Lack of healthcare and a system that rewards the pedofile class for making the working class sick
this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2026
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The US is a shitty industrial environment without strong regulation to protect the individuals. Also healthcare is limited and the habits of many americans don't help either. Unhealthy foods and car culture make for a bad mix. In many places there aren't even enough sideways so you're literally forced to drive everywhere. When it comes to social services if you're unemployed you are also basically valued barely anything. If you run out of money you're in trouble. The social safety net would have to be expanded. The work culture is also lets say not the greatest. When it comes to PTO this should not include sick days but it does. Employer protection against firing is also not existent. So lets just say quality of life could be a lot better...
This seems like a no brainer. If you put healthcare in the hands of for profit companies, they are going to focus on maximizing profit rather than maximizing health.
Those focusing on medical intervention are missing the point. Like 90% of contributions to lifespans have been from public health, which focuses primarily on primary and (secondary) treatments. Americans as a society are just not healthy, nor are enabled to be healthy.
Great point.
Healthy food costs a small fortune. Many of us work so much we have no time or energy left for dedicated exercise. It feels like just leaving the house costs money, so people aren't doing activities that would get them out moving naturally. And socialization and feeling a part of your community, which is super important for mental well-being, is so difficult in today's world.
Healthy foods (whole grains, legumes, plants and vegetables, for instance) are the cheapest foods available, pound for pound.
Bags of beans, lentils, rice? Come on....
You can usually buy several pound bags of apples for 2-3 bucks. Bananas are always cheap. And on and on and on.
You know what's even cheaper? Soil and seed. Life's a garden, dig it. So many videos on the whatever you watch. Video showing you what you can do with produce scraps that will grow You More produce from those scraps, for instance... You can chop off the head on lettuce and put the little puck at the base in water and it'll start growing more leaves. Cuttings are a great way to propagate plants. Put in water until it roots then plant them.
When fresh produce gets expensive (out of season stuff) there's frozen and canned. But growing your own is as close to free as food gets and probably the most healthy of all.
To be fair, growing your own food costs you a lot of time and is also not for free - you need the space, you need water... It takes a lot of dedication. Buying cheap vegetables, as you mentioned, might be the more viable option.
That's a little unfair.
Every element can be sourced for free. And sometimes can be obtained with little time necessary.
Many municipalities will give free compost occasionally(like in spring!) You just have to drive there and often bag it yourself. So compost for the cost of just the bags or truck bed... I mean come on... But muh time! Some even have a limited number of free bags. Some have loaders for trailers. Ymmv!
Many places have seed giveaways. Many places have people/orgs that put out free plants(similar to free/little libraries). If you know someone with plants ask for a cutting, they'll probably be happy to provide. Water often works alone but there's root stimulant that's not expensive.
You can do all kinds of home made containers. Coffee cans or milk jugs. 5 gal buckets with holes drilled in the bottle (not too many!) handle is great for tomatoes! You could literally use a plastic shopping bag. Or the ground. Or hydro - some hydro can be just as cheap as soil, but probably better results.
To cut down on soil expense, if you buy, there's various filler materials you may want to consider. One of my favorites is sticks and leaves and needles and mulch(free). They break down over time providing nutrients.
If you see your neighbor having their trees chopped down go ask them for the mulch or wood chippings.
There's even vertical farming. Space smace!
Even your piss and shit can be used as fertilizer and compost. Now we getting real.
There's just so many free inputs. Growing plants is fun. If it costs you time, then reap what you sow, and if you do a good job you will have positive return on investment.
Grow some plants my friend.
I do grow plants both at home and at work, I know exactly what I'm talking about :) At home it costs me more than in shop (mostly watering and some materials), so it's more about being a nice hobby and it feels great to have some produce of my own. I also don't have much space - not everyone can have a garden. I do compost - no feces though, omg, that must take some know-how to make it safe when it's human and on small scale. Time is a big limiting factor - I do have a job and a family. Anyway, I love my plants and I'd also recommend growing some, at least to those who have the space and time :)
To be safe feces need to be hot composted. And you need to wait a good year or two before they're safe. But dang! We're talking hundreds of pounds of compost yearly... With the right amount of saw dust they don't smell too bad.
Then you usually make like a box. Insulated with hay/grasses or whatever. And oh boy. That compost will get hotter than you want a steak to get!
"Costs you time" just seems like a negative way to look at it. I would love to have more time gardening!
Me too, but it's not the only thing in life I like doing. I'd love to have more time to spend with my family, more time to do music, to do hikes in nature, more time to devote to theatre, to play with my cats, to learn languages, to do sports, more time to meet my friends and other nice people, more time to learn math, physics, anthropology and etymology... I don't have it. I have some limited time that I can give to gardening and very limited space (a large balcony).
I'd love to live several lives, alas, I have just this one and have to divide my time and prioritize. If you've seen Everything everywhere all at once - that's a film that resonated with me greatly.
you are thinking ORGANIC, non-gmo, all the bs marketing they use for these types food, yea this expensive. otherwise its cheap if dont do organic.
I don't buy organic. It's expensive either way.
Capitalism.
Because even with the scam that is employer-provided health insurance, people who live paycheck to paycheck are more likely to stay home and wait out an illness or malady rather than risk getting billed an unreasonable amount for medical care that they need.
Not to mention those who are uninsured, unemployed or underemployed, and faces or will eventually face decades of medical debt if anything goes wrong. The stress of all that eats at you.
because insurance have put convoluted policies in places to discourage the Customer from using insurance. like what they or not cover, or meeting a bs deductible or OOP, depending on the plan. this ensures that the companies get a steady stream of revenue without having to actually pay for the customers healthcare.
Exactly what I'm dealing with having UHC. Have to fight them tooth and nail for everything. They make it as difficult as possible by design.
Depression, sedentary, micro/nano plastics... brutal trio.
I'm 60 (first year Gen X) and for the past 16 years I've placed diet and exercise at the top of my list of priorities for me. It's made a world of difference.
Also, I've never drank, used recreational drugs, or smoked anything.
Everyone knows what they should do, they just don't want to.
Yes, it's healthcare, too, but if you don't take care of yourself first, there's not much a doctor can do.
Did you ever live?
Bringing back highly communicable diseases like measles might have something to do with it.
How much time do you have?
Spoiler alert: COVID and stress
This was happening before COVID... The time frame is literally in the first paragraph... Smh
Baby Boomers born between 1950 and 1959 mark a turning point.
My unresearched guess is that we got an effort to stop infant and childhood death with penicillin and other medical inventions. That would have upped their mortality and then as they got older newer ways to die was increased. This first generation is dying so we are still figuring out what is a proper average lifespan. It might just be a statistic thing.
I don't understand this obsession with living a long life. Why would anybody want to work until they're 80 when dying at 60 is an option?
Spoken like someone in their twenties.
Man, I’m mid-40s and not particularly thrilled by the concept this could only be mid-journey. I’m down to stick around so long as I can contribute something to my community, not in the capitalist sense but the social sense. At the point my existence is a drain on resources and I’m living just because I can… fuck that.
Your right he could have died in his 40s!