Things really aren’t that bad

[Orignal Earl]

Maybe American’s are just, bored?

Ya, basically.
We all have 24 hours to fill up a day, and we chose what to fill it with.

 

[MongGrel]

Dear OverVolt,

Maybe things will get better when your consciousness changes from one of bitterness based on your self contempt for the weaknesses of others, your substitute for real self respect that you are among the moral performers who have taken responsibility for your life, basically just ac accident of your personal history since we are all the sane, to compassion for the massive collateral damage we face as a human population from our collective self hate.

You are like a potato that is half baked, properly self motivated, but full of ego need, feelings of inferiority you need to placate, by an unhealthy need to hold others in contempt, a need that goes unchallenged for reasons you are motivated not to comprehend.

The cure for all of this Israel self respect and the means by which that can be had are not to increase the contempt we feel for the normally damaged and the weak.
There are answers to these problems because one of the conditions of self loving people is social responsibility. It's natural for folk who are inwardly happy.

You usually at least make sense half the time.

You didn't here.

Seems more a rant in general that I agree a lot with, not really a poem.

 

[Zorkorist]

He'll be happy to clarify...

He will ask for $87,000 to clarify. So he can pay his debt to Society, and BONUS, educate you!

-John

 

[werepossum]

Go ahead, read the article. Let me know what about it you disagree with.

Oh no you didn't! (just tell him to read a story without a single picture of a child's toy pony.)

Barbarian!

 

[werepossum]

Obama tried to fix the problem of Veteran health care with anew head of VA that instituted an incentive program to improve care. Too bad it worked out like "No Child Left Behind" by administration cooking the books for their own profit.

Actually that was started under Clinton. It actually helped for awhile, too, as the VA had become far too management-heavy and hide-bound.

 

[Moonbeam]

You usually at least make sense half the time.

You didn't here.

Seems more a rant in general that I agree a lot with, not really a poem.

There were lots of mistakes caused by typing on an ipad.

The fact is that all around us is the kingdom of heaven which we do not see because of attitude. Attitude is an unconscious assumption about the nature of reality cause by emotional bias created via childhood trauma. To see the bias would be to relive the pain. Our blindness caused by the fear of pain we have already felt forms the bars of our prison. We were all made to feel worthless, the worst person in the world, and we developed out egos to repress the conscious awareness of that pain. We were compared to other so called better people and became competitive and envious of them. Thus we imagine ourselves to belong to this or that superior group, the hard working responsible types, for example so we can pretend to be somebody. But all this does in create hatred for the worthless other that we feel is actually ourselves.

The narcissism of ego is nothing but self hate, one we are stuck with as long as we remain unconscious of the fact it is driven by self hate. It is all so needless and such a waste. We are not worthless at all.

 

[Zebo]

I agree with title. Life seems great to me when I stop watching news. But you know old adage if it bleeds it leads as such your head fills up with negative.

I just have to figure out why I'm addicted to news? It's like if I have free time I'll sit there and read for hours. So you're right too much free time... but why do I like it?

And not just any news will do like celebrity news or sports or some shit. Im drawn to the really bad stuffs like economy, jobs, jihadis progress, Ukraine war, Africa anywhere, injustice etc.

 

[Matt1970]

,... there's a WHAT in the White House?!

A lying sack of shit.

 

[WelshBloke]

Whoa Whoa Whoa! What's this?

Junk? Sadly, getting smaller.

If that's contagious I'm afraid we're going to have to quarantine north America.

 

[OverVolt]

Meh I was asking everyone I know how many people they know are on an upward trajectory in life versus a downward trajectory. Economy wise... most are headed down. Nobody is really able to accrue assets. Those who have them are essentially burning their assets for expenses those who don't are either in debt up to their eyeballs or pretty broke.

As in like, lots of people in their moms basements. Lots of people underemployed. Lots of people with lots of school debt. Even the privileged ones are living in an area they couldn't afford otherwise if not for their moms basement and then work at a job that pays like $40k tops. I'll be on like indeed forums in the NJ pharmacist section where there is a large glut and its like "$200k in debt been 8 months since I graduated can't find a job or feed my family." Everything's peachy! 8 years ago they were getting $10k sign on bonuses. Or my favorite "offered to work at rite aid for $10/hr less and fired 3 months later, someone offered to work for $15/hr less."

Like I personally don't know anyone out of maybe 150 friends, extended family, family, friends of friends, etc. doing all that well. Maybe 5 or so I considering doing well/improving/moving up in the world? One friend might make $60k but he went to private school and racked up $200k in debt. So kinda meh.

Literally the best off people that I know are blue collar, like a metalworker/machinist/welder type who has his own house paid off at 24. Or this guy who drives a backhoe for $80k/yr. Most people I know are running on an uphill treadmill at 4mph out of breath huffing and puffing and the treadmills running at 5mph and slowly accelerating and down they slideeeeee.

 

[werepossum]

Meh I was asking everyone I know how many people they know are on an upward trajectory in life versus a downward trajectory. Economy wise... most are headed down. Nobody is really able to accrue assets. Those who have them are essentially burning their assets for expenses those who don't are either in debt up to their eyeballs or pretty broke.

As in like, lots of people in their moms basements. Lots of people underemployed. Lots of people with lots of school debt. Even the privileged ones are living in an area they couldn't afford otherwise if not for their moms basement and then work at a job that pays like $40k tops. I'll be on like indeed forums in the NJ pharmacist section where there is a large glut and its like "$200k in debt been 8 months since I graduated can't find a job or feed my family." Everything's peachy! 8 years ago they were getting $10k sign on bonuses. Or my favorite "offered to work at rite aid for $10/hr less and fired 3 months later, someone offered to work for $15/hr less."

