"The American Dream," 2023 Style: Life on the Disintegrating Edge
Between us, my wife and I spent about three hours and forty minutes on hold while waiting for "the next available agent" at the Department of Human Services, in order to update and review our records to continue receiving Food Stamp Benefits.
You see, we live in what's allegedly the richest country in the world, but we're "poor," by most standards.
We weren't always poor, although we were definitely never wealthy since neither of us possess the obsessive drive required to amass great material wealth. The thing is, we actually like to enjoy life, with something besides relentless work. But we were certainly getting by.
The problem — if you want to call it that — can basically be tracked to two decades of our growth in income failing to keep up with the growth in our cost of living. Not bad suddenly happened... it was far more like a very slow and almost unnoticeable squeeze. And then you wake up one day and realize that the equation no longer works...
I write these words not in service of having some kind of personal pity party — we're both hard workers, and will continue to be hard workers — I write this more as a "cautionary illustration" of the quiet epidemic that is slowly pushing more and more households in the USA over a financial edge it is very difficult to claw your way back from.
It's the reason about 56% of US households are now "financially insecure," in the sense that they are not 100% certain — on a month-to-month basis — whether they'll be able to pay their basic bills (rent, electricity, water, phone, transportation, etc.) and buy food. We're not talking luxuries or fancy vacations... just the basics.
Over half of US households would not be able to pay an unexpected $500 emergency bill without going into debt.
We watched — rather helplessly — as a young friend (20s) ended up facing eviction because her roommate lost her job and they couldn't scape together enough to make up that half of the rent, in spite of both having what would be considered "good" jobs.
Trust me, we take no pride in having to resort to public assistance in order to make ends meet... but — if the wait time on that phone call is anything to go by — we're clearly not alone in that boat.
It's not a boat I want to be in!
Sadly, the great "solution" in the form of crypto has actually been doing almost the opposite of helping for the past couple of years. At times I wonder whether it's just another "great promise" that will never live up to the hype.
I guess only time will tell!
In the meantime, we have gratitude for the small food subsidy we qualify for... this is the world of 2023, where even $50 a month can make a crucial difference!
Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!
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Created at 2023-10-14 00:53 PDT
0954/2209
This is a "surreally good" economy according to ivory-tower experts who insist we're ungrateful for the efforts of our technocratic overlords.
If I understand the "economic gymnastics" correctly, the economy is doing extremely well because corporate profits keep going up, and somehow that means GNP/GDP keeps rising... which is a bit like saying that the team is doing well because we won the last game, even though all the players are sick...
The stock market is not the economy. The corporations, especially those without political connections, are often making paper profits in devalued dollars compared to what they spent on inputs before, and will need to reinvest in higher-priced inputs to continue, but people only want snapshots and hot takes along with assurances that no matter what, our benevolent central planners have everything under control. Oddly enough, the unhinged end of the "red-pilled" conspiracy theory crowd has just as much faith in the power of government to micromanage society as the most "blue-pilled" true believers.
And don't forget every missile and jet sent to Ukraine or Israel at taxpayer expense will be counted as "GDP growth" as people get blown to bits on the other side of the planet, and the Military Industrial Complex continues to be treated as too big to fail.
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I really feel bad about the one who lost jib and they were not able to pay the houserent anymore
This is also happening very well in my country
I feel bad when I see things like that
It hurts
It is, indeed, just a very sad situation on many countries, and the only real effect is that the rich get richer while "normal people" struggle more than ever.