Frustration with the system

Hello comrades,

This is a bit of a venting post, so i apologize in advance, however i have no one else IRL i can really talk to about this, as my family simply dismisses how i feel as crazyness.

Im fed up with our system, and by our system, i mean the system in canada, IE capitalism. Im just plain tired of it. My wife and I got married last year, i am 28 and she is 25. She has 2 university degree's, one in phsycology, and shes finishing her second im primateology. And to this day she cannot find a job here, nobody will hire her because A. the jobs for her field have 10 people for each spot, and B. any other place she goes to gives her the "overqualified" excuse.

Me, im a computer network technician. Im working full time and going to university at night to try to better myself, as im not certified but have the skill. I was told by the company i work for if i get certified i shouldnt expect to be paid what many certified techs are, that they like to keep things affordable. My boss is the one who actually told me this, hes a good guy and said it would be in my best interest to look elsewhere when im able, and that he would give me a glowing reference. But the problem is there arent many other IT jobs here, at least ones that are available.

Weve been forced to live in my fathers basement, because i cant afford to support us. Working as hard as i do right now, i look at the cost of a place, spoke to the bank, and even IF i was being paid what a certified tech is supposed to be, we would only qualify for half of what we would need to find a place to live. We CAN rent later, if we absolutely have to, but to me thats just falling into the trap of capitalism, and never being able to try to have a decent chance to better ourselves.

I just dont get why people here tolerate this system. Theyre sheep. They blindly accept that the cost of living has skyrocketted way out of control, yet the wages have barely if at all increased. Im wondering how much more people can take before this economy collapses, all because of greed.

Id really give anything for a socialist/communist government to work for, at least then id feel like im working for the betterment of our fellow man instead of trying to just scrape by and survive.

Sorry for the rant, just very frustrated.

Thoughts?

It's surpising canada has been so quiet since this capitalist crisis began, you guys seem more complacent with capitalism than americans are, which is no small feat...

Conscript, Canada did not have problems with its banking system, since banking regulations were actually tightened before the crisis. Canada also benefits from having more natural resources than the country is able to consume (hence profitable exports), and doesn't have the US' archaic anti-government attitudes, which means people aren't afraid that getting hurt or sick means bankruptcy, and that unemployment and welfare benefits take out the sting of a lot of potential crime and/or political discontent. Still, the New Democratic Party (social democrats -formerly democratic socialists) did become the official opposition in the elections this summer, so that says something.

Lone Gunman, I'm in the same situation with work myself, but am optimistic that willingness to relocate may help. Have you considered that option? If your wife were to find a job making more than you, perhaps you could resign and look for that same job wherever you guys settle? With regard to getting a mortgage, that depends on where you are I suppose, but you should consider an agent or 'mortgage specialist'. I know some low income people who were able to get mortgages despite their low income and 'high risk' status. With regard to living at home vs. renting, you're doing the absolute right thing. Renting is a trap, and for the same price or just a little more you could be buying your home. If you have the chance to save some money, do it, and a down-payment will considerably reduce the amortization costs on a place (mortgages are one huge money maker for banks).

Regarding how much more Canadians will take -it all depends on the global economy. If the US suffers an economic collapse, Canada will feel the effects, and socialism will not be such a dirty more anymore (just like during the last Depression). It will take Canada about a decade to reorient itself toward Asia or Europe if there's smart leaders in place -not guaranteed. As things are, because Canada enjoys such vast natural resource reserves and a small population and has a social safety net in place, large masses of people may be even more difficult to convert than Americans, though admittedly there's not so much anti-red hysteria in Canada.

Thanks for listening to my rant. it just gets very frustrating, aside from my wife who is also a supporter of communism/socialism, we dont talk about it with anyone in the family. Especially my father, who was a veteran of the cold war, he'll just sneer and say "better dead than red". Very ignorant attitude.

In regards to relocating, absolutely, we are keeping that avenue open for sure. While my wifes field is very specific, mine isnt really. someone, somewhere, always needs a computer fixed or a network to be maintained, so i wouldnt be worried.

Im sure things will work out fine. Just need to keep working towards the greater good .

It is that sort of thing that has capitalism turning bitter for me. I remember growing up around my extended family. There were maybe a dozen of us all on a large piece of property. We made enough money to eat and maintain what were needed. Sometimes we would have enough left over to buy nice things for the children. It wasn't about money, never. It was about us, as family, and finding actual happiness with people you love and not in shiny new things from Wal-Mart. But then I got into the "real" world and as it turns out it is all about making sure you have economic worth. It is like everyone seems to have forgot that we are humans, that it doesn't matter how much capital we can produce, we don't deserve to suffer or die.

Michael Moore made a pretty good point on why we accept all of this in his "Capitalism: A Love Story." He illustrated it with a video of a dog jumping up repeatedly to try to get a plate of hot dogs. The moral was that we constantly feel, after hearing these success stories and looking at the upper class, that we'll be able to someday get there, as well.

On top of it, we're constantly satisfied from what these corporations produce. Tasty meals, awesome gadgets, and on top of it, they give us these little cards that equate to free cash so you can buy all this awesome stuff! Sure, you have to pay it back eventually, but only for $10 a month. On top of it, there are then those who are comfortable with where they are. So what if a bunch of people don't have jobs and can't support themselves? It doesn't affect me, so why should I care? [/sarcasm]

I'm in a similar situation as you are, and I understand your sentiment. The only fix to this bogus system is by doing everything you can to convince your family and your friends that sitting idly by and letting everything happen is the worst thing to allow. Convince them that they need to focus on, and care, about their community instead of themselves, that they need to help whomever they can if they can, and that they need to start finding ways to fight back against this corrupt system. Even if it's as little as boycotting goods, it's a start. There's strength in numbers, and the largest enemy we have right now is ourselves, by caving in to our own egoistic desires. A little altruism never did any harm.

People are raised all their lives to believe that they too one day can become one of the rich and famous, if only they work a little bit harder.

And if that fails, buy consumer goods on credit. Look at this big screen tv.

Canada is socialist. Just look at their health care system.

Mabool wrote:

Canada is socialist. Just look at their health care system.

Social democracy is leaps better than straight up capitalism but it ain't socialism

On a similar topic, I just got back from the hospital. I was in a room shared with two other people, and one fellow, who was anticipating staying at the hospital for longer than a day, asked a nurse when he could get his own room. The nurse replied "We're so busy right now that there are no rooms available; to the point where even emergency patients in need of immediate care have to be put on a waiting list."

This made me remember when Obama was trying to institute the health care reform, and conservative pundits were constantly pointing out Canada's system, where emergency patients had to wait in the ambulance because the hospitals were too full. (Or so the popular myth goes). I'm wondering how a socialist system is any worse than a capitalist hospital infrastructure when worse crap happens here.

I was thinking about socialized versus private healthcare systems. In fact I think about it a lot, being an uninsured college student struggling with an ever-rising tuition. I cannot afford to deal with my wisdom teeth and I can suck it up and live with my constantly worsening eye sight. I was thinking about rationing health care in particular. The US claims it doesn't have to, but the reason for this is because it already has, in a sense. Instead of deciding what procedure should be done by the need of the patient (I believe that is how Canada does it, push elective surgeries back to make sure that vital ones are preformed). The US does it by disallowing a chunk of its population to access health care. Rather than deciding what surgery gets preformed based on the important of the surgery, they decide by who happens to have enough wood pump in their pocket.