I'm 28. I work a shitty wage job and rent with roommates. Life is alright. I'm not too social (thanks, 4chan), but I actively save and invest for the future. However, other peoples' attitudes have been getting really annoying the past several years.Yes, the housing situation sucks. Yes, college outlook sucks. Yes, fuck the 1%, but...People choosing to work part-time, or not at all. Bars, clubs, take-out food, partying, concerts every other month, music festivals, streaming services, $5 coffees and snacks daily, clothing brands, collectable hobbies, lottery tickets, expensive vape shit and cigarettes, recreational drugs, body mods, moving into shitty apartments in expensive trendy locations... The latest Apple products... The best cars a shitty payment plan can buy... Out of state tuition for generic degrees, because why not?...Such is often the life of the western "poor" person who "lives paycheck to paycheck", apparently. At least around larger cities. I know there are people with actual struggles, but holy fuck. The sob stories you read online do not match with people irl.I've met people who "work two jobs", but will privately admit they like it that way, and turned down better opportunities that require small presence of spine.I know people who work an average 30 hours per week by choice, but love humble-bragging about the 3 month period they worked 50 hour weeks, 5 years ago.I've met people with college degrees paid for by their parents. They complain about how how difficult things are, but privately admit to making few to zero applications post-college.25 year old guy is stressed because he has like $30 in his bank account... and he really "needs" to go to that $215 concert (plus much more in expenses and hotel). His parents have bailed him out of debt multiple times.Girlfriend can't keep a service job, let alone work full time. "There's no point in saving because the world is going to fall apart before I'm old")How do you navigate this shit?
>>32595202continued.People of all backgrounds being into shitty rap and hip-hop playlists that feed into angry, egotistical, poverty complexes:Song about struggle, song about having absurd material wealth out of nowhere, song about "having" to beat women and kill people, song about struggle, song about expensive liquor and luxury cars, song about struggle, song about being rich enough to get sexually serviced by a harem, song about struggle...It trains people to think they're oppressed victims, but at the same time they're too proud to put on that Walmart assistant manager uniform. They "just can't". It's not a "real" opportunity. I deserve everything I want or I'm just not gonna try.I've met women who get by on shit like OnlyFans, admittedly supplemented by welfare. They "can't" take the 15 min bus ride to a cashier job in a safe area, because they... "just can't". Many people are REALLY into the romanticism of "having" to sell your body to lusting fans. I've watched faces glow when someone is talking about a girl successfully getting by on OF. This is why I think supporting "sex work" movement is bullshit.Fuck the 1%, but people still have opportunities they do not take. These are separate issues.It's like people would rather be "poor" than almost poor. Pretending to be a victim with zero opportunity, worthy of sympathy, is just easier on the ego than admitting you can get to the unglamorous 2nd or 3rd rung of a very tall ladder.How DO you navigate this shit?
>>32595209final. Thank you for reading my essay.No one today can comprehend that getting to your 30s while saving and budgeting puts you into a different place than partying and chasing FOMO nonstop until you're "living paycheck to paycheck" at 30. This mindset is so goddamn mainstream that I'm not allowed to be anything other than sympathetic and affirming to people who spend and spend on "wants" that they classify as "needs".Most people are none of my business, but it's getting hard to watch my spendaholic, instantly-gratifying friends and loved ones cry and stress SO MUCH, despite often making more than me.How do you navigate this shit? How do you avoid the snarky "must be nice!!!" attitude you get for being boring enough to be financially stable? How do you get people to admit there are simple solutions to their long-term problems? How do you tell the $25k/year intentional part-timer and the $55k+/year degree worker living 1 mile apart both with cars that they aren't really living on rock bottom? How do I avoid feeling like I'm going be pressured to bailing out the careless party people that fill my life?
>>32595221I've nothing to add but I read it and agree
>>32595202>>32595209>>32595221This isn't your personal blog/vent site.
>>32595727It's an advice board, for people seeking advice. I didn't mean for it to go on that long. Figured the more examples, the more people could connect their own similar observations to this issue.Also, plenty of people like to lash out individual examples they don't do. Like someone spending an extra $350/month on DUI related expenses taking offense to "stop buying frappuccinos everyday" suggestions.This is a huge issue today, but too many people are hostile towards acknowledging the elephant in the room. Better to ask here than anywhere else.If I can't get anyone else to acknowledge it, I guess that's kinda valuable feedback in itself though...
You know everything you need to know about these people. You are not one of them but you stick to them. Its on you.
>>32595906There's a quote misattributed to Steinbeck that goes along the lines of, "Communism never took off in America because Americans never identify themselves as the proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires." Simply put, lots of people think they are going to make it someday, somehow. Either that, or the lack of a guaranteed payoff for working hard means they'd rather keep their time and indulge themselves. After all, working and never ultimately becoming successful is the worst of both worlds (at least in theory). You also never have to explain your failure if you can just say you never felt like trying.I don't really see why this bothers you personally. Lots of easily exploited people means opportunities to make money, I suppose.Instead of worrying about people that have nothing to do with you and being close with people who weigh you down, why don't you focus on clawing your way up?
