The American Dream

Hey Bukowski said great stuff when he wasn't kicking his underage girlfriend on camera.

We never got rid of slavery, we just made them responsible for their own food and housing.
- That's quite disrespectful to compare what we have today to actual slavery.
  
  That exact response prevents us from properly evaluating our situation.
  Wage slavery is slavery
  
  It's slavery with gaming qualities and objectives, like kids at a summer camp. Maybe if I get a few more tokens, I can buy a tshirt.

Where's the money, Bukowski?

*To buy goods mass produced by a person working in far worse conditions.
This then feeds into the CPI, which now requires higher priced goods via inflation targeting, and suddenly housing is unaffordable and theres a reverse baby boom.

Hmmmm. Sounds like something UBI could solve.
- Except there are a lot of people who believe that the homelessness and suffering is natural, correct, and deserved.
  
  Right up until the point it happens to them.
  
  Maybe in America, but in most other places homelessness isn't demonised nearly as much (also America is probably the only place that will make you homeless if you get seriously ill).
  I think somewhere in the Nordic states, they've trialled UBI in an area and I think with success.
  Edit: So the results are a mixed bag, as you would expect, but generally people were much happier with UBI.
  
  Those people:

6:30 am? In my city, the streets are already packed with working class people at 6:00 am.
- Starting work at 6am? Luxury! In my day we started our day's work the day before, and didn't finish until two days after!
  
  Sarcasm is kind of offensive in some situations. My point is there are people who start their working hours at 7:00 am, but there are cities so big and chaotic that is not rare people need over an hour to get to their workplaces. Millions of people can't wake up as late as 6:30 am. It's a privilege.
- In my burb, workers have to race to the bus, in order to get their bikes into one of two racks.

I have never been more motivated by the complete absence of a social safety-net, than each day I have spent unemployed.
As Americans, perhaps we behave this way largely to do normalization and indoctrination. And maybe some are tacitly aware of the fragility of this arrangement. But for those of us that have stared into the financial and classist chasm that sits beneath us all, it vastly exceeds any unease you might feel from not keeping up with your peers.
- My state has stripped unemployment down to 12 weeks, after that went by after my layoff at Christmas, I got so desperate and depressed and a little bit crazy. As the day is ticked closer to my first missed mortgage payment and car payment, And the thought of homelessness for me and my animals became a sobering reality, I started taking every interview I could possibly find, no preparation, just winging it until something worked.
  During that whole process, I saw what the endgame is, we are slaves, but there is no slave master anymore, we do that part ourselves to avoid dying on the street.
  So I am very motivated to start my own niche company and get the fuck away from this whole system at this point. Especially since I will have to work until I die, 401ks have all been cashed out during crises.
  
  My condolences on both the awful realizations and the exhaustion of your retirement funds. I feel you on the self-incorporation front. That one keeps coming up for me, especially when times are tough.
- Yeah turns out usa didn't reinvent the wheel super good or something. You have all been scammed under the pretense of liberty.
  Now go fix it.

This isn't a fucking meme. It's a great quote, but doesn't belong here.
- How isn't it a meme? It's an idea that's been repeated and passed through many people, surviving in its distilled but still exploitable form.
- Almost no modern "memes" are actually memes anymore.
  
  What do you think a meme is?
- So, I looked up the term on Wikipedia. It sais: "An Internet meme, or meme ([/miːm/], [MEEM]), is a cultural item (such as an idea, behavior, or style) that spreads across the Internet, primarily through social media platforms]. Internet memes manifest in a variety of formats, including images, videos, GIFs], and other viral content. Key characteristics of memes include their tendency to be parodied, their use of intertextuality, their viral dissemination, and their continual evolution. The term meme was originally introduced by Richard Dawkins in 1972 to describe the concept of cultural transmission." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_meme
  I'll let you be the judge of whether this fits that definition or not. (And whether it's worth your time arguing about something being a meme).
  
  mods, MOOODS! take’m otta here 🏃‍♂️🚨👮‍♀️👮‍♂️
- Language changes. "Meme" used to mean an idea that has taken hold and become part of culture. Now it's any composition of images and/or words posted online.
  
  Yeah, maybe. It certainly is a tragedy. I miss it when memes were just dumb shit which a person with an inane, absurdist sense of humor could appreciate. Politics are everywhere now.
- Sometimes people will only see things through certain avenues. In this case, a not-so-accurate category.
  
  "I know, but I wanted people to see it"
  This type of behaviour is bannable on platforms with functioning moderation

Rise and grind, baby.

