Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
"You saw what? A liquor store owner's bank account?" I've heard of "stretching" but, this takes the cake.
Have YOU seen Soro's bank account to know he is not poor? Or Bill gates. etc?
"They are ready to collapse" And where do YOU live? Won't dispute what is going on in YOUR area.
I worked the same area for 10 years and not a single one closed or was sold
I HAVE traveled a LOT across America and have seen it with my own eyes.
Do you even live in America?
Don't try to make it about me.
What have you seen?
You said liquor stores are going great in the slums, so I provided a fact that liquor stores are among the least profitable businesses around, and you replied that YOU HAVE SEEN liquor stores in the slums, which says nothing about how much money they make. How do you know they are doing great in the slums, because if you actually see one, it is clear they are not doing great, but barely surviving.
So, again, have you seen their accounting books to know they are doing as wonderfully as you think?
The trouble is most Americans wages haven’t kept up with the cost of living. CEO’s meanwhile are cleaning up with their golden parachutes and staggering salaries.
After raping the companies of cash and driving them into the ground.
This reminds me of an excellent book I'm reading, called The Five. It's a well researched book about the five women who were killed by Jack the Ripper, or whose deaths were attributed to Jack the Ripper anyway.
Yes, the women were desperately poor, and life for anyone, but ESPECIALLY a single woman, in the slums of Victorian London, was terrible. Workers rights? Haha. Workplace safety? Non existent. Labor laws? Also non existent. Womens rights? Don't even get me started. Divorce laws? Insane.
Anyway, in spite of all that, one thing that sticks out to me over and over again, and which the author touches on several times, is that these women ALL could have avoided being killed if they hadn't spent a chunk of their money on substances and substance abuse - typically alcohol in those days. I mean, she doesn't belabor that point but in most of the cases, maybe all of them (I'm only on case #4 right now), the women would work (in terrible conditions) but they would spend money that they could spend on rent, on alcohol instead. I mean, in every instance, each woman had earned, during the previous 24 hours, enough money to get her off the street, but they spent it on other things (NOT food or clothing or shelter), typically alcohol in their cases.
This doesn't mean that they were just stupid. But it does mean that for whatever reasons, they saw more value in drinking, to the point of getting stumbling drunk (they had all typically been arrested for public drunkenness and vagrancy before their murders and were all stumbling through the slums of London, drunk, well after midnight) than in having a roof over their heads. Most of them were truly homeless, but if they had chosen to spend a few shillings on "the doss house" (where they could rent a bed for the night) rather than on alcohol, they wouldn't have been a target for the murderer.
This book, which chronicles their lives, also shows that they had other options at various times throughout their lives, which if they had made better choices would have probably gotten them at least off the streets and out of abject poverty.
None of them probably would have ever been higher class wise than working class but that beats the heck out of being homeless in London's Victorian slums.
Very sad situation.
Seems like an interesting book.
I was in East Germany in the early 80s while it was still under communist rule (saw Putin there). IMO, the people lived close to poverty there. One thing that impressed on me was at 5:00 pm, there was a rush of traffic to liquor stores and smoke filled bars. Makes one wonder if day to day living conditions that are so miserable lead to drinking and substance abuse.
I did read that coal miners had/have a very high incidence of opioid abuse and addiction.
I was in East Germany in the early 80s while it was still under communist rule (saw Putin there). IMO, the people lived close to poverty there. One thing that impressed on me was at 5:00 pm, there was a rush of traffic to liquor stores and smoke filled bars. Makes one wonder if day to day living conditions that are so miserable lead to drinking and substance abuse.
I did read that coal miners had/have a very high incidence of opioid abuse and addiction.
I agree with Andrew Yang when he says, that Americans are going to follow the GDP rate and stock market prices off a cliff.
"Between 1959 and 2016, US life expectancy increased from 69.9 years to 78.9 years but declined for 3 consecutive years after 2014. The recent decrease in US life expectancy culminated a period of increasing cause-specific mortality among adults aged 25 to 64 years that began in the 1990s, ultimately producing an increase in all-cause mortality that began in 2010. During 2010-2017, midlife all-cause mortality rates increased from 328.5 deaths/100 000 to 348.2 deaths/100 000. By 2014, midlife mortality was increasing across all racial groups, caused by drug overdoses, alcohol abuse, suicides, and a diverse list of organ system diseases. The largest relative increases in midlife mortality rates occurred in New England (New Hampshire, 23.3%; Maine, 20.7%; Vermont, 19.9%) and the Ohio Valley (West Virginia, 23.0%; Ohio, 21.6%; Indiana, 14.8%; Kentucky, 14.7%). The increase in midlife mortality during 2010-2017 was associated with an estimated 33 307 excess US deaths, 32.8% of which occurred in 4 Ohio Valley states."