>>32595995I didn't write about just a few people, or one grouping of people. At least for people under 40, there seems to be an unspoken rule against saying things are ok.Could it just be my city then? It's a large liberal city, known for taking ideas too far. I've seen the New York Times shit on my city for being too extreme. Too many people talking about fear after the election, too.You don't experience any of this around you? Good to hear if so. I've just been feeling so damn suffocated lately. I feel like I can't have a casual conversation without feeling pressure to mirror everyone's views.
>>32596140>Instead of worrying about people that have nothing to do with you and being close with people who weigh you down, why don't you focus on clawing your way up?Because I like my life. The problem is that no one else seems to like theirs. Nearly everyone around my age gets weird and fidgety when talking about any long-term goals, like saving for a house. People here get worried about leaving their house whenever COVID goes around, even in fucking 2024.It honestly is a relief to see other people don't experience this though. So thanks.
>>32595202hi guys im 19, and in my bank account i have 20$. What should I do?
>>32596227I avoid people like that and treasure people that can bear the truth and dont bullshit themselves. Thats another part of being responsible for your own life, to be selective of people, to not be afraid of being alone, to seek out strong and virtous people. It doesnt mean that you cant have empathy or that you need to be cruel, it just means that you respect yourself and what you believe to be right. People have always been weak, their weakness just takes a different shape depending on time and place. Its your choice to be one of them or not.
>>32595202>People choosing to work part-time, or not at all. Bars, clubs, take-out food, partying, concerts every other month, music festivals, streaming services, $5 coffees and snacks daily, clothing brands, collectable hobbies, lottery tickets, expensive vape shit and cigarettes, recreational drugs, body mods, moving into shitty apartments in expensive trendy locations... The latest Apple products... The best cars a shitty payment plan can buy... Out of state tuition for generic degrees, because why not?...rich people do all this shit too, they just got lucky to be born rich.
>>32595202>People choosing to work part-time, or not at all. Bars, clubs, take-out food, partying, concerts every other month, music festivals, streaming services, $5 coffees and snacks daily, clothing brands, collectable hobbies, lottery tickets, expensive vape shit and cigarettes, recreational drugs, body mods, moving into shitty apartments in expensive trendy locations... The latest Apple products... The best cars a shitty payment plan can buy... Out of state tuition for generic degrees, because why not?..Most of these people have already internally resigned to the fact that they are working dead end jobs for a currency that inflates every month. Why not spend the money they make? Should they be miserable ascetics to save a couple thousand dollars a year as if that means fucking anything? The world is a zero sum game and there are winners and losers, but at least under capitalism the losers can numb themselves with drugs and new toys.
>>32596459It's fine to choose this lifestyle, as long as they OWN the decision, and its consequences. People do all this stuff then claim they're barely staying off the streets. People guilt their SO or relatives into providing financial assistance they wouldn't need if they at least maintained an emergency fund.
>>32595202surprise surprise, a good chunk of the general populace can't manage their funds, be glad you are one of the few with a working noggin.>How do you navigate this shit?I live with me mum, work part time (only a couple of hours) and do RMT, pretty much everything goes into savings, i get quite good APYs from crypto right now and i still have some money left in my bank account from wageslaving i did for about a year until october 2024. Don't really have a plan for the future, i think i'm gonna have a blast this year and join the workforce back again in autumn and actually start saving up for... something? maybe a house in the countryside, they are quite cheap here anyway.I'd like to move to some place more civilized and colder but i have no qualification or a lot of money or black skin, so i am pretty much an undesirable in the eyes of an immigration office
>>32595221>>32595209>>32595202You sound a bit jealous if I'm being honest. I get the impression you're more fiscally responsible than your friends not because you resist the urge to indulge yourself, but because you just don't have those urges to begin with. Which means you're wired different than they are. Which is probably a lonely feeling. You're watching everyone around you participate in a collective behavior you just don't 'get'. Being a 4channer, you're probably neurodivergent to some extent which further widens that gap between you and everyone around you. If they would just do X, they could have Y. You see how everything could be better if people just conformed to your view of things. That's not life. There's no 'navigating' what you're experiencing. You can't quirk your perceptions to make the behavior of others more palatable. You don't fit in. It's that simple. Maybe you can go someplace more to your liking. I doubt it. You seem a little rigid - not a bad thing per se, but you'll always have difficulty seeing level with other people. We all have our crosses to bear, etc. You're probably much better at certain things than I'll ever be, but this thing with people isn't ever going to be easy for you.
...why do you care?(i agree with anon above, you sound jealous)
NTA>>32596644The first paragraph - couldn't have said it better myself.The second - it's hard at times, but I try to accept the fact that I'm different. I didn't choose this, but that's how things turned out, there's nothing I can do about it, so let's just... live and look at the bright side of life. At the end of the day, I have one life, and I can either spend it being happy or unhappy. I can spend it being frustrated why people can't solve such simple problems, or I can watch porn and play vidya. At my deathbed, I don't want to be bitter. I aspire to be one of those old people who are still cool and fun
>>32596889>At my deathbed, I don't want to be bitter. I aspire to be one of those old people who are still cool and funIt's a good aspiration to have. I wish I could tell you how to get there, but we're all in the same boat. Try to keep it in focus. Things like that can slip away from us all too easily. People are maddening and irrational and selfish, but it's their world and that's just the way it is. Some of those qualities can even be enjoyable, from time to time.
