12 ms·

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

• foxtrot8672 3mo ago
  sounds like you need to get a job and stop spending so much.
• sajithdilshan 3mo ago
  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
  • b3lvedere 3mo ago
    I always try and remember that the majority of the creatures of this planet do not have the luxury to live in an environment where they can freely choose to shield themselves from bad weather and regulate temperature of their surroundings to their convenience.
    • WithinReason 3mo ago
      Even humans only learned how to do it well relatively recently
  • ButlerianJihad 3mo ago
    [dead]
  • kakacik 3mo ago
    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 higher shelves to get some food became impossible without help. Bad things have often silver lining if one is looking with right kind of eye.
    • trogdor 3mo ago
      > after a nasty paragliding accident I’m fairly new to paragliding. What happened? Have you returned to flying?
• nickdothutton 3mo ago
  At some point many years ago I read that the family, not the individual, is the building block of society. It might have been Chesterton or Friedman as I read a lot of both when I was young. It certainly is a lot easier to hold the line when you have a squad of half a dozen to a dozen with you (wife/husband/children/brothers/sisters/uncles etc). If the state is there, then you are fortunate, but I wouldn't want to count on it myself.
  • Ozzie_osman 3mo ago
    This is how it has always been throughout history (and still is in most parts of the world). Individual is part of nuclear family, nuclear family is part of extended family, extended family is part of tribe, etc. When one part is in need, the others jump in to help.
    • seanclayton 3mo ago
      > throughout history Ancient egypt? Roman times? Medieval times? Byzantine times? Pre-colonial Philippines? Pre-colonial America? I think it may have started in the late 1800s at the earliest. I would need a bit more evidence to be convinced that your model of individual to nuclear to extended etc has been a thing longer than a few centuries, vs the vast majority of human life experience being in nomadic hunter-gathering, villages, farmland, and walled city-states. We just had clans which were all our family. A fellow villager wasn't much different than a cousin. The individual and nuclear family, not so much a thing.
      • quietbritishjim 3mo ago
        I think I'd need quite a lot of evidence that families weren't the major unit of society. A hunter-gatherer tribe is an extended family, so that only proves the point. If there's more than about 30 people in one then surely family based factions will form within it to some extent. Probably you're focusing too much on the parent comment's mention of nuclear family. Even that, despite only being named a few decades ago, is likely to exist to some extent. Even in some ancient tribe or village, most people would favour their spouse (or equivalent) or child over a cousin or niece/nephew if some dispute formed. That hardly seems controversial.
• meta_gunslinger 3mo ago
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  • b3lvedere 3mo ago
    Tell me how someone born disabled made the wrong decision? After that, tell me how someone who became disabled after an accident which they themselves did not cause, made the wrong decision? Thirdly, tell me how someone who lived perfectly healthy just happend to have some blood clot shot into their brain suddenly, made the wrong decision?
    • meta_gunslinger 3mo ago
      The wrong decision is not being insured for disaster and not saving enough when you were able to work, electing to spend the money instead. Not being unlucky with your health or having an accident. That's clearly stated in my original response if you care to read and not knee-jekingly respond. For someone who has been born disabled, the conversation should be moved to the people who brought them to life and are responsible for their survival.
      • inigyou 3mo ago
        When your insurance denies your claim, does that mean being insured was the wrong decision too? Which wrong decision did the parents of a disabled person make? Not getting prenatal genetic testing and an illegal abortion?
      • jckahn 3mo ago
        > For someone who has been born disabled, the conversation should be moved to the people who brought them to life and are responsible for their survival. Please explain exactly what you are suggesting or advocating for here.
        • meta_gunslinger 3mo ago
          I mean that the people who brought the person to life are responsible to make choice that will ensure theirs long term survival. e.g my grandmother had a brother who their brain stopped developing at a very young age (afaik 5), the parents ensured and my grandmother ensured that my uncle lived a full (but sadly difficult) life living and been taken care of by them and then my grandma after they passed.
• Telaneo 3mo ago
  > If your worth is not determined by your productivity, then what remains of you underneath it all? Everything else. You are worth so much more than your productivity. I'm glad I never got sucked into the protestant work ethic, since defining yourself based on your labour and the value you generate from that sounds woefully narrow-minded (this doesn't feel like quite the right word, but close enough). It's probably helpful to at least expand 'productivity' to something beyond just what is useful for your work. Reading the classics is productive because it's enjoyable, even though it doesn't help with your work. Ditto spending time with friends and whatever else that doesn't have anything to do with work. I hope we figure out what to do about disabilities, since the current status quo is inhumane in large parts of the world (and even in places with good benefits systems, getting that support isn't trivial).
  • avalys 3mo ago
    Who produces the food you eat, the clothes you wear, the house you live in, the energy you use, the medicine you consume, etc. while you airily define ‘productivity’ as reading the classics and spending time with friends?
