If my Neighbors lose, do I Win?

[EddMarkStarr]

As the world heats up I'm hearing trouble among my neighbors, and it goes beyond temperature.

Almost everyone in my section of the apartment block is younger than I am. But I have air conditioning, a job, retirement benefits, healthcare insurance, and savings.
It's becoming clear that all my advantages mean nothing if my neighbors are destroyed by unbearable heat and low incomes.

Global warming means only the poor suffer, but I'll be with them if the power goes out. Yet, heat stroke is not my only concern.
At age 65 I expect to have a livable retirement, as long as summer doesn't turn killer this year - or next!

But what about people age 25, or 35? What will their lives be like by the time they're my age?
There is real trouble building all around us as the 21st century uncovers the real costs of living, and society is not prepared.

 

[fabulouslyghetto]

In 30 years we'll be payingfor oxygen. If you think an eviction or power notice is frightening, wait til a family gets 24 hours notice to pay their bill or their oxygen supply is getting cut off.

 

[EddMarkStarr]

Everytime I go by a homeless camp I know I'm just a few unfortunate occurrences away from joining their number.

 

[NotHardUp1]

Ed, compassion is not a vice, but I do think you're building worry based on some faulty assumptions.

First, you assumed you won't share in times of privation of your neighbors.

Second, you seem to be borrowing survivor's guilt before you're actually the survivor. Your feelings might change when and if the mob comes for you for no other reason than you are one of the haves, as they did in countless riots before.

Third, taking on the woes of the world will not fix their troubles or yours, e.g., opening your door to the hallway or outside will only make you miserable, adding to misery, not alleviating it.

You also seem to assume your young neighbors are indentured servants, tied to the Seattle land. They are not. They are free to move to rural areas in this vast country where jobs pay less and the cost of living is less and where A/C is a fact of life, not an oversight due to previous lack of much need.

The Dust Bowl saw people pull up stakes and leave to go to greener pastures. It's what survivors do.

Finally, all of us choose every day to work or not, save or not, spend or not. When I was your young neighbors' age, I painted an 80 year old house in sweltering 100+ plus heat, just to make the down payment on the old thing. It's what I did because poverty means you start somewhere and start your way. Nothing happened quick. It was a long slow haul. Your young neighbors are entitled to their own.

As for paying for oxygen, we might as well go ahead and crack open the infants' heads and eat brains if we're just going to make up horrible fantasy shit.

Charon? Do I have a witness?

 

[Peloso]

It's hard to concern yourself with existential threats when day to day living is a struggle.

If the climate scientists are right, in thirty years a first world lifestyle will be a thing of the past. OK boomer. Right. Young people now blame the older generations for letting it come to this, but their kids will blame them for their lackadaisical response to living on the cusp of total chaos and not doing more.

They're not voting. And there's certainly not enough chatter about pulling people like Elon Musk and Darren Woods from their homes and hanging them.

Maybe I'm an alarmist but if I was in my twenties right now I'd be freaking the fuck out.

 

[EddMarkStarr]

At times I feel like I'm whistling past the graveyard.

Truth is I can't save the world, and the world ain't asking me to.
However, I can't help noticing the USA starting to look like the world of the Road Warrior, without Mel Gibson.

 

[fabulouslyghetto]

As for paying for oxygen, we might as well go ahead and crack open the infants' heads and eat brains if we're just going to make up horrible fantasy shit.

Yeah, cuz resources vital to life such as food water medicine and shelter arent already monetized.

I was being facetious, but you knew that.

 

[DepravedMuscleFTL]

every penny has to go to FOOD - GAS - INSURANCE - UTILITIES - in a nutshell the ESSENTIALS - it has been the game plan since #40 - and gerrymandering has assured that it will never change - no need to worry about several generations down the road - THEY WON'T MAKE IT

 

[peeonme]

I will be 70 in a few days. There is no doubt that the standard of living in America has fallen, in fact it's not mentioned on the news. Sure poverty is mentioned but the number of hours one must work to live (own a home, buy a car, have health care) aren't really talked about. We are about where we were before the new deal came along... the middle class is vanishing.

