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Shit life syndrome

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Re: Shit life syndrome

#61

Post by pierat »

dougmwne wrote: post #24

I think that poverty really is a state of mind, and so SLS, as a thing separate from mental health, inadequate health care or material deprivation makes a lot of sense to me. Once you start seeing life as shit, something where no good change is possible and no effort is rewarded, you really are stuck in the shit reality. On the other hand, it’s possible to be materially very poor, but totally happy. To see life as fu…

And this is what neoliberalism does to a brain.

Notice that when communists are discussed, the same sayings "communism has killed millions of people".

Well, so has capitalism. Probably even more than communism. Except, capitalists always rephrase this to point blame towards the individual.

Homeless rising? Should have worked harder!

Don't have medical? Should have worked harder!

Medical privatized and going to shit? Should have worked harder!

It's the same tired refrain, blaming individuals for system based problems. Maybe, just maybe, capitalism is kinda shit?

Re: Shit life syndrome

#62

Post by ZephyrBlu »

ricardo81 wrote: post #49
ZephyrBlu wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Most people really don't prefer a rural setting. People go to these "high GDP" places because there is a greater abundance of opportunities there. Relationships, friends, career, networks, etc. Even if you can work rurally due to remote work, you miss out on a lot by not being where other people are.

Re: Shit life syndrome

#63

Post by DrBazza »

ricardo81 wrote: post #22

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…

That's how infrastructure projects are prioritised in the UK. Return on the pound. The south east returns something like 10x the investment versus the north of England.

Just look at HS2 - everything north and north east of Birmingham has effectively been cancelled, leaving yet another "national" infrastructure project serving only London.

This Government, or the previous one, or the previous one, ad nauseam, continually fail to invest in the north, and north east. In fact the last major national infrastructure in those regions would be the building of the motorways. (edit) And just look at the North East, Sedgefield had Labour PM Tony Blair, Hartlepool had MP and cabinet member Peter Mandelson, and yet the investment there during that 15 year period was negligible. It's a London-based Government thing, not a political thing.

If you're not "close" to London, you're going to be poor by comparison.

Bringing Newcastle closer to Leeds by faster road and rail, and hence York, Sheffield, Manchester, Liverpool and the Potteries, would hugely increase economic productivity in the North of England.

I too hope that WFH will redistribute the wealth around the UK.

I hate the fact that we have an idiotic adversarial political system. Which ever party is in power is invariably hamstrung by the opposition voting the other way just 'because', is pathetically childish. The best time to build infrastructure was yesterday.

Re: Shit life syndrome

#64

Post by _dain_ »

This is the original article that won the award:

https://www.ft.com/blackpool

There's an interesting dog-that-didn't-bark: the word "meth" does not appear. The drug is still not common in the UK[1]. Blackpool has precisely the demographic makeup where, if it were in America, it would be flooded with meth dealers and addicts, and become magnitudes worse than it already is.

I dread the day that drug finally makes landfall here. It will sweep through our urban underclass like the Black Death.

[1] https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7jdd8/uk-british-dont-use-m...

Re: Shit life syndrome

#65

Post by sudosysgen »

throaway_12345 wrote: post #20

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…

This is a terribly sad phenomenon - I've noted it too in small-town-my-native-country. I've always understood it as closer to social murder [1] than shit life syndrome, though, but there is certainly considerable overlap.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_murder?wprov=sfla1

Re: Shit life syndrome

#66

Post by LVB »

ransackdev wrote: post #60
padolsey wrote: 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…

[flagged]

Why do you think the SLS term is an inside joke? I actually appreciate the succinct directness of it tbh.

Re: Shit life syndrome

#67

Post by midasuni »

ZephyrBlu wrote: post #62
ricardo81 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Most people really don't prefer a rural setting. People go to these "high GDP" places because there is a greater abundance of opportunities there. Relationships, friends, career, networks, etc. Even if you can work rurally due to remote work, you miss out on a lot by not being where other people are.

Of my close friends from uni days, only one lives in london, and that’s by choice (her job was moved from london to somewhere in Surrey well before covid so she was “reverse commuting” several times a week.

The others live in a seaside town in devon, a Wiltshire village, a Shropshire village, and one lives in a small Derbyshire town.

Re: Shit life syndrome

#68

Post by midasuni »

siwatanejo wrote: post #34
Karellen wrote: post #17

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…

All assets depend on the governemt. You own land, that’s because the government allows it, you own a company, not if the government doesn’t let it exist.

Re: Shit life syndrome

#69

Post by cwales95 »

jordanrobinson wrote: post #23
prima-facie wrote: post #16

First time i heard about SLS was from this DW documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BK68yyrKUOA which i found very good

I'd love to know the rationale for why they geoblock the UK from watching this particular documentary.

Same here. The Dropbox link in the other comment was useful.

Makes you wonder if there’s a conspiracy to stop those of us in the UK watching it even though we know how awful it is at times.

Re: Shit life syndrome

#70

Post by midasuni »

tomatocracy wrote: post #40
roenxi wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The top marginal rate of income tax (above c122k of income since this year) is 45%. On top of that, if you are employed and below state pension age then you also pay employee National Insurance of 2% and your employer also pays 13.8%. So for every additional £1 spent on salary and payroll taxes by an employer, c.53.4% goes on direct taxation. Rates are actually even higher between 100-122k because although the income…

If you have two kids and earn 55k from work, you pay marginal tax of 60%, as you have to pay a child tax on top of income and national insurance, plus another 9% or 15% on student loans (which are funded as an income tax)
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