Lumifer comments on 2015 Repository Reruns - Boring Advice Repository - Less Wrong
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This is a rant; probably skip it if you're not in the mood.
I have debit cards and credit cards but high debt and no savings. I am depressed and (because of that) have poor executive function (i.e., getting-shit-done ability).
I have a job where I can work flexible hours. An obvious solution to my problem would be to work more hours. And yet here I am not doing that!
I could also move to a place with lower rent, but that would require me to do some combination of throwing stuff out (which is work) and getting people to help me move my stuff to the new place (I have mobility issues that prevent me from doing a lot of lifting things). Also, I'm hoping my current low point won't last forever and I kind of like my current place and would hate to move out of it because of a hopefully temporary problem.
I could also see a therapist, but they cost money. I could also try drugs, but they cost money and most of the ones I've tried so far either do nothing (bupropion) or make things worse (paroxetine). (Except modafinil. Yay modafinil!)
I sure feel like a dummy for being incompetent at life, but feeling that way doesn't actually help me not be incompetent at life.
That's a pretty common situation. An American way of living, one might say if feeling ranty :-)
My point was simpler, though. People who "don't earn enough to have savings" are those who will literally be thrown out into the street or will start getting malnourished if they miss a paycheck. There are enough of those people in the Third World, but they don't have debit cards.