Venting We Never Stood A Chance

[MyShadow]

The generation before mine lived the American Dream. They bought their houses for less than $40,000. Work was readily available in the post-war era. That generation could survive with one income, and one parent could stay home and raise their children. Basic essentials like food and healthcare were affordable and investing in a future, like getting a college education was something that was considered a realistic (and also affordable) thing to strive for. After 25 years or so, they could retire with a healthy pension. Combined with social security, investments and some savings, they could live their twilight years fairly comfortably. The "American Dream" was their reality.

Fast forward to 2025 and all of it is gone. If you're 50 years or older, you watched it happen. If you're younger, you grew up with this systematic destruction of the American economy. We were forced to watch our dreams die and losing everything became our biggest fear. One sickness or injury or divorce or catastrophic event could take everything, and the government that is supposed to protect its people step aside and allow the corporate machine to step in and strip away everything we've built.

Unfortunately, like many of you I fall into this category. The economy has adversely affected affected my ability to make a living and it feels that no matter how hard I work, I will lose everything. This includes my will to live as my mental health plummets.

I honestly thought that I could be successful and build my dream. Maybe even have a family, but the reality is that the odds are stacked against me and now, combined with PTSD, depression and anxiety undermining everything that I had left, I am left with only one option. Ending my life.

I can't speak for the rest of the world but the US, suicide has become an epidemic. I don't know the statistics, but I've read that it's one of the top 3 killers of men my age, which makes sense because there are very few resources for us. It's obscene what America has become and I am disgusted knowing that the people who were elected to watch our backs have turned away to protect allow corporations and billionaires. Those same entities have been allowed to run amok, strip-mining the American Dream and leaving behind nothing but ashes.

America the Beautiful? The Land of the Free? Not in our lifetime. I'm not sharing anything that you don't already know. We never stood a chance.

 

[Dejected 55]

The thing of it is too... it's largely the result of people not caring about other people either intentionally or negligently evolving society into one that doesn't allow others to succeed.

Instead of making the world better for the next generation, we've had a generation that seemed intent on making things worse... and we've gone backwards on quite a bit of progress socially that we seeded to be making for a while. "Fuck everyone else" and "whoever dies with the most toys wins" really took over during my lifetime it seems.

 

[MyShadow]

The thing of it is too... it's largely the result of people not caring about other people either intentionally or negligently evolving society into one that doesn't allow others to succeed.

Instead of making the world better for the next generation, we've had a generation that seemed intent on making things worse... and we've gone backwards on quite a bit of progress socially that we seeded to be making for a while. "Fuck everyone else" and "whoever dies with the most toys wins" really took over during my lifetime it seems.

All of this is painfully true

 

[Off_Switch]

It's not likely to ever get better. Only worse. A LOT worse.

 

[MyShadow]

It's not likely to ever get better. Only worse. A LOT worse.

This is exactly my point. It was already bad but is somehow getting worse. I am too old for teenaged angst and I'm certainly not sharing information that we don't already know.

This is nothing more than the futile act of screaming into the void.

But for fuck sake, that's all I have left. After watching everything I love die. After losing nearly everything. After feeling my mind and my ability to cope slip deeper into unmanageability. After watching my friends and family pull away. Everything and everyone I love has been torn from me. Screaming into the abyss is all I have left.

Without purpose, without joy, without support, without love, without my children, without my desire and passion for what I used to love-my life is meaningless and facing that emptiness is too much to bear. There's only one, final, intelligent solution. This is the reason that we are all here.

 

[plzoffme]

Very true... Also, all the young people making money online are schemers. Selling courses on how to make money, how to get rich ect.... social media glorifies people like Andrew tate who is a scammer. Everybody is fucking fake.....

 

[usernamesarehard]

The generation before mine lived the American Dream. They bought their houses for less than $40,000. Work was readily available in the post-war era. That generation could survive with one income, and one parent could stay home and raise their children. Basic essentials like food and healthcare were affordable and investing in a future, like getting a college education was something that was considered a realistic (and also affordable) thing to strive for. After 25 years or so, they could retire with a healthy pension. Combined with social security, investments and some savings, they could live their twilight years fairly comfortably. The "American Dream" was their reality.

Fast forward to 2025 and all of it is gone. If you're 50 years or older, you watched it happen. If you're younger, you grew up with this systematic destruction of the American economy. We were forced to watch our dreams die and losing everything became our biggest fear. One sickness or injury or divorce or catastrophic event could take everything, and the government that is supposed to protect its people step aside and allow the corporate machine to step in and strip away everything we've built.

Unfortunately, like many of you I fall into this category. The economy has adversely affected affected my ability to make a living and it feels that no matter how hard I work, I will lose everything. This includes my will to live as my mental health plummets.