    • neom 3mo ago
      [dead]
    • beanjuiceII 3mo ago
      [flagged]
      • Telaneo 3mo ago
        I've considered suicide because I was unable to make ends meet. I don't want others to experience that. Is that too much to ask?
        • a-french-anon 3mo ago
          Of course nobody sane wants something like this to happen. The problem isn't the people unable to make ends meets, it's the unwilling.
• AllegedAlec 3mo ago
  > Capitalism has defined ‘health’ itself as a capacity to submit oneself to labor People keep mindlessly saying this but I have never seen evidence for it. Before money was ever invented the idea was already there that if you're healthy you can sustain yourself. All 'capitalism' did was saying "and most people nowadays perform abstract services in trade for an abstraction of a promise of a pinky swear saying "if you trade this pinky swear to me you'll get some food". It's not 'economic systems that are fundamentally hostile to bodies that cannot produce consistently', it's a fundamental reality of life. Either you are capable of getting enough food for you and your family, either directly by farming, gathering or hunting, or you are not.
  • inigyou 3mo ago
    You are a fish unable to see water. Yes, you need food. Guess what, we have plenty of food. But the system for allocating food says this guy doesn't get any because he's disabled.
    • seanclayton 3mo ago
      We could make virtually infinite food as well, but that isn't profitable enough.
      • inigyou 3mo ago
        We're already using two thirds of an earth for farming. We could make 50% more.
    • AllegedAlec 3mo ago
      You're missing my point. Shortage and conflict is the default. It's not a fault unique to capitalism, and to say that it's its fault is missing the mark. I'm not saying it's an ought situation or even an is situation; it's that I disagree with his diagnosis of what causes it.
      • inigyou 3mo ago
• Brendinooo 3mo ago
  The author lays most of this at the feet of capitalism, and I agree that the system has excesses that have contributed to the atomization of society, which can cause people to slip through the cracks, but...has any other system been obviously _better_ at supporting those with disabilities? Did feudalism or communism do this better? (I think about the "worst system, except for all the other systems" quote often)
  • paulryanrogers 3mo ago
    Democratic socialism. The US has quite a few such experiments like the New Deal. And they've been quite a bit better than the grinding, unbridled industrialism that consumed and spat out young and old alike.
    • ghusto 3mo ago
      Read up on "democratic socialism" because it was a term I wasn't familar with. I have to say people should be mindful of words and ideas meaning different things in different places. "Capatalism" means something different in the USA than it does in say France. In the USA, any attempt to keep check of or reign in capatalism is seen as socialism, and governemnt overreach. In France it's seen as common sense, though they would still say they practice "capatalism". Similarly, taking care of people that can't take care of themselves is obvious in France, but seen as nearing socialism in the USA. It's important to note, because when people go for things like "democratic socialism", they may not be against what they think they're against.
      • Brendinooo 3mo ago
        How does Portugal compare to the US and France? (I actually don't know, though a quick search indicates it's more like France than the US.) The author of this post apparently lives in Porto.
    • impossiblefork 3mo ago
      I think what you want is a welfare state, not socialism. Socialism is not necessarily cuddly. "To each according to his contribution" is the one sentence description of it after all. I want socialism, because it's "to each according to his contribution" but "to each according to his contribution" isn't obviously this nice cuddly we-take-care-of-everybody type thing. I'd call the New Deal an attempt to bring discipline to go from capitalism to free markets, to control excesses, prevent monopolies and otherwise preventing people from locking down the economy so that there can be competition, and that's a goal compatible with socialism, because it does bring us closer to "to each according to his contribution" but it isn't an attempt at creating socialism, but of breaking capitalism down to create a market economy with free markets (capitalism is not a market economy, capitalism is the accumulation of capital by some to the exclusion of others, so capitalism and a market economy with free markets are actually things that are extremely incompatible).
• b3lvedere 3mo ago
  "But I am trying to believe there is more to a human life than how efficiently it converts energy into labor." There absolutely is. Labor can be fullfilling and give joy, but for most people it is just an easy tool on how to survive and hopefully have some comfort as well. Do not ever feel ashamed of your labor and even more, do not ever feel ashamed of not doing labor if you don't want to. You have one life in this universe. Make it a nice one.
  • inigyou 3mo ago
    They may not feel ashamed, but they'll still feel dead when they have no food and shelter.
    • jfil 3mo ago
      This thought pattern of "I will die if I don't work" comes up so often. The streets are not filled with bodies. There are people who are chronically unemployed, and women who left the workforce to care for their children and never returned/returned after 15 years, and they're not dead... There are a lot more ways of living in the world than our main story here in the West.
      • inigyou 3mo ago
        We do tend to take away the bodies from the streets.
        • b3lvedere 3mo ago
          I doubt removing lots of bodies every month would go unnoticed, but maybe that way of living is a bit invisible to the 'normal way' (whatever that may mean) of living.
