It's all Fake....Capisce

[Newbeeee™]

I think I know why everything sucks...

...and it's because everything is fake

We are getting fake college degrees that cost 4 years and six figures that teach you fake education and get you fake jobs.

We are eating fake food, with fake ingredients, funded by fake research.

We are scrolling through fake lives, with fake relationships, who take fake, curated vacations to promote brands that make fake products.

We are voting for fake candidates, who run on fake promises, inside a fake system that was never designed to fix anything.

We are raising kids in fake schools that teach fake history, fake science, which quietly produce fake adults who can't think for themselves.

We are watching fake news, about fake crises, produced by fake journalists, for fake outrage.

We are borrowing fake money that was printed from nothing, to fund a fake economy that would collapse in an afternoon if people stopped pretending it was real.

We are buying fake organic food that's just a paid label, and drinking fake juice with two percent juice in it, and putting fake cheese on cheeseburgers that's just "cheese product" on fake burger meat.

We are donating to fake nonprofits where the moeny never makes it to the people and then funding fake foreign aid that buys real weapons to prop up fake governments.

We are going to fake therapy that teaches fake coping skills instead of telling you hard truths.

We are buying fake furniture made of fake wood that's actually compressed sawdust and glue that looks like wood, ships in fourteen boxes with instructions written in a fake language that isn't quite any language, requires tools it doesn't include, takes 4 hours to build, wobbles on day 1, and is totally destroyed in 6 months.

We are downloading fake "free" apps that charge a subscription after three days for AI features that don't work, hidden behind a paywall we didn't see, protected by a privacy policy we didn't read, buried inside Terms of Service written by lawyers specifically so we wouldn't read them, that we agreed to by tapping a button the size of a thumbnail, that gave a company we've never heard of the right to sell our data to companies we'll never hear of, to build a profile on us we'll never see, to influence decisions we'll never know were made.

IT. IS. ALL. FAKE.

And we all yearn for what was once real.

Don't you remember? Did you forget?

There was a time with a simple handshake between men was a contract.

When bread went stale because... well, that's what real bread does!

When kids played outside all day until it was dark, and nobody tracked them.

When a family could live off a single income.

When music was made by people who LIVED something real and you could feel it.

When schools was HARD... and that was the point!

When doctors knew your name and your family, they even came to your house,

When you bought something once... and it was yours forever.

When the chair your grandmother bought once lasted 70 years and she passed it onto your dad.

And now nothing is real, and that's why everything sucks.

[mowens]

Wow. That could make someone commit fake suicide.

[SuperHoneyBadger]

[jstell]

going to fake therapy that teaches fake coping skills instead of telling you

...that anxiety and depression is a natural response to the state of the world.  It's not mental disorder, it's just the cognitive dissonance from dealing with...

a fake system that was never designed to fix anything.

...and...

a fake economy that would collapse in an afternoon if people stopped pretending it was real.

[Newbeeee™]

Preach!!!!

[CNCAppsJames]

...the cognitive dissonance ...

When children are taught that the world is "fair", it's easy to see why it is pervasive. 

When people are raised with "everybody gets a trophy", etc... it just sets people up for a miserable life rife with envy instead of contentment. 

The poorest among us in here are probably in the top 10% of wage earners on the planet (if you make $50k a year, you are in that category).  I'd be willing to bet (based on past salary surveys in eMC) that the majority of us fall into the top 5% on the planet. I can hear the ya but's screaming at the top of their lungs right now.. and I don't care. Is our system broken? Yep. 100% Has it ever NOT been been broken? When the 3rd person in the world murdered the 4th, you're going ot be in for a rough ride. Is it ever going to not be broken? Negative ghost rider so long as humans are in charge, plan on broken.   

When it is literally pounded into children from their earliest school memories "everybody needs to go to college", "go to college, it's the only path to success", then the harsh realities of the real world set in and that 4, 5, 6, or whatever years of college didn't amount to cold diarrhea on a paper plate. No wonder cognitive dissonance is the de riguer. The time, the effort, the energy, the money... set them up for little more than debt for decades if they are lucky. Some people's student loans won't be discharged until their death. The life of discontentment is where it's typically going to lead. 

Our responsibility as parents is to prepare our children for the realities of life in this world. Not the fairy tales. Not the imagine's, not the what if's... the realities.  We want them to hope, dream, what if, etc... but we should be preparing them for the liklihoods.

 

[jstell]

set them up for little more than debt for decades

This is actually the goal of the moneyed class.  The more they can chain us and the earlier, the better.
We are not citizens of capitalism, we are subjects, by design.  The only use capitalism has for our meat is as consumers and producers, which they can scrape for margin coming and going.  Capitalism works for capital - that's why they call it that.

[CADCAM396]

"cold diarrhea on a paper plate"
You do have a way with words.

[Brian]

The poorest among us in here are probably in the top 10% of wage earners on the planet (if you make $50k a year, you are in that category).  I'd be willing to bet (based on past salary surveys in eMC) that the majority of us fall into the top 5% on the planet. I can hear the ya but's screaming at the top of their lungs right now.. and I don't care.

While this statement is not exactly false, it ignores the fact that $50k/yr here vs $50K/yr elsewhere mean substantially different things.

