Americans have never been wealthier, never enjoyed more freedom and equality, never had easier lives (washing machines...

Americans have never been wealthier, never enjoyed more freedom and equality, never had easier lives (washing machines, microwaves, smart phones), and yet they have never been less satisfied with the status quo. What gives? Asking for a friend.

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>Americans have never been wealthier
Absolutely true.
old guy here, there is so much more money floating around in society than 40 years ago
even the poorest people seem to afford cell phones and video games.
If you're young and think the last generation took all the money, you need to just face that you've failed somewhere.

there has also never been a time where millions of people consume as much junk food media and have such autistic media literacy capabilities that their brains are literally developed by internet shitposting and clickbait

thinking that every american is like this. what third world are you from?

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There’s a guy that rummages thru my buildings apartment every day, looking for can returns. He can’t afford a cell phone.

I have a friend from childhood who works two jobs, and her husbands job. Should have seen their Christmas dinner last year. It was a ham steak and corn and peas.

My mother is on social security. She can’t but a new car and can barely afford her meds. Half the time I pay for them. I also pay for her heat and cell phone service.

Shit. This country is doing awesome.

Americans in general are so fed up with the status quo that they are willing to elect "radical change" candidates like Bernie and Trump

We're arguably the same amount of angry as we always were, but we have handheld devices and places to input our thoughts to a mass audience whereas generations before did not. There's just more people and easier access to these people. Everyone calling this an unprecidented amount of anger/depression doesn't know enough about American history.

>This country is doing awesome.
You mean its not perfect yet. But you forgot to notice how much better it is now than it has ever been.

We didn't used to have homeless people with smartphones

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>same amount of angry as we always were
we didn't used to support batshit crazy candidates as a away of expressing our anger because we weren't that angry/stupid

We have less freedoms. Just look at the amount of laws and regulations that are passed every year.
You massive retard.

name a freedom that we've given up, retard

this is what happens when you remove struggle from people's lives.

you'll find that where people don't have an easy life, they're more grateful for small things - a warm bed for a night, a shower, clean water, a meal etc.

when people have everything handed to them on a plate, it breeds discontent and a sense of aimlessness creeps in; i have everything, what do i need to work for / what purpose do i have?

and where people don't have a purpose it breeds anger, suspicion and discontent.

>adversity builds character. people who lack adversity lack character

legiscan.com/US/legislation/2017

Have fun faggot. That's only 1 year by the way, I'll see you in 2024 when you'll be done reading all that.
Your mother should have aborted you or at least avoided dropping you on your head as a child.

>average wage fell .3% last year
>Ceos making tens of millions with no taxes (average 278x median wage)
I guess they are americans so you are technically correct

No excuse for anyone not to have a phone. You can get an Obama phone for free with a free plan. If they want food they can apply for ebt or go to a soup kitchen. There are tons of welfare programs people dont use

well, if you can't support your argument with any facts, you can always name call

That person didnt get a smartphone while being homeless. They had one before they lost everything.

Communication is critical in todays world. You can bet your balls if you became homeless your hands will have a death grip on your phone.

Nice list fagget now try listing a freedom we've given up

I'm looking back just 20 years at how much hassle it was to start a business, buy real estate, vet contractors, set up a supply chain, set up shipping and logistics. These days I can do it all in my phone while taking a shit. Plus the sheer amount of free and easily accessible business information and education. This is a golden age

he's not wrong though; all stats show people in the west (not just the USA) have become generally unhappier since the 40's and 50's.

as life has gotten easier, people have gotten more unhappy.

Looking at the availability of simple consumer goods is a disingenuous measure of wealth. Yes, cellphones are cheap, but income has stagnated especially adjusted for inflation since the 70s. And now almost no-one can raise a family on a single income, a measure of financial stability. There are also even more sophisticated ways to take advantage of people's desperation. Predatory lending has replaced low interest loans from community banks in the name of profitability. If consumers are savvy enough to sidestep these innocent looking but ultimately wealth destroying things, they CAN make a difference in their own lives. But for many, by the time they realize it, it's too late.

Additionally, organized labor and pensions are at an all time low, making it harder for people to retire at all.

I feel fortunate / lucky that I was able to boost myself up to higher-level income, but most people I know do not have it nearly so good as I do.

>average wage equals average wealth

and yet somehow we have access to more goods and services. We have people on welfare below the federal poverty line, who somehow afford cable, internet, hi def tv, cars, apartments, smartphones etc..

i know two homeless chicks with a smart phones that they got from the government. google obama phone

Based

Dude, Abraham Lincoln was such a polarizing candidate/President that half the country suceeded, not out of initial policy changes, but out of fear of said changes. That brought about the most deadly American conflict up to and well after the mid 1800s.

The Vietnam war ended up being such a shitshow that thousands of Americans actually left the country to avoid the draft instead of just threatening to leave like some did circa 2016. Not to mention, the entire country showed up in, up until that time, the largest protests to have ever happened in direct relation to political and social unrest.

