China is literally right behind the US in “strong economy” stats and some expect them to surpass it… And that means jack and shit, because living in China fucking sucks, especially if you are under 30.
A strong economy means little if all that wealth is being used to…
… Uh. Kill people mostly.
Whereas the people’s lives have been getting steadily worse since 1980.
You know the Simpsons? It’s just a cartoon, right? It was originally a parody of eighties-nineties America.
The Simpsons as they were written in the late eighties were meant to be a lower-class family. They still owned their own house (a large, two story suburban property at that!), their own car, and all on the income of just the man of the house. They were “poor” by eighties standards because Bart didn’t always get all the newest and shiniest toys and they didn’t travel abroad every year.
The Simpsons’ economic situation hasn’t changed in the forty-ish years the show has existed for. But nowadays their lifestyle is considered insanely wealthy. There isn’t a single family in the US left that has their own home and car on the income of 1(one) man with a high school education, working for wages with no generational wealth, side hustles, or passive income. There just isn’t.
The fiction of the show has to make all sorts of excuses for that. It acts as an accidentally poignant time-capsule and depiction of how much the US of A has degenerated in the past 40 years. And the sad part is most of y’all seem to be cheering for this, or at least, resigned to the idea you can’t do shit about it – Like – This happened in America, these guys were Americans. Your ancestors took care of each other, in the face of authoritarian power, and often on the penalty of death. This is something you all seem to have forgotten.
Mind you, life has been getting steadily shittier since 1980 in – The entire first world really. Neoliberalism has done a number and a half on society. Reagan and Thatcher are the reason we all hope hell is real so they can go there. The living standards your generation has are shite compared to what your (grand)parents knew.
This is not the case here in the Third World… But that’s mostly because of how hard it sucked to live here in the sixties and seventies. Yeah, a messy society being eroded by cruel “austerity” measures is gonna be a dream come true when you are literally coming straight out of a military dictatorship that drained the country’s coffers and killed god knows how many people in the most cruel ways imaginable (thanks for that, by the way, US. Never would have happened without Operation Condor :3).
At least I can say I have like. A vote. And human rights after a fashion. And some hope that my life might maybe possibly not completely suck. All things with my parents didn’t have until they were… Literally in their mid thirties (which I’m close to but not quite at).
China is literally right behind the US in “strong economy” stats and some expect them to surpass it… And that means jack and shit, because living in China fucking sucks, especially if you are under 30.
A strong economy means little if all that wealth is being used to…
… Uh. Kill people mostly.
Whereas the people’s lives have been getting steadily worse since 1980.
You know the Simpsons? It’s just a cartoon, right? It was originally a parody of eighties-nineties America.
The Simpsons as they were written in the late eighties were meant to be a lower-class family. They still owned their own house (a large, two story suburban property at that!), their own car, and all on the income of just the man of the house. They were “poor” by eighties standards because Bart didn’t always get all the newest and shiniest toys and they didn’t travel abroad every year.
The Simpsons’ economic situation hasn’t changed in the forty-ish years the show has existed for. But nowadays their lifestyle is considered insanely wealthy. There isn’t a single family in the US left that has their own home and car on the income of 1(one) man with a high school education, working for wages with no generational wealth, side hustles, or passive income. There just isn’t.
The fiction of the show has to make all sorts of excuses for that. It acts as an accidentally poignant time-capsule and depiction of how much the US of A has degenerated in the past 40 years. And the sad part is most of y’all seem to be cheering for this, or at least, resigned to the idea you can’t do shit about it – Like – This happened in America, these guys were Americans. Your ancestors took care of each other, in the face of authoritarian power, and often on the penalty of death. This is something you all seem to have forgotten.
Mind you, life has been getting steadily shittier since 1980 in – The entire first world really. Neoliberalism has done a number and a half on society. Reagan and Thatcher are the reason we all hope hell is real so they can go there. The living standards your generation has are shite compared to what your (grand)parents knew.
This is not the case here in the Third World… But that’s mostly because of how hard it sucked to live here in the sixties and seventies. Yeah, a messy society being eroded by cruel “austerity” measures is gonna be a dream come true when you are literally coming straight out of a military dictatorship that drained the country’s coffers and killed god knows how many people in the most cruel ways imaginable (thanks for that, by the way, US. Never would have happened without Operation Condor :3).
At least I can say I have like. A vote. And human rights after a fashion. And some hope that my life might maybe possibly not completely suck. All things with my parents didn’t have until they were… Literally in their mid thirties (which I’m close to but not quite at).