It’s stunning how many people seem to forget that there are other countries on the planet that use dollars and weren’t involved in Vietnam. No, I’m not making an assumption. The person who posted this is Canadian.
Y’all really need to take a step back and reflect a little bit.
They left out the part about getting drafted and sent to Vietnam with that 3rd grade education and risk dying for people that didn’t care about you and other that hated you. Then coming home and getting spit on, literally spit on, by the people around you. And no one caring about the damage war caused you.
There is a persistent myth or misconception that many Vietnam War veterans were spat on and vilified by antiwar protesters during the late 1960s and early 1970s. These stories, which overwhelmingly surfaced many years after the war, usually involve an antiwar female spitting on a veteran, often yelling “baby killer”. Most occur in U.S. civilian airports, usually San Francisco International, as GIs returned from the war zone in their uniforms.
No unambiguous documented incident of this behavior has ever surfaced, despite repeated and concerted efforts to uncover them.
I don’t think he was talking about the protestors…
Never heard an old black man say “I wish things were like they were back in the 50s.”
Nope nor a dirt poor white person either. Never forget, it’s all about the money and far less than the color of your skin.
Which all would be lovely and true if they were American.
They’re not.
It’s almost like countries other than the United States exist…
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The ideal life is to be born a multi-millionaire, then earn billions by exploiting workers
I always thought I would have made a good trust fund baby.
I’d rather be born a billionaire so I don’t have to do shit
could you live with yourself though?
If I was born rich, I’d probably have no empathy either.
How are you supposed to develop it?
NOT philosophy, that’s for sure.
This is hyperbole
I am so tired of people presuming that
US’s economic history is somehow universal.all countries have first world economy of western hemisphere, more specifically, the anglosphere. Boy do I love cultural hegemony.This comment section is kind of hysterical. Some people saying “STOP IT ALWAYS BEING ABOUT AMERICA” and other people going “Vietnam because America” and I’m here as a Canadian like
k
And before you ask, yes. The person who tweeted that is Canadian.
i am here like ok then. go drink your maple syrup i guess. sorry i just don’t understand what you are trying to convey.
My point is that you immediately went “Not all countries had the economy of America” but this isn’t about America and I find that both funny and sad.
Everyone instantly goes to pointing fingers and saying “AMERICAN” and in doing so effectively treat Canada like it doesn’t exist. Either Americans are too bought into (whether they realize it or not) American Exceptionalism or foreigners are too focused on them because they’re loud as hell.
ok hold on imma fix my comment, so its correct and respects the first worlder outlook on geography.
I don’t think dying at 54 is ideal…
Look at this guy with his “hopes” for a “future”
The ideal life is dying when you’re only 54? That’s pretty bleak!
All the coke and alcohol catches up.
Fuck I hope not. I’m 54 now.
June 19th 2026. I’ll see you soon.
If you were a vet and saw combat in Vietnam, that was the cancer you got from all the Agent Orange they sprayed on you that killed you…
Longer than I expect to live
But probably true!
being prime military age for the vietnam war? no, please got no
Countries other than the United States exist and my country was the one people ran away to in order to avoid the draft. Also the same country of the person who posted this.
Also literally any day could be the one the Bomb dropped. It’s easy to forget how close we came, or how fucking terrifying it was that you had no way of knowing.
Yeah, I’m pretty happy with being born after the draft became less used and I’m now old enough to not qualify for the draft anymore. Life is pretty good.
As long as you’re white
And a man.
And lived in US
And cishet
And able bodied
And secretly homosexual
And resemble a wasp
When you are white the sky is the limit. When you are not the limits the sky. -Chris Rock
The limit is the sky?
Didn’t work for me… in my 1972 bank job interview I was told, “I’d hire you if you were a man, but you’re not. If I hired you, you’d just get pregnant and leave.” It wasn’t against the law for him to say all that.
And for what it’s worth I didn’t buy a home - a small one-bed flat - until I was in my 40s. Cost me so much I couldn’t afford proper furniture. Yes, my current house is worth a lot more than what I paid for it (mainly because I bought a wreck), but so is any other house I could afford if I sold it.
This is great, as reply and shitty, as content. made my day and ruined my evening.
I’m sorry! Truly.
would be great if you told us how much it costed and how much you brought in hourly. i wanna sympathize but then i remember you could rent a studio in the 70s-80s for like 300 dollars month. i probably could have bought a house with a missing arm and working 30 hours a week.
My flat cost £43k in the early 90s, nearly three times my annual income at the time, and all my savings went on the deposit. I had previously lived in a shared house, the only way I could afford to save anything.
More nostalgia… Looking for a 1br flat to rent in 1980s Wellington (NZ) was a trip. Demand far, far outstripped supply. Among the gems offered to me for top rental (can’t remember how much, but it was crazily high), was a place that stank of damp and had rat-holes chewed in the bathroom wall - which was just soggy softboard against a dirt bank. There were three couples viewing at the same time. Another place I was told was fresh to the market, no-one else had seen it yet. The stove had been dismantled and the toilet was piled high with human shit. When I shouted at the agent she said, You don’t want it then?" and hung up.
I eventually lucked in with a “granny flat” whose owners, an adorable elderly Polish couple, lived upstairs.
When my parents bought in the UK in the early 80s, the average family house was £20k. But mortgage rates at the time were ~20%, meaning you had to pay £4k per year just to cover the interest alone, and the average salary was below £6k.