Jim Crowe laws were in effect post slavery in the south and didn't end so much later that there are still people alive that remember drinking out of a different water fountain than white people and going to segregated schools.

Don't forget that America has voted an actor as our President before, and mostly because he was "charming."

My argument stands. Times change, but we have always been an angry nation. There are a lot of leaders that came into their position just as trivial as our current president all throughout history.

They’d rather spend their money on drugs

I hit my teens during the Reagan years... and the weight of the top-heavy system he established has been the status quo since then... and it *has* to go.

Death to the right. Death to the left.

brainlet, access to valuable goods and services is what distinguishes the definition of wealth from the definition of money. that's exactly why i chose the word "wealthier" instead of "richer."

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Your mother failed to plan for retirement or she solely relied on your dad and he failed to plan for her so fuck off, man collecting cans whats his legal status the couple with 3 jobs must be living nigger rich and wasting money like imbeciles ....on another note i work one job have only had 2 jobs since i was 18 and never has my family struggled not once and im not rich just smart with my money

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So your friend works THREE jobs and cant buy Christmas meal? Is she not getting paid federal minimum wage? I assume she is. So where is all the money going? Does she support a drug habit? I just don't get it. Your sob story doesn't pan out.

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Wealth breeds independence.

But user trump makes controversial tweets. This is truly the darkest age for American politics

Before the Civil War, the status quo was slavery. No one declared war against slavery. It was change, the end of slavery, that half the nation went to war against.

In the old times, everybody could afford a house.
Now, everybody can afford a phone.
I wonder which group of people had more wealth.

i blame the dying media. to survive they have to sow discontent.

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We didn't used to have smartphones at all.
They're not a luxury that has become miraculously cheap; they're a necessity.

It's just because there's so many more people.
Crowds, lines, and traffic piss everyone off, and then they go on social media and argue about stupid bullshit with yet MORE people.

No. Especially considering that these goods are often financed, it's not relevant. Do you consider a man with a fancy car and a huge monthly payment wealthy?

Wealth, to me, means actual saved/invested capital.

We can sit here and list things which are bad and list other things which are good. To counteract your one sided list here are some positive things:

Calories consumed per person has increased (people have more food)
The cost of housing relating to income has decreased (yah homes are cheaper across the country)
More people going to college
Etc

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Not a necessity a luxury i still use my flip phone with a shitty camera and i have to hit a button several time to send a txt

OP's point exactly. The status quo created a country where everyone has access to smartphones, and our smartphones are programming us to rebel against the status quo

>never enjoyed more freedom

you obviously havent lived in america for the past 8 years

>what gives?

i dont know,maybe america is tired of being poor and having their freedoms stripped away from them by their own goverment?

Cellphones aren't a luxury. Figure that young people don't have landlines and that's their only communication.

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>Americans have never been wealthier
this is not true on an individual basis. The wealth gap between the wealthy and the rest of America has been steadily growing over the past few decades and accelerated following the GOP economic collapse of 2009

Naw here's the simple and correct answer.

Rich people are in your face every day due to the internet and Instagram. It's a double slap to face when it's some born lucky hot bitch is able to take an ass pic once a week and make $10k a day. There has never been a time where the disparity between the slaves in the office vs the super privileged has been so prominent

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I have a friend who made some ridiculously bad decisions and ended up homeless. A pay as you go cellphone was literally his only communication to the remaining contacts he had. Sometimes it's a last lifeline before they're truly lost.

>Wealth, to me, means actual saved/invested capital.
Maybe you should write your own dictionary then, and only talk to people who've read it.

the definition of wealth doesn't care who owns the goods that you use for your benefit. It only cares about access, who benefits.

name a freedom you've lost in America in the last 8 years

name a freedom Americans have lost

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this is easy, because they've never had it better they can't imagine it being worse. I'm in my 30s now and I've never experienced a significant hardship caused by international politics, my nation is unstable (I'm british) but even this brexit shit is like a bump in the road rather than a car crash compared to what came before.

The whole world has been so stable and so comfortable under American rule for so long that everyone in the west has forgotten how the world used to be, what the default state is, what the world will be as soon as America isnt stabilising it with a superior military threat to all outside forces. I hope with all my heart that America conquers space. America is an evil capitalist empire, and it turns out that's the best thing humans have created yet because the other empires are about dominance not profits, and we all benefit from profits.

Going back to OPs original post. Life as a result of things such as cell phones is now better.

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Go watch Flip or Flop pops. Not everyone was able to buy a house for 70k that now is worth 700k off a high school diploma. Fuck most people I know cant take a vacation. Cell phones are required for life in this century and video games are cheaper than your cable where blowhards tell you how bad the younger generations are while selling you IBS drugs, dick pills, and golf clubs.

child care is like $1200 a kid a month, that's $15000 a year just on taking care of a kid while you work
then you have rent
like that jackass Paul Ryan was bragging about how his secretary was gonna get an extra $35 a month due to the Trump tax cuts, do you folks not deal with the real world?