• Taikonerd 3mo ago
  If you read this article and feel worried about your financial situation if you become disabled, you might look into long-term disability insurance (LTD). It's a policy where, if you become disabled to the point where you can't work, it pays out $X per month, every year until you're 65. And if you're partly disabled and have to cut back your hours, some policies compensate you for those lost wages. These LTD policies are expensive, but they DO give you peace of mind about this possibility.
  • bestouff 3mo ago
    Wouldn't it be marvelous if these were mandatory and paid by state with huge scale benefits ?
    • Taikonerd 3mo ago
      Worker's compensation is similar, and that actually is mandatory for employers to offer in most US states. But IIUC, that's only for injuries that are caused by your job in some way?
      • freeone3000 3mo ago
        It’s for injuries that take place while you’re on the job. Chronic issues are difficult to prove.
    • gyulai 3mo ago
      I've looked into these kinds of policies a couple of times now, and the premia are just astronomical. (At least from the quotes I've been given). It's kind of understandable, given that the risk is not all that low. But my guess would be that it's amplified by fraudulent claims in relation to psychological illness, burnout, etc. I asked my insurance guy to exclude those, but, apparently, it's something he can't do. You can kind of see, how this works for a roofer: If you hurt your leg and can no longer climb a roof, the policy pays. What does it take for me to no longer be able to sit in front of a screen? Well, it would almost have to be something in the psychological realm. Sure, there's the possibility of an illness with chronic pain or cognitive impairment, but those are orders of magnitude less likely, so the psychological stuff is what completely dominates the high premia.
• beanjuiceII 3mo ago
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• schnitzelstoat 3mo ago
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• ghusto 3mo ago
  > 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?
  • eigenman 3mo ago
    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.
    • ghusto 3mo ago
      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.
  • disgruntledphd2 3mo ago
    > 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? In general, step functions (earn 200 get benefits, 201 no benefits) are really really bad from a public policy perspective. If you want to get people out of these dependency traps then you need to taper them more effectively. Even tapering them is problematic as you end up with astronomically high effective marginal tax rates, but it's better than a hard cut off.
    • butlike 3mo ago
      But at a certain level, you'll need a step function to go from 0 (none; no taper) to 1 (taper).
• Aperocky 3mo ago
  > If your worth is not determined by your productivity, then what remains of you underneath it all? Worth and productivity are synonyms in direction, wouldn't a better phrase not track either? It's difficult to answer anything other than naught without some mental gymnastics because the words themselves are implicit. How about happiness? That is one human quality that is not directly tied to any of worth, value or productivity.
• draw_down 3mo ago
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• jdw64 3mo ago
  My situation is similar. I'm exhausted from life, and I don't even have a disability I got scammed and lost all the money I had saved up. AI reduced my workload, and because of the war, factory expansions were canceled, so for a while I had no work at all. I've worked 96-hour weeks for six months at a time. Even working nonstop, I can't save any money. I don't have enough to buy a house, and I'm exhausted. I've done so many different kinds of work, but no matter how much I work, the money just doesn't accumulate. It's not that I haven't tried. Good jobs are only in big cities, and to live in a big city, you have to pay rent. If I pay rent, my salary doesn't accumulate. I can't even think about getting married. I really gave it my all, but I don't know anymore. Why is my life like this? By the time I paid off my student loans, I was already in my mid-30s, and I still can't even think about marriage. I just work and try hard, but the money doesn't add up. It feels like my life has gone wrong. I used to laugh at people who gambled or traded coins, but now I feel like a fool for working so diligently
  • butlike 3mo ago
    You gotta start prioritizing 'the soul' over what you think you're supposed to be doing. "Can't even think about marriage?" I bet marriage will take you further than you think. Maybe. But you gotta try. Try coming at it from a different angle. The answer doesn't leap off the page when you tick enough boxes. The answer becomes apparent when you take it.
  • lostmsu 3mo ago
    This lacks relevant details.
• veddox 3mo ago
  [flagged]
  • codechicago277 3mo ago
    It’s sad to see people in the thread conflate capitalist greed with the “Protestant work ethic.” Despite the popularity of prosperity gospel teaching in the US, Jesus’ actual teachings clearly condemn greed and oppression of those who have less. A work ethic is still valuable, because goods have to be produced, but the reason we can’t solve worldwide poverty by just writing a check is that oppressive leaders at some point in the chain will use that money to enrich themselves, or they will take it from those who can’t defend themselves. This isn’t to say that the purpose of Christianity is to fix these social problems, but it’s easy to forget how central generosity and compassion are to the Christian message. “Money Cult” by Chris Lehmann is a good exploration of how American Christianity corrupts these truths.
