Welcome to America. Please ignore the collapse and enjoy these breads and circuses.
this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2026
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me_irl
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I'm not arguing that America isn't in dire straits at the moment, but the concept of having to work so hard to live you don't don't ever get to enjoy life is ancient and global. It's a sad state of affairs.
Yes, but the fact that it is happening in a country which contains the most wealth any nation has ever had in recorded history is quite special.
I don't think it is, really. Every weathiest nation in history got their wealth by taking it from others, from within and without. America is the latest symptomatic patient of a disease that's been around a long time.
Only if you completely ignore all context and recent history, and the fact that many nations does not have all of the issues which the US has, but has actually figured out some solutions to some of the problems.
Meanwhile the US seems more adamant than ever to make life insufferable for most of its citizens. The point being that the US is indeed very special in its failure to learn from others, despite having more wealth than anybody else.
The "it has always been like this everywhere in the entirety of human history" is a pretty useless and false statement in this context.
That's not what I said. In the US, like in every "wealthiest nation on earth" to date, there are and have always been those who do not get to share in the wealth, at least not enough that they can afford to not work to death. I don't know of any time or place in human history where the poorest of the community don't meet this condition, and in that way the US is not special. It is also not special in succumbing to rising wealth inequality, as the wealthy use their power to circumvent laws, self-deal, and extract wealth from the earth and their fellow humans with increasing efficiency. That shit happens all the time.
The US has a few special circumstances which make it feel different: one, it's happening now and not in history books, two, it's larger (in economic hegemony) than any empire in recorded history, and three, the middle class (i.e. people who were not rich but did not have to work literally their whole lives) are currently being demoted to being mandatory-perpetual-labor poor, which for many of them means they are becoming aware of the problem for the first time in their lives.
The fact that this shit has been going on forever doesn't make it less dire, but it doesn't mean the US is special in this regard, or that it hasn't been happening for the whole of US history or human history. It's just more salient to more Americans now compared to, say, two or three decades ago.
We used to talk about the future in terms of how much better things could get. Now we talk about it in terms of reversion to the mean.
I still talk about how much better things could get. I'm very excited about photovoltaics and new energy storage methods. If we play our cards right, the history books could describe the USA as the last great fossil fuel empire. Maybe, if things go really well: the last global empire. That'd be pretty cool. Unfortunately, to extend the metaphor, we're still at the table and our cards are pretty weak at the moment, and plenty of other players still have imperial ambitions, so we still gotta keep our heads in the game.
It's just rough to be living through an important period in history. My head is so in the game, but I never feel like I'm the one the dealer is talking to.
even the ones that earn quite a liviable income are some of the sourest people attitude wise. the only one that enjoys all these hobbies it is the one that can live off(mooch) the family or SO forever and free to do anything else(one that refuses to find a job), other than well off or rich people.
The problem is we're the wealthiest nation in the history of the world.
This no longer holds up.
I can't afford bread and the only circus is the 3-ring variety taking place in DC.
If you buy flour, yeast, and water with a tip of salt, you can make some fresh bread.
They're actively eroding the bread supply and making the circuses harder and harder to access. We know where that leads.
It’s a gap year that common anywhere?
I took time off before university but I worked the whole time, mostly nights for the extra pay, and saved up a lot while deciding what I wanted to do. Is that what this means?
a gap year, especially common in much of western europe, is a year in between the end of childhood education(say US high school) and the beginning of adult education(say US university) where a young adult is encouraged to find themselves before choosing their exact field of interest or life path.
It is common in many countries.
That is a type of gap year yeah. The stereotypical one is obviously that of which someone goes on holiday for most of a year without any responsibilities but it's harder to do that when you don't have the money to support it.
Over here its very common to do your studies but you take an additional full year after the end just for your thesis. During the year people usually work, travel and do the thesis.
it is for college, some people take 1year off from school and then come back, usually changing thier majors, or even going to a different field. you dont want to be graduating with a degree you dont like, since you wont get financial assistance after you already graduated.
if you mean a gap year "from a job, like quitting it" that is abnormal, and usually indicates something deeper going on.
Not a thing in most of Asia that I know of, but it should be, I could have used a break from the rat race for a bit when I was younger and maybe put some real thought on what I want to do with my life
I get the point and I'm not criticizing it...
But are "gap year", "vacation", and "backpacking" not all the exact same category of thing?
More or less, but "vacation" also implies an additional expense beyond just missing work.
Gap year and backpacking, for most speakers of English, also refer to kinds of travel. Other countries have to have multiple words for "missing work" (jesus christ)
When a poor (most people) tells me they took a gap year, I usually assume that means that they got a job to pay for college. When a middle class person (entry level wealthy) tells me that they took a gap year I assume that means that they did fuck all until their parents forced them to get the fuck out of the house.
It's only when talking to actual wealthy people that I assume the gap year included backpacking or vacation.
Also when somebody says they spent their gap year backpacking, I don't assume that has anything to do with hiking or camping, but is more about spending a year not bathing and doing drugs with sketchy people in sketchy places.
Gap year could mean just doing jack shit at home and partying. Vacationing is partying at a destination. Backpacking is vacationing in the wilderness.
The less you eat, drink and buy books; the less you go to the theatre, the dance hall, the public house; the less you think, love, theorise, sing, paint, fence, etc., the more you save – the greater becomes your treasure which neither moths nor rust will devour – your capital. The less you are, the less you express your own life, the more you have i.e., the greater is your alienated life, the greater is the store of your estranged being.
— Karl Marx, Human Requirements and Division of Labour Under the Rule of Private Property
How is thinking, theorizing, loving, singing, painting, etc wastes my capital?
In Australia your gap year is taken after high school, before university. Most people get jobs.
In the US some people take a gap four years and go to war. It's the American Vacation.
The locals put on a firework show every night and all day! They really go all out - but they never invite us to come back…
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Now A.I. can do it for them, so it's totally fine
/s
Welcome to the third world (somewhat). Source: Am from the third world.
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