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submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by Everythingispenguins@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

How is your part of the world doing (both current and future prospects) compared to how it was 30/40 years ago? Please say where you are in the world.

Edit- Thank you everyone for commenting. It has been very interesting for me and hopefully for others. If you are just coming to this post please still comment I am still reading them.

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[-] SHamblingSHapes@lemmy.one 37 points 1 year ago

US, my home state just sent a woman to prison for helping her daughter get an abortion. So, you know, living under a shitty theocracy that believes being poor or a woman is the worst sin imaginable.

[-] sara@lemmy.today 9 points 1 year ago

That story made me sick. The criminal justice system in the US is unimaginably cruel and fucked up.

[-] UsernameLost@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago

My wife had a D&C after a miscarriage earlier this year. Luckily, our state isn't as shitty as others, but the surgery was still labeled an abortion, and they made her answer a bunch of questions like it was a choice and not that our baby was dead for a month before the 12 week ultrasound. And the shitheel front desk woman lied to us and said that no one could be back there with her (obviously not in surgery, but I wasn't even able to be back in the waiting area with her pre or post op), because that woman was a religious fruitcake and "didn't agree with the procedure"

We raised some serious hell after finding that out and took it up through their patient advocate. It went up to the hospitals board and they issued an apology, which meant fuck all, and I think that woman was fired.

I don't understand why people want to be involved in anyone else's lives. I get it if you personally don't agree with abortions, but that's your choice. You don't get the right to decide what someone else does with their own fucking body. The kicker is that most people don't even realize that a D&C after a miscarriage is the same exact procedure and is classified the same. Excuse the fuck out of me if I don't want my wife to die from sepsis or have to sit around for another 1-2 months with a dead fetus inside of her waiting for it to possibly discharge naturally. That whole experience was awful enough and she wanted it to be over as soon as possible.

Fuck your religious beliefs. Apply them to yourself, no one else should bend over to appease your stupid sky fairy bullshit.

[-] SHamblingSHapes@lemmy.one 4 points 1 year ago

That's awful. So heartless when your wife is going through physical terrors and both of you through emotional. And thank you for sharing, I can only hope the shitheels pushing these laws finally start listening to them.

[-] Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

"Pro life" should not mean destroying at least two lives to avenge one that never existed. 😔

[-] Gorgeous_Sloth@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago

Fuckin hell

[-] simulacra_simulacrum@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago

Canada

People seem a lot more stressed. This least year people have gotten a lot quicker to road rage.

Since the pandemic I don’t hear any of the hopeful future rhetoric people used to believe blindly (we’ll invent our way out of peak oil don’t worry)

I would say the constant stress that only those making under $30,000 used to feel in 2014 now applies to those making under $60,000

I have a friend who makes about 60 a year and he told me about a year ago. It shouldn't be this hard.....

[-] VieuxQueb@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 year ago

I make around 60k and I barely can afford to survive. And I have a decent rent (1000$), but car payments, insurance, phone, internet and food all got more expensive. I can't even afford a vacation anymore ! I barely make it and I think of those single parents trying to get by with less and it breaks my heart. If I a single man with no kids have to skip meals once in a while I can only imagine what those poor kids have to go through.

[-] iByteABit@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago

Marx was right and it's getting obscenely obvious

I remember reading that he saw communism arising naturally after late stage capitalism, not before. Unless I’m filling in the blanks of my memory.

[-] iByteABit@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

If you can blame him for anything, you can say that he couldn't imagine just how bad late stage capitalism could get.

Though I'm not sure if that takes away from his other arguments or makes them all the more prevalent.

He nailed the bigger plot points but yeah, who could have seen the mind boggling scale of everything back then. Technology really amped things up.

[-] RoryButlerMusic@lemm.ee 22 points 1 year ago

UK.

Everyone's struggling. I can only speak for shy of 30 years ago (30 years old). But people can't stay afloat or get started.

Jobs are fucked. They're either entry level/service/retail jobs that pay nothing. Qualified or technical jobs that are paid less than 25k (I saw jobs requesting experience in coding languages and complex IT functions for around 23k) Then anything that pays more than 28k (still not enough to live on) has "senior" or "managing" in the title, requires experienced or qualifications that could single handedly run a business.

It feels like places are forcing more work onto individual people rather than hiring more people and spreading the work around.

I'm only at 24k and doing administrative work, Web dev, marketing, data management and some more technical stuff relating to the industry. But look at what's available and I'm not suitably equipped to get anything with a higher salary. Even when I am, the response tends to be a negative despite being quite strong at applying. Presumably the competition is that strong.

