this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2023
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‘Choose drugs?’ 30 years after he wrote Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh says life is tougher now (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (3 children)

“People can’t get jobs. People will never buy a house. They can’t buy nice things. Everything is fucked even if you’re not on drugs,” he says.

“It [the book] almost becomes some kind of inspiring clarion call: let’s do fucking drugs, man. We’re fucked anyway. Let’s just go for it.”

Well, that's depressing.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The reality is that the chart is meaningless without knowing the quality of the jobs. US has pretty low unemployment too right now, but around 37% of adults have two full time jobs now.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

lol median wage is pretty terrible https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_countries_by_average_wage#European_countries_by_monthly_median_wage

Which is precisely why the standard of living is the way the article in the submission describes.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah life is terrible in one of the richest countries in the world lol.

Have you actually been to a poor country?

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's incredible that you don't understand that wealth in UK is not evenly distributed. I have been to poor countries, and I've also seen what poverty in places like US and UK looks like with people living in tents and eating out of trash. You are a smug because you won the birth lottery and never had to deal with real hardship, but all that cold change very quickly under the capitalist system you champion. One day it could be you sleeping under a bridge and scavenging for rotten food in the garbage, not gonna be so smug then.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I didn't say wealth was evenly distributed. But poor countries don't have the welfare state that G7 countries do.

I'm not smug, you're deluded enough to think you know what living under a communist system is like while living in a liberal democracy and ignoring all the economic data that disagrees with you.

Quite frankly, I've seen enough of your badgering of people with shite sources to realise you're just an idiot tankie or troll.

Here's some data that you'll ignore

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

That data was really interesting and does seem to show that wealth is being progressively transferred upwards after WW2.

I read somewhere recently that since 1945 $50 trillion had been earned by top 1% while wages have remained relatively flat for working people.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There are tent cities all over G7 countries right now. People literally go bankrupt in US when they get sick. Children in UK can't get full nutrition. Meanwhile, I grew up in USSR, so I think I know what it's like to live under a communist system a lot better than some ignoramus from UK.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago

There are tent cities all over G7 countries right now.

Source? I call bullshit.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago

Well said.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

People can't get jobs? In the middle of a labour squeeze?

In mainland Europe people aren't obsessed with buying a house, renting isn't seen as lower class. Are they fucked?

They can't buy nice things? Materialism is so last century

This article is a puff piece to promote his musical. Fuck off Welsh, you wrote one good book, okay two if you include Marabou Stork Nightmares, and have grifted off it ever since. Profiting from poverty porn.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

That's how I feel about smoking cigars.

Everything, including the soil and rain water, is fucking polluted to shit so you're deluded if you think you can avoid cancer by not smoking. I was very influenced by that 90's anti-smoking Truth campaign for a long time but I don't give a shit anymore. At this point, just enjoy whatever you can when you can.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

"Apple seeds have fucking arsenic, I'll just drink it from the bottle then."

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Even the Mona Lisa is falling apart.

How much can you know about yourself, if you've never been in a fight?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No, smoking is pretty bad for you.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I didn't say it was good for you. I said I didn't care.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

A musical? What?!

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