We have every right to be pissed off. I followed every rule you’re supposed to follow. And I’m still worried about retiring in the future. The system is fucking stupid. At my job, every system I implement or touch can be changed. Change is a part of life. But for some fucking reason, this country can’t change shit. We just sit in it as everything gets worse while everyone who is struggling continues to struggle even more. The rich get richer. America blows.
We just sit in it as everything gets worse
Democrats make things better. Vote more democrats in, more things get more better.
For example, under Biden, the wealth gap between the poorest and the richest is now closing for the first time in almost 100 years. Yes, that’s cold comfort to the middle class, but it shouldn’t be. It’s the start of a trend and we need to see it through.
Inb4 Hurr durr if you don’t like it leave
If you don’t like it, vote.
I’ve voted in every local and national election as soon as I turned 18. Protested in George Floyd protests. I’m 30 now. Shit takes way too long.
Protesting is for you to feel good. Unless you’re protesting for civil rights and being arrested for breaking an unjust law.
If you want to influence the process, you should volunteer for a candidate’s campaign and forget protests. Sorry, but it’s the truth.
While I generally agree with you, protesting has a place. Protesting alone is useless, but protests in concert with working for concrete policy changes is a force multiplier.
fuck that older generation divide to conquer shit.
the ruling class failed us, not our parents generation.
Another one of those frustrating segments where they come so close to being right but miss the point entirely by the end. The diagnosis of the issues young people face is on point, but the answer to most of the problems mentioned is not civics courses. It’s redistribution of wealth and providing access to housing and social mobility to young people.
but the answer to most of the problems mentioned is not civics courses
Civics courses are necessary precursors. A lot of youthful idiots think Biden has a big “cancel student loans” button on his bedside table and just chooses not to push it because lmao fuck those guys, make em pay
You can’t pursue solutions if you don’t know how.
Yeah it’s easy to demand things, it’s hard to accept mutual responsibility and contribute. It’s the difference between demanding mutual aid, and actually showing up
There are 38 US companies whose gross yearly revenue is over $100 billion. The collective amount OVER $100 billion is about the same as the US federal budget. No company should make more than $100 billion in revenue - it’s a monopolistic action. Tax all corporate revenue over $100 billion. How much is a variable amount based upon federal deficit spending. If the US government overspends $1 trillion then that amount is paid by these too large corporations. That way US politicians are disincentivized to over spend as the largest corporations will lobby strongly to have a balanced budget. If all US companies downsize or split off to reduce revenue to <$100 billion? Awesome, then we have no monopolies and their lobbying powers are therefore greatly diminished.
Revenue is not profit. Costs haven’t been taken out yet. This is part of the structural unfairness of personal income tax vs corporate income tax. Companies can write off everything they need to earn money (rent, supplies, wages, utilities) but people can’t.
How many companies have $100 million in profit, or more? It’s just one: Apple.
https://www.financecharts.com/screener/most-profitable-country-us
They’re already under investigation for monopoly practices:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/21/technology/apple-doj-lawsuit-antitrust.html
If they didn’t count expansion and buying property and tools with reliable resell values as “costs” I’d agree.
Businesses can’t deduct those asset purchases as costs (they are not “expenses”). They have to depreciate them over a set number of years, according to established accounting practices.
Purchases of long-term business assets, such as factories and equipment, are claimed as depreciation. This involves subtracting a percentage of their cost per tax return over a period of years.
https://www.thebalancemoney.com/expense-or-depreciate-items-on-your-taxes-392950
This is fine and actually correct, because equipment and buildings literally cost money every year to repair or replace parts.
There are enough things to be angry about without making anything up. Please educate yourself about what businesses actually do, so you can advocate correctly. Otherwise you just sound dumb.
And rightly so, for they have been failed. You can’t even GO TO SCHOOL without concern that you’ll be killed in a mass shooting. This was never a concern for my generation. In 1992, when I graduated, the thought that going to school could be an extinction event for you was not even conceivable. This shouldn’t be an ongoing concern for any generation, yet here we are, sending our kids off to school every morning, knowing that there’s a slim chance they might not come back.
It’s driving me crazy. But when the whole world’s gone mad, how can you be sure you’re insane?
