For generations, the formula for getting ahead in America seemed straightforward: Go to college, work hard, save your money, buy a home and climb the economic ladder.
  • Poophammer [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
    18·
    1 month ago

    My music scene is entirely comprised of these people.

    If your parents paid for everything and gave you every opportunity, when everyone elses standard of living is much lower, you didn’t earn what you have. Your parents did, this version of you only exists because you had a privilege. Your life is a lie and wrapped in a bubble.

    If you’ve never had to work a job or never used your position to MEANINGFULLY uplift others, you will never be an actual artist. You will forever be pantomiming artists and will be speaking to an extremely small audience of likewise privileged people because of a narrow worldview.

    This is the only thing that makes me feel better about a neglected and impoverish childhood, atleast my art is real. Anything I do means that much more, even quitting.

    • came_apart_at_Kmart [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
      11·
      1 month ago

      i felt this and it reminded me of a core memory. i remember going to a small show one time, where a coworker (who worked for the clout of self-describing as a physical laborer, because they had a trust fund apparently) sang songs using the imagery of like first-hand experience of destitution and violence from economic deprivation. they grew up loaded in a rich part of town and were mostly a kiss-ass shirker and blame shifter that got the rest of us to cover for them.

      as someone who was crazy broke at the time and living in illegal housing, i remember feeling disgusted that anyone even clapped for this fucking poseur affectation.

      i will forever wipe my ass on the expression of the rich.

  • came_apart_at_Kmart [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    16·
    1 month ago

    20 years ago, it was the default for any early 30s married couple where both worked and at least one was on a professional or stable self-employed path. it was a joke among us iconoclasts as a series of boxes to check: school -> marriage -> job -> house -> kids. of course, the GFC hit and a lot of those people got caught in the door and their careers/marriages didn’t survive.

    15 years ago, i could count the number of young adults (early 30s) on one hand who could afford to get into a mortgage without their parents direct financial assistance. all were highly-motivated career-wise, highly-educated specialists & committed DINK couples. and even with that kind of intense life planning and team work, they barely squeezed in.

    now i don’t know anybody in their 30s who is getting into homeownership without family kicking in major financial support.

    it’s an intense regression into what feels like a proto-feudal social structure, where all that matters now is 1) your family accumulated enough wealth to pass down and 2) you can accept the control and influence they want in tribute for their patronage.