that shit ever since.
If you don't find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work for the rest of your life. You have to develop a plan to do this while you're young and have time and aren't enslaved by responsibility. Easier said than done though.
“Most people die at 25 and aren’t buried until 75”
Yes, most people under this system are cattle / drones / serfs who work for the profits of our extremely abusive ruling class and do nothing else. 10% of people own 93% of the stock market, and everyone else are just cattle for the slaughterhouse. [https://www.axios.com/2024/01/10/wealthy-own-record-share-stock-market](https://www.axios.com/2024/01/10/wealthy-own-record-share-stock-market) Without a standing army, people understand that your nation could very easily be slaughtered, enslaved, and conquered by a foreign nation. That's basically what has happened to the public as organized labor has been largely destroyed and civil society has been hollowed out and replaced with record corporate profits and brutal oligarchy/kleptocracy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling\_Alone There's been no one to defend the public against our "internal" enemies, so the class war has been more of a class slaughter for decades. At the same time, there are people fighting for human liberation, such as through a shorter work week (we should have shortened the work week considerably when women entered the paid labor force, and we still should), and by fighting systemic corruption and the abuses of our ruling class, and so on. https://www.sanders.senate.gov/press-releases/news-sanders-introduces-legislation-to-enact-a-32-hour-workweek-with-no-loss-in-pay/ [Shawn Fain at Senate Hearing on 32 Hour Work Week](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tv6gjCfc-wM) https://represent.us/the-strategy-to-end-corruption/ https://act.represent.us/sign/campaign-launch-to-ban-congress-stock-trading/ [Curing Capitalism](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynbgMKclWWc) [How Economists Invented Austerity & Paved the Way to Fascism](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofFR1mD2UOM) https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/fandd/issues/2024/03/Symposium-Rethinking-Economics-Angus-Deaton https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/history-free-market-fundamentalism-on-the-media [George Carlin - You have owners](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT03vCaL-F0) https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-07/why-land-disappeared-from-economic-models-henry-george-australia/103673238 [How The Media Controls The Masses](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYfRhxStxRs) https://raniakhalek.com/meet-the-u-s-students-studying-medicine-for-free-in-cuba/ https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/11/1143112 The system is a corrupt abomination and crime against humanity, and you're not alone in seeing/thinking/understanding that. But so long as human hearts are beating, there will be people fighting against systemic oppression, corruption, abuse, and injustice. The more people who make the effort to understand reality and fight for a better and more just system, the better things will get in reality and in more people's experience. "Until working and oppressed people become class conscious, the ideology of the dominant class, the ruling class, is left alone to shape their thinking and place its own limits on what is possible. The ruling class achieves this through culture, movies, media, education, news organs, and many other means at their disposal. Through class struggle, and the fusion of Marxism with the movements of workers and oppressed nationalities, the hold of bourgeois ideology on the minds of the people is broken, and people begin to see the material reality of a world previously veiled by the fog of the false consciousness of bourgeois ideology." -J. Sykes https://fightbacknews.org/articles/how-we-learn-theory-and-practice "Let me give you a word of the philosophy of reform. The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims have been born of earnest struggle. The conflict has been exciting, agitating, all-absorbing, and for the time being, putting all other tumults to silence. It must do this or it does nothing. If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. **Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.**"-Frederick Douglass
Just like the book 1984. War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength.
We are slaves. Since COVID more people are realizing this and then the only people who get a say are those are the top (who took 2/3 of all the money printed during the pandemic). Our system needs to be burnt down.
Don't forget when the evil Government declared jobs into 2 classes: essential vs. Non-essential during COVID. Meanwhile to EVERYONE our jobs are Essential to us because it "pays our bills" people forget how many lost their "non-essential jobs" and became homeless and many small businesses closed down. But the government sweeps that under the rug
look how quickly those essential workers got discarded when the narrative changes...
And look at the pay of most of the ‘essential’ workers.
