Yes it is, we are being squeezed! We have less ways out. I'm far better than I ever was, actually have better health, and fitness. Yet, it is hopeless.
this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2026
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Asklemmy
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Yes, but not in the imprecise terms you'll find tossed around in mainstream sources of information.
Key Lemmy-grade terms:
- Surveillance Capitalism ---> Technofeudalism
- Personalized pricing
- Bureaucratic Friction & sludge (customer service best practice)
- Administrative Burden (government, business adm & customer service)
- LexisNexis Risk Solutions, RealPage
- Rent-seeking behavior; economic rent
- Whiteness theory
You could post this exact question at literally any time in history and get a whole host of agreeing answers. That's a basic sanity test you should use to determine that this is a question incorrectly put.
tbh a large part of it probably has to do with you getting older and looking back in the good old days in rose tinted glasses
some parts of the world got better now compared to few decades ago, while others have gotten much worse
Don't worry, it gets worse.
I think you are slow on the uptake. It has been this way for a while.
Every time your life gets harder, some rich persons life gets easier. Welcome to capitalism.
I'm not even sure if the average rich person's life is actually getting better by hoarding even more wealth. I tend to believe that being really rich is kind of an illness. Like an addiction where you never feel powerful or rich enough because there's always someone that's ahead of you. I feel that capitalism, especially in its current stage, is really bad for everyone.
They broke the social contract. The thing that a polite, cooperative society is built on. So now we see what that means as more everyday folk realize it over time.
Yeah it's sucks. I feel like everthing I do or will do need to be optimazed instead of done for sake of doing.
It's definitely getting worse, you're not imagining it.
Yeah, i mean we make more stuff than ever before per capita and all that, and yet we still have to fight harder and harder to survive. How so? We'll these fucking billionaires are also richer than ever before. Crassus' wealth is estimated at like $2B in today's dollars. Rockefeller is estimated at like $300-400B. Musk is more than double that. It's very clear what's happening, the rich use the capitalist surplus as a weapon to extract more wealth from the poor.
I was born in the 60's and feel ya. Funny that there's a lot of people who never knew life before internet like we never knew life without television. My take on it is we are bombarded. We see everything that happens all over the planet as soon as it happens. Yet our ability to affect things is still the same. That I feel makes us feel small. Spend less time looking at screens
yeah it's intentional.
oligarchs are hoarding the resources and getting people to distract themselves by pointing at each other while they stockpile their bunkers.
Thirty-something Norwegian here. I am born into a rich, relatively functioning social democracy with a good welfare state. Buying my own home was a real struggle, even with a good salary. Many of my peers will never own, my younger friends will struggle to ever own, or never.
Unfortunately the welfare state is eroding, prices for everything is increasing heavily, and the private sector is a growing leech on the state.
the real problem is capitalism
May your welfare state never erode enough to remove your Healthcare and turn it into exclusively private!
No, you are not alone. I have the same feeling.
Can definitely relate. Am in my early 50's. Canadian government sold out Canadians, and now the country is a complete shithole. We're actively looking to leave Canada.
Where are you thinking of going? Itβs kind of funny how many people want to move into your country rn.
Idk much about Canadian politics, but the premier from Manitoba (if im remembering that correctly?) is absolutely right. Any deal you make with trump, he'll break again, almost certainly before the midterms to score political points too.
Def not just you, it's everyone some people are just better at ignoring it. I've always been raised around computers myself, but we're talking Windows 3.1 and 95 lol. I do indeed think it's the tech though. People have alter egos they try to pretend is real on social media. News travels faster with it, real or fake. Music you'd have to buy, listen to the radio, or watch TRL or 106 in park. Things are so immediate these days. People used to read, learn, etc. I got kids, and a large chunk of the shit they tell me they've learned was from TikTok. It truly is a different world, and it is stressful. It's hard to keep up, but you're here, and you're doing just fine.
