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I find that most people that say that refuse to address it. And I’m not being callous. Yes, there are many people that struggle to find a job and already live as small as possible renting a room in a cheap part of town. But that’s not who I’m talking about, and it’s also usually not the person making a song and dance about their income going to landlords or “the man.”

Most people in America live in a house or apartment larger than they need, saddled with credit card debt they chose, many drive a car they can’t afford, and some then complain about how hard it is to maintain their current living standards they set for themselves.

People outside of the US are puzzled by what Americans do, from politics to consumerism and living arrangements.

Most Americans complaining about the cost of living and housing could lower and share their expenses if they were serious about it. But blaming others is easier when we know the system is not perfect. There’s always someone else we can accuse of our problems and choices.

The truth is that the US is one of the richest countries in the history of the world, Americans as a whole are among the wealthiest and luckiest people in history, and living here is easier than almost anywhere else in the world. Even at the bottom incomes, the people complaining about earning $15/hr in the US should learn about India, China, Brazil, Russia, and find out what bottom level salaries pay there. But the people here on about “late stage capitalism” do not want to have that conversation.

“Comparison is the thief of joy” - People that want to complain are always comparing themselves against those that are doing better. But if you live in the US, you were born in the lucky 10%. If you have normal American problems and are struggling with expenses, take a moment to stop comparing yourself against the 9% above you, and take a look at how the other 90% live. We can all pick up a few cost-saving/sharing habits from them.

Also, this is not to say we don’t have policy problems. Vote for leaders that care about the middle class and have policies to make life better for people not corporations.

Your housing budget shouldn’t be 2/3 of your income.

Landlords pay property taxes that comes out of the rent, and the bank fees and other costs. The building is also maintained, which costs 3% /yr of the value of the building.

If you owned your own building, it would be on you to pay the taxes and fees, maintain the building and appliances, and service the bank loan.

I’m not saying that landlords are not doing it for profit, but silly arguments borne from ignorance of economics do not help the discussion. Same with the whole “late stage capitalism” circlejerking from people that propose no viable alternatives.

I’m sorry, but you don’t understand how any of this works.

The terrorist Hamas organization is embedded in Gaza as the ruling authority. The only way to pry them out is to have fighting where they hide, which is in civilian buildings in Gaza. Hamas does that on purpose, so that the only way to fight them is to bomb Gaza buildings like hospitals. Hamas is trying to get as many of their own people in Gaza killed as possible, so people like you watch their tiktok propaganda and repeat their talking points. There were 4 million people in Gaza at the start of the conflict, and by Hamas’ own numbers, there have been about 1% total deaths including Hamas’ own warriors. In the US, we lost nearly that many people to Trump’s mismanagement of Covid-19.

Iran is bombing Israel with ballistic missiles. They did not issue warnings to civilians like Israel does, or use bombs of limited power like Israel does, or answer to the Western alliance like Israel does.

I know this doesn’t match your propaganda worldview, but the US is trying to reduce damage and prevent war in the region. What you call a “genocide” against Hamas-controlled territory is the tip of the iceberg of the damage to civilians that could spread if we let Iran and Israel go at each other with full-scale war, while Hamas continues to attempt to exterminate every Israeli on the planet.

The reason my elected officials like Biden don’t listen to your strategy, is that your strategy is paper thin and has no merit. They are busy trying to solve complex multi-actor problems with very serious repercussions, not consuming Hamas propaganda on tiktok.

Misinforming while talking about misinformation. Par for course around these parts.

No casualties from 180 Iran rockets for mainly 2 reason:

1. Israel is used to the bellicose nature of all their murderous neighbors, so they have a strong culture of bomb shelters. 10 million Israel civilians were on bomb shelter alert that day.

2. Israel had help from allies to defend from Iran’s rockets.

The US is on record as having shot down rockets that Israel couldn’t deal with. This is why we have our warships nearby, to protect civilians. And also why we are sending more anti-missile tech. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyv0ne41pzo

And it is said that Jordan used their tech to shoot down some Iranian rockets to help protect Israel’s civilians when they saw the trajectory of the rockets. This wouldn’t be a first for Jordan, they had to get involved in April against another Iranian attack https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/17/middleeast/jordan-walks-a-tightrope-after-downing-iranian-drones-and-missiles/index.html

Also, perhaps I missed it, but I did not catch in your comment any relief that Israel civilians were spared horrors thanks to the quick actions of anti-missile efforts. Somebody might mistake your rhetoric for that of the Hamas-indoctrinated fucktards around these parts that speak in Hamas talking points and celebrate terrorism and genocide when the target is Israel.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/13/politics/israel-iran-antimissile-system-us-troops/index.html

The US will send an advanced anti-missile system — and US troops to operate it — to Israel “to help bolster Israel’s air defenses following Iran’s unprecedented attacks against Israel on April 13 and again on October 1,” the Pentagon said Sunday.

Literally range defensive tools to save civilian lives. We are deploying anti-missile tech to prevent deaths from rockets, and we need to deploy the personnel trained to manage those advanced tools because they are needed now, not 6 months from now when locals can be trained to operate them.

Approximately 100 US troops are deploying to Israel to operate the THAAD battery, according to a US defense official. It is rare for US troops to deploy inside Israel, but this is a typical number of troops to operate the anti-missile defense system.

So which one is it? We want Biden to protect civilians in the region… or maybe not when the civilians being protected are people from Israel. Once again, the Hamas-indoctrinated tiktokers showing their colors.

Also, in case it’s getting lost in the fog of BS in this sub: Iran is literally shooting rockets at Israel cities right now. Real war-class rockets that Israel can’t stop reliably because their tech is not advanced enough for ballistics of this nature. Where are all the “Biden should protect the civilians” people now?