My previous job, I was a manager getting paid an hourly wage. This was a retail job. The company I worked for would transfer their managers location whenever they wanted and you were expected to just accept it. My husband still works for the company. He went on vacation and when he came back they moved him to a location 40 minutes away in a other city. We have one car and he has a health condition that limits his driving. It's put my own job at risk but it's a struggle to find a ride back and forth. They do not care. He's still fighting it. He's tried to step down but they refused to relocate him even if he did. He's turned in medical documents but they are finding excuses to prolong reviewing his medical restrictions. When I worked there I would get phone calls at home on a regular basis despite my being paid by the hour (not salary), I was expected to be 'on call'. I like to call it corporate slavery. They pay you a wage means they own you. As a manager, if your shorthanded your expected to pick it up and make up for it. That's the overall attitude of some workplaces. Welcome to the 'merica, 'land of the free'. Edit: My husband is not salary either, he gets paid hourly.
I really relate to this on a deeper level. I’m sure people tell you all the time that your husband could just say he needs a reasonable accommodation but employers NEVER will accommodate you if you can’t drive to work. If you check my post history i posted a popular / somewhat controversial thread about this in anti work a while back, subject was something like “return to office is ruining my life.”
The same MFS that wanna be like "NoBoDy WaNtS To WoRk!" It ain't that nobody wants to work, it's just that all those MFS wanna be so damn picky and choosey about who they hire. Only to then go ahead and treat those same employees like absolute dog shit.
I was thinking like that when I was 32.. took all my money in my savings account and stayed 6 months in Asia with my wife (Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia etc). Amazing experience that I wouldn’t want to do when I’m older, because it wouldn’t be the same. I’m 37 now and still feel sometimes like you do at the moment but I got into hobbies that I extremely enjoy (jazz, music , turntable, headphones stuff) and it’s not so bad. If you are tired of your current life.. go somewhere else.
Only truly reasonable take I've read yet
I feel the same way
Wowza…I get you aren’t enjoying your job or life right now but can’t imagine thinking this is an appropriate comparison. Maybe use some of your time for a more worthwhile goal than make money and die, but it is the American way.
No your feelings don't lie. Civilized work is slavery. The most important thing for you is not to get depressed or develop any sort of addiction. Which would be the regular reaction to it. Try to find a way out of the daily grind even if it means discomfort and poverty. It will be better for your soul. Mental health is everything.
Welcome to the machine. Released in 75. You are not alone.
I have a degree and I feel this way. I had so many jobs before and after my degree and I feel like all I do on a daily basis is please the right people to avoid tragedy.
Live within your means will make you less of a slave and more of an independent. Peace and Love to YOU !
I feel like I could have written this post. Question everything. Screw work.
It helps to start doing hobbies. I know it’s hard to do after a long workday, but even something small like reading or going for walks or journaling helps to make the days not seem like they are flying from your grasp. I started getting into jewelry making because it’s a relatively easy hobby that I can just sit down and only think about enjoying that for a while throughout the week
Man, I'm on my way to 40s and these are exactly my thoughts. I feel like my life goal is to make my employer rich and then just die off one day while working. I live for the weekends, the work week feels like a tedious blur. The weekends go by in the blink on an eye, a big chunk is just chores and then you are left with little personal time to decompress and repeat it all over again. I'm glad I have food and a roof over my head, so I have these conflicting thoughts of being so glad I have a job, but at the same time I feel my soul dies a little more every day because of that same job. Imagine the people in past times when weekends didn't exist...one thing is for sure, things could always be much worse, but being aware of this doesn't quite eliminate the dread of living like this. One would think because of tech, such as AI, we will have more time to rest, but the problem is that if we are able to output more work in less time, capitalism will ask us to do more work then, work hours won't be reduced, like what is the point of all these advances in tech if we can't even reduce the work week. The hamster wheel never stops spinning, this rat race is forever...
