US, my home state just sent a woman to prison for helping her daughter get an abortion. So, you know, living under a shitty theocracy that believes being poor or a woman is the worst sin imaginable.

Canada

People seem a lot more stressed. This least year people have gotten a lot quicker to road rage.

Since the pandemic I don’t hear any of the hopeful future rhetoric people used to believe blindly (we’ll invent our way out of peak oil don’t worry)

I would say the constant stress that only those making under $30,000 used to feel in 2014 now applies to those making under $60,000

UK.

Everyone’s struggling. I can only speak for shy of 30 years ago (30 years old). But people can’t stay afloat or get started.

Jobs are fucked. They’re either entry level/service/retail jobs that pay nothing. Qualified or technical jobs that are paid less than 25k (I saw jobs requesting experience in coding languages and complex IT functions for around 23k) Then anything that pays more than 28k (still not enough to live on) has “senior” or “managing” in the title, requires experienced or qualifications that could single handedly run a business.

It feels like places are forcing more work onto individual people rather than hiring more people and spreading the work around.

I’m only at 24k and doing administrative work, Web dev, marketing, data management and some more technical stuff relating to the industry. But look at what’s available and I’m not suitably equipped to get anything with a higher salary. Even when I am, the response tends to be a negative despite being quite strong at applying. Presumably the competition is that strong.

Otherwise, collectively with my partner, we have nearly 60k income. We could secure a mortgage, but we can’t scrape together a house deposit. Even then the monthly repayments would be crazy high and inflation would screw us.

Both firm adults and living with parents despite having secure and intensive jobs. Can’t get anywhere even with budgeting so tightly that enjoyment money is very limited. My savings have started being eaten into for the first time as of this past month, so I’m walking into living off negative money.

When I look around I’m actually not in that bad a situation compared to some. But then others are living the dream.

Feels like the lows and the highs are so wide here right now. Where when I was growing up, my dad was a postman then a private courier and my mum a cleaner and we were fine, not well off, but didn’t live that differently to our middle class friends.

Moving on my mum took three menial jobs when we left my dad, but still paid rent and we never went without.

Don’t really understand it all, but it seems that its all going to shit.

Turkey. Bad, nothing more to say

Denmark

We don’t have wars, famine, US-level political crazy news and very few poor people. We have fairly good social services/welfare, free/paid education, good equality and freedom. On paper it’s kind of a fairytale country.

And yet people complain a lot. Mostly about 1st world problems like expensive cars, increasing mental health issues and too many immigrants though.

But despite things looking pretty ideal compared to many other countries I have noticed that many people seem sort of disconnected from themselves and people around them. I would say there’s a sense of impending doom and an existential crisis lurking just beneeth the surface. I did not see that 30 years ago.

Brazil.

60 years ago we entered in a military regime that destroyed our economy and lasted for about 30.

Last year we almost did the same thing again. So yeah… Things looking nice since they weren’t successfull this time.

Hardy seems worth reiterating as it’s always in the news, but the US seems like it’s in overall decline for most any reason you can think of. Rising disparity, falling buying power for the average person, stagnant wages, increasing costs, rising political instability, rise of the far right with literal calls for civil war, rise of the far right looking to tear down any social, environmental, educational, or scientific advancements, the steady march towards oligarchy and corporatocracy, and then there’s the global climate crisis speeding up and the realization that we’ve been lied to about saving the world with recycling and EVs while the corporations rake in billions and pollute remorselessly.

30-40 years ago the economy looked steady, you could save the world by filling the recycle bin, and you could afford an education, home, and maybe retirement if you followed the “go to college and get a good job” path that generations before had followed.

Subjectively and objectively I’d say we’re worse off.

Sure, there’s some potential bright spots. Advances in medical care (that you probably can’t afford), fusion power advances (that will probably arrive too late to do any good), rising renewable energy (fought every step of the way by anti-environmental types), and a resurgence in the labor movement (also fought every step of the way by the wealthy and corporations), at least that’s something.

I’m in Argentina. Help…me. Although we have been in trouble since I’ve been alive so there’s that P.S.: Don’t send prayers, send money lmao

Togo.

