Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Shit life syndrome

en.wikipedia.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 244 posts

Re: Shit life syndrome

#131

Post by dazc »

Obscurity4340 wrote: post #125
the-dude wrote: post #9

In The Netherlands there were no foodbanks before the year 2000. edit: looked it up, it is 2002 actually.

To what extent are they necessary if one is already receiving welfare services and resources?

They are mostly not. Unlike most people who comment on such issues I actually know of two people who use food banks on a regular basis.

One spends £20 a day on tobacco, the other drinks himself into intensive care whenever he has the opportunity.

I have a friend who lives in the same building (it's like an old folk's home but with independent apartments and on-site care). The 'managers' of this council funded facility have the authority to refer anyone to a food bank and they have told my friend several times that he only has to ask. There are 60 residents in this one building and only know 6 of them to speak to, so go figure.

Re: Shit life syndrome

#132

Post by fnordpiglet »

svnt wrote: post #74
fnordpiglet wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 th…

Personally I think that aspect is more locked in to the aging of the post-World power great expectations of “up and to the right.” If people have never had decent health care, and their classmates from school haven’t either, then how are they meant to move into something as rarefied as self-assessed mental health? That is something that people with too much time and not enough existential threat get up to.

Except Buddhism and similar “self help” movements evolved over thousands of years in South Asia in an environment of of extreme poverty with literally no health care, and purposefully work in a life of poverty. The idea that only wealth and leisure provides mental health or self awareness is at complete odds with how most of the knowledge around self awareness came about, as most of our modern conception around such concepts derive from Buddhist and related thought. I’d note that Buddhist countries like Burma and Cambodia are in no way bastions if wealthy leisure life, yet are somehow bastions of Buddhist meditation and pursuit of a mindful life free of suffering.

Re: Shit life syndrome

#133

Post by dazc »

KineticLensman wrote: post #127
dazc wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The advent of cheap flights made holidays within Europe affordable to most people. As a consequence, traditional UK holiday destinations became much less popular. Over time old-fashioned guest houses, B&Bs and cheap hotels transitioned into very low cost housing for people with 'problems'. The inevitable doom spiral began... Destinations on the South Coast were not affected in the same way though and have remained a…

> Destinations on the South Coast were not affected in the same way Bournemouth (middle of the South Coast) took a slightly different path and some of the accommodation was repurposed to house students from Europe studying English. IIRC the contiguous strip comprising Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch is one of the largest non-industrial conurbations in Europe. I moved to Bournemouth in 1988 for work reasons and it…

'Christchurch, on the other hand, is known locally as 'the last resort' because of the large proportion of retirees in the population.'

I must be getting old since Barton on Sea is becoming more attractive as residential destination by the day...

Re: Shit life syndrome

#134

Post by Earw0rm »

dazc wrote: post #119
placesalt wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(beautiful writing, as others have said!) > the same depressing crumbling economy of coastal towns all over the UK I'm surprised to hear that coastal towns in the UK are doing poorly. In North America, it's generally the coastal areas that are more prosperous. Was it overbuilding during the era of British sea power? Or a great sucking-up of wealth by London? It makes me wonder if, long term, seaside areas would make…

The advent of cheap flights made holidays within Europe affordable to most people. As a consequence, traditional UK holiday destinations became much less popular. Over time old-fashioned guest houses, B&Bs and cheap hotels transitioned into very low cost housing for people with 'problems'. The inevitable doom spiral began... Destinations on the South Coast were not affected in the same way though and have remained a…

The South Coast towns got pretty badly run down in the 80s and 90s but mostly it recovered or is recovering.

Brighton reinvented itself as a party town and creative hub thanks to Norman Cook and its large student and gay scenes and its fast links to London.

Worthing and Eastbourne became popular spots to raise a family for London telecommuters (two days a week in a London office is viable from there, and property is a fraction of the price).

Margate and Folkestone became artistic hubs, after the last of ex industrial inner London got redeveloped.