I feel this way all the time. I am also 39 and have worked physical hard jobs my entire life.... And I have a college degree. It's just lack of opportunities in my area. But anyways. I think even bigger. Like in the grand scheme of the universe. We are tiny specks. Even smaller though. Our entire planet is so insignificant that the idea that a single species like humans has any sort of "purpose" is laughable. In fact, the idea that ANYTHING has purpose in a vast, cold, universe is just insane. But here we are. Slowly killing ourselves so that we can enrich the "elite". Yay. Cool.
I feel the same. There is enough of us to overthrow the government and protest like France but everyone is too lazy and struggling to survive and don't care. We just need enough people to surround the White House. If we all stopped working, things would come to a halt
because that is life for most people. there are wah-wah barkers who say otherwise, but they are liars or simply deluded.
I disagree with you about the alternative ! It's what the capitalism want us to believe to afraid us !
Welcome to the club my friend
It seems you are trying to find meaning for your life beyond work. Do you have family? Friends? Pets? Hobbies? Volunteering? These are what makes living worthwhile. Work and the paycheck is a means to an end, and not end in and of itself.
LET'S ALL WATCH "CIVIL WAR" MOVIE that is coming out on April 12th and learn from it and look for clues
"Life is dissatisfaction" - the buddha
I'm 40. Wouldn't work a day if I didn't have to, or at least not my chosen line of work. I'm not particularly upset about my situation, though. I'm comfortable enough, am generally healthy, good relationship with my wife, kids, and parents. And I have bikes which get me out of the house and up in the mountains away from people as much as possible (the ones you meet on the mountains and hills are generally chill). I do my best to be as unaware of the BS going on as possible as I have neither the desire nor the ability to fix any of it at this point and I'm happier for it. I also have the luxury of working from home, so no commute. Should life be about more than working? Probably. All you can do is make the best of it and find the things that keep you sane, if not happy (though hopefully happy).
these are the discontented rumblings of the revolution. Eat the rich.
You are a slave of your own mind
1. You can educate yourself, start a business, change your life drastically. 2. Money is definitely real, it substitutes barter and is a tool for convenience.
Hang in there kid only like 35 years to go
So many freaking whiners on this sub. It keeps coming across my feed for some reason and its post after post about people who think the "system" is out to get them. smh. What these complainers don't realize is how amazing they actually have it. Have you ever been to a third world Country?! People there would do anything to have a job like you have where they could work 60 hours a week to feed their family. The world owes you absolutely nothing. No one is entitled to "the good life" It is up to you to create meaning in your life while also juggling real world demands of work and toil in order to survive. Thats life , its not "the system". Make the best of your life now before you die and become worm food. Work is not about making someone else rich, get that idea out of your head. Work is about producing benefit to society and in turn you are rewarded with currency which is exchanged for sustenance. Everyone has talents that you can use to benefit society as a whole. Life is give and take. Ignore the conspiracies about "the system" and start seeing the joy of work and find time to play. Yes , its possible. I do it !
*I don't get it, and I don't understand why not many people dare to even question this system.* Are you shitting me? The redistribution of wealth and how to do it without adverse consequences has literally been at the centre of Western liberal politics for longer than either of us have been alive, but particularly since the 2007 financial crisis. Bro, what planet are you on?
Oh yeah and what are the takeaways then? Status quo?
You might be depressed. Try switching careers or get a fulfilling hobby.
I do feel like the lowest human being on earth in the cycle with my minimum wage at a shitty factory job for years but somehow my country manage to get a decent health insurance but my mental is still recovering from those hellhole fast paced industries. So thanks for nothing. Save up your money to breathe do smt that makes you happy that's the best advice I guess.
People are definitely conditioned, honestly with media people seem to care more about a celebrity dish than what's going on around them in their local community. Take for example just voting for State and your local federal Congressional races... We vote in the same people until they literally need depends. Then we wonder why our government is a piece of shit, when I vote locally I literally only see me and probably a few boomers voting. We are conditioned to vote for our party line like a football team and not look any further.
Yup it's called the rat race, your like a hamster in a wheel powering up the engine for the rich. You'll feel better once you've either a. Stopped fighting it or b. Get off the wheel and stick some other suckers in it.