Yes, interest came back down after a few years, but a lot of people learned about Negative Equity during those years.
You should do an AMA on life back then
I dont know how things are in new zealand these days but in a medium city in canada a house or condo costs at least 10 times the average annual income and closer to 20-25 times a minimum wage income. So things may not have been as easy for you as the post makes it seem but they’re a hell of a lot harder for a lot of people now.
Dang so it sounds like new Zealand has had a bit of a time with housing for a while then huh? I’ve heard a lot about it recently but just assumed it was a relatively new probably (post 2000-ish)
Yes we’ve been through multiple housing crises although it’s gotten truly ridiculous in the last couple decades.
The crowning achievement of the first labour government when they were elected in 1935 was to create a massive state house building programme due to the huge shortages and miserable state of the stock at the time. This continued until the 1980s when we went full neoliberal, privatised everything and sold off most of the state houses and private landlords and speculation now dominate.
Anything built between early 1990s and 2004ish is prone to leaks due to the deregulated building code at the time and is basically trash.
Wellington is a particularly bad case, and has always had a worse housing situation than the rest of the country (although Auckland is more expensive). Hilly topography has meant lack of space to build and lots of damp hovels that get little sun. Add in character/heritage protection that made it effectively illegal to alter or demolish the draughty and falling apart 1920s wooden villas that make up most of inner Wellington and there you go.
ahhh, didnt realize you were from the UK dont know enough to speak on it. i rescind anything i might have said
That’s the general problem for everyone who is not from US here on Lemmy: Everybody from US assumes that everybody knows we are talking about US. I would never say that “the ideal life is being born in 1947” and I was wondering why anyone would say that. That’s right after World War 2. Must have been a crazy time.
Yeah, I was hoping I’d see less of that moving away from Reddit to a non-US site, but eh, what can you do.
That’s… Dying at 54 years of age?
Yes please
and the problem is where? I’m here for a good time not a long time
You can still be happy in your 50s and beyond.
Teach me this skill.
At least until 72 or so. After that it’s iffy.
Eh, my parents are pretty happy in their 70s. They still go skiing, travel a ton, etc. Stay active and your 70s can be quite pleasant.
Made me think of this Irish toast:
“Here’s to a long life, and a merry one
A quick death, and an easy one
A pretty girl, and an honest one
A cold beer - and another one”I’m here for a good AND long time.
Ideally also long.
Did he fucking stutter
Dying at 54 means you can also live in the bliss of eating red meat, drinking, and ripping cigarettes every day after your 20s.
This.
You can push it back to 1944 if you’re in the US, the war wouldn’t have impacted you much. You could even push it back to 1940, but there may be some depression era nutrition issues.
That bumps 2001 up to 57. Honestly go for a few more years and retire before '08 and die in 2019 before covid at age 75
Why die before COVID? COVID was honestly kinda okay, if you’re a home body type. I played so many video games, it was glorious.
Being 75 puts you in the choking to death from covid range, no fun.
Looking at the stats, I’d take my chances.
As God intended.
For some my uncle and my dad did these things but also died prematurely from health complications related to Vietnam
Deserved it
You do understand that US was drafting?
Oh look, it’s a tankie fuckwit! How does it feel to be a scurge on society, your family, and to have dropped out of primary school?
It feels great, thanks for asking! I love holding viewpoints that are “dangerous” but liberals agree with 4 years later (and pretend they held all along)
Keep making shit up out of thin air and trying to pretend like you aren’t literal landfill.
My dad bought about a third of an acre of waterfront property in the 80s with a small cottage on it that we added to. He paid something like $50,000. Guess what a small waterfront property is worth now?
No one gonna bite? Ok, I’ll go first… One million dollars!
Not specific enough. Going by typical evil genie rules you’d be born in 47’, but be a poc in like Alabama or Oklahoma. Just in time to get drafted to fight in Vietnam and then have to fight for civil rights at home.
Have your house torn down for a highway two years after buying it maybe?
Im amazed that ever worked. If you forcibly tore my house down to build a road, you’d find that that road had a tendency to explode… every week or so
Change the last bit to
Retire in 2001 with a inflation linked final salary pension scheme.
Yeah, you’ll still have a good 20 years to enjoy retirement with your portfolio, then peace out before the pandemic.
Then smile to yourself as the rest of the world grinds to a halt to protect you during the pandemic.
Or you could’ve been sent to Vietnam…
Not as a Canadian
Hey bud you wanna go out for a rip?
We all live in a simulation
And nah but I’m down to go out for a scoff me buddy!
(Secret Newfie)
Goin out for a rip are ya bud?
Hilarious.
And nah I’m more newfie. Goin out fer a scoff me buddy
Hey b’y. How’s ya gettin’ on? Goin’ down fer a jigs dinner now da once
ELLO ME DUCKY! O you knows it, dis is it. Luh, save me a couple spuds der wouldya? Gotta get some grub, eh der b’y?
Americans trying to comprehend people living outside their country except for when they’re killing them.
Okay, I agree with your sentiment but that level of harshness isn’t needed.
Americans do seriously have a problem with putting their own country as the center of the world in a thousand different ways. American Exceptionalism is pretty severe online, and in ways most Americans aren’t even aware they’re doing, but that ain’t the way to handle it bro. I’m out here being kinda dickish about it and even that I’m second guessing myself. But that’s just a bit too harsh.
