Comment by tjwebbnorfolk
4 days ago
Most people in the US begin life poor, and most of them are not poor forever. I wouldn't call this a "bleak future". I was definitely poor when I was 18, but I wasn't pessimistic. Pessimism at such a young age is almost always a mistake.
> Most people in the US begin life poor, and most of them are not poor forever
Thank heavens young Americans can look forward to a $63k/year median income when they are employed full-time.
Social mobility is decreasing since the 1980s. This is increasingly closer to not being true anymore.
Yes it has decreased from an amazingly high level to only a reasonably good level compared to most of the world's population.
This is no reason for abject pessimism at 18 years old.
I'd like to challenge that. Historical comparisons aside, looking just at today, if you're saying that social mobility is very good in the USA compared to most of the world, what are you basing that claim on?
I would think something like Gini combined with HDI and GDP per capita, on which the US only fares well on the latter. I found out there is something called Global Social Mobility Index, done by the WEF, and it places the US in 27th.
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Or maybe it’s just https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depressive_realism.
"Pessimism at such a young age is almost always a mistake."
Is pessimism a consciouss choice?
You can develop pessimism without a conscious choice, but once you become aware of how negative your outlook is, it's a conscious choice to not try to do better.
Being pessimistic about pessimism is individual-damaging and socially ruinous.
One can develop pessimism about pessimism without a conscious choice, but once you become aware of how negative your outlook on pessimism is, it's a conscious choice to not try to figure out the different meanings of that word and how important it is for the proper functioning of democracy.
Maybe read Orwell for a glimpse of mandatory optimism:
"The Ministry of Love was the really frightening one... Winston turned round abruptly. He had set his features into the expression of quiet optimism which it was advisable to wear when facing the telescreen.
Indeed most choices we think we "make" are unconscious choices due to our environment. That does not mean we cannot introspect and learn and consciously change them.
I am much more pessimistic generally than I was 20 years ago. But that's something I work on, not something I accept passively as a fact of life.
Yes. It is mostly because of environment, and you can change your environment.
with some it's an celebrated lifestyle: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPCJpclgW04/