Whitstable became a foodie mecca and well-heeled daytripper spot, Borough-Market-on-sea or so.

The Suffolk and North Norfolk coastal towns do a nice line in second homes for the Range Rover and XC90 set.

Many, if not most of these places were pretty desolate in the 90s. Others are still to turn the corner. Hastings is on the way up but still a lot of junkies and the generally down-on-their-luck in temporary B&B accommodation. Herne Bay is still rough as. Lots of South Essex coastal towns are grim and deprived, maybe not as bad as Blackpool but definitely struggling.

Re: Shit life syndrome

#135

Post by lazide »

dazc wrote: post #119
placesalt wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(beautiful writing, as others have said!) > the same depressing crumbling economy of coastal towns all over the UK I'm surprised to hear that coastal towns in the UK are doing poorly. In North America, it's generally the coastal areas that are more prosperous. Was it overbuilding during the era of British sea power? Or a great sucking-up of wealth by London? It makes me wonder if, long term, seaside areas would make…

The advent of cheap flights made holidays within Europe affordable to most people. As a consequence, traditional UK holiday destinations became much less popular. Over time old-fashioned guest houses, B&Bs and cheap hotels transitioned into very low cost housing for people with 'problems'. The inevitable doom spiral began... Destinations on the South Coast were not affected in the same way though and have remained a…

Isn’t a large factor the cheap vacations to Spain and the like sucking away a lot of the tourists? Some areas will still stay afloat, but the ‘tide has gone out’, as it were.

Why play on the cold, stone covered beaches on the few days of sun a year when you can fly for a couple hundred UKP to Spain and have reliable sunshine, warm weather, and sand.

Re: Shit life syndrome

#136

Post by throwaway70134 »

fnordpiglet wrote: post #132
svnt wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I think that aspect is more locked in to the aging of the post-World power great expectations of “up and to the right.” If people have never had decent health care, and their classmates from school haven’t either, then how are they meant to move into something as rarefied as self-assessed mental health? That is something that people with too much time and not enough existential threat get up to.

Except Buddhism and similar “self help” movements evolved over thousands of years in South Asia in an environment of of extreme poverty with literally no health care, and purposefully work in a life of poverty. The idea that only wealth and leisure provides mental health or self awareness is at complete odds with how most of the knowledge around self awareness came about, as most of our modern conception around such…

Nah, they are a bastion of suffering, you just don't hear about it because the people don't speak English and don't get visibility in your media; and because your media prefers to write about idealized views of Buddhist life rather than actual problems.

Re: Shit life syndrome

#137

Post by bentcorner »

croisillon wrote: post #57
Uptrenda wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazing writing. If you have a book I'd read it.

Well you’ll be delighted: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1789957648

Table of Contents

    1. Setting the Scene
    2. The Tenets of Clean Code
    3. The Enemies of Clean Code
    4. SOLID and Other Principles
    5. Naming Things is Hard
    6. Blackpool's Fading Vitality and the Withering Shadow of Coastal Britain
    7. Primitive and Built-In Types

Re: Shit life syndrome

#139

Post by Earw0rm »

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…

Small town UK is not small town India kind of poor. I give it about 25 years at the current relative rates of progress.

In the case of UK's SLS, it's more that the (in many cases) treatable medical conditions are the end-stage manifestation of something else. And the NHS still, for example, expects people to modify their lifestyles to manage the worst effects of Type 2 diabetes; inherent to SLS is the fact that people with shit lives find such lifestyle modifications impossible.

Re: Shit life syndrome

#140

Post by DrBazza »

flir wrote: post #82
DrBazza wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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, continua…

They're almost never hamstrung by the opposition voting against them. If they didn't have a majority, they wouldn't be the government. Right now the majority is, what, 80? They could pass anything they wanted.

Except they haven’t. Party members continually voting against the whips. Party in fighting and 3 PMs. And so on.
Post reply on HN