A thread in which OP posts about some derelict acting like the methed out weirdo that they are, a guy sounding exactly like the hippy teacher from beavis & butthead chimes in
I'm going to guess that you might live in an inner-city neighbourhood? Poverty is probably the overwhelming reason you see people out on the streets having a hard time. That woman's anger is probably redirected frustration at whatever else is going on in her life.
Having insecure, unsuitable, overcrowded or substandard housing, food insecurity and generally not being able to afford stuff is stressor. Then there is the vicious cycle of poverty causing trauma (usually generational) which leads to mental health issues, then you aren't able to get them treated, or even escape the conditions that make them worse.
Basically, a lot of folks live very high stress lives, and don't have the resources, community, family etc to live with more security, and as austerity gets worse, things get more expensive, housing gets worse, food gets expensive, healthcare gets harder to access etc etc etc, you will see more people publically having crises.
Also, Being assertive, direct, agressive etc etc etc is a strategy to get your needs met in a lot of social situations, but like a lot of behaviours, it can become maladaptive and anti-social in a lot of other settings.
I don't know when poverty suddenly became a get out of jail free card for anything and everything
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Around the time that consooomer culture became so all-encompassing that even people living on well-above average incomes are living 'paycheck to paycheck'
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
Yet the economy only goes up 2.5% per year.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
The economy might not be going gangbusters like it was in recent decades, but we're so close to the zenith of abundance in the West.
Either this is just a dip on a continued upward march of living standards, or Westerners are going to rediscover what real hardship looks like.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Living
standards always go up. I expect every new discovery made in quantum mechanics is seeing applications in tech within a decade.
What worries me is that outside
of quantum mechanics, there 
isn't really 
any advancements in physics 
that would 
lead to new technological capabilities.
We need our science
to make discoveries about how the universe works and can be manipulated at the pico scale 
fast because that's where 
the scale 
is headed 
to make even more dense and powerful technologies to further advance 
society.
I fear the gap between
scientific discoveries and scientific application 
is growing ever smaller 
to the point 
that we might reach the limits of technological growth simply because we haven't been able to make any further baseline high value scientific discoveries fast enough.
Sure we could top off another 30-40 years still even if scientific progress
stopped, just by finishing connecting the patterns 
between 
all that we have already discovered, but it would 
never 
again be as fast as it is in current day.
There is no way for westerners to discover what real hardship looks like because for real hardship to occur either population would
have to grow too fast, or the state 
would 
have to fall into active technological decline. Stagnation today 
just means you are stuck on current levels of buying power, not even the same tech levels. If westerners are not facing real hardship at today's level of tech then they won't feel hardship even if their economy doesn't grow any further.
Jewish lives matter
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
More options
Context
More options
Context
More options
Context