31–40 of 387 posts
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I don't have cable and use on-the-air TV and the image quality is better than before. They work find with digital TVs.
The funny thing about HDTV is that cable quality is terrible, but OTA quality is amazing. It's got way more bandwidth.
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I am not a typical homeless person. I am educated, skilled and I have no addictions, etc. I'm also not living on the street, and am lucky to not have any health problems. But I think my story really can perhaps reveal how incredibly easy it can be for one to have the misfortune to end up in such situations. My own experiences have opened my eyes to how abusive people can be, and perhaps this is a significant aspect o…
I live in a van in the Valley, have an engineering degree from a top school, bankruptcy, student loan debt over me I can never hope to repay but cannot hold a job. No drugs, no smoking, no drinking, no sanitation issues, and no hanging out in the daytime with the locals. As the learning experience of life, I realize that much of what Americans believe is a lie and that they cling to ideas and beliefs that aren't help…
One thing I learned from my experiences is "to be the change I hope to see in the world."
In my case, I could have made my life about revenge, but I chose to move on. When the bullying, stalking and pscyhopathy followed me, one of my coping mechanisms was to start complaining about the world. After all, my world really was crazy.
I see you doing this in your post. And I'm sorry if that sounds condescending, but I don't intend it to--I do the same thing. So it may be possible that you should seek the ideals and virtues which you desire in the world as goals within yourself. If you're not dealing with a kind of extreme bullying, I think you should have a chance to thrive if you can find a lucky break getting someone to take another chance on you. An engineering degree from a top school is a marketable asset.
I haven't tried finding a job for years now. I got overwhelmed with all these attacks that were happening to me, what to do about it, and have frankly had some PTSD about it. So maybe I'm speaking from ignorance about finding someone to give you another chance. Especially back in America... I suppose it is hard to build momentum again.
Contrast that with a former friend who had a similar medical issue in Europe. He wasn't bankrupted by medical costs, had social support for basic living as he was treated and recovered long term, had social education which allowed him to go back to university and obtain useful skills for his new situation. He now has a thriving business and as full a life as anyone could expect. Because he had help and options when he needed them in the beginning. Having that help and those options also made it easier for him to hold into his relationships because he was able to stay IN life and move forward. People can only take so much loss.
Yeah I resent it. I resent being born here where I hear how amazing it is every day and how Europe is a socialist dystopia (I've lived there, the people telling me this have not and I'd happily fufill their "get out of you don't like it" wishes if I could) and the usual middle American beliefs, but we don't even have the most basic of social protections. I resent being blamed. I resent that even seeing this happen people still decided just what the Murican culture told them to decide about me because its easier to live with ones own fears that way. I resent having my life end in such a miserable and painful mess when I earned more and did what I was supposed to.
America has a real empathy problem. People won't treat others as they wish to be treated when they are in need. Being poor is an infection and they avoid you. It's not a need they reach out to solve. And being poor is very expensive. A society of individualists is no society at all.
Who exactly is blaming the poor for their poverty?
Blaming those without power for the way The System has tilted the game against them is Orwellian. Poverty is not a choice (any more than drug addiction is a choice). But we prefer to blame the victims because it's easier than looking in the mirror and accepting our role in the mess.
I am not a typical homeless person. I am educated, skilled and I have no addictions, etc. I'm also not living on the street, and am lucky to not have any health problems. But I think my story really can perhaps reveal how incredibly easy it can be for one to have the misfortune to end up in such situations. My own experiences have opened my eyes to how abusive people can be, and perhaps this is a significant aspect o…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am not a typical homeless person. I am educated, skilled and I have no addictions, etc. I'm also not living on the street, and am lucky to not have any health problems. But I think my story really can perhaps reveal how incredibly easy it can be for one to have the misfortune to end up in such situations. My own experiences have opened my eyes to how abusive people can be, and perhaps this is a significant aspect o…
I live in a van in the Valley, have an engineering degree from a top school, bankruptcy, student loan debt over me I can never hope to repay but cannot hold a job. No drugs, no smoking, no drinking, no sanitation issues, and no hanging out in the daytime with the locals. As the learning experience of life, I realize that much of what Americans believe is a lie and that they cling to ideas and beliefs that aren't help…
There will always be relative poverty. In other words if we "solved poverty" and there were no more hungry people without health insurance sleeping in the streets, you would still have people who had less than others around them. But we can try to solve absolute poverty. We can try to make sure everyone has medical coverage, adequate nutrition etc. An important element of that is we need to design systems where havin…
Do you mean inequality? Poverty has a specific meaning. We define poverty thresholds. Middle class is not in "relative poverty" compared to billioners.
Inequality is defined as the difference in income between points on the distribution. Inequality can get worse, even as material conditions at the bottom get better, when growth accrues more quickly to the top. Inequality can also get better, even as conditions at the bottom decline, if conditions at the top are declining faster.
Absolute poverty would be the share of people living without some fixed level of material comfort (i.e. shelter). This is probably what we should focus on.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am not a typical homeless person. I am educated, skilled and I have no addictions, etc. I'm also not living on the street, and am lucky to not have any health problems. But I think my story really can perhaps reveal how incredibly easy it can be for one to have the misfortune to end up in such situations. My own experiences have opened my eyes to how abusive people can be, and perhaps this is a significant aspect o…
I live in a van in the Valley, have an engineering degree from a top school, bankruptcy, student loan debt over me I can never hope to repay but cannot hold a job. No drugs, no smoking, no drinking, no sanitation issues, and no hanging out in the daytime with the locals. As the learning experience of life, I realize that much of what Americans believe is a lie and that they cling to ideas and beliefs that aren't help…
Wait til you realize all of those things are also true.
Then you’ll be really lost.
Eventually you have to accept that we either make our own truth, or defer to an authority.
Reality isn’t consistent from person to person. We are in a mutuality with the world that both observes and constructs itself.
We can find other people who we “track” with, for a time, in some slice of life. But if you want to stay in that place, you’ll need to discount some conflicting bits of those people, which takes you back to choosing your reality.