Otherwise, collectively with my partner, we have nearly 60k income. We could secure a mortgage, but we can't scrape together a house deposit. Even then the monthly repayments would be crazy high and inflation would screw us.

Both firm adults and living with parents despite having secure and intensive jobs. Can't get anywhere even with budgeting so tightly that enjoyment money is very limited. My savings have started being eaten into for the first time as of this past month, so I'm walking into living off negative money.

When I look around I'm actually not in that bad a situation compared to some. But then others are living the dream.

Feels like the lows and the highs are so wide here right now. Where when I was growing up, my dad was a postman then a private courier and my mum a cleaner and we were fine, not well off, but didn't live that differently to our middle class friends.

Moving on my mum took three menial jobs when we left my dad, but still paid rent and we never went without.

Don't really understand it all, but it seems that its all going to shit.

[-] DrOfMoo@lemmynsfw.com 10 points 1 year ago

This pretty much sums up the United States as well.

[-] RoryButlerMusic@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

Seems its the case in a heck of a lot of places frustratingly

Turkey. Bad, nothing more to say

I actually wish you would say more. I only know generally how turkey is doing now and I know almost nothing about how it was in the 90s. Please feel free to educate us.

Sorry, I very genuinely don't feel like it

[-] Everythingispenguins@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

That is okay I understand, I genuinely hope that things will get better for you and everyone around you.

[-] iByteABit@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago

I'm from Greece, I hope things get better for you

[-] MildlyArdvark@feddit.dk 19 points 1 year ago

Denmark

We don't have wars, famine, US-level political crazy news and very few poor people. We have fairly good social services/welfare, free/paid education, good equality and freedom. On paper it's kind of a fairytale country.

And yet people complain a lot. Mostly about 1st world problems like expensive cars, increasing mental health issues and too many immigrants though.

But despite things looking pretty ideal compared to many other countries I have noticed that many people seem sort of disconnected from themselves and people around them. I would say there's a sense of impending doom and an existential crisis lurking just beneeth the surface. I did not see that 30 years ago.

This seems like almost an example of a population in a behavioral sink. I don't know if this as been shown to be true in humans but it definitely has some of the characteristics of one....

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[-] new_guy@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Brazil.

60 years ago we entered in a military regime that destroyed our economy and lasted for about 30.

Last year we almost did the same thing again. So yeah... Things looking nice since they weren't successfull this time.

It is the little wins that keep life worth living lol

Seriously I was pretty happy to see you all pull that one out of the fire. I really hope that it can stay that way for you all.

[-] RememberTheApollo@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago

Hardy seems worth reiterating as it’s always in the news, but the US seems like it’s in overall decline for most any reason you can think of. Rising disparity, falling buying power for the average person, stagnant wages, increasing costs, rising political instability, rise of the far right with literal calls for civil war, rise of the far right looking to tear down any social, environmental, educational, or scientific advancements, the steady march towards oligarchy and corporatocracy, and then there’s the global climate crisis speeding up and the realization that we’ve been lied to about saving the world with recycling and EVs while the corporations rake in billions and pollute remorselessly.

30-40 years ago the economy looked steady, you could save the world by filling the recycle bin, and you could afford an education, home, and maybe retirement if you followed the “go to college and get a good job” path that generations before had followed.

Subjectively and objectively I’d say we’re worse off.

Sure, there’s some potential bright spots. Advances in medical care (that you probably can’t afford), fusion power advances (that will probably arrive too late to do any good), rising renewable energy (fought every step of the way by anti-environmental types), and a resurgence in the labor movement (also fought every step of the way by the wealthy and corporations), at least that’s something.

[-] ToroidalX@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago

I'm in Argentina. Help....me. Although we have been in trouble since I've been alive so there's that P.S.: Don't send prayers, send money lmao

Sadly I have no money and based on how well they work for me my prayers are pretty worthless too. 😂

[-] EdenRester@kbin.social 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Togo.

We are still waiting for at least an alternance at the top of the country with the governance of a family for more than 50 years. Since 2020 and the last elections, life has getting more and more difficult for the population and you can feel the frustration in people. Opposition parties are not credible anymore and can't really lead the fight anymore. Just a minority is keeping the money of the country; it's not my words but the president's ones but he can't do anything about it because he is also a pawn in the system and can't do nothing again those who put him there.
Just tired. I can talk about a lot of things but I don't have energy for that. Seems like we are waiting for something, some are talking about revolution. It can happen when the population will say enough is enough but togolese people are too much patient and don't want to die in vain about politics. Also, the last time things got serious, it was with a lot of deaths but it brings a sort of democracy, at least some rights but now we are getting back in every right we got. We were close to changes in 2017 but the opposition parties didn't handle it well and here we are now. The system has weakened them also. They even shut the mouth of university movements and associations that fought for changes for us students.
For the future, only God knows!

