The US is wealthy enough so no one should have to worry about: 1. Food 2. Warmth 3. Keeping dry 4. Basic medical care 5. a nuclear war 6. companionship I saw something about the anxious generation, which summed up exactly what I'm experiencing, and yes I come on PF to vent my concerns and after doing writing just 2 posts on PF my blood pressure goes down 10mm. At that rate after 25 I might get it down to zero.
Always so much extra active on forum when Agent Oranges is under seige even if he put himself in that position.
Cause we’re wealthy we shouldn’t have to worry about a nuclear war or companionship? Are you for real? How is government wealth suppose to fix that? And when you say And when you say the US is wealthy enough are you taking my money into that equation as if it’s your money to decide on where it goes?
The US spends more on 'defense' than the next 9 countries combined, so we should not have to worry about being in danger. I've explained that the US does nothing with our 'defense' budget than start wars all over the world, but pretty much everyone tells me I'm wrong so take it up with them, they think the more we spend on 'defense' the safer we are. Companionship is more complicated. One essential ingredient for companionship is time, and most of us don't work 3,000 or more hours a year, so that's where the wealth comes in. It certainly isn't a simple monotonic relationship.
I find the truth to be a lot less worrying than the Biden/neocon message that the world is full of angry stupid incompetent America-hating radicals. My view point is different because I lived outside the US for a long time and to me most people out there didn't think about America all that much but did like to visit the US because Disney, Six Flags, Walmart, and many aspects of US culture are a lot of fun. The anger with the US, where it does exist, is mostly due to the neocons blowing up countries thinking they are making things better. The rest of the world is not perfect but I would be under a lot less stress if we did not feel a need to focus all of the imperfections onto us.
In my case I have less stress if I share the problem because I have confidence in other people to solve problems I can't solve on my own.
I am under more stress but TBH, neither have a thing to do with it except to the extent that Biden won't poop or get off the pot when it comes to student loans. Just tons of promises that only the chosen ones have seen delivered.
That is part of the problem I have, that I can't plan for the future. Nobody can predict what house prices will be. With competent leadership, Trump or RFK jr., the US population will rise putting pressure on housing, not crazy pressure because there are plenty of places to add housing, but enough to keep up with inflation for a while. Another Biden term with some more wars, and yes, he wants a few more, just for now, then a few more in the future, the US population is likely to decline and house prices could crash. Yes, the curve is asymmetrical. 10% vacant housing and whose going to pay a fortune for a house? As for college, paying your way through used to be a good idea but why do it if all the debts will just get excused? Too much uncertainty.
I understand you uncertainty though I have seen it more with my mom navigating the confusion, delays, etc with the student loans because she is toward the end and if and when she ever gets the one-time adjustment and for how many months will mean a great deal. For her the payments aren't the problem---it is the tax bomb she faces. She will either miss it by a few months or slide in by a month depending on that adjustment with about $70K in tax liability on the line because she chose life X 3 and all that back in the day. Her first loan repayments predated the July 1994 cut off or else she would be done already with the one-time IDR (she had a big time gap between undergrad and grad) My house is paid for thanks to a lot of scrimping after putting a huge downpayment off an inheritance down, thank god. Most of the extra I had off the Trump/Biden student loan pause went straight to extra mortgage payments after the credit cards were slayed. My work is closing down this year. Don't have an exact date yet, but will be no later than Xmas. Probably around Halloween though so that weighs heavy on my mind. Due to owners retirements not the economy. I am on SAVE so I will be good as far as student loans but I personally won't benefit anything further from any of the existing proposals beyond I will have no payments no added interest, and still get the payment counts each month while I am out of work. I had originally planned to start my own business but real estate is insanely out of control even on the commercial side so that is off the table. I just hope Home Depot doesn't hold a graduate degree against me when I apply to be a parking lot attendant LOL.
You have my sympathy, but now I'm even more worried because payments could go either way, the govt might pay off your student loan, but it could then expect you to pay the cost of their wars, or more likely they'll inflate everything you have.
If the U.S. is so "wealthy", how long would it take to pay off the national debt? In 2023, 22.5% of the federal government's total revenue went to just making interest payments on the debt. Certainly sounds like something to worry about.
In 2023, the US military spent approximately $820.3 billion, or roughly 13.3% of the entire federal budget for that fiscal year. In March 2023, the Department of Defense (DoD) requested $842.0 billion for 2024 — a 2.6% increase. Do you know how much of the 'defense' budget goes toward actual defense? Approximately zero percent. The rest goes on making enemies world-wide. And profits for weapons makers, that don't always work all that well, but they are always very profitable. Just look at how Russia with 8% of our military budget is fighting both us and NATO off, and slowly gaining ground. And the media is worrying us so we will spend more on weapons, to provoke more trouble.
and so we get one war after another, each with a flimsy excuse. The Biden neocon administration went a bit too far by revealing that in addition to the war in Ukraine, they are trying to get one with Iran, as well as trying to start a war with China. https://www.newsnationnow.com/world/war-in-israel/cost-of-war-us-afford-fund-ukraine-israel/ The Department of Defense has $1.8 trillion available in budget resources this fiscal year, according to USAspending.gov. “As time goes on, there will be trade-offs as certain key systems are diverted to Israel. A few systems that Ukraine needs for its counteroffensive may not be available in the numbers that Ukraine would like,” a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies said. This is especially if the war in Gaza drags on. While appearing on CBS “60 Minutes” this past Sunday, Biden pushed back against the concerns. “We’re the United States of America for god’s sake. We’re the most powerful nation in history, not in the world, in the history of the world. The history of the world. We can take care of both of these and still maintain our overall international defense,” Biden said. So there's a few things to worry about: 1. How much will the dollar be worth next year? 2. We are not at present winning in Ukraine, that is evident from the lack of progress, ignoring the very optimistic news reports. 3. A pretty obvious question I'll ad lib: how can we win wars on two fronts while we are not even winning on one front right now? Unfortunately I am already aware of these problems, so I can't ignore them. But I'm hoping someone here will help change the present system, so we stop starting wars everywhere that we really can't afford.
The good news is most of the world is progressing, technology continues to advance, photovoltaic panels come down in price and will soon go up in efficiency, mobile phones are saving a lot of people a lot of time. And the Internet is a blessing I often just take for granted. Despite the work of the neoliberals, most of LIFE IS GOOD.
It would be nice if US politicians didn't think of politics as the art of starting wars, maybe that will come soon. A major contributing factor to peace is the Internet, Back before the Internet when we started wars there was usually no alternative narrative to follow or evaluate. Just listen to Joe Biden's speech on Feb 24 2022 and it gives a convincing argument in favor of our proxy war in Ukraine. But check the 'factual' statements and it goes the way of most things Joe says; it turns out to be completely wrong.
