I think this really speaks to, "It's not what you have, it's who you have." You could have millions of dollars and the biggest house in the neighbourhood, but you won't be happy with any of that if you have a partner who is terrible and mean to you.
Happiness comes from finding joy from what you already have rather than longing for what you don't.
This would be profound if Carly and Rodney were guaranteed free healthcare, UBI, and other minimum requirements for living ao that being happy with what you have isn't crushed by chronic illnesses and endless debt.
This. For me, saddest thing about this comic’s message was the fact that I immediately wondered how they would handle needing a root canal or if one of them broke a leg.
Oh, that's simple. The root canal they'll handle by going to the ER, getting antibiotics, and not getting the tooth taken care of until it has to be extracted completely (or just breaks off at the gum line, and taking antibiotics way too often for it)
The broken leg they'll get done at the er, too.
In both cases it'll lead to debt they likely will ignore, because what the fuck else can they do?
But the lump? That one they'll just ignore. It isn't actively painful, and there's nothing they can do for it, anyway. So they'll just die young.
Money isn't the root of all evil... But is damn sure the tool of evil.
Suffering and dying young isn't "living your life", it's suffering and dying young. They suffered through horrible illnesses, lived in pain because they had to and had dozens of children to make sure some of them reach adulthood rather healthily.
In the US I'd have already died more than once, and if not would be either homeless with crippling debt or criminal to pay not just for the cancer treatment years ago. Instead today, after injuring myself working on my hobby, I went to a doctor to get a tetanus booster (just in case) because I forgot to do it earlier. For free. On a sunday. As someone currently unemployed.
That's the way it fucking should be. I'm so fed up with people relativizing unnecessary suffering, including living in existential fear of illness.
I think the message can be interpreted though. It doesn't have to be taken so literally.
I am the exact same person today in my big adult house with my grown-up job as I was 25 years ago in my tiny little apartment living off $9 an hour. Houses, cars, jobs, promotions...these things don't really change who you actually are. A 25% raise at work won't make you 25% happier.
You can still have a job that pays money and benefits and choose to downsize the rest of your life and eliminate all that stress. You don't need a 3,000 sq. ft. house with a 3 car garage and a marble kitchen island to be happy... You're still going to be the same you.
I don't disagree. I grew up as poor as the characters in this comic and we were definitely not happy like they are. It's fiction and doesn't account for the harshness of reality and very callously ignores the lack of a social safety net.
However, the point of the comic still hits home. Life was much simpler when I was young and poor. The complexities and unnecessary stress of the life I lead now seem almost ridiculous in comparison.
I lived a lot like this during the 2008 recession. I was always looking for work, but there was none to be had. So we spent all day watching arthouse DVDs from the library, having sex, cooking, making art, and talking philosophy in our 250 square foot apartment. At times, it was truly beautiful.
However, there came a time after a year or so where the money really ran out and we got evicted. The relationship imploded and it all went to shit.
My takeaway is that, for long term happiness, stability is important too.
Its not a joke, its just a message, telling people that being happy doesnt have to rely on wealth and fancy stuff. That there is nothing wrong with being happy with a simple life.
I also expected a joke from a comic. But I read the whole thing, and when there wasn't a joke, I didn't mind. T'was a beautiful journey. Definitely wasn't for nothing, for me.
I think the punchline is that she can be distracted from an existential moment by something as simple as chicken nuggets because they are exactly the kind of simple pleasure thst makes her life with her partner worth living. I think it's rather sweet.
If this comic resonated with you, watch Nomadland, it’s a masterpiece. There’s certain aspects of this lifestyle to be loved but I think this comic is overly romanticizing. Not many people “choose” this lifestyle but rather they’re forced to it by predatory capitalism and a lack of social safety net.
Really didn’t like that movie. I didn’t find it to be particularly engaging. It was like watching a documentary. It’s well made but rather boring. And that’s coming from someone who likes long and slow paced films.
And you keep a toolbox by the bed with everything you need to repair the shitty grey plastic pipes when a joint lets go in the middle of the night. You can usually hear the small sound when it lets go and it will now wake you from a dead sleep. There was a class action lawsuit but it was settled before you even bought the trailer. Underside of the trailer is covered in mold from the leaks and the mud under it is never dry and mixed with sewage.
Oh, and you're working sixty hours a week for not enough money and supporting a family of four. Your spouse has untreated mental illness or a personality disorder and is unable to hold a job. Sometimes she keeps you up all day screaming while you're working graveyard, sleep deprivation, you think she does it on purpose.
The trailer park is built on a swamp so when it rains the septic backs up and the backyards are all full of sewage. Don't let the little kids play in puddles.
The trailer park owner gives you shit if you work on a vehicle in the driveway, but you ain't buying anything while you can keep these running. Sometimes you sit in your truck at the gas station for 15 minutes because you don't want to go home.
This sounds like personal experience... I know because it sounds almost exactly like my experience of trailer life for 3 years, aside from the kids. It was cheap, but I do not recommend it.
Also, you forgot the 96Kbps internet for $100 a month from ATT.
My time was from a couple years before and until a decent way into covid. People outside of the park were enjoying modern internet, we were stuck in the past. I used a Verizon jetpack which was awful, but good enough for remote work at least.
Not to mention, the park ended up being bought up by some big ass megacorp in a hostile takeover. They bought enough smaller shares to gain control, then fucked over the elderly woman who ran it prior who'd inherited it from her dad and raised prices just to meet inflation, not to make a profit. Her dad started the place in the 1920s. She only owned 40%, but was the largest individual percentage owner before the company managed to collect the other 60%. They literally said she had to start paying them $4000 a month to stay there or hit the road. She left for Oregon and never came back. Then they jacked up the prices for everyone else and the place started bleeding tenants, either not willing to pay more or sick of how management treated us like we were subhuman.
