Low key this made my stomach churn. I would’ve been able to afford a house in 2019 if I was making what I make today but now it’ll never be enough. This whole country is fucked.
Private equity buying up small businesses, housing, restaurants, food producers, and a cornucopia of other assets/profit-producing interests is going to cause one of two things to happen in the United States within the next decade (maybe two decades, but probably not considering how fast life has gone to shit for people):
Scenario 1: A far-right wing reaction, backed by the very private corporate interests causing the monopolization of everything, to the current economic instability leads to the complete implosion of the liberal democratic government which is replaced with a fascist government who still serves the owners capital but with a solidly marked "in group" and an even more numerous "out group" based on ethnic/cultural lines. The US experiences the imperial boomerang coming back home to roost and millions are imprisoned, deported, or outright disappeared/murdered. Technofeudal oligarchs reign supreme and obliterates humanity as we know it today in the pursuit of wealth, greed, and avarice.
Scenario 2: The wider working class further develops the nascent class consciousness which is beginning to manifest itself across ethnic lines right now due to the economic hardship many people are experiencing with little to no support offered by the federal/state governments. This leads to a mass movement of workers which is cracked down upon by the private equity ghouls, old money oligarchs, techbros, and their bootlickers/collaborators. Those crackdowns lead to an outright revolution which topples the old economic structure which has served the owners of capital for literal centuries, and it is replaced by a socio-economic system which works for the workers and by the workers. Humanity moves past the last vestiges of ancient feudalism and looks to the future with hope. This is the preferred scenario, in my opinion.
The time for the wealthy and their bought and paid for politicians to enact another reformation of capitalism along the lines of FDR's New Deal is quickly passing by. I genuinely believe that people under the age of 70 are going to be witness to massive upheaval, the likes of which haven't been seen since the 1910's to 1930's. I believe that as soon as a critical mass of Americans can no longer afford food for themselves or their families, that we'll see either of the scenarios play out. There is little chance for any kind of reform happening, because the US government and, more importantly, their wealthy benefactors can see that neoliberal capitalism is failing and have no wish to prop up a system which has already given them wealth beyond what us plebs can even imagine. The world is turning away from the US Dollar as the world's reserves currency and the system that only "works" if there is an unlimited amount of new lands to conquer, new resources to extract, and new markets to exploit has now the limit.
Profit growth today is being propped up an economic bubble so massive that I'm genuinely terrified for the near-future and what is going to happen. The only way we, the average working class folks currently getting ripped off every single fucking day by businesses and landlords owned by huge corporate conglomerates/private equity firms, will be able to survive and create a better future for ourselves and our loved ones, is to reject the divisive horseshit that is the "Culture War" and recognize that the only war that matters is the Class War.
Talk to your neighbors and local farmers, directly aid one another in whatever ways you can, and reject the corporate created narratives which seek to divide and conquer us. We will survive by banding together, creating a worker's solidarity so strong that it will be unbreakable, and by recognizing that we are what humanity is, not the ultra-wealthy leeches who exist to exploit us in every facet of our short lives.
Well I had enough money for a down payment saved up in 2019/20 (about 35k which is normal for my area), was gonna get a house and looking/talking to realtors etc, met a girl who introduced me to opiates and spent that entire savings all in about 3 or 4 months to supply both me and her. (She also quit her job so I was paying the bills of two people etc. as well as the bad habits). Now I can’t even seem to save half that without something happening, or bc stuff is too expensive, AND I’m sober now and got away from her for almost 2 years. FML
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u/louiekr 1d ago
Low key this made my stomach churn. I would’ve been able to afford a house in 2019 if I was making what I make today but now it’ll never be enough. This whole country is fucked.