This is probably the last post I will make lest I be accused of spamming...and I am probably wasting my breath...but I want to put a human face on this.
I am middle aged. I was strong and healthy and worked multiple jobs serving the community. I paid taxes and believed that if I needed help it would be there. I was ruined by unneeded and poorly done surgery I was scared into having and since then everything had rotted and faded as systems failed me and people turned on me. I live in severe pain daily with no healthcare beyond an income based primary care clinic for once or twice a year nonsense. I live trapped in the middle of nowhere with no public transport with the last people who will offer a bed and they did so to lord it over others and resent me daily. My meager partial pension covers my food and medication and the big expenses like a CT scan or surgery I have put off for years are ignored. I eat Walmart branded canned goods and cheap fresh stuff. I don't even have a computer anymore as mine and the backup from when I had a life gave up. Once someone donated an old one to me but it had issues and cost too much to fix. I use an external HD on a borrowed laptop I have irregular access to just to get online and have some exposure to the outside world. BTW the internet here is 1mpbs and irregular so add that to the mess. Imagine thinking daily of ending your life or deciding to run away to a cheaper place knowing it will be a dead end too sooner than later but you have no other hopes.
Now...if you read all that. Imagine living that way. With nothing but scraps. Imagine seeing no hope. Imagine years go by losing more and more. Now imagine how buying some junk food or a beer or a lottery ticket or some other "waste of money" brings you just a tiny little escape or joy or moment to not suffer and hate everything. Imagine when you DO that people jump all over you judging you and making you feel worse. I don't know if you even can truly imagine living like that...but I hope you do and reconsider. We are human beings and not abstract objects. We want lives as much as you do. Please consider this next time you encounter this topic or someone you are put off by...despite what you probably think it could be you next.
I am well off by most standards, and though I've made quite a few good decisions, there is no doubt that luck played, by far, the biggest part.
The one positive thing I have to say to you is this: I hear you, and quite a few others hear you too, though we may well be a minority. We know that the foolish, smug attitudes displayed by many are largely attributes of genetic and environmental history.
The only advise I can give you is straightforward: life will always be surprising, often in bad, but sometimes in good ways. It's virtually impossible to know what's coming up. So hang in there, if only to play the entire game that is, though unknown, before you.
I am middle aged. I was strong and healthy and worked multiple jobs serving the community. I paid taxes and believed that if I needed help it would be there. I was ruined by unneeded and poorly done surgery I was scared into having and since then everything had rotted and faded as systems failed me and people turned on me. I live in severe pain daily with no healthcare beyond an income based primary care clinic for once or twice a year nonsense. I live trapped in the middle of nowhere with no public transport with the last people who will offer a bed and they did so to lord it over others and resent me daily. My meager partial pension covers my food and medication and the big expenses like a CT scan or surgery I have put off for years are ignored. I eat Walmart branded canned goods and cheap fresh stuff. I don't even have a computer anymore as mine and the backup from when I had a life gave up. Once someone donated an old one to me but it had issues and cost too much to fix. I use an external HD on a borrowed laptop I have irregular access to just to get online and have some exposure to the outside world. BTW the internet here is 1mpbs and irregular so add that to the mess. Imagine thinking daily of ending your life or deciding to run away to a cheaper place knowing it will be a dead end too sooner than later but you have no other hopes.
Now...if you read all that. Imagine living that way. With nothing but scraps. Imagine seeing no hope. Imagine years go by losing more and more. Now imagine how buying some junk food or a beer or a lottery ticket or some other "waste of money" brings you just a tiny little escape or joy or moment to not suffer and hate everything. Imagine when you DO that people jump all over you judging you and making you feel worse. I don't know if you even can truly imagine living like that...but I hope you do and reconsider. We are human beings and not abstract objects. We want lives as much as you do. Please consider this next time you encounter this topic or someone you are put off by...despite what you probably think it could be you next.