Comment by throwitaway222 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by throwitaway222 | Hacker News Reader

No:

    * My wife's dad passed away extremely unexpectedly (at 64) 8 months ago
    * My dad just started showing signs of ALS about 3 months ago and is probably a few months away from death (it is an EXTREME accelerated onset)
    * My wife recently started to experience extreme depression, insomnia, anxiety, OCD, and has been trying everything and nothing is working yet.
    * Had to fix my truck's belt twice in one week
    * Someone ran into my car and it was totaled
    * My personal inflation rate is somewhere around 100% for everything: cheese to diesel gas
    * I had to take a second job to pay for my wife's medical bills
    * We live in an RV because home prices shot up right around the time we were trying to close on a manufactured home - the seller then refused the original price AFTER the bank loan was completed (which forced a loss of 10k)
    * We both get irritated when we see someone complain of long lines or just something that doesn't fucking matter.
    * Don't worry, while we do own guns, we're not the type to lose our shit and aim at people.

> I can only speculate. I don't know what's going on. Maybe I'm just imagining things. Maybe I'm the one that's gone crazy.

No we're all experiencing things differently. I would say though, that the world is extremely unstable for people close to the border of unaffordability. If things slip any more, the world is going to implode.

I think people with money - basically the "winners" while covid politics made for easy money. Those people ought to think about that. It very well be an extremely important time in history to truly have "fake jobs" so that the world doesn't go there.

I am sorry for where you stand and I hope you can get to better times soon. That said, I am really sorry but what you describe is NOT the world. It is the United States of America. In Europe we’re having a hard time, but we have a lot in place that would have prevented for the most damaging things you listed to happen, for example you wouldn’t have had to take a second job to afford any medical bills, and you would have had more time to spend with your wife. Contract laws would have prevented your house price increase in the EU.

Sorry if I could sound insensitive to you, but it’s about time that Americans understand that their personal problems are a societal-level issue. And that AMERICA /= the world.

You are not more of a loser than the other guy because of what you’re going through, and you shouldn’t be forced to power through or “soldier through” (see, it’s in the language even) to be ok. There should be a proper societal network ready to help you and to make sure that you can keep contributing to society.

This. I moved from the US to Germany several years ago and while everyone experiences hardship, your life isn't scarred here like it would be in the US.

Breaking your arm at work in the US could result in homelessness, rather easily. You'd have to try hard for that to be the case here - arguably, it's impossible here.

Europe really isn't that much better these days. Obviously it isn't as extreme as in the US, but plenty of people still have had their lives ruined because of the pandemic and most societies are pretending like nothing happened. I hope there is a European country that is set to be better in 10 years, but at least I don't know about it.

You're talking about a select few countries in Europe, if that. Notice the recent protests in France, notice how Spain is going down the neoliberal hell-hole even more, damn the protesting public health workers [1], notice how a literal peasants' party got lots of votes in very urban The Netherlands because of the political elites ignoring a great chunk of the country's electorate.

And that's just Western Europe and ignoring Britain, over here in Eastern Europe things are even more complicated, let's put it that way.

Later edit: To make it clear, I still think that the average European has got it better compared to the average US resident when it comes to basic stuff like housing and healthcare, just wanted to point out that the direction that we're all going isn't one that gives me hope.

[1] https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/...

Sorry to hear. You seem to be in a very bad streak. Be careful of reaching "fuck it" and letting go. Bad luck can't run forever. Be careful with dissociative things like alcohol, drugs, and negative media/social media. Those are classic traps when you are down. They prey on vulnerable people. Focus instead on making things slowly get better. I hope I don't sound heartless but I've worked for years with people further down your current path. A lot of people just let go without understanding the consequences of that decision.

You need to put taking care of yourself before you take care of others, including your wife. It's useless to take care of somebody just to burn out yourself a few months down the road and they end up on their own, anyway. Reach out for help in family, friends, and even the state. Just be careful about who you let in. YMMV

Agreed, I am not near the lines I know others are so very close to, and yet so far from achieving any financial goals it feels as if I am stuck and unable to do anything but preserver and hopefully not get (too) unlucky.

While I would say I work hard and I would appreciate a significant raise if "fake jobs" become a thing, there really is so much money out there we can absolutely afford it.

They should also mostly be all remote work jobs - while we have mountains of cash in some places (not banks if you have followed the news the scumlords of techno-industry land have raided those establishments, not that banks have ever been solvent but actively destabilizing them is something different), we do not have enough petrol, batteries, or plastics to maintain the jobs we do have indefinitely. We will need to be living sustainably at home with biodegradables and renewables, perhaps figuring that out can be part of what those "fake jobs" entails - given money to live and figuring out how not to lose your sanity or induce harm to the environment which keeps you alive.

Of course panoply of threats is a growing concern, I agree that our phones do not reflect our lives but they do reflecting growing misfortune - having a phone is an indicator that your life will not look like what your phone is talking about.

My dad passed away tonight. :(

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