• @NJSpradlin
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    22 days ago

    Holy fuck is that depressing… former Olympian contender who was exiled from her home nation due to her political beliefs… became an Uber driver in Miami and then a food server in Los Vegas, at 50, before she choked to death at her solo apartment and was only found because her place of employment reported her missing. Holy fuck.

      • @NJSpradlin
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        1422 days ago

        Exactly. I’m not an Olympian… I’ll never see the money that goes into a campaign to compete there. But, how crushing is my future at 50 going to be? If this Olympian contender got treated that way? How is my (dying) middle class, unfit ass going to survive in our dystopian future?

          • @Late2TheParty
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            422 days ago

            The neat part is we’re now gonna have a social safety net after this? Right? RIGHT?!

        • @[email protected]
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          522 days ago

          You grow some pretty flowers, read good books, and go for walks.
          You’ll die eventually, yes, might as well try to enjoy what you can along the way.

        • @[email protected]
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          522 days ago

          You connect with someone, pool your resources and efforts, and live together.
          If nothing else, you’ll have someone to miss you when you choke to death.

          But seriously, all we have is each other. Some folks may never partner up romantically, but they can still build their own sense of community and family. Cooking for 2 is easier than cooking for 1, and cooking for 4 is even easier still. According to realtor.com’s July rental report, a single bedroom apartment in the U.S. averages $1600, and a 2 bedroom is $1900. Splitting that 2 bedroom with a roommate is way more economical than going it alone. Paying bills, planning things, having a vehicle break down, needing to share housework — Life is just easier with community. Many hands make light work.

          I’m not trying to paint a rosy picture. It seems right now that capitalism has “won.” With rare exception we’re all peasants, and we all face the same grim reality of being captive to systems that lower our quality of life and increase our challenges to strip every ounce of value from us and the environment around us. Maybe together, we can make it suck less, or at least try to.