I work in tech. I am able to provide a good life for my family on a single income and, having grown up with little (single mom household, father passed when I was two), I realize how fortunate I am. The households where I live have serious money – vc’s, tech execs, global CEOs, trust fund babies, old dot-comers etc. Despite the bay area housing prices being astronomical, houses are often purchased for cash well over asking. I make a decent income, however expenses and high COL make it so that not much gets saved. (I’m not looking to hold a pity party).
I’ve seen long-time residents with homes that are paid off move away simply because their property tax is more than mortgages in many parts of the country and unsustainable on a fixed income.
The cherry on top is that this area carries with it a sick mindset, where it’s expected to be sympathetic and sensitive to everyone and support all of the [trumped up] causes and divisions (gender, race, economic inequality, etc) – but no one actually helps anyone. It’s all f’ng hot air, one big circle-jerk virtue signal. They’ll sh1t on you for not sharing their group-think views, despite them not actually giving a genuine rats a$$ about the people, issues or cause they are defending.
Case in point – everyone is aware of the homeless crisis in this area. Everyone says something needs to be done. People will get in their fancy cars at Christmas and hand out turkeys to get their annual karma card stamp. Yet I just read on a local message board that some residents of a nearby town were suggesting to the group not to give money to the homeless that are outside of a market because they don’t want them to be there with any consistency. There’s a not-so nuanced ‘not in my town’ attitude.
Capitalism and globalization are killing society. The system they’ve created has us all financially enslaved and emotionally/morally/ethically bankrupt because we're all in survival mode. We all put in full days, yet the person with ‘C’ in their job title makes 10x-100x more than the regular employee. We step on each other so one of us can get ahead, rather than help each other so we can all get ahead. Every big decision made by our politicians and reinforced by the media is seemingly motivated by selfishness, money, greed, and/or some unspoken agenda – certainly not by doing the right thing for the people. And we can't mobilize as a society because we've been so divided up by this or that – not to mention we live in an increasingly oppressive security state. Ultimately, we’re seeing a dystopian society rise up before our very eyes. George Orwell mic dropped this many years ago
The American Dream is an American Scheme – and it's collapsing in glorious fashion.