Read FATCA government spying on bank accounts

this IS a golden age, you're right. It's ending soon, I thought it was over with the housing financial crisis but I reckon the european bond failure might do it

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Boredom breeds contempt

Lol, my nigga.

Lincoln didn't initially want to end slavery. He actually tried several times to stop the South from suceeding by attempting to make several deals, including slavery remaining intact in nearly every one of them. Out of distrust and fear, they left the Union anyway. He only felt the need to abolish slavery (against his own cabinet's strong stand against it) when he knew he would not get reelected otherwise and his opposition would end the war in favor of the South.

>this is not true on an individual basis.
arguing with what OP didn't say.

The wealth gap is an economic problem. It is a red herring that distracts people like you from considering the real economic danger which is deep poverty, which we have been eradicating in America.

Eliminating economic inequality means everyone gets the same thing regardless of how hard they try. This is madness.

Just leave this here.

usdebtclock.org/

Our poorest states hold more capital than many entire countries. Even the poor class in America has more wealth than most others outside of it.

If I become homeless my phone would be the first thing I would sell for food.

>measures the country's wealth with cell phones and video games
you realize how cheap computers become over the years?

Child care? Lol. My parents worked nights and just left me in the house with my brothers and video games. So your friend works THREE jobs and pays for childcare. Where is the husband in this equation? Is it the governments fault your friend has a deadbeat husband who won't work or look after his own child (thus forcing your friend to pay 12k a year for childcare)?

Nope they don't
It is a gilded age. Gold leaf over rotten wood moulding.

Fortunately bolt cutters and angle grinders have never been cheaper. Not only that I can get 1000 rounds of ammo delivered to my door for under 235. Harbor freight has ropes and tarps super cheap too. Capitalism at its finest.

Just a few reasons I believe this is so:
>Less community and family
>Government and politics are a joke, as are your "freedoms"
>Constant debt
>awful jobs
>family court and laws
>Social media pressures
>less nature, not living off land, and eating processed food with a myriad of chemicals

Lincoln definitely wanted to end slavery, but he may have also been willing to cut a deal with the south. Your logic doesn't follow

Give us one freedom that has been taken away user. Don't give us your source as your argument. Make your argument and use your source as the guide. Or are you nervous that you may be wrong?

do you know how national debt works? National debt is taken at zero interest, it pays for itself as long as the economy continues to grow faster than inflation, which it has done under Trump. As long as the economic growth continues on course the real debt is decreasing, even if the amount owed increases

I don't give enough of a fuck to spoon feed you information. Feel free to check it out, if not stfu

when is that not the case? All golden ages are good periods on top of a broken system, just waiting for the empire to fall apart.

That's not how it works. National debt certainly has interest which can be above inflation and the US is paying a fuck load of interest atm.

That or watching your boss go on holiday overseas 3 times a year and driving a new car when you are making 7.25 an hour and paying 900 a month in rent and taking the bus or bumming rides.

Fuck I'm a business owner and self employed and my insurance for my family of 4 is 1100+ a month. Still coming out of pocket 5k this year for procedures. The most expensive plan for universal healthcare is slated to cost 30 trillion over the first 20 years. However our current system is slated to cost 50 trillion over the same period.

My town is loaded with free food opportunities for the homeless; you don't have to sell your cell phone.

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not the guy you're talking to, but you pussied out because you don't have the data you need to prove your point

Because we're a bunch of entitled, smug little faggots who've been given everything that we could possibly need. For fuck sakes, 98% of our population is above the global standard for poverty, and we're bitching about getting our college and healthcare paid for by someone else's tax dollars while some Ethiopian just wants a bowl of rice and a blanket!

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Seriously? So, if someone has a highly depreciating asset like a car bought on a loan, you'd consider them wealthy? That's stupid and wrong.

investopedia.com/terms/w/wealth.asp
Wealth measures the value of all the assets of worth owned by a person, community, company or country. Wealth is determined by taking the total market value of all physical and intangible assets owned, then subtracting all debts.

We dont want war, we want to colonize space.

Lets fight war on mars and jave peace pn earth.

Not true. America's golden era was post-WW2 50s and 60s. Healthcare, retirement, and student loans weren't even issues.

user my mom worked as a McDonald's manager and my dad was an illegal that was working slightly under minimum. They were able to rent a a place in LA and keep me and my sister fed. your freinds are obviously just shit with money

It's coming. Certainly those Kentucky coal miners blockading that rail road track for back wages are getting a comeuppance for thier vote. Moscow Mitch gave them a whole 2 minutes of his time when they showed up.

Guess having three kid is expensive, who woulda thought

The data can be obtained with a Google search: FATCA all bank accounts and assets monitored by the IRS

Do you seriously believe this? How about the millions of African Americans living in segregation and poverty at this time. You're truly retarded.