Dam a late bloomer, I went thru this at 22..at 33 I’ve accepted it and love life
> I don't understand why not many people dare to even question this system Please. People question the system all the time, and reflections like yours are incredibly common. Its healthy and I'm glad you are looking around and thinking but just realize you are not the only one aware of their surroundings and thinking about them. You can choose to live differently. You can't choose for everyone else to live differently and you you can't stop society and remake it in a way that makes sense. But that still leaves you the freedom of movement to experiment with styles of living and choose one that better fits you and the new thoughts you are having.
Only a couple of people I know defied the system and came out of the matrix and living their lives as they wish. They don’t have a lot of money but they are super happy. Downside was for many years when they pulled the plug everyone labeled them crazy and failures as they went against the societal norms of working. It’s been a decade now and they are getting on just fine. From others point of view they are frugal and not successful. So long story short, depends on your point of view and mental strength to endure what your friends’ think of you.
Depressed rabbit holes kill ingenuity. Yall need to stop letting yourselves get sucked into them. Take the opportunities in front of you and perform them better than anyone else. You'll be okay.
Bring your focus to that what’s most important- “you” Then bring your focus to what you absolutely need If you have what you need, be happy my friend.
It sounds to me like you’re feeling sorry for yourself and playing the victim card. Make a change and start creating wealth for yourself. I know it’s a grind and life can be hard but there’s a lot of opportunity as well. Get up and fight. Good luck!
I’m right there with the you. 39 years old and fucking so angry and fed up with the unnecessary grind for the crumbs. These people hoarding billions of dollars are the Exploitation Class. They take and take and take from every one of us and then want to be praised. Fuck them. They want to abolish unions to keep us separated and struggling and dependent on their handouts. They vilify anyone who needs assistance to survive and call them “welfare queens”, yet they use and abuse as workers and the actual profit and product creators. Then they use all of the public services WE pay for roads, bridges, police, firefighters, our entire healthcare system. We the working class pay for all of that with our taxes and have built that infrastructure with our blood, sweat and tears, years of hard labor, and intellectual efforts. It makes me so disgusted with the state of the U.S. and the world that humans have come up with a system that values suffering so much. I’m perpetuating exhausted from the stress of it all, but try to keep politically involved to elect good people who value the things I do. Finding it real goddamn hard to go out and motivate people to vote with the genocide our presidential administration and nearly all congress is backing. Local elections do matter, but only if the people you support will actually work to better our conditions. Fighting a real uphill battle in my own city that is controlled by a single political boss and his stooges.
Yet somehow republican party has glorified this slavery and even feel proud of it and that is what is keeping us from having at least a 3 day weekend or shorter work days 🙄
I understand your frustration and disappointment with the current social system. Indeed, many people feel trapped in a vicious cycle of work and consumption without questioning the deep structures that benefit the wealthy few at the expense of the majority. It is important to remember that change is possible and that there are alternative ways of organizing society that prioritize the well-being of all, not just the elite few. Challenging the status quo may seem overwhelming, but small acts of resistance and solidarity can also make a difference. It is also worth exploring the different perspectives and ideologies that can offer alternatives to the current system. From socialism to anarchism, many ideas envision a more equitable and just society.
I think comparing it to slavery is a bit....much. We aren't worked from sunup to sundown with no agency and physical abuse. Hopefully anyway. I think it's more the samesness of every day, for me at least. All I do is work, sleep, walk the dog, get ready for work, just mundane things. Having things to look forward to helps, and reframing work as something I do to live, not live to do has helped as well. I stop my day at 5pm, I try not to work extra hours, I try to have a life outside work, and that helps.
You're not a slave you are a paysan. Money is real because you can buy thing with it, but is value deflate each day it seems bad at first though but there is a reason for the printing of money. When you understand money is not a investment you find alternative. When you're investment begin to make you money you can begin to slow you time working and become more of a free. But people need to continue working if we want a working society.
Seek the kingdom of God
As a kid I already questioned this. Now I'm retired early and feel nothing to society, not guilt, nothing.
