I want to circle back to my article, 250 Months Remaining, which has its starting point in the awareness of your life having a definite end point. In a recent comment, Maou referred to a partly related older article, and one I consider to be among the best pieces I have ever written, Getting out of the Shit Tier. A key observation I present in that article is that it is very easy to accept one’s environment and, due to complacency, not attempting to get ahead in life. Obviously, there are limits with regards to how much you can realistically achieve in life, but I am not talking about outlier levels of success. For instance, nobody is forcing you to put up with disrespectful and unattractive women. Yet, many men do exactly that. They would be a lot better of if they just walked away, yet they are unable to question the status quo of their personal life. As a consequence, they turn their life into hell on earth but as they are used to it, they are not even aware how horrible their circumstances are.

There is an obvious connection between these two thoughts: Of course, your life will end at one point and, yes, many people are quite comfortable with their circumstances. However, there is a deeper root cause that may explain part of the malaise of the modern world. In short, I think that life is simply too comfortable in the West. Thus, it is very easy to just go through the motions. Going back to the shit-tier article, even someone who is in the shit tier may not even have a lot of motivation to better himself. After all, all his basic needs are met. The basic package provided in the West includes food, shelter, clothing, porn, and video games. With at least a tolerable wife or girlfriend and a job that does not completely suck, he basically has everything he needs.

A related thought is that it is very difficult to even get ahead in the West. In Sweden, for instance, the marginal income tax rate sits at around 55%. A few years ago it was 57%, which is utterly ridiculous, in particular since it kicks in pretty early. Many other European countries are not much better off. Thus, it is virtually impossible to climb the ladder as even a highly-paid employee. As a consequence, once people are quite comfortable, they may even choose to reduce their working hours as the extra income is not worth the effort whereas a few more hours of spare time much more contribute to increasing their quality of life.

I sometimes ask myself why I even bother holding down a job. Granted, these are fleeting thoughts. Yet, in the area I live there are plenty of immigrant families who have all their expenses paid for by the government. Their quality of life is, arguably, quite comparable to a typical middle-class family. Probably quite a few of them are about as well off as I am, thanks to the taxes I and others pay. Quite certainly many of them enjoy a quality of life above a typical middle-class family as they do not have to work and even have more discretionary income. Presumably, the reasoning of the government is that if people do not work, they need more money to spend lest they get bored and riot.

Living off welfare is obviously not a good option. Not only is it not a good general strategy. After all, if everyone were to live off welfare, who would pay for it? Also on an individual level this is not a good idea, simply because you will be too dependent on the government. By holding down a job, you gain independence. Even if you may not be better off in financial terms, you still are less exposed to the government’s whims than your neighbors, the welfare leeches. Also, with the political climate changing, it is foreseeable that there will be cuts to the welfare state. It is very important to the European Untion that the Ukraine defends itself against Putler’s invasion, so we will have to see how this will affect welfare policies.

Because making it through life is so easy, many people seem to develop an indifference towards themselves and their future. Probably only an excessively pampered society could conclude that it is not important that women have children, for instance. With great material comfort, which can be enjoyed by almost everyone in society, people completely lose touch of basic aspects of life, it seems. In contrast, if life was much more of a struggle, people would necessarily be more motivated, and more willing to put in the effort. No, I do not want to allude to racist stereotypes of “lazy, fat Americans”, which supposedly need to be replaced by “culturally superior Indians”, as parts of the US establishment currently claim. I am not a big proponent of “hustle culture”, or at least of how it is being promoted online. Yet, there is something to be said about setting yourself a goal and working hard towards that.

There is an interesting phrase in German, which you do not hear a lot anymore: “sich durch’s Leben schlagen”, which is perhaps best translated as “making it through life, despite push-backs”. An example is not having enough money to afford a place on your own and thus getting room mates. Life is perhaps tough, but you do not give up. Instead, you make compromises and do the best you can. More common phrases are “durch’s Leben gehen”, which literally translates to “casually stroll through life” or “durch’s Leben kommen”, which is more interesting as it implies that you somehow get pushed through life. Life kind of happens to you in this figure of speech. Yet, in the West you basically get carried through life, even if you are part of the underclass. In fact, if you are part of the underclass, you get carried through life much more than anyone else.

If life was more of a struggle, there would be much more pressure on people to succeed. Of course, your life could always be better, but I am quite sure that hardly anyone of you reading this article has ever been in a situation where food was scarce. Nobody even knows what real hunger feels like. I did not know it either until I went on a fast, and I was amazed to learn that you can easily go one day without eating anything. Thinking one step further, if there was a genuine struggle to survive because food was scarce, you can bet that evolution would kick in quickly, with the general health of people improving over a few generations. After all, the weak would simply starve to death. I am not advocating for such a society, but it is fascinating to think about what the world would look like. Think of the healthiest people among your peers and then wonder what society would be like if everybody was like them. We had such times in the past.

Hustle culture is also an interesting aspect. My perception is that there are two very common kinds of entrepreneurs. First, you have people who are wealthy and well-connected. For them, starting a company is similar to a game. This may sound bizarre but that is how it is. When looking for a job, I have spoken to the occasional start-up founder who told me that they got their company off the ground because they got the money from somewhere. They often use a term like “friends and family” but some will just tell you that they got five million from their father. Then these people play startup CEO. If it works out, great! On the other hand, if it does not work out, then they can probably just get another few million to try again. The other kind of entrepreneur are people who have their backs against the wall. This is the high-risk Internet hustler who tries to make it, no matter how small the odds. Andrew Tate is a great example. This guy did not have a lot of social capital and presumably did not come from money. Yet, he made a number of high-risk bets that paid off very well in the short term. Reality is catching up with him, but he had a good run. Your average Internet hustler is the same: people who realize that they have few options in life, thus they launch high-risk ventures. If we wanted to have more of the latter kind of entrepreneur, then life would need to be more difficult.

No matter where you look, there is no real pressure of survival in the West anymore. This seems to be changing for Generation Alpha, though, who is hit hardest with women embracing hyper-hypergamy. They are also much more aware than older generations of resource scarcity. Boomers sit in their big houses, Generation X may at least have a decent apartment, even if it is a rented one. In contrast, a recent graduate wanting to move out is facing a really tough housing market, in no small part due to unfettered mass immigration, courtesy of the Boomers. I wonder if such experiences are one reason behind the growing popularity of right-wing ideas in this age cohort. After all, Generation Alpha has gotten a lot less handed on a silver platter than previous generations. This is a very interesting dynamic that has only started to unfold. There is even a chance that there will be more of a competitive spirit in society, simply due to conditions worsening.