Comments | blythechild: It's Tuesday. The Subject Is Money. GO!

blythechild

It's Tuesday. The Subject Is Money. GO!

Dec 10, 2013 12:07

I've been reading a lot lately about the younger generation's apathy towards established social values because they feel hopelessly removed from them. Kinda like a Dickensian street waif fogging up the glowing windows of privilege with their unfortunate desperation. Some social scientists have labeled this particular segment of the population "The ( Read more... )

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Comments 9

l_rabbit December 10 2013, 23:55:06 UTC

Hi ( ... )

blythechild December 11 2013, 15:37:37 UTC

I agree that corporations shouldn't consider the public coffers as a subsidy to their payroll department. Not unless they wish to pay significantly more in federal taxes.

taste_is_sweet December 11 2013, 02:25:47 UTC

I hope that Canada isn't in the same boat as the US. There's a hell of a lot less social assistance here, and everything is about the corporations and their right to make loads of money. There really is this huge myth that everyone is one the verge of 'making it big'; and if they haven't yet it's because they're not working hard enough. And I'm sure that for a generation used to instant celebrities via the internet, it must seem like it's true.

blythechild December 11 2013, 15:34:11 UTC

Canada'a social infrastructure has been whittled away over the last 20 years. Canada Pension Plan is a joke now, in part because a series of politicians decided that corporations could take over that responsibility through their retirement programs for workers, and it would be a great way to woo voters with that illusive 'lower taxes' promise. The problem is that corporations don't want the responsibility either and gutted their own structures at the same time. So now we have seniors who were promised support in their old age by the gov't choosing between monthly cost-of-living expenses or food and medication. I mean, my Mum's 70 and she still works so that she can pay all of the bills - it's crazy.

We're still better off than Americans, but not by much.

taste_is_sweet December 11 2013, 16:55:30 UTC

Well, that sucks. I knew about that--my dad would still be working if he wasn't basically forced into retirement, and he still does part time work. My mom luckily has enough of a pension, but without the extra income they wouldn't be having an easy time.

I feel badly for your mom! And for you. This isn't what our country was meant to be like, eh? :(

blythechild December 11 2013, 17:05:02 UTC

I'm pretty sure that my mum would be doing something every day, even if she wasn't working. She's just like that. But the fact that she has to work pisses me off considerably.

I love this country incredibly, but I'm not very optimistic about its future these days.

Thread 5

wednesday42 December 11 2013, 03:51:04 UTC

A lot of the problem we have in the US, imnsho, is that we're reaping what we've sown, particulary in the latter half of the 20th Century. We bought into the idea that we all "deserve" more, and should be able to pay less for it. We achieved that by outsourcing our labor overseas, by exploiting illegal immigrants, and by removing the stigma of borrowing money, and voilà - flashy shit with engineered obsolescence that costs ten times what it's worth and is paid for with a 17% APR loan. Add to that the mutation of child-rearing that equates giving one's children a "better" life with denying them nothing and piling on possessions in lieu of emotional investment, as well as an educational system that's been decimated for fear of hurting anyone's feelings, god forbid, and you've got generations of people (at least two now, by my estimation) with no coping mechanisms who've been raised to assume that things just somehow happen because they're all special little snowflakes. Fair or not, that's a genie that doesn't go back into the bottle ( ... )

blythechild December 11 2013, 15:23:05 UTC

Hello Cranky Pants... you're in good company with me ;)

I agree that you can draw a straight line from the economic and manufacturing boom of the 1950s right through to the reality of today that demonstrates that economic model couldn't last. But our collective memories are short and now that promise of affluence feels like 'a right'.

I'm sorta afraid of how 'bad' things have to get before the current model snaps closer to the middle again. That second video shows that we all know that the system is skewed, but we're all pretty confused about how skewed it is. If almost everyone is just barely making it, HOW MUCH WORSE COULD IT GET? I'm a fan of dystopian fiction, not dystopian reality...