• @MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      16 months ago

      The system is working as designed.

      Capitalism is built to reward those with money and punish those without. Everyone in-between is leeched for all that they’re worth by the people that control and hold nearly all of the money.

      Over a long enough timeline, nearly all people fall into either the “in-between” category or the “without” category, while the people who hold the vast majority of the wealth become a smaller and smaller group of dictator-like individuals.

      There is no democracy in the workplace.

      The system is working as designed.

  • @MagicChicken@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    266 months ago

    My parents never made a lot of money, but they did great with what they had and are now living the sweet retired life. Im doing fairly well myself, but still need to be pretty careful about things. Every time I bring up things being tough, I get a response of “we only used to make…” And they just don’t get how that translates to today

    • @Passerby6497@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      76 months ago

      Start having an inflation calculator handy when they try that shit. Like “oh, I only made 25k in 1980, you’re doing so good at 50k in 2106” (actual conversation with my mother), nevermind that she made basically 75k adjusted for inflation.

      I’d like to say it shut her up once I started showing her how her raw numbers were bullshit at every step, but she found more things to argue about until she had to change the subject. But it at least made her shut up about it for a while though.

      • @SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        176 months ago

        Very roughly, you had liberalism until that crashed in the 1930 with the Great Depression.

        Capitalism was rebooted with social liberalism to include welfare, education, healthcare. In the seventies that ran aground in stagflation. Rich people didn’t like investing anymore as the profits weren’t big enough to their liking with all that welfare. Then came the oil crisis and that killed it completely.

        The system was rebooted again with a tweaked form of liberalism, so that’s now neoliberalism. It repeats all the mistakes of that past, slowly salami slices welfare and healthcare away, chips away at all the safeguards and then crashes again in 2008 with financial crisis.

        After that, the system was basically resuscitated, pumped full of money to keep it going and now we see how long it lasts before something really bad happens. Welfare, education and healthcare are turning into dust for most people so something going to give.

      • @toddestan@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        36 months ago

        I didn’t see it in a quick scroll through on that page, but I’d assume the answer has something to do with this.

      • FuglyDuck
        link
        fedilink
        English
        -4
        edit-2
        6 months ago

        could be coincidence, but Biden started on a county council in 1970, and first got elected to the US senate in 1972.

        I suspect a lot of the, uh “old guard” entered politics around the same time.

        • prole
          link
          fedilink
          English
          6
          edit-2
          6 months ago

          Lol yeah dude, this is all Joe Biden’s fault, and it goes back to his very first job in politics on… checks notes… *County fucking Council."

          Who said brain rot is an exclusively conservative trait?

  • @Bigfish@lemmynsfw.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    146 months ago

    The stat he’s missing that answers the question is what happened to per capita GDP (14.6x)? Gains there went somewhere, and it sure as shit isn’t in the median household.

  • @SS2k_2003@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    96 months ago

    The only thing that has gotten cheaper is electronics, everything else has gotten more expensive and of worse build quality.

    • @grue@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      12
      edit-2
      6 months ago

      everything else has gotten… of worse build quality

      (It even applies to a lot of electronics chassis too, to be honest. Most devices aren’t machined-aluminum flagship laptops or whatever.)

      • @MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        36 months ago

        The problem isn’t just plastics.

        I have many things built with plastics that are rather durable and of good quality.

        The root issue is cost savings. When you try to save costs by reducing the total amount of materials used for the structure and frame of a thing to the minimum level, you end up with garbage products that are literally designed to fail because of how cheaply they’re being produced.

        Sure, plastics are not as structural as other materials like aluminum, steel, iron, etc… But if they’re used correctly, they can contribute to the overall durability of the product. When used incorrectly they can severely detract from the same.

  • Guy Ingonito
    link
    fedilink
    26 months ago

    When people talk about how much better things were in the past im always reminded of this image:

    • @Stitch0815@feddit.org
      link
      fedilink
      36 months ago

      I did not double check the numbers but if they are somewhat correct this is not survivor bias

      There was a lot of shit in the past that was

      Well shit

      But that does not mean some things werent better

  • @quink@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    -76 months ago

    The car’s alright, because it disincentives car culture just that little bit (even if it hasn’t led to good public transit in most of the US), and because they’re about a billion times safer.

    Everything else is bullshit though.

    But then I remember that car now means light truck in the US.

    Set it all on fire.

    • The car’s alright, because it disincentives car culture just that little bit (even if it hasn’t led to good public transit in most of the US)

      Not much of a disincentive if the alternatives aren’t available. Just fleecing people who have no choice.

    • FuglyDuck
      link
      fedilink
      English
      36 months ago

      The car’s alright, because it disincentives car culture just that little bit (even if it hasn’t led to good public transit in most of the US), and because they’re about a billion times safer.

      even in the best-transit-places, the transit here sucks.

    • @MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      16 months ago

      I hate that most vehicles are some derivation of truck/van; that most vehicles increase in size for no good reason.

      Not only that, but consumers but this shit in droves. Significantly more than alternative and more fuel efficient vehicles.

      This annoys me because I’m a bit of a “car guy”, as in, I like cars, I think they’re interesting and a demonstration of excellent engineering… Most of the time.

      I don’t think everyone needs a truck, or SUV, or van, or minivan, or… IDK what they’re making now? Crossover? APC? Whatever.

      For some people, that makes sense. But most people can trade in their SUV or F150 for a focus, fiesta, or fusion, and they would be well served in doing so. They would pay less for gas and insurance, and they would be able to fit into parking spaces. And that’s just talking about Ford vehicles.

      Meanwhile, Ford doesn’t even make most of those vehicles anymore because everyone bought up their SUV/crossover/truck/whatever shit in much larger numbers so they just stopped caring.

      This is saying nothing about hybrid, BEV, or HEV products.

      Then, to top it all off, most people who live in cities, don’t even need a car, they just need the city to have architecture and designs that are built for use by people (not cars), and a public transit system that isn’t an absolute nightmare.

      Ok, I’ll get off my soap box. All this shit just sets me off.