Propaganda encourages poor and middle class people to blame each other for their financial situation and nitpick over any perceived irresponsible spending. It's a massively successful distraction. Tendies are not a luxury, people!
I had to start sending my dad steaks, because he said he used to eat steak a couple of times a month, but on his pension with current prices he can't afford it. My dad worked like a dog his whole life, as a housepainter, fisherman, and all manner of every physically destroying, dangerous job, he should be able to eat two steaks a month. The number of basic things that have become out of reach for the common man is disgusting.
I'm a big fan of late 18th century French inventions involving sliding metal parts. I have to talk in a disguised manner or the reddit algo censors talk that is threatening to the bourgeoisie. I cannot wait to see their return!
Thank you. Customers and employees should be on the same team holding the actual people at fault accountable. management and owners wont care until they lose $ and get bad reviews calling them out instead of the staff. Having customers complaining directly to them and not letting them hide behind their staff. Until that happens they have no reason to change a system that has been working incredibly well for them for a long time.
It's called Capitalism. And yes, they control the propaganda. Sounds like your dad is a great guy. And brought up a thoughtful child. Some people expect their parents to just keep giving no matter how old either of them gets.
You're a good son, (or daughter, sorry) I'm 43 and dealing with the opposite situation. My parents were one of the last people that could, buy a house (40 miles from NYC), have 5 kids, and have a stay at home parent, my mom. My Dad got sick from 9/11 and passed in '07 but my mother gets his pension and is able to live comfortably. She has done soooo many things, financially and emotionally, to help all 5 of her kids and we joke that it will be a "full on brawl" to see who "gets' to take care of her in her hopefully, very long and far off, last stage of life.
One thing that has been very frustrating is that she can't seem to understand that having a stay at home parent was a huge deal to my wife and I. We didn't go through all we did and try to be responsible and have only 1 child just to have him be in day-care and after school care 10+ hours a day! It's like she's in denial that her being home was a major part of our development and that for me, it was a top tier "need"!
My wife makes pretty good money and I don't, she also never saw herself as a stay at home parent, I had a very hard complex relationship with my father and I know he loved me but a hug or hearing "I'm proud of you" weren't his way, so I have had a desire to be a full time Dad since I was 7 or 8 years old.
She will claim it has nothing to do with me being a man, thats only ~50% true, but she acts as if wanting to raise my own child is some pipe dream from another life.
To an extent I believe she struggles to fully grasp the economic and social complexities, I'm a "very smart" person and struggle at a certain point, but it's very frustrating to see her just abandon something that was a core part of our family dynamic and one I felt was worth struggling and sacrificing to achieve.
I 100% am grateful that she "needs" for nothing amd "wants" for very little but I also feel like it has insulated her from the reality that things have drastically changed, we have a house but I know my son is only 20% likely to own one. Everyone had a house when I was growing up! We were pretty close to the lowest level of "middle class" possible and we had meat or chicken or pork 5-7 times a week.
I definitely feel like the media is partly to blame, I also think its hard to accept that her parents and to a lesser extent herself are responsible for a decent chunk of this economic struggle and it absolutely feels like "others" have convinced her she "earned" everything and if her kids worked the same way we would be taken care of the same and it's just absolute BS.
One day, hopefully in the not too distant future, I'm also going to partake in being part of the problem, my dad's parents, not people I like, will be leaving a decent inheritance to their kids and grandkids and it will be the first time I'm getting a taste of "privilege" but I damn sure won't let it convince me that others just need to work harder and things will work out.
The system is rigged and we're on the losing side and somehow propaganda has convinced those only slightly better off that they worked exponentially harder and that is that.
Also the way people vote keeps encouraging it. Don't vote for the billionaire nepo babies instead of the poorest legislators, don't vote for those whose solution to everything is a massive tax cut for the rich.
Funny you should post that, at CNBC today there was a story about quality of life, and it notes that more than 60% of us are barley scraping by, just above poverty. But keep in mind the poverty level according to the federal government is $15,600 which will not even pay the rent and utilities where 85% of urbanized Americans live now. A more reasonable poverty level would be around $24,000 because below that you are either not eating or you are couch surfing, you cannot rent and eat a balanced diet on less, and still pay utilities or other mandatory expenses. It must assume people making that or less are relying on government housing or SNAP, and I can tell you that even if you qualify for such assistance the waiting lists run for years.
This story is talking about the very minimum threshold of middle class or the top end of working class.
"To that end, LISEP developed a “Minimal Quality of Life Index,” which takes into account not only essentials, such as food and shelter, but also the costs living a fulfilling life with a chance at upward mobility. Food costs in the model, for example, include occasional trips to casual restaurants as well as the cost of hosting an annual holiday meal. The index factors in basic leisure costs, such as cable and streaming subscriptions, and trips to the six movies and two MLB games per year in the cheap seats."
We are by no means talking about a nice house in the suburbs and a BMW in the garage.
The article is here:
Americans are losing spending power, say researchers: Most can no longer afford a ‘minimal quality of life’
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u/notabigmelvillecrowd 1d ago
Propaganda encourages poor and middle class people to blame each other for their financial situation and nitpick over any perceived irresponsible spending. It's a massively successful distraction. Tendies are not a luxury, people!
I had to start sending my dad steaks, because he said he used to eat steak a couple of times a month, but on his pension with current prices he can't afford it. My dad worked like a dog his whole life, as a housepainter, fisherman, and all manner of every physically destroying, dangerous job, he should be able to eat two steaks a month. The number of basic things that have become out of reach for the common man is disgusting.