If you want consumers to participate in a consumer economy, you have to pay them enough to consume. It’s pretty simple actually.

Really we’re in a long recession that’s slowly rolling out to more people.

Commented on another thread - Rising costs, inflation, stagnant wages, a pandemic, and the specter of Long COVID. Not to mention that the country is so relentlessly polarized that nearly everyone I know is reluctant to let anyone new into their circle for fear of learning that new person has been duped into supporting literal fascist Nazis. We’re exhausted and we don’t want to argue all the time.

With Cheeto Benito and the Brown Shirts in office, there’s a palpable tension in nearly every interaction right now. It’s only going to get worse, until eventually we will either have to start socializing in the form of local community organizing or we’ll rapidly find that we no longer have a hope of a future for ourselves.

For a nation typically sitting firmly in dumb, fat, and happy territory, this is a level of existentialism that none of us are accustomed to. Unless of course you’re Black or maybe Latino, in which case you probably know what’s up.

Considering how much it costs me to live there why would I want to leave and not get my moneys worth?

“This traumatic thing happened and everyone’s still traumatized. What gives!”

Most of the stuff I like to do is at home, though.

America sucks so bad that I’d literally rather not leave my house