Search "purchasing power parity" for more on this.... (AI cut-and-paste below)

Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) is an economic theory and technique used to determine the relative value of currencies by comparing the costs of a standardized "basket of goods" between countries. It adjusts exchange rates so that identical goods cost the same, offering a more accurate comparison of living standards and GDP than market exchange rates. Wikipedia +3Key Aspects of Purchasing Power Parity: Formula & Calculation: The basic PPP formula is:\(\text{PPP}=\frac{\text{Cost\ of\ Basket\ in\ Currency\ 1}}{\text{Cost\ of\ Basket\ in\ Currency\ 2}}\)This calculates the rate at which one currency would need to be converted into another to purchase the same amount of goods. FOREX.com +1Significance: PPP is crucial for comparing economic productivity, living standards, and income levels between nations, particularly when comparing developing nations to high-income ones, as it accounts for lower local costs of living. Investopedia +2Types of PPP: Wikipedia +4Absolute PPP: Suggests that the exchange rate between two currencies should equal the ratio of the price levels of a fixed basket of goods in the two countries.Relative PPP: Focuses on the rate of appreciation or depreciation of a currency based on differential inflation rates between countries.Limitations: OECD +2Non-Tradable Goods: Services like haircuts or housing costs are difficult to compare across borders.Transportation/Trade Barriers: Costs such as taxes, tariffs, and shipping hinder perfect price equality.Calculation Complexity: It is difficult to create a truly equivalent, standard basket of goods across vastly different cultures.The World Bank and OECD regularly calculate PPP data for international comparison.

[Incogneeto]

While this statement is not exactly false, it ignores the fact that $50k/yr here vs $50K/yr elsewhere mean substantially different things.

Search "purchasing power parity" for more on this.... (AI cut-and-paste below)

Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) is an economic theory and technique used to determine the relative value of currencies by comparing the costs of a standardized "basket of goods" between countries. It adjusts exchange rates so that identical goods cost the same, offering a more accurate comparison of living standards and GDP than market exchange rates. Wikipedia +3Key Aspects of Purchasing Power Parity: Formula & Calculation: The basic PPP formula is:\(\text{PPP}=\frac{\text{Cost\ of\ Basket\ in\ Currency\ 1}}{\text{Cost\ of\ Basket\ in\ Currency\ 2}}\)This calculates the rate at which one currency would need to be converted into another to purchase the same amount of goods. FOREX.com +1Significance: PPP is crucial for comparing economic productivity, living standards, and income levels between nations, particularly when comparing developing nations to high-income ones, as it accounts for lower local costs of living. Investopedia +2Types of PPP: Wikipedia +4Absolute PPP: Suggests that the exchange rate between two currencies should equal the ratio of the price levels of a fixed basket of goods in the two countries.Relative PPP: Focuses on the rate of appreciation or depreciation of a currency based on differential inflation rates between countries.Limitations: OECD +2Non-Tradable Goods: Services like haircuts or housing costs are difficult to compare across borders.Transportation/Trade Barriers: Costs such as taxes, tariffs, and shipping hinder perfect price equality.Calculation Complexity: It is difficult to create a truly equivalent, standard basket of goods across vastly different cultures.The World Bank and OECD regularly calculate PPP data for international comparison.

TLDR.

[CNCAppsJames]

While this statement is not exactly false, it ignores the fact that $50k/yr here vs $50K/yr elsewhere mean substantially different things.

There is not one single thing about my statement that is even remotely false. "Not exactly false" implies there is at least an element of being false. 

"Purchasing power" is a completely different subject. I did not even slightly imply that "purchasing power" was part of the calculus or even part of the conversation. 

I merely stated that the even the poorest among "us".. and I didn't think I needed to define "us", but I probably should have as it leaves unintended implications out there as well. So, "us" as in we fellow MastercamForum'ers are better off than 90% of the planet. I am not saying that the $50k folks aren't having a tough go of it because THAT COULD definitely be "...false..." at least for someone on their own in most parts of the US. My youngest son (22 next week) that lives with us makes around that $50k number  but he has no expenses other than his phone, car insurance, gas and food for when he doesn't eat at home. He's doing pretty good. Lots of walking around money despite our warnings to save up. 

I'll say this too; we westerners have a distorted view of a great many things. We've had consumerism drilled into our heads since the early 70's. It's a hard fight going against the grain and being grateful for the life we have. Could things be better? Indeed. But they could be a whole lot worse too. That's the part most of us fail to see or understand which opens the door for envy. We give a lot of hate to "greed", but hardly any hate to envy. Which is worse? I think envy is a worse crime than greed. Envy implies you think you're owed something that is not yours. Greed... it just says I want more. 

 

[CNCAppsJames]

This is actually the goal of the moneyed class.  The more they can chain us and the earlier, the better.

Be that as it may... we ALL have agency in life. What we do with whatever situation we are facing is entirely up to us. To say otherwise is to deny reality. 

 

[jstell]

Which is worse? I think envy is a worse crime than greed. Envy implies you think you're owed something that is not yours. Greed... it just says I want more. 

Neither are crimes.  Both (can) lead to the crime of theft.

Greed:  an excessive, extreme desire for something, often more than one's proper share or needs
Envy:  desire to have a quality, possession, or other desirable attribute belonging to someone else, often arising from a complex mix of social comparison, insecurity, and a perceived lack of desired possessions, traits, or status

So, not quite the same.  But the one, if left unchecked, certainly gives rise to the other.