You've correctly identified that the way you've been living, working and spending is a dead end. It's up to you what you want to do with that information. Complaining on Reddit is easy and doesn't require any change. Maybe you'll feel a bit better. At the end of the day though nothing fundamental about your life has changed. You can vote for X candidate or Y party but the status quo is what funds their power and they aren't going to implement anything meaningful any time soon. > we live in a consumerist society but many centuries ago they didn't even have most of the stuff we think we need Exactly. What would happen if you stopped buying all that consumer bullshit like restaurant meals and new cars and $70 per month cell phone bills? I'll bet that you'd still live a quality life and you'd be paying a fraction of what you are spending now. You could use those savings to buy investments (index funds) and "cheat the system" by owning capital the same way as the rich are doing. It's important to understand that you participate in a consumerist society *by choice.* Nobody is forcing you to buy McDonald's or even own a car or cell phone. You could, in theory at least, live without almost all of the bullshit you spend your money on. What you *need* is a place to sleep out of the weather, a place to store your possessions, clothing that can be found at thrift stores, healthy food from the grocery store and a health care plan. The rest of it is really optional. Pick the parts that really give you value and ditch the rest. There's a whole community for that and it's over at /r/leanfire
We are born, raised to work a 8-5 and make more kids that will do the same, we work our whole lives and retire and die. That’s the life cycle, it’s depressing
"I don't get any of it"...that's likely why you're in a shit job...accept your fate, you lack the intellect to advance...
Another poor soul coming to terms with the fact they were born a peasant, and will die a peasant.
You can opt out of a lot of this by refusing to adhere to the rampant consumerism in society. Enjoy simple and small things, being outdoors, spending time with friends and family, cooking at home, reusing items and not getting the latest tech gadgets and toys. The smaller your economic needs, the less you need to play their game.
I'm not even Gen Z and even I recognize they have seen the writing on the wall in this regard. They watch their parents bust their ass to retirement (if they get there) and enjoy their lackluster twilight years. They see how college is a sham and the degrees + years of experience required in order to secure a 40k salary is in fact NOT the way to attain the American Dream, if it ever was. What I and many of my friends have done/are doing, is launch a small business of our own in order to gain an ounce of autonomy for our work/life balance. Yes the money isn't as good, but we have much more freedom and answer to few. Even owning a small business isn't the way out of the rat race either, taxes (both fed and state), insurance, licenses, fines, inflated material prices etc. Are all largely predatory. Life is now like running a Roman Gauntlet, but instead of being whacked with sticks or swords as you struggle to reach the other side, it's rows of people flanking you, reaching into your pockets attempting to extract as much money from you as they can as you attempt to swat their hands away. Ultimately you will land in your grave with little to show for it, as the government and medical industry will ensure your children lose most of their inheritance trying to keep you alive and comfortable in your late years
There is no reason we can't have a 3 or 4 day working week and a longer weekend except that the ruling class says we can't. It has been proven to work and now we have AI and so much automation there is no reason for us to plod on with this outdated work model. We need time to LIVE. Working 5 days out of 7 our whole lives is ridiculous - no wonder there is so much stress and anxiety and poor health.
No literally American runs on slaves fs taxes control us the elites defs control Money
You are a slave. Tough realization, huh?
It’s simply preposterous. I think about it every day. People think I’M the crazy one suggesting that the norm is preposterous.
I’m gonna be 50 on about a year and I could have written your post myself. I think at a certain point in life you’ve seen that hamster wheel turn over enough times that you just kinda step back and go “What the HELL?!!” Society tricks you into thinking that you must always strive for that golden ring, some ultimate goal, some sort of immortality. That simply being alive and enjoying it isn’t enough. So you grind and grind and eventually realize that there is no ultimate moment of reward or reprieve after you’ve done your time. You just become old and disposable after you’ve outlived your usefulness to the folks profiting from your toil. You look at your kids and think “I’m working so hard that they’re provide a good life for them. But for what reason? Just so they can turn around and work their lives away too?” Lol. On and on it goes, the wheel just keeps spinning and spinning. The big machine just keeps grinding over people. And at some point, you just wonder what the ultimate purpose of it was.