OP, itβs also going to sound like a cliche, but touch grass. The cancer-like tech companies want to replace your sense of community so that they have more power over you. F them, join a local group, and find yourself feeling more powerful when you have a real community behind you.
see also: misery loves company
Yep! Something about staring into the void, yada yada yada
Think of every day as a tiny knife, stabbing you.
(I forgot who said that in their routine and I don't want to look it up but it's somebody. Accordion lady? I refuse)
Sounds like things have been good for you in the past. I am happy for you, and wish you a return to the good times.
They say happiness is all about expectations, but I haven't expected anything good and I am still disappointed.
It's really hard to tell what was just younger kids not being exposed to the world vs. things actually getting worse. I was a kid during '08, and things didn't really change for me at home cuz my family was always very frugal, especially my dad.
Climate change has empirically gotten worse tho. Inflation, enshitification, food quality, all of it SEEMS worse but it's hard to quantify it you know?
nah lil bro. The enshittification is real and huge. The quality of goods, particularly what used to be reputable brands, is 100% in the shitter. I have started only buying fabric with natural fibers in them because polyester sucks. Turns out that's a lot harder than it used to be. I've been a regular grocery shopper for the entirety of this century. Things were pretty much the same price for years and years. There was a bump in 08 to punish us for electing a half-black guy and demanding reasonable pay, but then it stabilized until around 2018. Shit has increased in price by multiples while quantity and quality have plummeted.
We're fucked bro. Get whatever enjoyment out of this life while you can. There are some unprecedented hard times coming. We're going to pay for the recklessness and irresponsibility of the boomers. Buy hey, they got theirs, didn't they?
This isn't the boomers fault, what did they do? There is no reason we can't get good pay and cheap groceries now, aside from capitalists knowing they don't need to anymore.
All the boomers in government are the problem.
Fucking yanks have an 80yr old for fucks sake. Can't be any more out of touch then being older then most of your country.
Australia is no better really anyone in politics gets there sits there gets old and out of touch.
Their needs to be a hard limit on politicians so they don't run the country based on how it was as they grew up 65 years ago. That's an entirely different world
No politician, older or younger can make change without permission from the ruling class. In the case of capitalist countries that is the capitalist class. A younger politician won't change the fact that the capitalist class forces them to do there bidding for them.
What about unions?
If you beleive they can stand up to a corporation then there's no reason politicians could do the same.
Not to mention authoritarian countries stand up to corporations they don't support.
There's no real solution
What unions? Union membership in Australia has been falling since at least the '70s (source). The press is almost always anti union resulting in some of them being legally dismantled when they ask for too many rights. Such as the BLF. The unions that remain today only ever go on strike as a last resort, when conditions are dire.
Regardless unions are able to go on strike because they take away something bosses need: workers. When workers go on strike profits for bosses fall immediately and bosses are forced to do what they need to get workers working again.
Politicians don't have this leverage. Political parties must do the bidding of capitalists in order to maintain donations to fund their advertising campaign. The capitalist class owns virtually all media and have almost complete control in terms of shaping peoples opinion on the current government. Politicians can't implement policies that benefits workers at the expense of the rich.
Not to mention authoritarian countries stand up to corporations they donβt support.
I'm going to assume by "authoritarian" you mean socialist countries such as Vietnam, China, Cuba etc. These countries have the ability to stand up to corporations because they are truly democratic. The press of our capitalist country (I'm Australian too) has told us these country's are authoritarian because they pose a social order that competes with capitalism.
The reality is that these countries are able to stand up to corporations because their government is ruled by the working class, not by the capitalist class. This is also why these countries consistently make decisions that benefit the working class at the expense of the capitalist class. Decisions such as cheap or free healthcare, immense poverty reduction schemes, increasing wages etc.
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Wealth divide is worse. We are also in a time of change geopolitically. Also in a time where powerful actors benefit from creating controversy including media, social medial, political, and geopolitical. We live in interesting times.
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yes, join your local communist party
You are definitely not alone. Ordinary people should stand against imperialist and extreme capitalist system .when you vote ,you should not let bastards politicians exploit you by your weakness
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