A system stops working when people quit believing in it. Help wanted signs are every where and so are people that won't bother to apply for the job. Pay checks are a joke, a $20. an hour job on 40 hours won't pay the bills after taxes and insurance premiums are deducted, mind you many people would gladly leave their $14. per hour job if that $20. per hour job really existed.

I was lucky to have been born in the '50's, there is no way I would want to enter the work force today as a 16 yr. old like I did in '68. I try to be an optimist... but looking at reality is a must, our nation is in a state of demise.

 

[Peloso]

You also seem to assume your young neighbors are indentured servants, tied to the Seattle land. They are not. They are free to move to rural areas in this vast country where jobs pay less and the cost of living is less and where A/C is a fact of life, not an oversight due to previous lack of much need.

The Dust Bowl saw people pull up stakes and leave to go to greener pastures. It's what survivors do.

It's not that simple.

Existing anywhere near the poverty line is an expense in itself. Poor people routinely have to calculate the lesser of two evils. When bill time comes along, which will be cheaper...paying their bank's overdraft fees or the electric companies late fees? Do they pay for food or healthcare? If they opt for healthcare, all that's left for them to afford to eat will eventually drive their healthcare costs up. If they opt for food, they may be too sick to work but they will anyway. Because they have to. The financial flow in poor households is like a shark: if they stop working, they die.

Poverty is also a job in itself. The poor don't have the luxury of hiring help for their yard work. They are the help. Their days last 20 hours because all the conveniences most of us take for granted are unaffordable. They have to take time to do things for themselves. While their neighbors zip to work in their Uber, they walk. Which means no time to relax in the morning with their coffee...which they shouldn't be drinking anyway because, you know, sacrifices. Poor couples sit home and watch their children on their anniversaries because all their babysitting money goes toward that weekend overtime pay which in turn goes toward babysitting money. It's a vicious cycle. It's exhausting and dehumanizing and leaves little time for leisure, which, by American standards is also dehumanizing. And it's soul crushing.

It's also character building, but that's pointless because being a decent person in today's world is fast becoming a liability. Luckily, it also garners strength and they will need that strength because the wealthy are generally overweight and getting a struggling fat ass into a noose is no easy task.

As for picking up and moving to a more affordable place, well, northern Europe is a long way off. Even moving to a nearby state is a feat that necessitates months (or years) of planning and more than a little bit of luck. If they can't afford air conditioning, how are they supposed to afford moving costs? Security deposits? And all the other little expenses that picking up and starting over entails? Not to mention finding new doctors and drugstores in their new town, enrolling their children in new schools and simply setting up a new home which is a lot of work in itself but nevermind that because they had better have a new job secured and ready to pay them the second they step foot in their new town because of the shark thing: leisure = death.

Your feelings might change when and if the mob comes for you for no other reason than you are one of the haves, as they did in countless [STRIKE]riots[/STRIKE] protests before.

Fixed it for ya.

 

[nycguydowntown]

Problem is 25 years ago was predicted we'd all be dead from climate change in 30 years---so we should all be dead in 5 years. So why worry?

 

[fabulouslyghetto]

It's not that simple.

Existing anywhere near the poverty line is an expense in itself. Poor people routinely have to calculate the lesser of two evils. When bill time comes along, which will be cheaper...paying their bank's overdraft fees or the electric companies late fees? Do they pay for food or healthcare? If they opt for healthcare, all that's left for them to afford to eat will eventually drive their healthcare costs up. If they opt for food, they may be too sick to work but they will anyway. Because they have to. The financial flow in poor households is like a shark: if they stop working, they die.

Poverty is also a job in itself. The poor don't have the luxury of hiring help for their yard work. They are the help. Their days last 20 hours because all the conveniences most of us take for granted are unaffordable. They have to take time to do things for themselves. While their neighbors zip to work in their Uber, they walk. Which means no time to relax in the morning with their coffee...which they shouldn't be drinking anyway because, you know, sacrifices. Poor couples sit home and watch their children on their anniversaries because all their babysitting money goes toward that weekend overtime pay which in turn goes toward babysitting money. It's a vicious cycle. It's exhausting and dehumanizing and leaves little time for leisure, which, by American standards is also dehumanizing. And it's soul crushing.