    • ElevenLathe 3mo ago
      "Ye cannot serve God and mammon"
  • cjcole 3mo ago
    Find a Church which still does this: "There were no needy ones among them, because those who owned lands or houses would sell their property, bring the proceeds from the sales, and lay them at the apostles’ feet for distribution to anyone as he had need." Acts 4:34-35 The Catholic Church has an ancient tradition asserting the inherent dignity of the human person (imago Dei), regardless of circumstance, including the very recent Encyclical Magnifica Humanitas (Magnificent Humanity) subtitled On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence. In our supposedly rational age we've discarded structures which encoded timeless wisdom because we didn't recognize the value. We thought we'd outgrown it, but it turns out that now is when we need it the most.
• everdrive 3mo ago
  I bristle a bit when it comes to discussing productivity an an ill that is _specific_ to capitalism. It's certainly an ill of capitalism as well, but I don't know many other systems where productivity is not valued and lack of productivity does not come with downsides. As another commenter has pointed out, the surest ally in this case is family. Not all families are tight, but families are largely the ones who will take care of the indigent in a compassionate, long-term way. The productivity topic is interesting. From my view, it really is _people_ that require you to be useful. Different social or political systems can be better or worse about this, but all of them are sort of playing with the same base human behavior. Try being the one who constantly needs help from your friend. That friend will leave eventually. And they'll leave in an emotional sense. They'll sort of think less of you, or be a bit disgusted. Try getting a woman to be sexually attracted to you if you constantly need her help or support. Outside of a few interesting fetishists, you're out of luck. You don't even need to imagine the workplace scenario -- you already know how that works. But picture a pre-industrial, barter economy. How well would you do when you're not able to contribute? There is history of people caring for the old, infirm, and indigent ... but remember that when you go that far back you're talking about kin-groups. You're taking care of your grandfather, or your great uncle. Not some random guy you happened upon.
  • inigyou 3mo ago
    There's nothing wrong with valuing productivity and unvaluing unproductivity, but capitalism fetishizes it to the extreme, kills people who don't have it, and defines the One True Productivity that you have to meet to not be killed. A lot of artists suffer from this last point where they are being productive but not in ways that capitalism values.
    • everdrive 3mo ago
      >A lot of artists suffer from this last point where they are being productive but not in ways that capitalism values. I'm just not convinced. If there's not a market for your art, yes you will not be able to sell it and make a living. But, in other systems: - Your art disagrees with the soviet government, so you are sent to a torture / labor camp to work until you die. - The soviet government does not care about your art, but you're still in the soviet union and everyone is poor so no one can pay for your art anyhow. - It's the 1600s Europe, and you're only sort-of in a capitalist society given modern definitions, but the Church doesn't like your writing so you've been locked up. - Your are a subsistence farmer, and have absolutely no chance of creating art whatsoever given how busy and poor you are. - You're a subsistence farmer, and somehow you manage to make art, but the only people you have access to are the ~2,000 people in your immediate vicinity, and none of them have any money to pay for your art to support you, and they are not willing to trade a chicken for a song. vs. - You have the most niche art you can imagine, (eg: Dark Souls analysis, or Harry Potter fanfiction where Snape gets pregnant and is constantly embarrassed by it) but due to (lousy, imperfect) platforms such as Patreon and the internet you can get enough patronage to support yourself, even if it's just barely. I'm just not convinced that artists are doing worse now (in terms of per-capita artists) than other times in history, or under other systems.
• a-french-anon 3mo ago
  The idea that "hard work, discipline, frugality" are Calvinist and Protestant inventions may be the most preposterous thing I've read today. As if the rest of the world or previous eras valued self-indulgence and wasteful lavishness. Or that an unproductive member of society wasn't always scorned or at least viewed negatively by those having to produce.
  • telxsos 3mo ago
    [dead]
  • dd8601fn 3mo ago
    https://www.britannica.com/money/Protestant-ethic https://www.britannica.com/money/Protestant-ethic
    • telxsos 3mo ago
      [flagged]
      • MatejKafka 3mo ago
        From HN guidelines: > Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes.
  • cjcole 3mo ago
    It's mere slander. It reminds me of the Smithsonian's insistence that punctuality, hard work, objectivity, and politeness were aspects of "white dominant culture" and "white supremacy". https://web.archive.org/web/20200715153724/https://nmaahc.si.edu/learn/talking-about-race/topics/whiteness https://web.archive.org/web/20200715153724/https://nmaahc.si... Some Inuit practiced senilicide up through the 20th century. "On the other hand, when food did run short, the old and sick were looked upon as drains on the community’s resources. Sometimes they were killed – thrown into the sea, buried alive, locked out in the cold, or starved to death. Far more commonly they were simply abandoned to die. The victim might be taken out in the wilderness and left there, or the whole village might pick up and move away while the old person slept. If the villagers were unexpectedly restored to prosperity, they might go back to rescue those left behind. An abandoned person would also be welcomed back as a full member of the community if he could manage to make his way back to the village on his own. But usually he couldn’t." https://www.straightdope.com/21343302/did-eskimos-put-their-elderly-on-ice-floes-to-die https://www.straightdope.com/21343302/did-eskimos-put-their-... (His title is sarcastic. They aren't known to have done that in particular.)