I honestly thought that I could be successful and build my dream. Maybe even have a family, but the reality is that the odds are stacked against me and now, combined with PTSD, depression and anxiety undermining everything that I had left, I am left with only one option. Ending my life.

I can't speak for the rest of the world but the US, suicide has become an epidemic. I don't know the statistics, but I've read that it's one of the top 3 killers of men my age, which makes sense because there are very few resources for us. It's obscene what America has become and I am disgusted knowing that the people who were elected to watch our backs have turned away to protect allow corporations and billionaires. Those same entities have been allowed to run amok, strip-mining the American Dream and leaving behind nothing but ashes.

America the Beautiful? The Land of the Free? Not in our lifetime. I'm not sharing anything that you don't already know. We never stood a chance.

Don't forget that you uesd to be able to file for bankruptcy and your student loans would be included in that. They passed a law so that future generations would be saddled with this debt for the rest of their lives unless they move to another country and never return. Yeah, shit's fucked here, it's a pretty big reason I might actually go through with ctb.

 

[MyShadow]

Don't forget that you uesd to be able to file for bankruptcy and your student loans would be included in that. They passed a law so that future generations would be saddled with this debt for the rest of their lives unless they move to another country and never return. Yeah, shit's fucked here, it's a pretty big reason I might actually go through with ctb.

Apparently you are also in the US. Yes, our government threw us under the bus and allowed the banking industry to fully screw us. Our government allowed every industry to screw us. Sadly with this current administration, things will only get worse. Unchecked greed has destroyed everything and apparently, that greed is rewarded here.

 

[usernamesarehard]

Yeah, I live in PA. I'm not an 'overthrow capitalism' kind of person, but I do think that the government has allowed corporations to operate unchecked for too long. It's the reason we can't afford anything. The national minimum wage set by the federal government should increase with inflation. Then we wouldn't be in this situation where if we actually changed the minimum wage to what it would be if it was adjusted with inflation, we'd crash the value of the dollar and completely fuck our country. And yeah, allowing a millionaire businessman to be president again wasn't the smartest idea.

 

[nights5467]

The generation before mine lived the American Dream. They bought their houses for less than $40,000. Work was readily available in the post-war era. That generation could survive with one income, and one parent could stay home and raise their children. Basic essentials like food and healthcare were affordable and investing in a future, like getting a college education was something that was considered a realistic (and also affordable) thing to strive for. After 25 years or so, they could retire with a healthy pension. Combined with social security, investments and some savings, they could live their twilight years fairly comfortably. The "American Dream" was their reality.

Fast forward to 2025 and all of it is gone. If you're 50 years or older, you watched it happen. If you're younger, you grew up with this systematic destruction of the American economy. We were forced to watch our dreams die and losing everything became our biggest fear. One sickness or injury or divorce or catastrophic event could take everything, and the government that is supposed to protect its people step aside and allow the corporate machine to step in and strip away everything we've built.

Unfortunately, like many of you I fall into this category. The economy has adversely affected affected my ability to make a living and it feels that no matter how hard I work, I will lose everything. This includes my will to live as my mental health plummets.

I honestly thought that I could be successful and build my dream. Maybe even have a family, but the reality is that the odds are stacked against me and now, combined with PTSD, depression and anxiety undermining everything that I had left, I am left with only one option. Ending my life.

I can't speak for the rest of the world but the US, suicide has become an epidemic. I don't know the statistics, but I've read that it's one of the top 3 killers of men my age, which makes sense because there are very few resources for us. It's obscene what America has become and I am disgusted knowing that the people who were elected to watch our backs have turned away to protect allow corporations and billionaires. Those same entities have been allowed to run amok, strip-mining the American Dream and leaving behind nothing but ashes.

America the Beautiful? The Land of the Free? Not in our lifetime. I'm not sharing anything that you don't already know. We never stood a chance.

Capitalism was always going to come to this.
If capitalism is a free market economy, where there should be as few rules and regulations as possible for companies to do as they please, and the only incentive to do anything or start a business is to make a profit from it, then this is the logical conclusion. 1+1=2.
If McDonald's, for example, started some decades ago, and they wanted to increase profits for the next quarter, they had plenty of options, both ethical and unethical.
They could build more locations, expand the menu, increase food quality, innovate and make it easier to order, etc.
But at a certain point, you run out of ethical things to do to increase profit. So they turn to scientifically engineering foods as addictive as heroin and crack, marketing to children to get them hooked on the product young, letting inflation outpace wages to pay less over time, lobbying the government to make sure they can corner as much of the market as possible and get away with the most exploitation possible, relying on slave labor in the third world to source their materials, etc.
And the only reason they run this whole thing is to make money, as that is the incentive capitalism provides to make people work. So we live in a world where you are given great riches and rewards specifically for doing bad things to people.
This does not have to be the incentive structure. Capitalism is a man made and adopted system; it is not intrinsic. And it has to go in favor of a system that doesn't reward sociopaths with power and control over everyone's lives.