90% of this is just good hygiene.
- It's not about being forced to do all that, it's about being forced to do all that so early in the morning in such a rush when most people would rather be sleeping. I hate mornings when I am at the office, but the WFH days are infinitely better because I get a lot more sleep and get to move at my own pace and do things at my convenience. I still have breakfast and brush my teeth, I just don't have to do everything in 30 minutes.
- A lot of people skip the fighting traffic part of their hygiene routines and it shows smh

For a time I lived awakened by the birds and a purring kittty and the golden dawn.
I would evacuate and then make a pot of French press and sit and and enjoy a cigarette and caffeine while my kitty and I watched hummingbirds flit among them flowers.
I would sleep when my work was done and I was tired. I’d bathe before bed and curl up with the kitty purring at my feet.
Minutes are a human construct. Rebel against them.
- Cool. How’d you monetize this, exactly, and how well did it pay?
  
  Magic and pushing buttons in the right order.
- Sounds absolutely lovely, alas unsustainable in the current world and at least my current region.
  
  Yes, people are the worst.

Innovation I tell you, gawd damn innovation... Day late, dollor short. Too much and never enough. Can you smell the stench of toxic positive optimism, the self satisfaction of those that don't think they will be left with the bag. You know the "low level winner" of inconsequential gains.... One extra bowl of slop. The vain and envious.. The non factual lacking in the mathematical. Oh what grand ol world. Capitalism is as natural as a ice pick rammed up my arse.

we live in a culture where the value of your life is measured by how much money you have
- Ain't that the truth.
- we live in a culture where the value of your life is measured by how much money you ~~have~~ can make for your owner
  
  Calvin Candie: Your boss looks a little green around the gills.
  Django: He just ain't used to seein' a man ripped apart by dogs is all.
  Calvin Candie: But you are used to it?
  Django: I'm just a little more used to Americans than he is.

Imagine life as a video game where you must find the way through a maze, discover keys and find treasures in order to win.
For example, you must find a way to sustain yourself (a maze), find the key to health (power) and avoid the beasts (corporate control).
People spend thousands of hours playing all sorts of games but neglect to properly play the game of life, instead they accept what they are offered by the power players.
- The difference is that in video games there are rules that you have to follow and you’re actually allowed to win.
  Real life the winners already won and wrote the rules
  
  The cheat code is unionization.
  "You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."
  — Buckminster Fuller
- Shit game, I'm gonna hit reset.

Easy. Money. Pay me well and I'll do it.
- Best we can do is $3.50.
  What do you MEAN no??? People just don't want to work these days!!!
  
  We need to do something about that. We've built this neat "factility" here where you will "live" so you stop breaking the law. Yes, you will have to work there and your windows have bars. What do you mean forced labour? You broke the law by not working!

- That's sad reality

This has triggered a vague memory of a joke by someone (I think Douglas Adams?). But I can't remember the full quote so putting this out there in case someone knows it.
Basically humanity was smarter than other animals because we didn't adapt ourselves to the environment, but adapted the environment to suit us. So now instead of having to adapt we just have to... wake up at 6:45 am when the alarm goes off, drive to work at 7 30 am etc.
Does anyone know it or was I having some kind of fever dream?
- I think this is in the movie "The gods must be crazy" : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gods_Must_Be_Crazy
  
  That's it! Thank you, that was really bugging me. No idea why I thought it was Douglas Adams 🤦‍♂️

Everyone needs to go watch the movie 'Barfly' right now. Its about Charles Bukowski and it's awesome

Because said person is not having to fear for his life? or worry where the next meal will come and also can have a bath, clean water, clothing, yeah, first worlders crying about living a comfortable life is cringe.
- You are correct, our privileges and opportunities have to be paid for. Things like governments, taxes, companies, and landlords have to exist. Even insurance is a great thing. The problem right now is how all of that is currently implemented in the US.
  People do fear for their lives. Get sick and your entire family can end up homeless. Cops are murdering innocent people left and right. People are working multiple jobs and still starving. They are living out of their cars, so they do not have easy access to clean water, baths, clean clothes, ECT. All while, the very government we are all paying to protect us has been taken over by people looking to use it against us.
  
  Companies and landlords don't have to exist though
  
  fine? quite true.
- More than one thing can be bad.
  
  yeah, but like, nuclear war and a dropping your icecream on the floor are bad.
  Complaining about having a job and a stable life, is kinda... xd IMO.

But if you do all this self employed its suddenly fine?
- If you are self employed, why are you making lots of money for somebody else?
  
  Person you replied to is drunk on the Kool aid, explaining what they couldn't see in the first place won't help.
- If you do it because you do it for yourself (and presumably want to), it's much better, yes.
- there is no ethical consumption

🤷‍♂️ my 911 seems to make it worth it.
- Yea my family seems to like the freedom of not having to do anything financially speaking.