The last time this happened in the u.s. was during the Spanish Flue pandemic of 1918.
“Life expectancy is improving in many places in the world. It shouldn’t be declining in the [US],” Joshua Sharfstein, a physician and dean of the Johns Hopkins school of public health, told the Post.
I was in East Germany in the early 80s while it was still under communist rule (saw Putin there). IMO, the people lived close to poverty there. One thing that impressed on me was at 5:00 pm, there was a rush of traffic to liquor stores and smoke filled bars. Makes one wonder if day to day living conditions that are so miserable lead to drinking and substance abuse.
I did read that coal miners had/have a very high incidence of opioid abuse and addiction.
I do know that when overall life sucks, small pleasures mean a lot.
"Between 1959 and 2016, US life expectancy increased from 69.9 years to 78.9 years but declined for 3 consecutive years after 2014. The recent decrease in US life expectancy culminated a period of increasing cause-specific mortality among adults aged 25 to 64 years that began in the 1990s, ultimately producing an increase in all-cause mortality that began in 2010. During 2010-2017, midlife all-cause mortality rates increased from 328.5 deaths/100 000 to 348.2 deaths/100 000. By 2014, midlife mortality was increasing across all racial groups, caused by drug overdoses, alcohol abuse, suicides, and a diverse list of organ system diseases. The largest relative increases in midlife mortality rates occurred in New England (New Hampshire, 23.3%; Maine, 20.7%; Vermont, 19.9%) and the Ohio Valley (West Virginia, 23.0%; Ohio, 21.6%; Indiana, 14.8%; Kentucky, 14.7%). The increase in midlife mortality during 2010-2017 was associated with an estimated 33 307 excess US deaths, 32.8% of which occurred in 4 Ohio Valley states."
The last time this happened in the u.s. was during the Spanish Flue pandemic of 1918.
“Life expectancy is improving in many places in the world. It shouldn’t be declining in the [US],” Joshua Sharfstein, a physician and dean of the Johns Hopkins school of public health, told the Post.
The main reason is opioid use, overdoses, etc. Don't use opioids and you'll probably live a long life.
"Between 1959 and 2016, US life expectancy increased from 69.9 years to 78.9 years but declined for 3 consecutive years after 2014. The recent decrease in US life expectancy culminated a period of increasing cause-specific mortality among adults aged 25 to 64 years that began in the 1990s, ultimately producing an increase in all-cause mortality that began in 2010. During 2010-2017, midlife all-cause mortality rates increased from 328.5 deaths/100 000 to 348.2 deaths/100 000. By 2014, midlife mortality was increasing across all racial groups, caused by drug overdoses, alcohol abuse, suicides, and a diverse list of organ system diseases. The largest relative increases in midlife mortality rates occurred in New England (New Hampshire, 23.3%; Maine, 20.7%; Vermont, 19.9%) and the Ohio Valley (West Virginia, 23.0%; Ohio, 21.6%; Indiana, 14.8%; Kentucky, 14.7%). The increase in midlife mortality during 2010-2017 was associated with an estimated 33 307 excess US deaths, 32.8% of which occurred in 4 Ohio Valley states."
The last time this happened in the u.s. was during the Spanish Flue pandemic of 1918.
“Life expectancy is improving in many places in the world. It shouldn’t be declining in the [US],” Joshua Sharfstein, a physician and dean of the Johns Hopkins school of public health, told the Post.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KathrynAragon
The main reason is opioid use, overdoses, etc. Don't use opioids and you'll probably live a long life.
Tell that to the pharmaceutical companies who have healthcare professionals for their pushers ...
"In last year's report, the CDC highlighted three things that have contributed to America's shrinking life expectancy in recent years: drug overdoses, chronic liver disease, and suicide. Suicide makes the list yet again this year, as do Alzheimer's disease and "unintentional injuries," a category which includes drug overdoses. Combined, these three causes of death make a considerable contribution to our collective decline in longevity."
OK, so it seems many or most here agree that things suck for quite a large percentage of the population.
And it's 100% self-inflicted.
A good economy does not change a person's behavior patterns, just like a bad economy does not change a person's behavior patterns.
People who spend recklessly and do stupid things financially do those things regardless of how good or bad the economy is.
Giving irresponsible people more money does not make them responsible. It just makes them that much more irresponsible.
Those people who don't have $400 for an emergency will never have $400 for an emergency and they never had $400 for an emergency in their entire lives and never will, because they are irresponsible and their priorities in life are totally whacked.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
