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[martinuzz]

Drain absces, leave drain in wound, treat with antisceptic. Most abcesses do not need antibiotic treatment. It can be too painful to do yourself though, if it's not in an unreachable place to begin with.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubi_pus,_ibi_evacua

[Frumple]

This is Forgive me if you think that, as a brit, I've misrepesented you, americans. This is just the impression ive gathered over the years of discussion with you all

Really, a good bit of it doesn't even involve the whole "but we're supposed to be the best" bullshit. Things are entirely objectively shit for a lot of people, and "this is shit we'd really like it to stop being shit" (sometimes with a side of "especially before it starts looking more reasonable to start shooting people") is more the consideration than anything to do with relative wealth. Things don't have to be maximal third world hellhole war zone for shit to be real goddamn miserable and folks to be increasingly pissed off the longer it goes on.

[Max™]

Quite, as the first president I remember was that hateful garbagesack Reagan, I've never gotten much from the folks ostensibly charged with running the country except the general impression of a big golden hand with a raised middle finger. I knew that rotten old shitfucker at best tried to ignore the existence of folks down around the poverty line, if not actively hating us. Upon randomly being inteviewed outside of a library after being told he had died I started cracking jokes because fuck that old cunt and his cronies and followers.

You need to be asleep to buy into a dream, don't you?

Drain absces, leave drain in wound, treat with antisceptic. Most abcesses do not need antibiotic treatment. It can be too painful to do yourself though, if it's not in an unreachable place to begin with.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubi_pus,_ibi_evacua

Distopalatal Perio-Endo Lesion is what i think it would be classified as, and no, setting aside the pain issue (lancing tissue is nothing next to infection sitting on a fucking nerve) or the gruesome idea of giving myself a big warm mouthful of hate-colored pus... I'm nowhere near qualified or equipped to go poking holes in my soft palate.

[Starver]

Don't use antibiotics unless absolutely and strictly nescessary, unless you like cultivating resistant strains.
I am 39, and have had antibiotics thrice in my life. I already consider that much.

Slightly older, and I think it's twice, for me. The one I can remember was because of the fall-out from my appendicitis, in my 20s. I had been told that something antibiotic helped with a given childhood illness (mumps? No, that's viral, isn't it... Something else then) when a toddler, and apparently gave almost immediate improvement.

I can't be sure that was it, but the one I definitely know about I also ensured I finish the given course in full.


Last time I even took anything like serious painkillers was after having a wisdom tooth cut out. (Yes, cut. And I was told to "use my normal pain medication" for when the injections wore off, but I had to go and get something on the way hone as I knew I had nothing.) I don't really even go for Lemsips (flu symptom mitigators) except in the extreme depths of a probably already-stabilising condition.

(Donated blood the other week. I had to negotiate with the screening nurse whether the anti-indigestion tablet I took the night before (after an ill-conceived idea of buffering my iron with a large late-night meaty snack, the night before, threatened to keep me awake and thus then make me lie in past my early morning donor-appointment - until I found an old pack at the back of a cupboard) was something needing to declare on my donation form. I was informed yesterday, by text, which hospital my blood had been used at, so that doesn't seem to have affected things. Not that I thought it would, but better safe than sorry.)

[wierd]

It has been my observation (and thus is subjective as all hell) that people seek to shut down undesirable conversation about the actual nitty gritty state of US quality of living, rather than confront it, because confronting those issues is absurdly difficult, and people prefer the illusion of living a happy life over throwing a fit over something the feel they are unable to get changed.

This is in response to the "If you want to talk about disenfranchisement, go spend a month in Somalia and get back to me." type shutdowns, when people rightly point out that there are hugely disenfranchised segments of the US population-- or mention actually factual things, like 1:6 people having food poverty.

No, it's all about how we are the biggest, bestest place to live (even though Europe has us beat hands down in many ways, quality of living wise), and if you dare detract from that-- well, unless you can point out "Somalia like" conditions, then STFU.

this is just the "me too" version of " 'Merica, Love it or leave it!", and it smacks of being willfully obtuse and jaundiced toward real social problems, just so the status quo can continue.

 

[Teneb]

Shit like posters have been describing is why I abhore the neoliberal politicians (and their voters) around here who hold the US as something to copy in all ways. Also why I sigh and softly facepalm whenever my rich relatives keep going on about how nice it is to live in the US.

And to reiterate what everyone's been saying: one disenfranchisement doesn't disqualify another.

[hector13]

To put it very, very simply: it’s this patriotism thing you’ve had going since the Cold War, methinks, as well as the Protestant work ethic thing which has permeated the idea that if you work hard, you’ll do well for yourself.

The former means you can’t think badly about America - let alone voice such concerns! - or you’re a traitor; the latter means someone who is having trouble obviously isn’t working hard enough.

