I'm 38 and I've been seeing 25 year olds that look older, more tired and haggard than me. This job market and inflation is literally killing these young people, and I won't be surprised to see horrible later life issues coming for this generation. I'm struggling too but I was lucky enough to get in a union, but younger people are fucked.

Realistically, the real answers to this question are:

• Get a lucky job prospect in your 30s or 40s, finally have mental space to do things, spend the next 50 years trying out all sorts of fun ways to answer this question.
• Work shitty jobs forever, get used to it, continue "quiet quitting" for your entire career so you can spend some energy trying out ways to answer this question.
• Work shitty jobs forever, become bitter and cynical, never do anything fun because you don't have the mental space for it, die.

Everyone I know from my age group (mid to late 30s) was miserable for 100% of their 20s. Some worked a lot to improve their situation in their late 20s and 30s and got lucky with option 1. Some tried and failed because of life or luck and settled on option 2 - in some cases kids caused option 2 as well. I knew a couple of people in Option 3, tried to help them, but they didn't want it, so eventually just stopped reaching out and moved on with my life because they just wanted to drag me down.

27 and wouldn't be a home owner in my lifetime if it wasn't for the VA Home Loan and the disability benefits after to afford the mortgage. My husband just had to become 100% disabled for the opportunity. Yes everyone, they want us to work until we are dead.

(Post) modern life is so empty, it's so soulless. Society has been deconstructed and we are all now fully atomized, utility maximizing individuals in an endless cycle of earning and consuming. Earn, consume - make money, spend money. Interpersonal relationships, family, community have an become secondary to the earn/consume cycle. We now all only live to serve the endless profit behemoth. Even nature itself is only a tool for profit.

We need to reintegrate back into the natural world and refocus on community and human relationships. We need to prioritize sustainability, health, happiness, and well being for ourselves and future generations over short term individual gains and immediate gratification.

Serious answer - move to a different country (Japan pays the most) and teach english.

It sounds ridiculous, but for some types of people this is a fun alternative to working shitty jobs. I got burned out on it after about 4 years, but it was a really fun gig, met some really great friends, and had really great experiences.

Let me know if you have any questions about my experiences with this, I'm happy to help :)

Eat sunflower seed

About a decade ago I was completely burned out at my programming job. I started taking night classes in graphic design since it felt like the exact opposite of computer programming, and ended up really loving it. I met a bunch of new people, designed a few things for people on the side, and ended up getting enough energy & momentum to quit my shitty job and freelance for a few years.

Just grab a snack (Like bugles) and watch the world go by.

Most me_irl post of the week. Is there a me_irl in lemmy?

Edit: It exists but have no idea how to crosspost

Hey now, it's not all bad! You can eat the spinach too