I can’t fathom how many people are out there stressed to the max over money right now. Knowing how much it stresses me when it’s tight makes me sad it has come to this for everyone.

Not to bring politics into this, but I don’t think any of the current governmental systems or powers are equipped or willing to tackle this.

“Based on the most recent Statistics Canada data, that’s a wide range anywhere from $52,875 to $141,000.”

And

“Her definition of “middle class” is simply having enough money to survive for two weeks without a paycheque. Right now, her family doesn’t meet that threshold. “

TIL I am both upper class and maybe still middle class. That can’t be right.

My household makes more than the threshold, but only misses the definition because we drive junkers that are 10+ years old with no payments. One vehicle payment and I’m not sure what we would need to start cutting. Food?

We mortgaged a lot less for a house than most because of when we bought it too. So anyone doing it now would be in over their head.

Knowing what struggles we have, which obviously aren’t as bad, how in the hell is anyone else making it work?

Being middle class growing up was not having the nicer boat or nicer motorcycle, like the uppity crowd had.

This seems like the system is trying to keep these numbers low, so the people getting hit the hardest can at least say they are not “low class”.

We collectively need to rethink the classes to just “rich” and “not rich”. That’s the only ones that matter anymore in my opinion.

Anyone that can live a stable life without worrying constantly about the cost of everyday items should be middle class.

Any household that can thrive without the need to work is rich.

I hear you and agree, but part of me wonders if that is solely because they were always nasty people, or they are actually reacting to the awful way they get treated.

They are already probably dealing with failing health, burying most of their friends, not understanding most of what is going on in the world, feeling left behind, etc.

In their shoes I’m not sure if I could be very cheerful myself. Maybe I’ll get the opportunity to find out and hopefully I’ll not be one of the ones you mention, but who knows.

Most of us are tired from all the crap of the world already, imagine 30-40 more years of that on top of the things I just mentioned.

Absolutely, which is why cooperative corporate structure appealed to me. Everyone has there same stake in it and still maintains their own separate lives. Only things that are agreed upon as shareable would be shared.

Like bulk food, equipment, etc.

TL;DR: capitalism.

I’ve put some thought into this and I don’t have a good answer other than because of how society is designed to keep us from doing it now.

Evolutionarily speaking, we are designed to thrive in smaller communities. It’s only in the more recent part of humanity that we seem to have moved away from that. I mean, there were still cities a long time ago, but within them were what could be thought of as smaller communities.

I myself am of European descent, but currently live in a place where there is a thriving native community and realizing that I sometimes have envy of some of their ways of life is what got me thinking.

For instance, in western society becoming elderly is almost seen as a problem, like a burden that needs to be “dealt” with. For them it is a station of respect and reverence. If an Elder walks down the street, they are taught to show respect and pay heed to their wisdom and guidance. If the rest of us are lucky, we can get a seniors discount at select stores by declaring they we are among the needy.

I’ve even went as far as researching communal living, intentional communities and cooperative housing, but I keep chickening out when it comes time to pull anything into action.

The idea of finding 4-6 like-minded families to share resources with and use our individual talents and skills to help each other really appeals to me. It makes sense to build resilience against harder times.

But to answer your question, smaller communities helping each other is against the capitalist ideal and is/will be thwarted at any scale by corporations and corporate influenced governments alike at every turn. So I guess that’s the most likely reason.

Yet.

It’s the old “I don’t necessarily agree with what you are saying, but I would defend to the death your right to say it” ideal, and I’m 100% down for it.

This reads like an obvious ploy to soften the idea to his base. They hate Obama too, probably because Trump does.

What other opponent would ire them more? Also, if someone like Obama was on-board, it would be more of a challenge to the rule against it from both sides. Democrats rally behind Obama, Voting machine hackers behind Trump.

Is like a pretext to calling Obama a chicken for not doing it down the road.

And the news floats gently into the minds of the weary, surprising no one.

Probably just a comment to placate his base while behind the scenes it’s daddy Putin’s orders as usual.

What ever happened to people just minding their own business?

Seriously, just help when you can and but out otherwise. EASY peasy recipe for a better life.

It’s almost like “Ignorance is bliss” got mixed into “intolerance is better” somewhere along the way.

The Narcissist’s Prayer.

“That didn’t happen. And if it did, it wasn’t that bad. And if it was, that’s not a big deal. And if it is, that’s not my fault. And if it was, I didn’t mean it. And if I did, you deserved it.”

  - Dayna Craig