[-] Sylocule@lemmy.one 11 points 1 year ago

Spain

Overall, probably way better but the future is uncertain and unemployment is terrible. No Spanish governments seem to have the answer to this. We’re far too reliant on tourism and the pandemic hit hard, with some not recovering despite the support given.

[-] boogetyboo@aussie.zone 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Australia

My life is pretty great all things considered. But in about an hour I'm walking down to the local primary school to cast my 'yes' vote for the referendum.

Info here: https://www.yes23.com.au/

The 'no' vote is tipped to win.

So, later this evening I'll get confirmation that nothing has changed in my country. We're still a backwards, racist society who doesn't give a fuck about our indigenous population.

For me, as an indigenous person who is also upper middle class and in one of the most affluent cities in the country, life is pretty good. But the same can't be said for many others who don't share my privilege. And my country is about to tell them, loud and clear, that they don't care. Didn't care 40 years ago, don't care now.

I saw you lost the vote. I am sorry to see that.

[-] umulu@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

That sucks. Things like these make me think humanity is not on it for the long run. We're definitely doomed

[-] iByteABit@lemm.ee 9 points 1 year ago

I'm from Greece.

30 years ago people were still living the dream which was all a house of cards called loans. Then the market crisis happened and we got fucked unable to get new ones and pay off the old ones.

After that, we kept getting blackmailed by the Eurozone and the IMF so that we would get the loans we needed to fix our country, but under harsh conditions that basically sustain our poverty instead of fixing it in any way. We signed away the people's livelihoods so that we could be Europe's economic lab rat and slave, all to their benefit.

Our current government is as liberal capitalist as it gets, privatizing everything and making life crap for the poor (who are becoming more and more as time passes). Fascism is also on the rise, following the theme of Europe and the US.

The government owns almost all the media and most other parties in the parliament are also aligned with the ruling one. Climate change is beggining to hit hard, every time revealing the cheap infrastructure and postponed plans by contractors.

Instead of hiring more firemen, our government continues to allocate way too much money on cops, riot control, and the media it bribes.

Maybe the EU's fucking around ends up with a communist revolution, I bet they won't be too happy about it then.

[-] angstylittlecatboy@reddthat.com 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

USA.

I'm pretty sure most people would agree USA now is a worse place than USA in the 80s/90s, but austerity measures that hurt almost everyone now but helped the economy in the short term are a big reason why the 80s and 90s were prosperous for many. We're finally starting to turn away from austerity and unions are growing in strength, but that's not to say that (relatively speaking) the economy is good here, inflation is hitting hard, and who knows if Republicans win 2024.

The biggest existential threat to the country is the attempted hostile takeover by theocrats, which has been well over 40 years in the making, is nothing short of conspiracy, and quite frankly I think secession talks should get serious if Trump wins in 2024, even moreso if Rs get a majority in Congress. Maybe this comes off as panicky, but there's a reason women, LGBT people, and non-whites are the biggest buyers of guns now. I can't afford one.

At this point whether Republicans or Democrats will win 2024 feels like a coin flip. Biden's polling worse than Trump (neither is polling great) but also Democrats are winning most special elections (usually special elections go to Republicans) and a slue of anti-gerrymandering court decisions are taking effect, not to mention Trump could be in jail (and a bunch of other politicians from both parties are getting sued.)

[-] Candelestine@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

USA. Still kickin. 30-40 years ago actually puts us right astride the end of the Cold War. Before that we were still terrified of the world ending in nuclear fireballs or rampaging hordes of raving communists zerg rushing through the Fulda Gap, after that we fell into a period of extremely hopeful and naive feelings (the 90s) where things seemed to be going very well, that lasted about 10 years. Then the divisive 2000 election and 9/11 occured, dashing that feeling for the next few decades.

I'd put our current state on par with that state of Cold War opposition, when things were still frightening.

Prospects are about as expected. We're winning some and we're losing some. We're pinning most of our hopes on our ability to innovate at the technical level to figure out a way out of this climate mess, now, since we've run out of alternatives basically.

On the whole I am cautiously optimistic. Depends what happens to Trump, he's a powerful symbol.

[-] hexdream@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 1 year ago

South Africa. Clusterfuck best describes the situation. Daily Rolling blackouts. Political uncertainty. Higher cost of living. Massive corruption. Brain drain as those who can are emigrating. But at least we have no war.