It's also character building, but that's pointless because being a decent person in today's world is fast becoming a liability. Luckily, it also garners strength and they will need that strength because the wealthy are generally overweight and getting a struggling fat ass into a noose is no easy task.

As for picking up and moving to a more affordable place, well, northern Europe is a long way off. Even moving to a nearby state is a feat that necessitates months (or years) of planning and more than a little bit of luck. If they can't afford air conditioning, how are they supposed to afford moving costs? Security deposits? And all the other little expenses that picking up and starting over entails? Not to mention finding new doctors and drugstores in their new town, enrolling their children in new schools and simply setting up a new home which is a lot of work in itself but nevermind that because they had better have a new job secured and ready to pay them the second they step foot in their new town because of the shark thing: leisure = death.

Some Americans, especially the elders, believe there isn't a problem in the world that can't be solved with quasi-inspirational quotes and memes about perseverence. Everything is 'that simple.'

Nevermind that back then they could buy a house and some land for the cost of a cheeseburger. You called it, we're having to work more and more to own less and less and all the "wisdom" they have to pass down to us is just "work harder and more."

 

[Kahaih]

Seems no one has, or wants to, mentioned the damage done to the monthly budget by drugs, booze, and reckless/heartless baby making.

 

[fabulouslyghetto]

Seems no one has, or wants to, mentioned the damage done to the monthly budget by drugs, booze, and reckless/heartless baby making.

Because we're not judgmental classists. If you think the economic woes in the US are because "poor people don't know how to behave" then I urge you to read a history book. Or at least a newspaper.

 

[Kahaih]

/\ Don't ever expect to be hired as an accountant. LOL

Full disclosure, or shut the fuck up.

 

[Peloso]

Seems no one has, or wants to, mentioned the damage done to the monthly budget by drugs, booze, and reckless/heartless baby making.

You're absolutely right. Drugs and booze have ruined the lives and careers of many Hollywood actors, professional athletes and politicians.

Poor people do it just to get free methadone. They make up for the rest by robbing and burglarizing people in wealthier neighborhoods. All poor people do this. Every. Single. One. Just the other day I was mugged by a 97 year old Puerto Rican woman with thirty three grandchildren.

Jesus Harold Christ on a fucking rubber crutch you'd think that on a forum that caters to a marginalized group there would be more of an attempt to garner some goddamn empathy, but I know Ikea is closing soon so nevermind all that, go on and get that adorable little coffee table in the shape of a Yin Yang.

 

[Kahaih]

You're absolutely right. Drugs and booze have ruined the lives and careers of many Hollywood actors, professional athletes and politicians.

When those people complain about what they can or can't afford, Their spending habits will need to be scrutinized, too.

 

[Peloso]

When those people complain about what they can or can't afford, Their spending habits will need to be scrutinized, too.

The only spending habits that need to be scrutinized are those of the U.S. Gov't.

 

[Kahaih]

Staying on topic;

Air conditioners can be had for less than $300.00 from places such as Amazon, and most of those places are willing to take monthly payments that are less than the price of a bag of weed.

 

[fabulouslyghetto]

/\ Don't ever expect to be hired as an accountant. LOL

Full disclosure, or shut the fuck up.

Gaslighting. You don't have any solutions so you cast the blame on the working/poor class. As has always been done. It's the intellectual equivalent of "If you just spread your wings you can boot straps and fly on the hard work to Prosperityland where everyone's a millionaire and anyone who tried super duper hard can be the next Elon Musk. We can all have our own SpaceX! Or you can have your avocado toast. But you can't have both!"

But yeah let's blame the poor for the climate crisis too, totes makes sense in a "You can see it if you squint with one eye and don't look out the other" kinda way.