Like I personally don't know anyone out of maybe 150 friends, extended family, family, friends of friends, etc. doing all that well. Maybe 5 or so I considering doing well/improving/moving up in the world? One friend might make $60k but he went to private school and racked up $200k in debt. So kinda meh.

Literally the best off people that I know are blue collar, like a metalworker/machinist/welder type who has his own house paid off at 24. Or this guy who drives a backhoe for $80k/yr. Most people I know are running on an uphill treadmill at 4mph out of breath huffing and puffing and the treadmills running at 5mph and slowly accelerating and down they slideeeeee.

To a great extent that's our own damned fault. Far too many people are simultaneously complaining about how "normal people" can't make it in America whilst simultaneously buying $60k cars and standing in line for the iPhone 5 because last year's iPhone 4 is so last year.

Don't get me wrong, I understand the angst. We just went through the worst recession since the Great Depression and our recovery has been more of a bottoming out than a recovery, we have numerous factors driving down the value of labor at all levels, and everything is costing more and more. Lot of people are hurting simply because they were collateral damage while doing what everyone else was doing. But a lot of this is self-inflicted. If one ignores ads looking for welders at $30k whilst bemoaning the lack of opportunity in one's chosen and highly important field of seventeenth century French surrealistic poetry or history of pornagraphic film or statistical telephone sterilization analysis, one is at the least an active participant in one's own woe. Nobody owes us a good job in the field of our choice or even the same field in which we trained.

 

[Pr0d1gy]

I got a collections notice from a magazine for $7. It seems they sent me more issues after my initial sub ran out without my consent and are now threatening my credit rating for the payment I never agreed to.

Things might be getting better in some ways, but corporate America is getting completely out of control.

 

[Zebo]

Meh I was asking everyone I know how many people they know are on an upward trajectory in life versus a downward trajectory. Economy wise... most are headed down. Nobody is really able to accrue assets. Those who have them are essentially burning their assets for expenses those who don't are either in debt up to their eyeballs or pretty broke.

As in like, lots of people in their moms basements. Lots of people underemployed. Lots of people with lots of school debt. Even the privileged ones are living in an area they couldn't afford otherwise if not for their moms basement and then work at a job that pays like $40k tops. I'll be on like indeed forums in the NJ pharmacist section where there is a large glut and its like "$200k in debt been 8 months since I graduated can't find a job or feed my family." Everything's peachy! 8 years ago they were getting $10k sign on bonuses. Or my favorite "offered to work at rite aid for $10/hr less and fired 3 months later, someone offered to work for $15/hr less."

Like I personally don't know anyone out of maybe 150 friends, extended family, family, friends of friends, etc. doing all that well. Maybe 5 or so I considering doing well/improving/moving up in the world? One friend might make $60k but he went to private school and racked up $200k in debt. So kinda meh.

Literally the best off people that I know are blue collar, like a metalworker/machinist/welder type who has his own house paid off at 24. Or this guy who drives a backhoe for $80k/yr. Most people I know are running on an uphill treadmill at 4mph out of breath huffing and puffing and the treadmills running at 5mph and slowly accelerating and down they slideeeeee.

People doing best are the guys employing 200 backhoe drivers. Just saying. nothing wrong with working for a living but I prefer secondary (other people working make you money) and tertiary (money makes you money) income streams.

Besides not getting hands dirty - As an added bonus they have tax favoritism to their income.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

There's a wee bit of blue-gray space between ATOT and P&N. It is sad that this poem didn't fall into that void.

"blacks electing Republicans" makes it P&N

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Nobody owes us a good job in the field of our choice or even the same field in which we trained.

To some degree I concur however we were born in a nation that has a tradition of beliefs and values one of them is that everyone deserves a chance of success. While that has not proven to be universally attainable it was at least likely that your children would do as well as you or better. That is not the case now. There is no protection or relief, just the unimpeded flow of monies to places we wouldn't send our sons or daughters because of conditions.

All of this is like thermodynamics. If you sit inside of a thin walled unheated house in a subzero climate with no chance to warm yourself you will die. Likewise we're a thin walled nation. The "temperature" of profit seeking is driving the "heat", or money, out of this nation. We will freeze. Damned time we put up some insulation.

 

[werepossum]

To some degree I concur however we were born in a nation that has a tradition of beliefs and values one of them is that everyone deserves a chance of success. While that has not proven to be universally attainable it was at least likely that your children would do as well as you or better. That is not the case now. There is no protection or relief, just the unimpeded flow of monies to places we wouldn't send our sons or daughters because of conditions.

All of this is like thermodynamics. If you sit inside of a thin walled unheated house in a subzero climate with no chance to warm yourself you will die. Likewise we're a thin walled nation. The "temperature" of profit seeking is driving the "heat", or money, out of this nation. We will freeze. Damned time we put up some insulation.

Oh, I completely agree. I think we should re-institute tariffs and revise our tax code to penalize money leaving the nation, not money entering the nation. However, I have to live in the world we have, not the world I might wish.

 

[piasabird]

Maybe we should do away with the VA. These kind of national programs like the ACA and medicare are all just ripe for abuse. The IRS at times has sent 100 checks to the same address and no one caught on that it might be fraud. I don't really see the point of the IRS. Let the states keep all their own money and fix their own roads and bridges.

 

[Zorkorist]

Yeah,

Everyone in this thread is arguing shit that doesn't make a bit of difference to society today.

Oh, I have a better job than you. (well, will you pay our 17 Trillion dollar debt?)

What can we do about jobs? (Increase our 17 Trillion dollar debt?)

-John

 

[Zorkorist]

Things are pretty bad.

-John