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I would posit that the causality is reversed. Abandoned parts of town are caused by a lot of people failing to improve their lives, and that past experience de

I would posit that the causality is reversed. Abandoned parts of town are caused by a lot of people failing to improve their lives, and that past experience destroys their hope. Likewise, economic collapse is caused by the collapse of belief that things can get better, which destroys the shared beliefs underpinning the economy. Economies can be repaired as long as people believe the economy is worth repairing. I would venture a guess that the optimism of engineers eating in Stripe's cafeteria is different than the optimism of the cafeteria workers. The former likely have a string of positive past experiences to fuel their hope to even get where they are (promotions, raises, etc). The latter probably hope to do something else, but have failed and/or given up on trying due to failure. > It's not that we pay so little that people can't make ends meet. It's that life costs so much, and can be so good, that people can't make dreams meet. I think they're expectations more than dreams. Their parents owned a house, so they expected to but can't. Their parents went on vacation once a year, but they can't. After a certain number of failed expectations, they just assume the rest of their expectations are void, so why bother? Meanwhile they watch the more successful people's expectations grow; those people don't just want a raise to offset inflation, they want their income to grow. They want to vacation internationally instead of domestically. The loss of a dream certainly sucks, but the loss of something that was "promised" to you as a child hurts so much more. If you give up on all of those promises, you no longer have to feel the hurt of being denied them.

midoridensha 4y ago
>They want to vacation internationally instead of domestically. For Americans, vacationing internationally is cheaper than domestic travel, as long as you do it cheaply. To vacation in America, hotel rooms cost an absolute fortune now, eating out costs a fortune (plus the 25% tips now expected), and you need a rental car to go just about anywhere, and those cost a fortune now too (and if you get it from Hertz, you might get arrested). Instead, you can buy airfare to Europe: eating out is much cheaper, hotel rooms can be had for far, far less money in most places (just don't go to the American-style hotels), and you don't need a car since you can just take public transit for cheap. Plus there's far more interesting stuff to do in cities in Europe; in America, it's all the same boring chain stores everywhere and there's no culture outside of places like NYC (which are horribly expensive to vacation in, even by American standards). The only way to vacation cheaply in America is basically to go camping in a national forest for 2 weeks, though this still doesn't get around the need for a rental car unless you can get a ride somehow.
- solarkraft 4y ago
  Europeans like to visit the US because you have some pretty nice sights. The "no culture" can be pretty interesting as well. Matter of perspective, I suppose. Just try to not get shot.
  - midoridensha 4y ago
    From what I've seen, Europeans like to visit 1) NYC, which I'll admit is a really interesting place to visit with fantastic museums and other cultural attractions, but it's expensive as hell (esp. because of hotels), 2) DC, for many of the same reasons as #1 but it costs less and there's far fewer rats, and 3) the National Parks, especially in the western states, because there's not much like them in Europe, and they really are fantastic places of natural beauty. Europeans aren't going to visit Kansas City or Dallas or Cincinnati.
    - nickd2001 4y ago
      A trick I did for NYC on the cheap is just stay somewhere in New Jersey with decent commuter rail line into NYC
      - midoridensha 4y ago
        That's cheaper than staying directly in Manhattan, sure. It's still way more expensive than vacationing in Europe. Hotels anywhere in America are absurdly expensive, as are restaurants.
      - dsq 4y ago
        I have a friend who did this as well, it’s an excellent solution. There was a shuttle taking people directly to the best parts of Manhattan.
- nickd2001 4y ago
  "though this still doesn't get around the need for a rental car unless you can get a ride somehow". - do you mean for an American that doesn't already own a car, or a European who's just there for a few weeks? Its possible to travel all over USA in a car that cost very little - an old Japanese car could be reliable and fuel efficient enough. I did this myself between jobs in N America. You can mix camping, staying in hostels, occasionally sleep in the car or couch surf with friends. Or if you could get an old van.. but I daresay everyone wants vans now so they're super expensive. I'd love to travel around USA again but as you say rental cars are a pain and cost. If there's a way a foreigner could travel to USA, buy an old car then sell it after their trip that could be good, however, not sure how you'd insure it without US driving license or address. Also with an old car it helps to have had it a while and do some maintenance before setting off. Of course USA does have some buses and trains up to a point. The main problem is they don't necessarily drop you in a convenient part of town , it could be a "food desert", and mainly serves cities not the remote wilderness

midoridensha 4y ago

>They want to vacation internationally instead of domestically. For Americans, vacationing internationally is cheaper than domestic travel, as long as you do it cheaply. To vacation in America, hotel rooms cost an absolute fortune now, eating out costs a fortune (plus the 25% tips now expected), and you need a rental car to go just about anywhere, and those cost a fortune now too (and if you get it from Hertz, you might get arrested). Instead, you can buy airfare to Europe: eating out is much cheaper, hotel rooms can be had for far, far less money in most places (just don't go to the American-style hotels), and you don't need a car since you can just take public transit for cheap. Plus there's far more interesting stuff to do in cities in Europe; in America, it's all the same boring chain stores everywhere and there's no culture outside of places like NYC (which are horribly expensive to vacation in, even by American standards). The only way to vacation cheaply in America is basically to go camping in a national forest for 2 weeks, though this still doesn't get around the need for a rental car unless you can get a ride somehow.

solarkraft 4y ago
Europeans like to visit the US because you have some pretty nice sights. The "no culture" can be pretty interesting as well. Matter of perspective, I suppose. Just try to not get shot.
- midoridensha 4y ago
  From what I've seen, Europeans like to visit 1) NYC, which I'll admit is a really interesting place to visit with fantastic museums and other cultural attractions, but it's expensive as hell (esp. because of hotels), 2) DC, for many of the same reasons as #1 but it costs less and there's far fewer rats, and 3) the National Parks, especially in the western states, because there's not much like them in Europe, and they really are fantastic places of natural beauty. Europeans aren't going to visit Kansas City or Dallas or Cincinnati.
  - nickd2001 4y ago
    A trick I did for NYC on the cheap is just stay somewhere in New Jersey with decent commuter rail line into NYC
    - midoridensha 4y ago
      That's cheaper than staying directly in Manhattan, sure. It's still way more expensive than vacationing in Europe. Hotels anywhere in America are absurdly expensive, as are restaurants.
    - dsq 4y ago
      I have a friend who did this as well, it’s an excellent solution. There was a shuttle taking people directly to the best parts of Manhattan.
nickd2001 4y ago
"though this still doesn't get around the need for a rental car unless you can get a ride somehow". - do you mean for an American that doesn't already own a car, or a European who's just there for a few weeks? Its possible to travel all over USA in a car that cost very little - an old Japanese car could be reliable and fuel efficient enough. I did this myself between jobs in N America. You can mix camping, staying in hostels, occasionally sleep in the car or couch surf with friends. Or if you could get an old van.. but I daresay everyone wants vans now so they're super expensive. I'd love to travel around USA again but as you say rental cars are a pain and cost. If there's a way a foreigner could travel to USA, buy an old car then sell it after their trip that could be good, however, not sure how you'd insure it without US driving license or address. Also with an old car it helps to have had it a while and do some maintenance before setting off. Of course USA does have some buses and trains up to a point. The main problem is they don't necessarily drop you in a convenient part of town , it could be a "food desert", and mainly serves cities not the remote wilderness