9$ for domestic apricots is crazy (I'm guessing that's AUD?). I'm not sure how the average person will afford a healthy diet.
At any point I could see society breaking down. It's just all too much. Used to be something 10% of people struggled now it feels more like 90% and it continues down.
I don't know why they're still called budget airlines or ultra low cost carriers, it's usually over £200 for a return. Gone are the £20 returns.
Almost every country has an issue with the birthrates and with each year it's getting more difficult to balance the books.
The issue I see is we're asked to
be and
do too much. So we are asked to be career driven and to be hustle boss babes, so we extend our education we get those masters we try to get our decent jobs, but there's too much competition and the value of the qualifications are watered down.
We get told to try not to scrounge off the state so we try not to start families before we can financially support them ourselves, but we can't afford to move out from our parent's now until our late 20s (generally).
We're told we should save early for a mortgage and not buy coffee and avocadoes, yet rates are high and people stuck paying inflated rent for years but still you try to save ...
The council taxes and rates go up by 10s of percentage points a year.
Food goes up. We're told to stop eating ultra processed food of which for the average UK person is over 50-80% of our daily diet, and we are getting more ill as a result, yet access to local produce like a farm shop is out of the question for about 99% of us, logistics wise.
We get told to support the high street but when you try the bus links are rubbish, non existent, and the parking is extortionate. The town centre littered with scary druggies. Then shops shut. And then we get blamed for not stimulating the economy by buying stuff we don't need, because we have no disposable income anyway, anymore.
And then you get pressured to progress to a management role, when being a manager is not within the wishes of your soul nor fits with your anxiety, so then you're stuck at your admin pay grade (yep, I just really don't want that stress). So your future finances are balanced on the do-i-want-to-hate-my-life-and-force-myself-to-be-a-manager? Or Stay-at-this-non-management-admin-grade-for-the-rest-of-my-life-despite-rising-financial-needs?
Then those of us who eventually have kids (not yet for me) are then guilted into the mess of negotiating less hours to cover own childcare, or paying £££ to minders, and getting flack for either decision.
Just blurting my anxiety out, don't mind me.
Households can't take these council tax and utilities hikes like 25% on last year, much more. This cannot keep happening. Our economy depends on supply. We don't all have farms and allotments to fall back on if the shop food prices become too much. We are overstretched.
I work full time, reading is the hobby I currently indulge in as it helps me relax, and yet I feel guilty when I buy a few books, because I know that money should probably go towards my future, but then again, why are we working full time if we can't even buy a book without feeling guilty?
I used to scoff at the idea of communes but sometimes it does seem tempting
As a society we have overcooked the goose. We rely too heavily on the global picture and so we are effed. On an individual level it's too difficult to function outside of this system. We are too dependent on it.
I used to look forward to pay day and now I just feel deflated and depressed when it arrives because it's getting tougher and tougher each month to make it stretch.
we were hoping that we could reduce our mortgage payments so we can manage other outgoings, its gone up by £600 
. We were paying 900 and now £1500 (south east).