• deleted 3mo ago
  [deleted]
• Tade0 3mo ago
  > Much of modern Western culture, particularly in the United States, was shaped by what sociologist Max Weber called the Protestant work ethic: the belief that hard work, discipline, frugality, and productivity were signs of virtue. I hail from a culture that's decidedly Catholic, but at the same time shares this mindset. To me it has more to do with farming and the culture around it. On a farm you have to earn your keep and there's no space for "freeloaders". You work all day, every day and don't complain. Attitudes are very different in places where there was a significant urban class in the renaissance era already.
  • gyulai 3mo ago
    > Max Weber called the Protestant work ethic ...hmm. Not sure that this is quite state-of-the art in sociology today. Crediting a particular strand of a particular religion as the locus of a virtue that confers a clear fitness advantage in and of itself, and without recourse to any outside explanation, seems a bit off.
    • ElevenLathe 3mo ago
      (IANA scholar, but I play one on the internet.) No, Weber is not the current state-of-the-art, but you can see how was a bit suspicious (given the evidence that Weber was working with) that the Reformation and the first meaningful economic growth possibly ever (the "Great Divergence") in history seem to have started at approximately the same time and in the same places (England, parts of the Holy Roman Empire, Holland). We now have scholarship based on earlier evidence (it turns out that availability of the printing press massively increased the surviving sources we have about "early modern" Europe versus the earlier manuscript-driven ages, so our sources have a distinct bias toward the post-Gutenberg world -- and the printing press itself is probably a major node in the web of causes and effects that drive this transition!) and AIUI the best current guess is that the Black Death is what initially kickstarted economic growth (the "Little Divergence"), possibly by effectively ending serfdom in those places as agricultural labor become much dearer than before the plague. The Reformation, under this view of things, is more of a consequence of economic growth -- the ranks of increasingly numerous rich-and-influential commoners and burghers asserting their place in a social order defined by the Roman church -- rather than a cause of it.
• nlitened 3mo ago
  The author blames capitalism and religion while greatly indulging in his pride, I think. It is so much beneath him to ask for help from others, he’d rather change the world so that he doesn’t have to ask — instead of expressing some humility. I also have a lot of pride in myself, and I feel deeply for the author. However it looks to me that he’a banging on the wrong door, and instead of waiting for all the people in the world to change a lot, he could change himself a little.
  • neom 3mo ago
    [dead]
  • AuthAuth 3mo ago
    Its also got nothing to do with captialism. Plenty of captialist systems have regulation to cover this.
• IshKebab 3mo ago
  I mean... I'm sure it's not easy being a disabled artist but this feels a lot like undeservedly blaming the rest of society. The benefits cliff is a real problem (and the UK seems intent on making it worse). But "ooo nasty capitalism doesn't force people to pay for art"... Come on. And disabled people have it better than at any time in history. The UK is bankrupting itself to pay for PiPs and other benefits (and pensions unfortunately).
• slibhb 3mo ago
  The claim that the link between human value and productivity originated in capitalist societies (or via Protestant work ethic) is such bullshit. You think hunter-gatherers valued each other for their "inner worth"? Keep dreaming. At any rate, judging by the author's 4.3k subscribers, he is doing fine. Whether you react with a heart emoji or revulsion, broadcasting sob stories into the internet is productivity -- in the attention economy, something that only exists in rich, capitalist societies.
• QuadmasterXLII 3mo ago
  We could provide food for the poor and disabled who lack or are not using family support with a tiny fraction of our industrial output. We wouldn’t even notice this expenditure, let alone whine about it. But what we are providing is actually “Healthcare. Specialists. Medications. Supplements. Mobility aids. Physical therapy. Accessible housing. Delivery fees when you cannot physically shop for yourself. Ride shares when public transportation is inaccessible. Caregiving.” and this turns out to be enough effort to make society groan and strain. It’s good that our society is doing this, and we could do better! but why do we have to characterize this existing herculean effort as “fundamentally hostile to bodies that cannot produce consistently”
  • zbentley 3mo ago
    I'm not clear on what you're trying to say here. Are you saying we're providing those things instead of food? Or that if we provided food we wouldn't need to provide those things? If so, that's patently false. A lot more than food is needed to give someone a better standard of living.
    • QuadmasterXLII 3mo ago
      I’m saying that providing a better standard of living to adults who cannot work is something we are spending ~3% of our GDP and 5% of all fulltime workers on. That providing these things is something we are doing, that is good, and that is hard work actually.
      • zbentley 3mo ago
        Makes sense, thanks for clarifying.
  • therealdrag0 3mo ago
    The US spend like 66% of our federal budget on these things. Hard to imagine significantly increasing it and “hardly noticing”. People notice higher taxes in California; people notice higher taxes in Europe.