I graduated in 1997, in a rural town, and I can say that we’ve knives that caused some injuries and scares and while we did have a kid that brought his dad’s handgun to school and threatened people with it, didn’t shoot anyone thankfully. This type of shit was around even in the 90’s just not around the world and in the 24 hour news like it is now, remember we had Columbine just a few years after we graduated in 1999.
This shit’s been bad for a while now.
Yeah, but they’ve gone from rare occurrences to multiple-times-a-day events now.
https://ballotpedia.org/United_States_school_shootings_and_firearm_incidents,_1990-present
Don’t get me wrong, it’s been on a steady increase but cripes man, this crap is a “It was always burning since the world’s been turning” kind of a thing. I mean 32 in 1992, that’s not insignificant so let’s not pretend that all of this sunshine and roses until now.
I’m not young, but I feel the same way as these young people. I don’t care about this country, I don’t care about its people, and I don’t care about its future. It’s like that Bob Dylan song, “I used to care, but things have changed.”
I care about its people. I always care about people. Just some people need to be rescued from their hate filled delusion. It’s sad to see these poor suckers get tricked into being angry about things that have absolutely nothing to do with them. Talking about conservative media and how all it does is lash out against things. I don’t even think there is ryhme or reason to it. It is as if they offer up a topic and open the floor to anyone who has some minor complaint.
Oh I thought it was because they like Trump, are Russian bots, and tankies. At least if people here are to be believed.
Each successive generation has a higher income even accounting for inflation
In 1960, minimum wage was $1.00/hour and the price of the average US home was $11,000.00
How many minimum wage workers are out there right now looking to buy a new home?
They weren’t buying then either
So, you agree, people were able to buy a house on minimum wage in the past and can’t do that today?
They were not, look at ownership rate.
You’re deliberately ignoring what I actually wrote. Two high school grads working minimum wage jobs in 1960 could have been homeowners in about five years. There are hundreds of reasons why the ownership rate was lower in the past.
Could have been, but did not buy homes. Explain why
Yeah but it doesn’t tell the whole truth, cost of living has been rising steadily as well.
Cost of living is inflation, which this chart takes into account
Repeat same talking point.
The things you say are useless, especially since these are adjusted by household size. Do one that isn’t.
Repeat same talking point.
I’m not saying I agree with them, but they are the only ones providing actual data. Everyone else, including you, is just attacking and downvoting them. I would be interested in hearing an actual argument, but to accuse them of just “repeating a talking point” while they provide data and you provide nothing but a talking point is ridiculously hypocritical.
Their data is adjusted for family size. Family size has been consistently shrinking since the 1960s, which, if you adjust their graph, will lead to overall decrease in wages throughout time. It is a meaningless method of transformation to get data that supports a false narrative.
Why did you not point out that their data is transformed when I did?
And people can’t afford houses, college, healthcare, etc. because…? Like cool chart, but my generation will literally never be as financially stable as those who came before. I guess it’s fun to pretend we’re better off than we are though.
Imagine paying for college with your income rather than loans.
People can afford more things now than the previous generation
There are things that increased in price faster, like college. But that’s offset by other things that didn’t increase as fast, like fuel. There are other things that got cheaper, like computers and phones. You’re cherry picking the things that got more expensive, but those are not 100% of a person’s expenses
It’s fun that tvs and computers got cheaper, but housing and food are through the roof.
It’s cool that I can buy a laptop for 500$ dollars, but it’s a one time purchase that we can live without.
Food is not through the roof
https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/food-inflation
2.2% vs. the previous year
Yeah and look 2 years back on your same graph and see the big 11% in one month.
And let’s not forget that this is multiplicative. So these months/years with high inflation are still felt today even if the inflation is relatively normal.
But you are disingenuous in your arguments, while accusing others of doing that same thing.
So kindly fuck off
That’s in line with the inflation numbers. Food costs did not outpace inflation in any significant way
If my fiance could work outside the US, we would have left a few years ago.
Why can’t they?
Professional certifications don’t transfer outside specific countries, and her profession is also very language-oriented so she would have to be absolutely fluent in the language of whatever country we went to. That basically leaves England, New Zealand, or Australia as the only options, and only if she decided to spend months and months doing nothing but studying to pass the boards.
Once we are getting closer to retirement, though, then we will start looking.
