J

Feels like America is rapidly turning into Gotham City. If you're rich and don't mind paying $30 for a burrito, congratulations, life is great. You can Uber around town for $50, spend $100 on cocktails and some meal conceived by a "French visionary" but prepared by people working minimum wage, wear your quarter zip, and avoid getting set on fire on the subway. That's as good as it gets. But for everyone else, are things really that great? The fabric of American society for decades was the belief that things would get better. It wasn't just a belief, it was true; everyone was confident that their children would live a better life than they did. Does anyone believe that anymore? I don't think so (but if you do, I have a bridge to sell you). They spit out numbers to assure us things are on the right track, "Crime on the subway is down", "GDP per capita is up 5%", "The market is at record highs". A while ago, stuff like this actually meant something, people participated in the upside. Now, for most people it's meaningless. America is rapidly turning into a nation were people are commoditized, and own nothing. You don't own music, you don't own software, you don't own your house. You're just a little piggy getting milked by some dude who was unpopular in high school, and is still mad about it. Everything two years the prices, like clockwork, are "raised to be in line with broader inflation". It feels like everything from your bank, to your credit card, to your insurance, no longer works for you Something goes wrong, try getting a hold of them without going through a 30 Minute Third-World Obstacle course getting passed from "Customer Service Agent" to Customer Service Agent who knows nothing, but strangely likes to pretend they are in America. You work for them now. The sense of disillusionment only intensifies when you realize how bizarre the entire thing is. The people living in the concrete jungle lecture you about planting trees. The Private Jet Cop 25 squad tells you your gas stove will kill the planet. The Morality Police of Hollywood routinely get arrested for Child Trafficking, yet somehow no one ever really goes to prison. The geniuses in charge of NYC tell you that crime is down, and that paying Pakistan to rent a $220 Million Hotel to provide meals and debit cards to people bused into the city is somehow in your best interest. Deep down no one believes it, but strangely everyone almost everyone accepts it as true. You make people feel powerless, saddle them with 30% APR credit card debt, student loans they can't discharge, and a minimum wage job that barely covers rent and a bank account that pays them 0.01% as a "valued customer", and then blanket them on social media with 10 sec videos of people flying in private jets and "motivational videos" from gurus telling them it's their fault they are wage slaves? Why act surprised when they start to get wild? What did you think would happen? 2024 was a crazy year, looking forward to an even more crazy 2025... not sure what the purpose of this rant was, but a good question to ask yourself is "what is the end game", and is it really worth it.