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I'm 38 and I Can't Support Myself Anymore

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Re: I'm 38 and I Can't Support Myself Anymore

#441

Post by trogdor »

kakacik wrote: post #406
sajithdilshan wrote: post #2

I was raised as a Buddhist and in Buddhism it says that the biggest wealth you can have in your life is good health. Most of us take it for granted, that how lucky we are to born without a disability and can function doing daily tasks like taking a shower, going to the toilet without the help of someone else. I cannot imagine how difficult life would be with a disability and even thinking about it makes me anxious

I've spent 6 weeks on wheelchair and few more months on crutches after a nasty paragliding accident. The concept of just standing upright and walking straight, that we take for granted as much as 2+2=4, was suddenly impossible, and after getting it eventually back through extensive physiotherapy its something I cherish to this day. The freedom it grants is unimaginable unless one was robbed of it. Simply reaching on…

> after a nasty paragliding accident

I’m fairly new to paragliding. What happened? Have you returned to flying?

Re: I'm 38 and I Can't Support Myself Anymore

#442

Post by RickJWagner »

“As though my body’s inability to keep pace with capitalism says something fundamental about who I am.”

What would his body’s inability to keep pace say under socialism or something else? In any case, he is unable to provide for himself and must rely on others. In the case of capitalism, there is less contribution from the general public and more from personal sources ( I.e. his mother ).

Thinking altruistically, it’s more fair to share the burden across all society. But that introduces a danger— bureaucracies lack the accountability that private sources automatically provide. That system will be less efficient and more costly to run, it’s a matter of degree.

It’s a hard problem. Perhaps over time, as we become more and more prosperous, the cost of the inefficiency will be less relevant and we’ll default to the more balanced version.

Re: I'm 38 and I Can't Support Myself Anymore

#443

Post by hackeraccount »

daishi55 wrote: post #94
theflyingelvis wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It almost seems as if you are trolling. Surely we can, at least, agree that the excesses you mention exist only because of those who produce.

They are not trolling. They are stating the simple, undeniable fact that there is more than enough to go around and if we had a more equitable distribution of resources, we could take care of everyone with disabilities 10x over with plenty to spare.

You work and toil and earn bread, and I'll eat it.

Re: I'm 38 and I Can't Support Myself Anymore

#444

Post by everdrive »

inigyou wrote: post #341
everdrive wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>oh my god can we stop acting like the only possibilities are american "capitalism" or soviet "communism", it's exhausting No way -- I threw in 1600s Europe as well as subsistence farming in there. I think the Patreon point is really interesting. I really don't like Patreon or anything like that, but is a bit miraculous. There's some really, really, niche art up there. That sort of art would have NEVER found an audie…

Patreon only works for famous people making products that are free to copy. You couldn't fund a statue that way.

> Patreon only works for famous people

This is flagrantly false, and I suspect you've never had the chance to glimpse at the entire catalog. Quite a lot of it is _distasteful_ but it's also incredibly niche content from absolute nobodies.

Re: I'm 38 and I Can't Support Myself Anymore

#445

Post by hackeraccount »

xedrac wrote: post #310
daishi55 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are not trolling. They are stating the simple, undeniable fact that there is more than enough to go around and if we had a more equitable distribution of resources, we could take care of everyone with disabilities 10x over with plenty to spare.

People say this, but I'm not sure I understand how it could be true. For example, taxing billionaires is often cited as the solution to this problem. But if we took Elon Musk's $730 billion fortune and divided it evenly among the US population, people would receive a one-time payment of about $2000, and then that fortune would be gone, and any opportunities or advancements it was creating. So I'm genuinely curious wh…

It also misunderstands that nature of Musk's fortune. He's not Scrooge McDuck and they pretend he is. Sell SpaceX at a fire sale. What's it worth? A lot less then it is now. Who would buy it? Poor people? Somehow I don't think so.

Musk is a golden goose and there are people who think the best move is to cut him in half and get at all the gold inside.

Re: I'm 38 and I Can't Support Myself Anymore

#446

Post by nevertoolate »

mstaoru wrote: post #430
nevertoolate wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you live your life in stress it makes it strange. Breathe less, stress less.

It's more of a resignation I think? An overwhelming majority of people (on Earth, I don't mean the highly skewed US/EU citizens) are one accident away from total ruin. I don't stress about it but I also recognize how broken we are still, as society.

If it is a game of survival yes, we are living on the edge. Is it.

Re: I'm 38 and I Can't Support Myself Anymore

#448

Post by _DeadFred_ »

jbritton wrote: post #328
tmnvix wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Incentives don't disappear at some arbitrary level of taxation. I think you can have both sufficient incentives and more equitable distribution. The frankly obscene levels of wealth concentration we are witnessing suggest that there is a lot of room for refinement. I do find it interesting that a lot of people (not trying to imply that you are one) bang on about incentives while also fighting tooth and nail in favour…

Your tax dollars just go into a cesspool of fraud, corruption, waste, incompetence, distribution to cronies. Money taken and spent badly feels like theft.

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Re: I'm 38 and I Can't Support Myself Anymore

#449

Post by ghusto »

eigenman wrote: post #89
ghusto wrote: post #42

> Earn slightly too much, and vital support disappears My reading of this is that the threshhold for the USA government to withdraw financial (and other?) support for disabled people is too low, is that right?

Not only is it too low, but it is the discontinuity in support. This leads to perverse incentives where for the wage you could make, you’d barely clear the threshold to lose benefits and make barely more money than on government support. This isn’t an argument to remove support—it’s an argument to remove binary thresholds with smooth ramps to incentivize people to work.

I would have said it needs to taper off, not just stop, but reading it described in black and white made me think "actually, why _not_ just stop at a threshhold?".

If you can get 2k a month (all numbers pulled from my butt) in disability support, and at some point get a job offer which will give you the same, why _shouldn't_ you work? Non-monetary forms of support should probably continue, or even be increased, depending on what you're going to need to be able to work.

Re: I'm 38 and I Can't Support Myself Anymore

#450

Post by _DeadFred_ »

nate_meurer wrote: post #323
zem wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, it is very obviously being hoarded by the capital class! there has been tons of writing on the subject, no one can credibly deny that that's what's happening right now.

The wealth of the "capital class", whatever that means, is dwarfed by the debt being run up by governments. My favorite example: if you confiscated all of the wealth from all of the billionaires in the USA, it would fund the federal government for around six months. If you add state and local governments, those funds would last just weeks. The rich don't have your money. Your government does, and they're flushing it…

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