by an alarm clock,
Sounds like a personal choice. Im up before 630 every day without an alarm clock. Try going to bed earlier?
leap out of bed,
Or just, get out of bed. Like every person on the planet.
dress,
Would you rather be nude?
force-feed,
You mean eat? Somebody forcing you? Youre bitching about breakfast?
shit, piss, brush teeth and hair,
If pooping/peeing are upsetting to you, you have bigger issues.
and fight traffic to get to a place where
Why fight the traffic? You are the traffic. Fighting it is a personal choice.
essentially you made lots of money for somebody else
Your company is successful, is that a problem? You're getting paid too, right?
and were asked to be grateful for the opportunity to do so?
Who's asking/telling you how to feel about it?
Dude needs therapy
- Y'all are missing the forrest for the trees
  God forbid someone add a bit of literary sugar to their argument, else they be picked apart by pedants.
  Your company is successful, is that a problem? You're getting paid too, right?
  Not getting paid commensurate to your contribution to the success of the company
  Who's asking/telling you how to feel about it?
  The news, society at large, people like you online posting replies like this very one
  Dude needs therapy
  Too bad it's unaffordable. Maybe you need to look at the state of society
  
  Not getting paid commensurate to your contribution to the success of the company
  He doesn't mention how much he is being paid. His complaint is that someone else is making lots of money.
  The news, society at large, people like you online posting replies like this very one
  I didn't say he should be grateful, or how he should feel. I read the news, live in society, can't recall ever hearing that I should be grateful for my job. You?
  Too bad it's unaffordable. Maybe you need to look at the state of society
  You think that's the problem here? He couldn't afford some help for whatever is going on with him? Or (since you charged me with being part of the problem), could his problems be exacerbated by folks like you, commiserating, raging against the machine of such horrors as waking up, eating breakfast, having a job.
- Your wiki lists being denser than a black hole as your superpower.
- Or just, get out of bed. Like every person on the planet.
  Look videos of apes to undrstand why that's not how it should work.
- says Charles Bukowski needs therapy is a small understatement.

"I am outraged by the society not supporting my lifestyle of doing nothing but scrolling TikTok all day."
Truly, Nazism in its purest form. We must rebel against such oppression.
- have you considered the possibility there's more than those two options?
  
  There would be if you had balls to do things instead of just posting memes about it 24/7
- 3/10 rage bait
  Good selection for the target audience, but too incoherent to actually be effective
- Scrolling TikTok all day is a symptom not a disease.
  
  It is a cause of everything that happened to our society. Just read the manifesto of Unabomber
- Nazism is when you... surf TikTok?
  This is why Democrats lost the last election. Liberals are absolutely brain poisoned.
  
  Liberals are the worst people to ever walk this earth. Not only they have complete contempt for tradition but also they cannot see anything outside their own egos
  I even prefer god damn marxists Leninists to the liberals because even though they are grossly incompetent and wrong at least are brave enough to acknowledge the reality. Liberals are just huge pussies
  And have you seen how smug they are? God, what a bunch of elitist fetishists.

The answer is maturity. Structure does not hurt if it is chosen voluntarily. It feels good to do things exactly as intended.
Waking up at 6:30 doesn't hurt if sleep started early and without being drunk.
The big tragedy is that society does everything to keep as many people as possible in a state of disarray. People to whom life is as described above don't have the will to leave bad employment situations behind.
- Well, nothing is that simple, in fact one of the biggest problems in society is that each of us has their own biological clock, with preferred activity and sleep hours, yet we are forced to align our schedules to the same universal standard. Of course, it is absolutely vital for the way our current society functions (because we, as a society, work together, take classes together, commute together, socialise together, celebrate together, and so on), but it definitely has been hurting billions of people for the past thousands of years and we should look for a way to eliminate this system as soon as possible.
  
  It's one vote away. Every bigger city can have one school for early birds and one for night owls. Then parents can start work whenever they want. For that, companies can have flexible starting times. If they work in shifts, allow people to trade shifts so that some do all the early and some do all the late shifts.
  Without artificial light, there were no sleep problems because more than enough hours were darkness. People took breaks from sleep.
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep

because you also make money for yourself
which allows you to buy things
and not live off the state
you are also (given the motivation) also capable of working your way up the chain and making more money for yourself which allows you to put it towards not working at all and still not living off the state
"Spend less than you earn—invest the surplus—avoid debt. Do simply this and you'll wind up rich."[7]
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIRE_movement
- It's a good thing that separation of corp and state is an inherent part of wage slavery.
  Could you imagine if you thought you were making an honest living parasitising some poor business owner with your wages only to find out you were actually living off the state the whole time?
  Embarrassing.
- I would recommend people opt out of consumerism as much as possible and focus on sustainable living.
  Don't chase the carrot needlessly.
  
  Yeah agreed, I've always tried to follow minimalist living:
  Q: What is minimalist living?
  A: It’s simply getting rid of things you do not use or need, leaving an uncluttered, simple environment and an uncluttered, simple life. It’s living without an obsession with material things or an obsession with doing everything and doing too much. It’s using simple tools, having a simple wardrobe, carrying little and living lightly.
  https://mnmlist.com/minimalist-faqs/
- Complete misunderstanding and delusion of how capitalism functions
  
  Care to elaborate on your understanding and reality of how capitalism functions?
- Please read actual books. It helps understanding why that is untrue.
  Here's a lengthy book presentation from a german institute (in english). Its not as harsh as i would have written it but its a start.