We are still waiting for at least an alternance at the top of the country with the governance of a family for more than 50 years. Since 2020 and the last elections, life has getting more and more difficult for the population and you can feel the frustration in people. Opposition parties are not credible anymore and can’t really lead the fight anymore. Just a minority is keeping the money of the country; it’s not my words but the president’s ones but he can’t do anything about it because he is also a pawn in the system and can’t do nothing again those who put him there.
Just tired. I can talk about a lot of things but I don’t have energy for that. Seems like we are waiting for something, some are talking about revolution. It can happen when the population will say enough is enough but togolese people are too much patient and don’t want to die in vain about politics. Also, the last time things got serious, it was with a lot of deaths but it brings a sort of democracy, at least some rights but now we are getting back in every right we got. We were close to changes in 2017 but the opposition parties didn’t handle it well and here we are now. The system has weakened them also. They even shut the mouth of university movements and associations that fought for changes for us students.
For the future, only God knows!

Spain

Overall, probably way better but the future is uncertain and unemployment is terrible. No Spanish governments seem to have the answer to this. We’re far too reliant on tourism and the pandemic hit hard, with some not recovering despite the support given.

I’m from Greece.

30 years ago people were still living the dream which was all a house of cards called loans. Then the market crisis happened and we got fucked unable to get new ones and pay off the old ones.

After that, we kept getting blackmailed by the Eurozone and the IMF so that we would get the loans we needed to fix our country, but under harsh conditions that basically sustain our poverty instead of fixing it in any way. We signed away the people’s livelihoods so that we could be Europe’s economic lab rat and slave, all to their benefit.

Our current government is as liberal capitalist as it gets, privatizing everything and making life crap for the poor (who are becoming more and more as time passes). Fascism is also on the rise, following the theme of Europe and the US.

The government owns almost all the media and most other parties in the parliament are also aligned with the ruling one. Climate change is beggining to hit hard, every time revealing the cheap infrastructure and postponed plans by contractors.

Instead of hiring more firemen, our government continues to allocate way too much money on cops, riot control, and the media it bribes.

Maybe the EU’s fucking around ends up with a communist revolution, I bet they won’t be too happy about it then.

USA.

I’m pretty sure most people would agree USA now is a worse place than USA in the 80s/90s, but austerity measures that hurt almost everyone now but helped the economy in the short term are a big reason why the 80s and 90s were prosperous for many. We’re finally starting to turn away from austerity and unions are growing in strength, but that’s not to say that (relatively speaking) the economy is good here, inflation is hitting hard, and who knows if Republicans win 2024.

The biggest existential threat to the country is the attempted hostile takeover by theocrats, which has been well over 40 years in the making, is nothing short of conspiracy, and quite frankly I think secession talks should get serious if Trump wins in 2024, even moreso if Rs get a majority in Congress. Maybe this comes off as panicky, but there’s a reason women, LGBT people, and non-whites are the biggest buyers of guns now. I can’t afford one.

At this point whether Republicans or Democrats will win 2024 feels like a coin flip. Biden’s polling worse than Trump (neither is polling great) but also Democrats are winning most special elections (usually special elections go to Republicans) and a slue of anti-gerrymandering court decisions are taking effect, not to mention Trump could be in jail (and a bunch of other politicians from both parties are getting sued.)

Australia

My life is pretty great all things considered. But in about an hour I’m walking down to the local primary school to cast my ‘yes’ vote for the referendum.

Info here: https://www.yes23.com.au/

The ‘no’ vote is tipped to win.

So, later this evening I’ll get confirmation that nothing has changed in my country. We’re still a backwards, racist society who doesn’t give a fuck about our indigenous population.

For me, as an indigenous person who is also upper middle class and in one of the most affluent cities in the country, life is pretty good. But the same can’t be said for many others who don’t share my privilege. And my country is about to tell them, loud and clear, that they don’t care. Didn’t care 40 years ago, don’t care now.

USA. Still kickin. 30-40 years ago actually puts us right astride the end of the Cold War. Before that we were still terrified of the world ending in nuclear fireballs or rampaging hordes of raving communists zerg rushing through the Fulda Gap, after that we fell into a period of extremely hopeful and naive feelings (the 90s) where things seemed to be going very well, that lasted about 10 years. Then the divisive 2000 election and 9/11 occured, dashing that feeling for the next few decades.

I’d put our current state on par with that state of Cold War opposition, when things were still frightening.

Prospects are about as expected. We’re winning some and we’re losing some. We’re pinning most of our hopes on our ability to innovate at the technical level to figure out a way out of this climate mess, now, since we’ve run out of alternatives basically.

On the whole I am cautiously optimistic. Depends what happens to Trump, he’s a powerful symbol.

Kremlin politicians, mass russian and communist propaganda and mass migration out of the country… And somehow there is a huge job market, inflation isn’t out of control and we’ve got one of the better 5G coverages in the EU… Bulgaria’s a weird country.