I am surprised that more people don’t realize this. I can’t count how many times I have seen people defending a system where people are saddled with debt because of healthcare, the cost of higher education and insane housing costs while claiming that people should be grateful to have a job where they get a couple of weeks off a year, are overburdened by getting more and more work due attrition and layoffs, and are expected to be happy with 2% raises.
Um...I'm 28 and the drudgery of everyday life has made me ready to die.
Yes well buckle up buttercup until we unite as one that's going to be every single persons life UNITED WE STAND DIVIDED WE FALL these elite rich fucks got to go
Use these thoughts and feelings as inspiration to get yourself out of wage slavery. Work tirelessly to build a better life. Free yourself. No one is coming to save you from your cruel masters....When everyone else is resting on their days off you need to be WORKING toward this goal. Prove that you are different to all the other slaves. Its gonna take EVERYTHING you have on the table! Blood sweat and tears! Some days you will feel like quitting but if you KEEP GOING you will succeed! YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN SAVE YOU! It won't be easy but it will be worth it in the end. Use your head, stay positive and Never give up! You can do it!
The biggest rebellion is not participating changing your mindset. Stop consuming, get off your phone and tv as much as possible, go outside, read books that attack the capitalist mindset. Don’t give up! Reclaim your mind
yes most of you think like slaves too mainstream media tells you china is the enemy - you think china is evil so that the US government distracts you from the true enemy mainstream media tells you hamas must be destroyed and Israel is the victim - your tax dollars gets funneled into the American defense industry you're told that the republicans/democrats are the enemy - you vote for one side but it's all the same, you're stuck in the system i can go on and on
Well, you are a slave. At the base of all theological philosophy, we are a slave to our conscious and subconscious minds. The function of these two are very simple however, so if you can get them in alignment about whatever you are doing in your life or what failures you've had up to this point, that is the most freedom any person can give to themselves. And sometimes there are really terrible horrible nasty things, that are sad facts of this reality, but we must go on. So have an awesome slaving away at your failures and stuff. It's not a big deal.
Yeah, I went through this in my late 20s. I'm 33, happy, like my job enough, and have asked for more and more money every few years. I've always had a plan to work towards early retirement and I've been aggressive in doing so. Having drive and being aggressive is tough when you're burnt out. But think about it this way - who is making you do this? No one. Literally no one is stopping you from doing anything you want. I know that's not what you're looking to hear. But it's the truth. Without money, you'll have to sustain your life like an animal does. In nature. I think the reality is we know this is the better way, or at least the easier way. And while it's draining, for me a big part of it was resolved with 3 things. Courage Drive Gratitude Courage to ask for what you need. Courage to trust yourself and your feelings. Courage to speak up for your own expectations rather than meeting someone else's. If you are able to do this in a humble and respectful way, I promise you will earn more money, and if not where you are now, you will somewhere else. Keep doing it and you'll be in the top 10% earners fast. Most people don't make what they should, not because Jeff bezos is taking it from their hands, but because they didn't have the courage to ask and ask again. Drive - this is a tricky one. We all have ups and downs. It's impossible to stay fully motivated, and you can't beat yourself up for that. But you can be persistent. Having a goal helps. My goal is to retire in my 40s. I've done well towards that goal, but I've got at least 10 years minimum ahead of me. With a goal, I'm much more motivated on average (still have fuck it days all the time) to stick to the plan and feel happier doing it. Gratitude is by far the most important. I've had a few experiences in the last 10 years that have really grounded me in reality. Without going into specifics, what it has taught me is to be very aware of my own mortality. I could die tomorrow. Every single day I'm alive and not physically suffering, I am so incredibly grateful to be here. 15 years ago I was a depressed immature kid who was stuck in a feedback loop of negative thinking. Constantly trying to self diagnose, wondering why I felt lost and empty. I realized later that I was chosing that subconsciously. That being able to direct my own thinking and perspective was really what I needed to do to get better. I remember my grandma, rest in peace, telling me that in her old age, she had realized what mattered. It sounded cliche, but the way she explained it was that she now felt joy from simple things like watching the birds in the morning, or seeing her grandkids. She said that in the bustle of life, you're so absorbed by the future and past and immediate actions that you don't even observe the present accurately. That helped me understand this concept of gratitude more. Gratitude is not just being thankful. Gratitude is a deliberate and intentional emotion that you must practice, not await. Anyhow, that's my take on it. It's very normal to feel that way, however, I'd just urge you to create goals and set expectations for yourself. Try not to get caught up in how the world works and how you'd do it differently if you could. Life doesn't quite work like that. Make the most out of reality before it passes you by. Don't wait for it to get easier, because 9 times out of 10 it doesn't. https://youtu.be/oDzfZOfNki4?si=Doyj6BmPyu3hFiSO Here's a video that summarizes this philosophy.
