Have they tried becoming billionaires?

I remember a time where we were hoping that it didn't snow until after Halloween.

Now, we're lucky to get snow in January in my area.

A white Christmas is basically a pipe dream.

We stopped doing anything for Christmas because we can't afford to be merry and give gifts. We must work and CONSUME

"Mental illness" (as it's used in pop culture today) is a made-up term designed to gaslight people into believing that their natural, healthy reaction to the 21st century is somehow wrong and a pathology.

To be depressed in [current year] is no more normal than itching yourself when you're wearing a wool sweater. Nobody would call that an "illness," would they?

While on one hand I completely agree. On the other hand most generations in human history saw difficult times. One thing we have now is easy access to extra layers of constant despair by always being able to see any bad thing that is happening every minute of every day, on the news, on social media, from our politicians, etc. Then it even creeps into discussions with friends. The general dispare has crept into the discussion and taken over. But at the end of the day, most people have food, shelter, water, family, friends, and some level of healthcare (all be it problematic in the US).

For those of us lucky enough to not be destitute, or a current or future target of a repressive regime, it is important to remember to take some time to actually enjoy life instead of always feeling helpless about a profoundly imperfect world. Depression caused by the status of the world can also be avoided by taking action. Those that help, rarely let the status of the world get them down. Because, they know they did their part to move it in the right direction.

There were always work arounds which markedly started getting erased by ~2015.

DIY. Try to buy lumber, fabric, tools for either, anything that isn’t grossly out of lower SES price range. Wax. That one has gone up a horrendous amount. Even canning and used gardening supply. Anything DIY that would otherwise put you a bit ahead. Even disposable flower pots used on Walmart purchased plants have a resale $ value (assumed anyway) now.

Internet. Oh. People have stopped buying cable. Whelp, time to increase the monthly internet fee to cable bill prices. Started at $10/mo in 2010, now I’m paying $100/mo.

Bad players. Can’t get a general handyman for the house anymore, because high odds, without licensing and bonding, he’s going to hurt your house or maybe just abscond with the first half of the money halfway through. And thus houses are shittier (for the same sales price) because they don’t get fixed because people can’t afford the $1k at minimum per day of the license contractor. For further house enshittification on new houses go look up the shrinking garage size thing, it all ties together. Again, though, for a higher, not lower price. Don’t even get me started on lack of basements.

Goodwill and Habitat for Humanity Restore are now grossly expensive. No longer can you buy a replacement door for $30 at ReStore, which you could do in 2020. Whether you’re a reseller or not, the explosion in resellers (vs just a couple here and there, going unnoticed) absolutely has impacted used prices such that Goodwill even tells their people their goal is to be the final reseller and to price accordingly. ReStore even has a preferred buyers card, now.

With the exception of well marketed Etsy, you can’t even sell DIY because no one wants to pay for it. Why? (Cue Urkel voice) “I could do thaaaat.” Even when they don’t, can’t, or they’re unable or unwilling to do the buyin. Enshittification Walmart vs a hand crafted solid wood table, for some reason, the latter is valued as less, now.

Non torrent downloads online. Remember mega upload and all the rest? Free books galore, or whatever your thing was, depending, without the lens of torrenting on it. Gone.

Free music? Well that’s come back as cheap in the form of estate/second hand CDs and LPs, just burn your own digital from there, but now those prices have also skyrocketed as high as $5 minimum per LP. :(. So not cheap any longer.

Things just don’t last. I had a window AC unit from the 80s that came with an old house I bought. That thing worked right up until 2019. New window unit? 3yrs.

As soon as a way to save is found it’s enshittified, or or demand goes too high, or it’s disappeared.

Amazingly, youthful angst and depression have been steadily increasing for several decades, with no puzzlingly large blip in recent years. You can jump to a conclusion that the problem is the one thing that personally bothers you the most, but maybe it's a spectrum - for example, a lot of psychologists have been blaming teenage depression on too much screen time and not enough in-person social contact.

Not to throw shade but where is this magical time in history with no worries or existential threats?

ITT: superfund positivity.