this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2023
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I'm in my 30s so I should be used to this by now, but this shit is getting so stressful guys. I have no savings, my checking account is drained every month with rent, and if there's ever a serious emergency I have no safety net, I'm legitimately fucked. I'm one unplanned expense away from absolute ruin. Those in the same boat as me, how do you deal with this?

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[–] xhieron@lemmy.world 75 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Crime. That's the answer. I don't suggest or recommend it, but people who genuinely can't survive or achieve any meaningful quality of life while participating in the social order will violate it instead. Some people shoplift; others engage in elaborate plots to rip off their landlords and creditors, but there's no squaring the circle. I'm not in the same boat, but I've been there, and it's only a stroke of good fortune that kept me from a very different road.

[–] FredericChopin_@feddit.uk 38 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I have the same view. People commit crime as they feel they’re not benefiting from the “social contract”, as in it pays to be a civil member of society. Well if you’re not getting what you need then you have to get it elsewhere and hence crime.

I regularly tricked the scales on supermarkets by scanning similar weight items and bagging the expensive thing whilst scanning the cheaper one. Or claiming orders didn’t arrive so I could get it again and then return one. Same for order something expensive and saying they sent a cheaper version. Sony XM4 for cheap for example.

To even more elaborate and long winded scams which I won’t detail here.

Like you, I have had some lucky breaks and I am doing better now, but I will still take what I can from massive corporations as in my eyes, whether right or wrong, they do it to.

Give people a chance at a life and they won’t be criminals. Well most won’t.

[–] mke_geek@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago (3 children)

This is absolutely horrible advice. Being financially broke doesn't mean having to be morally broke. Those who don't have much money don't have to become bad people.

[–] MacroCyclo@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago

Yeah, but unfortunately it's par for the course on lemmy.

[–] phillaholic@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

The first line literally says they don't suggest or recommend it. The Answer was how do people do it. Crime is how some people do it.

[–] xhieron@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread."

That is to say, the error is to conflate law with morality. They are not one and the same.

[–] snor10@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago

Yes, but stealing has been considered amoral in all cultures for all of history.

Stealing is fundamentally wrong, only a tiny fraction of humanity would ever disagree.

[–] GiddyGap@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sounds like you're in the US. Most other Western countries have a much better social safety net to actually address these problems.

[–] Zippy@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Western countries possibly. Not most of the world population has near zero help. Safety nets are a very modern philosophy that has only emerged in about the last 50 years and mainly in in capitalistic societies that have created the excess wealth to support.

I am happy we have those extra resources to support people. But this is not some universal law that dictates the requirement. The universe cars not about our well behind. This is provided by those that work a few extra hours to cover those that can't.

[–] cubedsteaks 1 points 1 year ago

others engage in elaborate plots to rip off their landlords and creditors

...I would like to learn more about this

[–] Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

clipping. sums it up perfectly.

Warning: best with headphones and ten minutes to spare. I was hung over when I listened and it was not a fun experience. Would recommend.

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[–] Silviecat44@aussie.zone -2 points 1 year ago