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[-] Presi300@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Kremlin politicians, mass russian and communist propaganda and mass migration out of the country... And somehow there is a huge job market, inflation isn't out of control and we've got one of the better 5G coverages in the EU... Bulgaria's a weird country.

Do you have a sense of which way your country is going to head? Back to the Kremlin or to western Europe? Is even clear what people want?

[-] Presi300@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It's hard to say where the country is headed, but unfortunately a big part of the population seems to believe the Kremlin politicians and that communism will somehow magically fix the country and remove inflation and that somehow we'll be better off without NATO, which according to them forced us to give all or military equipment to Ukraine (ignoring the fact that literally all the military equipment Bulgaria has given to Ukraine is USSR era stuff that won't stand a chance against modern militaries, that NATO conveniently protects it's from)... That being said the kremlins haven't won the elections yet, so we'll see what happens in the future...

[-] obbelusk@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

I guess I might be a bit late, but I'll write a few lines anyway.

I'm in Sweden. There is a lot of shootings, bombings and arsons in Stockholm and the areas around it. We've honestly never seen anything like it, at this point I'm just surprised it hasn't really been happening in the other major cities.

The city where I live has a fucked budget, the municipality is cutting the budget of schools, health care and in other sectors.

For me personally it's okay. I live in a calm area, I can work from home when I want to. Economically I'm not super solid, but I can put away a little bit of cash every month.

Not late at all. I find everyone's response very interesting. I am curious, the nordic seems to be often held up and the proof of socialists democracy. Do you feel the fundamental system is still working? Is this just a moment of difficulty or is it larger?

[-] obbelusk@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Thanks for a great question, really made me think.

So, I am a firm believer in social democracy. The problem as I see it is that there's been a mix of social democracy and libertarianism. We have in many cases sold public companies and spaces to private actors, but we still maintain our high tax rates. We have used the "new public management" for quite a while now, maybe since the 90s, which seems to limit our ability to plan ahead and only look to the next quarter.

I also believe we have dropped the ball on integration. We have received many refugees and migrants, but without a plan. This has led to increased segregation and less trust towards government and agencies.

I do think it's fixable, in most ways Sweden is great and I'm proud to be a part of it. But we have a lot of challenges both national and international. The EU for example looks weaker when we need to be stronger and working together. We also obviously need to get a handle on this recent wave of shootings and murder. After that integration really needs to be the focus.

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[-] gerryflap@feddit.nl 5 points 1 year ago

The Netherlands.

Honestly, things could be way worse, but could also definitely be better. After many many years of rule under cabinets led by the neoliberal VVD party, earlier this year the cabinet fell. Mark Rutte, leader of the VVD and prime minister for forever, also announced that he was stepping down. Under his party, many scandals erupted and the living standards for many normal people got worse.

And thus it is time for change, but it's not exactly certain what that change will be. The last polls I saw had the VVD (with a new candidate and seemingly a different course), PvDA/GL (combined list of labour and green party), and a new party called "New Social Contract" (NSC) going pretty even for the lead. But many other parties are also in the mix.

Time will tell of this goes the right or the wrong way, but it's surely an exciting time for politics. Hopefully income inequality will decrease, people will be happier again, etc.

Overall I'm slightly hopeful about the future. Despite all the problems, it's still a great country to be in, and I don't think that that'll change too much in the grand scheme.

[-] OceanSoap@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago

I'm in AZ, USA, and I like it. Everyone outside of AZ is freaking out about the weather, but I enjoy it. I'm much more comfortable in the dry heat than I am in 75°f with humidity.

Anyway, I like that we're a pro-abortion state and a pro-gun state. I like that there's a lot of thought diversity here and less anger in general.

I feel good here

[-] TheGiantKorean@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Georgia, US. We're a purple state now, which is progress.

[-] LongPigFlavor@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Florida, US. We're facing multiple crises at once; an affordability crisis, an environmental crisis, and a political crisis. Homeowners insurance rates are going up with many companies leaving the state. Car insurance rates are increasing. Rent prices, housing prices, and mortgage rates are increasing. Our state is facing multiple environmental issues such as deforestation, pollution, and invasive species. Climate change will greatly impact our state, but our governor thinks it's woke.

[-] HurlingDurling@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

There was a tornado in Florida 2 days ago right?

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[-] Anti_Weeb_Penguin@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Argentina.

Kinda poor and heavily indebted but at least it's far away from any war zone, and much much better than it was 40 years ago.

[-] PetteriSkaffari@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

How come nobody's talking about climate change? This will be the biggest thing throughout the world in the coming century and beyond. No interest or what?

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this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2023
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