Likewise, we the working class are also incentivized (more like threatened and intimidated) into doing bad things and support bad people under capitalism. I have to go work for this company that is causing pain to millions of people around the world daily, and exploiting the workers, customers, and slaves that go into their business simultaneously, because I will otherwise become homeless with no social safety net and be subject to state violence and likely incarceration (our American word for slavery).

I want to CTB too. If that's your plan, and you can make it happen, and that is what you truly wish, I hope you well in your attempt and I hope that you find peace. While you are still here, please try and unionize and boycott. It is one of the few genuinely meaningful things we can do in this evil world to make anything better for ourselves. If you are too tired to do that, I really can't blame you.

 

[MyShadow]

Capitalism was always going to come to this.
If capitalism is a free market economy, where there should be as few rules and regulations as possible for companies to do as they please, and the only incentive to do anything or start a business is to make a profit from it, then this is the logical conclusion. 1+1=2.
If McDonald's, for example, started some decades ago, and they wanted to increase profits for the next quarter, they had plenty of options, both ethical and unethical.
They could build more locations, expand the menu, increase food quality, innovate and make it easier to order, etc.
But at a certain point, you run out of ethical things to do to increase profit. So they turn to scientifically engineering foods as addictive as heroin and crack, marketing to children to get them hooked on the product young, letting inflation outpace wages to pay less over time, lobbying the government to make sure they can corner as much of the market as possible and get away with the most exploitation possible, relying on slave labor in the third world to source their materials, etc.
And the only reason they run this whole thing is to make money, as that is the incentive capitalism provides to make people work. So we live in a world where you are given great riches and rewards specifically for doing bad things to people.
This does not have to be the incentive structure. Capitalism is a man made and adopted system; it is not intrinsic. And it has to go in favor of a system that doesn't reward sociopaths with power and control over everyone's lives.

Likewise, we the working class are also incentivized (more like threatened and intimidated) into doing bad things and support bad people under capitalism. I have to go work for this company that is causing pain to millions of people around the world daily, and exploiting the workers, customers, and slaves that go into their business simultaneously, because I will otherwise become homeless with no social safety net and be subject to state violence and likely incarceration (our American word for slavery).

I want to CTB too. If that's your plan, and you can make it happen, and that is what you truly wish, I hope you well in your attempt and I hope that you find peace. While you are still here, please try and unionize and boycott. It is one of the few genuinely meaningful things we can do in this evil world to make anything better for ourselves. If you are too tired to do that, I really can't blame you.

I don't know you but I certainly respect you and your articulate perspective. Thank you for elaborating so eloquently.

In terms of my plan, every single day I think about CTB because I am exhausted. I worked hard to be a good man but humanity does not reward compassion, empathy, values, or kindness. I wish I had it in me to fight. I just don't. Not anymore.

I hope you find the peace and justice you seek.

 

[Aiyuxiao]

Hi friend, idk your exact age, but we're probably close in generation. Cause I feel you

When I was younger, I also thought that maybe I can somehow even ADAPT to the bullshit our country have become. But, it's even worse than before. Especially for individuals such as my myself who are chronically ill and disabled with chronic pain 24/7. Healthcare and mental health services in this country honestly sucks. Everything is expensive, doctors gaslight and invalidate your symptoms and pain, procedures done to you are 50/50 and can even leave you worse off than before, etc. This country is also criminalizing homelessness, mental health, addiction, etc.

I was told once, "It's just a skill issue. If you can't afford a house or to live here, that's YOUR problem. You fucked up."
While I don't agree with this one bit.

Honestly our parents also were victims of this country as well. My husband's dad worked hard to get their house, and then the mortgage economic crisis of 2008 happened, and they lost everything. At the same time, my dad was laid off from his job. And again in 2025, my dad was laid off again due to the economy.

As a disabled person, I would have CTBed a long ass time ago because of how this country/world works (If you can't be a part of the working class, you're a burden to society). But, my husband who is my caregiver is trying his best to take care of me. So, I'm trying really, really, really hard to stay here in this shitty existence for him.

I'm sorry that you're feeling the same way. I also been feeling like you are and when things get even worse for me, I'm most likely will no longer be here as well

 

[Archness]

I think that, maybe with AI, they're treating everyone like shit because they're gonna transition to AI and "Get Rid" of all the non-elites or something.

It's like if you're not outright talented or special, society nowadays just uses you as an expendable worker to work to the bone, or a useless eater, both thrown away in the end regardless. If you're don't make the cut of being successful enough to own a whole house, very hard to get nowadays, guess what? You're shamed to no end and deemed some kind of loser.

That's just being average, that isn't even enough to be successful nowadays. Let alone if you're bellow average or disabled. Yea, the suicide rate is gonna go up when modern economics and having to work for a living usually say, "You suck, no one wants you."