The healthcare industry has had horrendous work conditions for a very long time. It’s deeply ingrained into the US system. That’s a bad starting point.

Then adding in all the emboldened anti-science and anti-healthcare mentality must be beyond frustrating to deal with as a professional. I can’t stand seeing the comments on social media that minimize the literal millions of COVID deaths, the supposed effectiveness of bullshit treatments, and the utter lack of respect for the people who have dedicated their lives to advancing medicine.

Getting that shit thrown in your face as you’re literally trying to help them has to feel like a giant punch in the gut.

And that’s all on top of the abundant societal issues that these workers have to deal with. From insurance fuckery to the growing numbers of people without homes and those battling addiction.

Living that day in and day out would make anyone miserable.

Not exactly what you’ve asked, but I’ve seen and spoke to people about this while traveling.

It absolutely still happens in many places that use more primitive construction methods. I’ve visited places in Belize where locals told me about devastation after hurricanes. It can flatten entire areas, especially the poorest ones. I’ve also witnessed it in parts of Mexico, although steel and concrete construction is much more common. Thatched roofs can be found in certain areas, and of course, people without means still use anything they can get their hands on to build homes - like thin metal sheets. A bad storm can destroy many homes, if not entire communities. Roads wash out and make transportation extremely challenging.

Sometimes people come together to rebuild. It might be as easy as taking down more local trees or gathering the materials that the wind threw everywhere. It’s still a pain, especially when most people capable of laboring would rather be working for income instead of rebuilding their home.

The unfortunate reality of today is that these events often cause mass exodus. People don’t have insurance, and the literal land they have might be the only asset between them and absolutely nothing.

This is when predatory investors can come in, offer pennies on the dollar for land, and grab up large sections for almost nothing. Then the people use whatever they get to try to make a fresh start, quite often in a different location where housing already exists, like the closest city. It would be possible for this to be a mutually-beneficial exchange, but it’s more often predatory as hell with extremely desperate sellers and buyers who don’t offer anywhere close to actual market value in a normal time.

Seeing this devastation makes you quite thankful for things like disaster relief, disaster loans, emergency responses on a large scale, and insurance. None of those programs are perfect, but the alternative is tragic (unless you’re wealthy and don’t care about the well being of others).

Sad story. But always good to see someone take a stand. I hope they land on their feet.

I’ll never be able to comprehend the hypocrisy of some on the right.

“I want a small government that lets the free market do its thing, doesn’t tell me what to do, and doesn’t bother with regulation even when it comes to literal murder machines.”

“We need to take these books off the library shelf because I don’t agree with them and I don’t understand a lifestyle that isn’t my own.”

These two thoughts should not be able to go through the same brain. I know the answer is that they’re actually more motivated by hate and fear that “freedom”, but god damn is it annoying. Go live your own lives and stop worrying about what people do in the privacy of their own bedroom. Worried about child grooming? Go after the actual groomers found in churches and other places of power.

I see that as the cause. The boomers held on tight to power, shafting Gen X in many ways. They still got to ride the coat tails of wealth, but were often kept out of top leadership (see federal gov for the premier example). And I’m sure that had a pretty powerful impact on Gen X’s ability to flourish culturally. They were willing to stay in line with boomer culture because they got paid enough.

Millennials were effectively pushed out of the wealth, so they were/are willing to break norms because it never paid off to do everything “right” anyway. And now Gen Z knows everything’s fucked. Godspeed.