• ubermonkey 3mo ago
  I'd love to read this. A shame it's on Substack.
• giov4 3mo ago
  It's simple, what is written here should be part of basic education for every human being/worker. For all who mis-interprent the post and focus only on the anti capitalistic view of it, don't worry your body will tell you soon! Keep an eye for the signals, gut and digestive issues, back stuck and oain, sleeping problems, light sensitivity and irritability. When this will start remember that the problem is probably your work or your working environment not you! And you should react to it! This article should be eye opening, and support for disabilities should be always there. The abandonment of human beings is the biggest failure of societes.
  • CodeWriter23 3mo ago
    Fortunately, just about all of those are the result of slow poisoning via industrialized food sources. And can be remedied via diet. It's not fun wanting chili fries and having to eat eggs and home-made yogurt instead. But it's working in my case and I have the labs to prove it.
    • giov4 3mo ago
      unfortunately wrong diet is just another consequence of the bad life loop. claiming that is a just a result of industrial food is quite bold, even if yes thats probably cause of many many problems for humans.
• adamtaylor_13 3mo ago
  I think part of the lie is that we live for and unto ourselves. We instinctively know it's not true, yet for much of our lives we live as if it is. Until one day we find out what we knew all along. When you suddenly become unable to "give anything" to others and become the one who must be given to, you feel a disconcerting sense of loss and powerlessness. I don't think it really has anything to do with capitalism.
  • sleight42 3mo ago
    Perhaps. In the US, these two ideas seem conflated enough that they are often essentially conveyed as a single message: if you can't work, you're dragging everyone else down. That leads to the internalized ableism with its guilt and shame. It also leads to peer judgement and the fear of same.
  • therealdrag0 3mo ago
    It’s human nature.
    • adamtaylor_13 3mo ago
      Nature != Good We miss that much of the time, and it causes all manner of suffering.
• HelloUsername 3mo ago
  > Everytime you meet someone new and they ask “What do you do?” they’re not asking about your passions, hobbies, or the mundane human tasks that take up most of your time; but how you make money, how you turn yourself into income. 1. That's your assumption. They could really ask out of interest. They couldn't care less if that's your main source of income. 2. In some cultures this question will never be asked. 3. If they do ask and judge; what does that matter? If you dislike such personalities, avoid them.
  • jolmg 3mo ago
    A lot were taught to follow their passions too, so they can have the presumption that what you do for a living == your passion.
  • CodeWriter23 3mo ago
    My answer: "Whatever it takes"
  • sriacha 3mo ago
    in what cultures do you think it will never be asked?
  • magicalhippo 3mo ago
    I've found I ask that question often, but for me it's because I'm interested in learning about new stuff, so if they work with something I'm not familiar with I'd find it interesting to talk about that. However if I sense they're just in it for the paycheck then I try to ask about hobbies or similar.
  • robocat 3mo ago
    > What do you do? The first question when you meet someone is often to measure your status. In New Zealand, different cities had different questions. Auckland: where do you live (using suburb as a proxy for status), Christchurch: what school did you go to (status used to be highly linked to your high school), Wellington: what do you do (a lot of people move to Wellington to work and it has a very wide variety of professional and government jobs). It depends somewhat on context since often status is implied by the situation you've met someone. I've even had people straight up ask: how much do you earn.
• Nursie 3mo ago
  The toxic wellness thing is real. It’s always there in the subtext of a lot of alt-med and the sort of pure-eating wellness stuff, that if it doesn’t work then you’re just not trying hard enough and your mindset is wrong. Still got cancer? Well clearly you didn’t juice, enema and positive-think enough! That’s the flipside of every “you can heal yourself!” assertion. I feel very sorry for this person, as much as I aspire to be out of work one day, I aspire to be out of work on my terms and with enough financial resource to support myself, and I fully expect to still be able to support myself. This is very different from having to face the fact you can’t, and adjust to that fact and then struggle like hell just to survive on barely adequate provision. Tech people in particular seem to see themselves (ourselves…) as capable, independent and entirely autonomous beings. Being forced to reframe your whole existence must be very tough.
• ffsm8 3mo ago
  [flagged]
• OutOfHere 3mo ago
  hEDS and POTS, which is what the author claims to suffer from, are not good reasons for a disability. hEDS is responsive to particular supplements, especially methylfolate, etc., so build up your stack. For me, POTS was caused by a PPI drug, and eventually remedied upon discontinuation of the drug in combination with daily exercise. Afaik, there is no genetic basis for POTS, and if it there were one, it would be unlikely to be the cause. As I keep telling myself, choosing inaction is a personal choice.
