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Shit life syndrome

en.wikipedia.org

41–50 of 244 posts

Re: Shit life syndrome

#41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ugh. I hope there comes a day when using the money hoarded by the rich and influential to invest in the public, does not depend on the rich and influential choosing to do so out of a desire for maximal profits, or even benevolence. One day maybe.

> One day maybe TBH, I doubt it. Don't get me wrong, I sympathize with your values. Heck, I'm even called 'woke' by most people around me. Yet I understand that in this day in age, thanks to cryptocurrency, money is and will be a private matter. No government will be able to confiscate your wealth, at least to the extent that your wealth doesn't depend on assets related with the government (e.g. real estate is relate…

[flagged]

Re: Shit life syndrome

#42

https://www.ft.com/blackpool Seems like it's not paywalled. FWIW Blackpool looks like a heck of a lot of seaside places in the UK. Whatever problems are described in this article are problems all the way around the coast. Visit a seaside town here and it often feels like you're back in the early 90s. There's a certain style that hasn't been updated. Arcades, chip shops, betting shops. Ok the betting shops look modern…

From an Australian perspective the idea that "seaside" towns are especially susceptible to economic decay and being left behind seems quite odd - even in parts of country without year-round beach weather, coastal localities here are usually the desirable places to live with subsequently healthier economies. Are there other countries that have experienced similar patterns of development to the UK?

It's a whole lot warmer in Australia. Here in Britain there are very few days when it is pleasant to sit on the beach in Blackpool, let alone go swimming in the sewage-filled sea. Cheap flights make it easy to go abroad to the warmer and nicer environment of Italy or Spain.

Re: Shit life syndrome

#43
post #28
post #2

I hope there comes a day when the rich and influential look for the next money-making venture in which to invest in, see only a sea of machine-generated uncertainty on the stock market, and decide "actually, the most profitable thing I can do to protect my wealth is to invest it in the public" One day maybe.

The uncertainty of the stock market doesn't really matter. The M3 in the UK went up around 25% over the last 3 years. So the major concern when choosing where to invest is whether the assets are optimally positioned to benefit from the growth in the money supply. Physical reality is still a concern of course. Although arguably rich and influential are investing in the public; the UK government spending makes up about…

I am quite sure that 40% is not the true tax rate that anyone rich is paying.

Re: Shit life syndrome

#44

The UK has typically had the highest levels of income inequality in Europe. A previous Prime Minister had been quoted 'A pound spent in Croydon is far more of value to the country than a pound spent in Strathclyde', Croydon being in London and Strathclyde being an administrative area in West Scotland that ceased to exist in 1975. The quote was from 2012. WFH has allowed me to continue working from rural Scotland, to…

> I thought COVID would radically transform society's thinking and our requirement to be in high GDP areas for certain lines of work

1) Why did you think that?

2) Why do you assume that people are only in "high GDP areas" for work?

Personally I moved from rural New Zealand to London and I work 100% remotely.

Re: Shit life syndrome

#45

https://www.ft.com/blackpool Seems like it's not paywalled. FWIW Blackpool looks like a heck of a lot of seaside places in the UK. Whatever problems are described in this article are problems all the way around the coast. Visit a seaside town here and it often feels like you're back in the early 90s. There's a certain style that hasn't been updated. Arcades, chip shops, betting shops. Ok the betting shops look modern…

From an Australian perspective the idea that "seaside" towns are especially susceptible to economic decay and being left behind seems quite odd - even in parts of country without year-round beach weather, coastal localities here are usually the desirable places to live with subsequently healthier economies. Are there other countries that have experienced similar patterns of development to the UK?

Most UK seaside towns lost out to cheap flights to Spain. There's very little reason anyone visit Blackpool over Málaga. For the price of a depressing hotel in Blackpool you can get a modern resort in Spain with warm seas and reliably sunny hot weather every day.

There are a few seaside towns that managed to hold on, such as Brighton. They're mostly in the South where the climate and sea temperature is a touch more bearable and you can feasibly go there on a day trip from London.

Arguably, what's happened to seaside towns in the UK is really just a more aggressive version of what's happened to all smaller towns in the UK. The UK economy has become more centralised, particularly in London but also in other major cities. Towns have little to offer the modern British economy, as the engines that kept their economies ticking over moved to China and India.

Basically, they are victims of globalisation, both in terms of easy travel and also free trade.

[Un]fortunately, the UK government keeps them just afloat by pumping tax money into them via welfare, pensions and healthcare spending. Which arguably prevents them from completely failing, but possibly reinventing themselves to be more useful and relevant to the modern economy.

Re: Shit life syndrome

#46

Hi, speaking from small-town India. Poverty is extremely harsh on people. And when I was much younger ( For example, relevant to the submission, is healthcare. Healthcare in India is theoretically free in government hospitals. But in most places the state of these hospitals is horrific, and getting treatment is very hard due to corruption. But the bigger issue is opportunity cost. People who live based on daily earni…

Thanks for the note on life around you. I think something you touch on here is physical health. But my reading of the Wikipedia article is SLS profoundly about mental well being and the toll of neglect, abuse, and crushing poverty has on overall health and quantity of life due to the lack of well being.

Would you mind expanding your story of life in your area on that dimension? How does this harshness play out for the people as people, less about their ability to get physical health care, but how does the harshness degrade their lives as humans?

Re: Shit life syndrome

#47
I’ve always wondered if a brute force approach to this is to money bomb these areas and let people get large amounts of funds to leave the area and go somewhere where they are slightly more likely to have positive interactions.

Re: Shit life syndrome

#49

The UK has typically had the highest levels of income inequality in Europe. A previous Prime Minister had been quoted 'A pound spent in Croydon is far more of value to the country than a pound spent in Strathclyde', Croydon being in London and Strathclyde being an administrative area in West Scotland that ceased to exist in 1975. The quote was from 2012. WFH has allowed me to continue working from rural Scotland, to…

> I thought COVID would radically transform society's thinking and our requirement to be in high GDP areas for certain lines of work 1) Why did you think that? 2) Why do you assume that people are only in "high GDP areas" for work? Personally I moved from rural New Zealand to London and I work 100% remotely.

Because certain lines of work don't require physical presence but are skilled jobs.

/added

Also, I prefer a rural setting, no doubt others do too. Cost of living is lower also.

Re: Shit life syndrome

#50
post #5

This is quite darkly hilarious tbh. And consistent with my experience of Blackpool. I once went there on couple-week-long driving course when I was a teenager, hoping but eventually failing to get my license. I was put up in someone's house that was run as a sort of unlicensed b&b. The entire place, the curtains, the linen, the pillow,.. all smelled of old nicotine and damp. On my first evening I went out by myself t…

You reminded me of this [0] fantastic review of Sheerness in Kent. Blackpool is mentioned several times in comparison.

[0] https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedkingdom/comments/u2vu5x/i_thi...

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