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Shit life syndrome

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Re: Shit life syndrome

#191

Post by comprev »

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…

Over here in Ireland the cost of staying in a B&B or “cheap” hotel is eye watering, to the point it is often cheaper to fly somewhere sunny for a longer stay.

Re: Shit life syndrome

#192

Post by throaway_12345a »

ip26 wrote: post #181
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…

What you describe is a real, severe, and tragic impact of crippling poverty, but I think “SLS” is highlighting something related yet more subtle. From what I can construct, it’s referring to people who are able to meet their basic needs, but are slowly destroying themselves in ways no doctor or medicine can fix. They appear to be able to help themselves, but don’t, because the weight of it all is too much. They could…

I am very sorry if I could not frame my comment better.

What I didn't write explicitly, but vainly assumed that people will read between the lines.

The people I describe also suffer from SLS exactly because what you say.

Their lives are full of bad practices like alcoholism, not seeking medical health, choosing cheap and unhealthy choices whenever possible. Because of the weight.

You described it well. I assumed that people will get it- SLS is a result of helplessness at the extremes.

Another commenter wrote about the role of religion. I also think it plays a somewhat positive role.

At least in my state, days of Brahminical oppression are over. And the role of religion and social rules are positives.

Re: Shit life syndrome

#193

Post by comprev »

dazc wrote: post #133
KineticLensman wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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...

Milford-on-Sea has entered the chat :-)

Re: Shit life syndrome

#194

Post by [deleted] »

Obscurity4340 wrote: post #126
_dain_ wrote: post #64

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 landf…

Whats the cocaine/crack situation, also other stimulants like Ritalin etc?

[deleted]

Re: Shit life syndrome

#195

Post by wizofaus »

omarqureshi wrote: post #51
wizofaus wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

The UK is vulnerable to this because the weather is miserable. Other than last year, I can't remember a year in the last 2 decades where going to the coast wasn't such a massive gamble. Even I have given up and decided to spend a week in Turkey.

> because the weather is miserable

Last time I was in London (early March, though many years ago) it was pretty bloody miserable too, but it seemed to be doing well enough despite that! If any given day being well be suitable for hanging out at the beach is a gamble that would seem like an argument for choosing to live near it, where you can easily make spontaneous trips when the weather suits. FWIW our most recent mini trip away was to a coastal town in Victoria in the middle of winter, where the weather was never going to be beach-suitable, other than for the dog (who loved it of course). And of course the die-hard surfers. But it was still a very pleasant getaway, with plenty to do and see, and several places we visited were booked out.

Re: Shit life syndrome

#196

Post by adventured »

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…

Poverty is the lack of a buffer between you and entropy. It's rarely defined broadly enough.

It's a reduction in the margin for error that we require to exist.

Entropy is always grinding away at our attempts to order, to organize. Which is a requirement for us to exist for any meaningful duration. Poverty is the lack of a buffer against that force always trying to break down aspects of our organization.

If you lack poverty, and your car tire ruptures, you can replace it in order to continue getting to work every day. In poverty, entropy wins that battle, it grinds you down. Now you can't even get to work to try to make ends meet. Every aspect of poverty is similarly encompassed by this principle in action. Would you like nice vacations out of country for rest and relaxation and or new experiences? In poverty you face the daily erosion of entropy, unabated. No break or stimulation for you. Want access to the best medical specialists in the world? In poverty, you won't get it typically. Entropy is trying to kill you (not with homicidal intent, just inadvertently as it grinds away at order), with affluence you have a far better chance of surviving serious medical events (with or without universal healthcare).

In the poorest nations, the buffer between people and entropy is almost always very small. That usually covers food security, political stability, human rights. Affluence almost always purchases access to enormous entropy buffers, including access to nations with superior human rights, superior political stability, and so on.

Re: Shit life syndrome

#197

Post by justinlloyd »

m-i-l wrote: post #171
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…

Nice story, thanks for sharing. My parents used to take me for our "exotic foreign holiday" in Blackpool each year (I was from Scotland). I actually have many happy memories from the time. There was the Doctor Who Exhibition we went to once - nothing even remotely like that anywhere near my home town. Then there was the Blackpool Tower. My parents used to complain about how expensive it was to get in, and I think we…

Having worked on quite a few of those claw machines that made their way in to arcades around the UK and Europe back in the late 1980's and early 1990's, there were a variety of variables we, as software developers, could control, from the ramp up and down of the motors that controlled how fast the claw moved, to how much lag was introduced when responding to your joystick/button input, to how "grippy" the claw retraction was, to how strong the grip remained over time. These made for a more exciting game, which were then translated into a simple user interface consisting of a few dip switches or a trimmable pot that the owner/operator could tweak.

Re: Shit life syndrome

#198

Post by paulddraper »

tetris11 wrote: 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.

What does that mean?

Re: Shit life syndrome

#199

Post by Smaug123 »

laurencerowe wrote: post #173
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…

As others have said I’m not sure it’s right to say that all of the British coast is run down but there are a few common modes of failed places on the coast. Fishing ports which now have few fishers left. Long term decline due to overfishing along with Brexit making it hard for them to sell their catch to markets in EU. Grimsby. The Victorian seaside mass resorts that lost out to cheap foreign holidays. Blackpool. Pla…

(By the way, the UK is not an island. For example, you've omitted Northern Ireland.)

Re: Shit life syndrome

#200

Post by _8j50 »

wiseowise wrote: post #35
_8j50 wrote: post #7

This is so weird. Is it another way of saying "being poor is expensive"? Or poor people get sick more? If so then this some next level captain obvious stuff. Or do the authors have such a nice societal experience that this seems very peculiar to them? I mean, this is one if the top reasons people want money right? At least they have NHS in the UK, in most of the world and most of human history people either adapt or…

> If so then this some next level captain obvious stuff. m What a weird take, we should avoid naming things because checks notes they’re obvious??? > Give the addicts, the hobos and and the mentally unstable cash and good information/guidance on their options. That’s some next level captain obvious knowledge that you never give cash to hobos and addicts if you want to fix root cause of their problems, how could you n…

> That’s some next level captain obvious knowledge that you never give cash to hobos and addicts if you want to fix root cause of their problems, how could you not know that?

Because studies keep showing a no strings attached cash support is the best solution. They are not children. And you are making my point here that they are trying to do anything but solve the problem.

"You are poor" is not a medical diagnosis as much as "You are human" isn't.

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