  • rus20376 3mo ago
    I came looking for this comment, as it was difficult for me to tell from the article what was actually wrong with this person. I am not sure why it’s being downvoted, then again I find claims of helplessness frustrating without a lengthy precise list of what has actually been attempted to resolve the issue. If a colleague claimed helplessness with a code bug I would ask what attempts had been made to fix the issue. Why would serious life issues be treated differently? If the colleague with a bug just started crying and vaguely claiming to have tried as much as they could I have to say I would not be impressed.
  • Havoc 3mo ago
    Yeah seeing these all over the place as if it spreads via social media
• mstaoru 3mo ago
  > I’m 38 years old and I just had to ask my mom if I could borrow money [...] potentially spending the next 50 years without stable income Without stable income it might be more like 20 years. (I wish you personally a long and bountiful life!) I'm in a similar boat. As a 3rd child in a somewhat poor family, I do not have any inheritance and actually need to help my mom financially (though it's not a burden). My wife is also from a rural area and her inheritance is barely worth 5 (hypothetical) figures. We never got or will get anything given to us for free. We are in our 40s and we completely gave up on having children (though it was not overall a financially-motivated choice) or property (this one certainly is). Live day to day while I can work, and die without regrets when I cannot anymore. Thanks to AI that happens probably sooner than later.
  • deleted 3mo ago
    [deleted]
  • nevertoolate 3mo ago
    If you live your life in stress it makes it strange. Breathe less, stress less.
    • mstaoru 3mo ago
      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.
      • nevertoolate 3mo ago
        If it is a game of survival yes, we are living on the edge. Is it.
• aogaili 3mo ago
  The site is full of people, who believe in capitalism like a religion, slave their life to labour while being paid enough to feel good and better than others.
  • 83642736392 3mo ago
    [flagged]
    • aogaili 3mo ago
      Yeah it's one or the other...the communist, the enemies, the infidels, it's a blind ideology, almost dogmatic, but that is exactly what is needed to slave labor millions..same folks talking about AI/robotics automating all the value creation preaching capitalism which is clearly unsustainable economical arrangement. But anyway, you are clearly one of the people I'm describing.. unfortunately, it is unsustainable system both from an economical and environmental perspectives. And I won't argue about mental health, which you would probably label as lazy commie or something. Are you excited to go to Mars? like heaven but for capitalist?
    • yurish 3mo ago
      I wonder where did you get that 140 million figure.
    • inigyou 3mo ago
      I haven't seen a single tankie on HN, possibly ever. They're abundant in some subreddits and some Lemmy servers, but not HN.
• bjertoref 3mo ago
  This post reminds me of the book recommendation shared on Facebook. The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey Bedridden and suffering from a neurological disorder, the author recounts the profound effect on her life caused by a gift of a snail in a potted plant and shares the lessons learned from her new companion about her the meaning of her life and the life of the small creature.
• jake_and_fatman 3mo ago
  In other news, natural selection still applies, even to smart primates in 2026.
  • yunnpp 3mo ago
    What an insane comment. Can't tell if you're serious.
• strogonoff 3mo ago
  Reducing your worth to mere productivity is myopic. Your worth is what you bring others, and while for some people it can include literal production for others it doesn’t have to. There’s wisdom, emotional support, and many other things.
• deleted 3mo ago
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• deleted 3mo ago
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• sleight42 3mo ago
  At 53, and someone whose life significantly imploded three years ago (two years before an autism and autistic burnout diagnosis), I'm so fucking grateful that this made it to HN. It needs to be the top post in LinkedIn and forever pinned at the top of everyone's feeds, too.
• tjadfsaj 3mo ago
  I know once I'm injured I will be homeless again. I don't have a support system of any kind.
  • vanagandr 3mo ago
    What kind of work do you do right now?
• leothetechguy 3mo ago
  I've felt worthless for a long time. Sucked at school, suck at university, jobless. But something about the things I do has given me comfort. Trying to make music, trying to draw. And just doing the things another version of me would look at and think "that's nice" I've also been a social outcast for a while now. But putting my creative works out there makes me feel like I'm building the tools to appreciate myself and be appreciated by others. And knowing I can be appreciated, even if I'm not, is enough to give me a sense of self worth.
  • nusl 3mo ago
    Reframing the thing you’re doing as “trying to do the thing” struck me as something kinda powerful. You’ve got to suck at something before you don’t. I’ve found that if I start something new, say learning to carve wood, I might compare myself to others in an unhealthy way, not improve as fast as I want to, or something else, and sorta psych myself out of it. I wonder if changing the framing from “doing” to “trying” would help
  • grigri907 3mo ago
    That's awesome! Love that stubborn boldness.
• didibus 3mo ago
  I think what gets lost when we value productivity above everything is community and humanity. At the end of the day, I just want to be around people who care, having a good time together. Nothing seems worth doing if it doesn't eventually get you that. I've always seen my "excess productivity" as something to spend building a society where people actually commune together, and where we have each other's backs. I don't want to walk through a city and see people suffering or living on the street. I never assumed the solution was to hide them so productive people don't have to look at them. I assumed it was to support people well enough that we don't have this problem. You never know when you'll be the next one to have bad luck.