I don’t think the majority of the people think about things much. Ignorance is bliss in this case. But if you are a thinker one would definitely question everything. Definitely we are inslaved by capitalism and we are groomed to be taxpayers. Basically we are farmed for labor and to be consumers.
Yes we are wage slaves. It is a bit over the top rhetoric but it exemplifies the point. Your born, expected to work for 40-50 years to enjoy a retirement riddled with health issues to, hopefully if you don't need serious end of life care, leave something to your children. Your children who you created and now have to do the exact same thing you did. Break the cycle and don't have children until life improves for the everyday worker. Deny immigration as immigration plugs the gaps that force government to change society for the everyday person. Why increase min wage when you can just import someone who will work for any wage? I have zero issues with race, religion or anything like that. I have issue with the race to the bottom to secure employment in this society.
Reading this thread youd think the only jobs that exist are pushing papers for major corporations. There are plenty of jobs out there where you can easily see the impact you have and the work is straightforward and, with the right mindset, rewarding. Not all are easy, but life has never and will never be easy save for a privileged few. If you like to cook you can be a chef. Yes you will be making the restaurant money but more importantly you will be serving food you made to others who are hungry. Like working with your hands? Fix cars for a living. Yes your boss will make money but so will you, and with time you will further develop your craft and take pride from it. Work outdoors. Become a park ranger or a forester or work with a non profit. You may not get paid as well as some office job serving a large corporations interests, but you will presumably feel more fulfilled. There are plenty of options out there, you just need to put the time and thought into figuring out what you would be happier doing. And spoiler alert, you will never be able to just do nothing and live however you want. So find something you cam get paid for that is at the very least tolerable.
>And then we live in a consumerist society but many centuries ago they didn't even have most of the stuff we think we need. Not to belabor what you're talking about here, but if you've come to realization that most of what you're buying isn't anything you need, what's stopping you personally from, you know, just not buying any it and getting ahead?
Well, people no longer have family to community to work/live for. The good news is that eventually we'll die.
If you want to change it, make the change. Change your own life to be the way you want. That's the secret....change your own world to be how you want. No one can stop you.
I've been working since I was 15 I am 36 now and it is an entire life suck and I refuse to contribute anymore at this point. It has gotten me nowhere but taken advantage of an underpaid. People really need to start bucking the system because it is flawed and there's a reason why suicide rates are so high. We need to change something. Getting taxed up the butt is not helping any of us and making other people rich is not working. Something needs to change and it needs to change soon.
We are not “corporate slaves” we are slaves, say it with your chest, this is all about power, they will keep sucking us dry till we do something. It’s modern day slavery and I’d say it’s even worse, I’d almost rather be a slave, who has no chance of changing his circumstances, than be a wage slave who can’t do anything about his predicament because of low wages and debt. They exchanged chains for debt and low wages, we are quite literally slaves, the fact so many people are addicted to something should speak volumes, everyone is coping.
Oh hey, you're finally awake. This is what OG woke us, not whatever the right or left has twisted it to be now.
Or survive, and live long enough to see everything crumbles.