[wierd]

It is mostly the boomer generation that clings to the "America, FUCK YEAH!" version of patriotism. A good portion of GenX and basically all of Millennial generation people have been a living example of the disenfranchised, and have been told repeatedly that they "Arent working hard enough, Duh!" (despite working 2+ jobs, suffering from preventable diseases/illnesses because they cant afford to use their insurance, and any disruption in pay scale will result in eviction and being flushed down giant swirling toilet of modern poverty).  As such, they really dont believe the cold-war era rhetoric *AT ALL*, like the Boomers do.  Boomers are still the monetary owners of US politics (aside from corporations, of course) so they still dominate the message in the media, and they are still being actively instructed (via partisan news, and talk radio, and its ilk) that they need to stay politically active, lest this degenerate generation rip "Amerika!" out from under them, or some such shit.

In another 20 to 30 years, things are going to derail bigtime on that kind of thinking, if things dont unravel horribly economically before then. (You cant do this to your working class for long; They tend to gravitate toward pitchforks sooner or later at one endgame, and the reality that they cannot consume your product without money [because you wont fucking pay them a living wage, you fuck] comes home to roost on the other. In either endgame, it is bad for the country, so why drive the nation there? Oh--- Short term profits.. Right.)

[Frumple]

Shit like posters have been describing is why I abhore the neoliberal politicians (and their voters) around here who hold the US as something to copy in all ways. Also why I sigh and softly facepalm whenever my rich relatives keep going on about how nice it is to live in the US.

Oh, it's pretty nice if you're rich! And lucky enough not to get hit with something that will bankrupt your ass anyway, as say medical expenses have been known to do when they occasionally break the bank of someone with a six digit plus income (though, to be fair there, someone with dual citizenship and access to healthcare worth a shit cost wise back in the home country is much less likely to encounter that). Hell, if your luck stays steady getting by with a 50-70k a year household income isn't that big of a deal, so long as you don't have too many people living there (well, and you're living somewhere that doesn't have go-fuck-yourself housing costs).

It's just, y'know. Not everyone's luck stays steady, and it's real easy to be in a household making less than that 50-70k a year or having to support enough people it doesn't make the grade. Things get increasingly unpleasant as your situation starts tumbling in that direction, if it's not already there and sinking.

[Maximum Spin]

I feel like saying "systematically" means sarcasm here, or at least it's hard to read it as serious. Since I could say systematically El Salvador is the best country in the world. (Under the system where the score is the amount of murders per capita)

No no, by "systematically" I mean "synthetically", as in "taking multiple factors like median income by PPP, health outcomes controlled for risk factors, middle-class tax burden, housing availability, etc. together". If I thought there was a country I'd do better in, I'd move there immediately.

[Frumple]

Man, if you're actually able to move somewhere else immediately without it being a freakishly huge risk you're already doing real damn good, well beyond the point most folks having major trouble stateside are at.

... also probably be kinda' doubtful you've actually ran those numbers and decided on the US unless your income et al is pretty high up there (or you've settled your mind somewhere in the "temporarily embarrassed millionaire" region, I guess). Median and below situation economically for american demographics have been pretty ruddy unsexy among developed nations for a good few decades now, particularly if you're factoring in stuff like health risks. Lotta' folks would be a metric fuckton better off if they could finagle getting to and integrated with a country with a health/welfare/infrastructure/etc. system worth a shit, which ain't particularly the US if you ain't got the pocketbook to afford it.

[Madman198237]

I'm interested in knowing how you decided, Frumple, that 50k-70k is not doing well/right on the edge of not doing well. Where are you imagining this hypothetical family living, and with how many people depending on that income? 50-70k is plenty in most rural areas of the US to live a perfectly decent life, with a large (talking 6-8 people) family, too. Take a smaller family size and it should be fine even in areas with higher costs-of-living.

[RedKing]

Bullshit. I make 50k and live in a fairly rural area with a tiny family, and I'm gonna have to raid my 401(k) soon just to get my debts into a manageable state.

[Karnewarrior]

My parents make, I believe, around 50-60k and they live in a nice suburban neighborhood. It seems to be very dependent on locale... Which probably means it oughtn't be used as an example of a "decent" income.

But there's something kind of disheartening about housing costs fluctuating so much that 50k can starve you in one area but can net you a nice two-bedroom suburban home in another; I know we're a big country and costs are going to be weird like that, but I can't help but think it'd be better if it were flatter in terms of buying power.

[Frumple]

Yeeaah, I'm mostly finagling the finances of a household making sixty-ish thousand a year in passive income at this point, in a rural area with dirt cheap housing (and their home a homestead besides) and other costs and them largely covered by VA on healthcare. Like, yes, they're getting by decently and able to help out extended family, make the occasional money wasting decision, etc. But if they didn't have, say, that VA coverage, they'd be pretty much fucked, and there's a number of things where they're a bad turn away from shit getting pretty serious. More than one household around me have been having to raid retirement funds and whatnot to do things like replace the floor to parts of their house after it rotted to the point folks were falling through it.

All sorts of mess like that, really. That was the point I chose because from what I've seen you can get by pretty comfortably on it, but much below that and it stops being comfortable, and you're still a serious necessary expenditure or two from starting to have to consider what you're going to lose in the process. Also you're probably skimping on health checkups and healthy eating, just sayin'.

Also yeah, it's largely assuming fairly low costs of living/housing expenses/etc. Some of the higher cost areas in the country it'd probably barely be enough to convince someone to piss on you as your primary health care.