• cutterl6 3mo ago
  [flagged]
  • amanaplanacanal 3mo ago
    Yes we all know we need more housing supply.
  • techteach00 3mo ago
    No I actually agree with you.
• Havoc 3mo ago
  The current climate does seem quite unforgiving for anyone that didn’t make good choices along the way. Even a sub optimal career choice or something has rough outcomes.
  • inigyou 3mo ago
    It's also extremely unclear what constitutes a good choice, even long after the choice and its consequence.
• arjie 3mo ago
  Capitalism does not depend upon self-sufficiency. This sounds like total nonsense. In fact, the obviousness of comparative advantage and the benefits of trade that are common among market economies clearly illustrate that interdependence is a crucial aspect of capitalist societies. In fact, self-sufficiency is a characteristic of socialist groups - all of whom want to run their own farm with their own this and that. Similarly the socialist and communist nations wanted to wall themselves off so that they only produce for themselves inside their borders what they want and so on. Also what's all this about the body that never breaks. We have insurance schemes because there is uncertainty about the human body. What are annuities? Contract law allows for exemptions for acts of god like if a hurricane hits you. Listen, this person's life sucks. And it's important that society not abandon them. But that doesn't mean they can talk nonsense. This kind of suffering theology where we believe someone whose life is hard has access to some deep truth has no basis in reality. In fact, I'd argue that their thought is far more likely to be disordered.
• insane_dreamer 3mo ago
  > It’s there every time you meet someone new and one of their first questions is, “What do you do?” They’re not asking about your passions, your hobbies, or the mundane human tasks that take up most of your time. They’re asking how you make money. How you turn yourself into income. I find this to very much be an American thing. In (Continental) Europe you don't get asked this until later (if at all). It doesn't define you like it does in the US.
• mensetmanusman 3mo ago
  Not everyone needs to be productive, those of us that are… are here to support. My brother was a cto and got one shotted by a prescribed weed + aderall in CA combo and lack of sleep (schizophrenia genetics in our family line). He is homeless and occasionally lives with us.
• mbac32768 3mo ago
  > It’s there every time you meet someone new and one of their first questions is, “What do you do?” They’re not asking about your passions, your hobbies, or the mundane human tasks that take up most of your time. They’re asking how you make money. How you turn yourself into income. For the longest time whenever I'd meet someone at a party I would ask "so, what do you spend your time on?" because I specifically didn't want to box them into asking how they make money. I wanted to hear about their passions or hobbies or even the mundane tasks. Instead, pretty much everyone told me about their jobs.
  • squigz 3mo ago
    Probably because a lot of people spend a lot of time at their jobs :) I prefer "what do you like to do", personally
• raytracer1 3mo ago
  I face same situation. I lost my job six months ago. My previous boss thought he can use codex generate everything.
• cutterl6 3mo ago
  [flagged]
• eboy 3mo ago
  [dead]
• nephihaha 3mo ago
  This is a very sad story, especially on the health side. But rhe fact they keep going on about capitalism demonstrates their main problem. In reality we don't live in capitalism or neoliberalism, but a space where government legislation and taxation determines most things, and if you think more of the same is going to magically solve things, you've been sold a pup. It's hard to start a business (capitalism) mainly because of government economic control. At best we have a situation where the top companies and government have converged with one another and co-operate whether through the World Economic Forum or otherwise. The digital ID thing we see just now is driven by governments worldwide.
  • inigyou 3mo ago
    Corporations owning the government is a part of capitalism.
    • bit-anarchist 3mo ago
      Then we don't live in this Capitalism either. Corporations and governments cooperate, but most of the final power is on the government still.
      • inigyou 3mo ago
        Are you sure about that?
        • bit-anarchist 3mo ago
          What are other private corps going to do when their main government just uses its military might to seize their assets?
• entech 3mo ago
  Worth is subjective. You are worth something to someone regardless of your job. If you have a small child are their whole world. Same with your parents. Trying to garner sympathy and have strangers assign worth to you is pointless - because strangers don't value anyone around them for the simple fact that they don't interact with them. Whether you agree or not - productivity is important. If there are more people that need support than those that can 'produce' the system does not work.
• RickJWagner 3mo ago
  “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.
• anon48293 3mo ago
  I didn’t have to read to the bottom to notice the autism. I feel that’s the biggest “disability” there. If you can write so many posts, you can get an office job or get paid for writing.
  • jfil 3mo ago
    I think it would be wonderful if there were more work arrangements that fit a person who can write a lot - but intermittently and unpredictably. Right now, that's not the case. That's one of the author's main points. (Even for things like highly-paid, high-skill part time work: its as rare as hen's teeth)
• listentothis 3mo ago
  [dead]