0/10 overall, do not recommend.
My twenties were the most miserable time in my life.
E: y’all downvoting? It’s a perfectly reasonable explanation. Both are unemployed and money just magically appears? If you’re downvoting because you think my take has negative connotations that’s on you. We should accept as a society that there are those that will never work or will never attain income to provide enough for themselves, people like that have always existed in civilization, the difference is that they were (still are even today) exploited or left to die in poverty, whereas today a civilized society should recognize that and provide a minimum of care. That care being welfare or whatever you want to call it.
Electricity, unsure. There are programs to help out, but usually are reliant on season. Food is easy. Food banks are or were plentiful. Also food stamps.
Didn't say they were unemployed, but you get by with odd jobs, scrapping, finding junk and flipping it, stuff like that. Food banks of there are any. You buy things almost exclusively from dollar stores and maybe flea markets. If you're lucky help from family or the government.
I don’t smoke, and I have some pretty fancy friends who eat fancy food, but I think I would rather spend an evening with these two. I’d bring all the nuggets we could eat. Great job comic artist.
Love it. This was me and my now wife for our 20s and early 30s. I remember those times very fondly and think it really solidified lots of things for me.
Swedes are masters of that. You just can't be outside the mold or random people (quote from Pulp Fiction, but maybe it was Switzerland) starts to talk to you about it.
Like take your bicycle down the slope to buy a litre of milk, and someone just have to remark that you haven't got your bicycle helmet on.
70 Comments
qwestjest78@lemmy.ca · 182 pts · 1y
I think this really speaks to, "It's not what you have, it's who you have." You could have millions of dollars and the biggest house in the neighbourhood, but you won't be happy with any of that if you have a partner who is terrible and mean to you.
Happiness comes from finding joy from what you already have rather than longing for what you don't.
spankmonkey@lemmy.world · 142 pts · 1y
This would be profound if Carly and Rodney were guaranteed free healthcare, UBI, and other minimum requirements for living ao that being happy with what you have isn't crushed by chronic illnesses and endless debt.
BrundleFly2077@sh.itjust.works · 98 pts · 1y
This. For me, saddest thing about this comic’s message was the fact that I immediately wondered how they would handle needing a root canal or if one of them broke a leg.
RobotZap10000@feddit.nl · 41 pts · 1y
Or a weird lump checked out.
dharmacurious@slrpnk.net · 38 pts · 1y
Oh, that's simple. The root canal they'll handle by going to the ER, getting antibiotics, and not getting the tooth taken care of until it has to be extracted completely (or just breaks off at the gum line, and taking antibiotics way too often for it)
The broken leg they'll get done at the er, too.
In both cases it'll lead to debt they likely will ignore, because what the fuck else can they do?
But the lump? That one they'll just ignore. It isn't actively painful, and there's nothing they can do for it, anyway. So they'll just die young.
Money isn't the root of all evil... But is damn sure the tool of evil.
spankmonkey@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 1y
Love of money, as in greed, is the root of all evil.
Korhaka@sopuli.xyz · -22 pts · 1y
People managed in the past without healthcare. A lot of them died younger as a result, but you can still live your life without it I guess.
Natanox@discuss.tchncs.de · 14 pts · 1y
Suffering and dying young isn't "living your life", it's suffering and dying young. They suffered through horrible illnesses, lived in pain because they had to and had dozens of children to make sure some of them reach adulthood rather healthily.
In the US I'd have already died more than once, and if not would be either homeless with crippling debt or criminal to pay not just for the cancer treatment years ago. Instead today, after injuring myself working on my hobby, I went to a doctor to get a tetanus booster (just in case) because I forgot to do it earlier. For free. On a sunday. As someone currently unemployed.
That's the way it fucking should be. I'm so fed up with people relativizing unnecessary suffering, including living in existential fear of illness.
Initiateofthevoid@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 5 pts · 1y
Korhaka@sopuli.xyz · 3 pts · 1y
You live your life up until the point you don't
conditional_soup@lemm.ee · 2 pts · 1y
People have managed without oxygen before. I mean, you'll die in a few minutes as a result, but you can still live your life without it.
scarilog@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1y
In many countries, these basic needs would be a non-issue.
DJKJuicy@sh.itjust.works · 8 pts · 1y
I think the message can be interpreted though. It doesn't have to be taken so literally.
I am the exact same person today in my big adult house with my grown-up job as I was 25 years ago in my tiny little apartment living off $9 an hour. Houses, cars, jobs, promotions...these things don't really change who you actually are. A 25% raise at work won't make you 25% happier.
You can still have a job that pays money and benefits and choose to downsize the rest of your life and eliminate all that stress. You don't need a 3,000 sq. ft. house with a 3 car garage and a marble kitchen island to be happy... You're still going to be the same you.
spankmonkey@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 1y
Yes, if you ignore the obvious signs that they are in poverty and bordering on homelessness it is a great message.
DJKJuicy@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 1y
I don't disagree. I grew up as poor as the characters in this comic and we were definitely not happy like they are. It's fiction and doesn't account for the harshness of reality and very callously ignores the lack of a social safety net.
However, the point of the comic still hits home. Life was much simpler when I was young and poor. The complexities and unnecessary stress of the life I lead now seem almost ridiculous in comparison.
Fourth@mander.xyz · 6 pts · 1y
One hundo percent 😞
frunch@lemmy.world · 28 pts · 1y
I mean, the richest man in the world is busy meddling in everyone else's affairs. Clearly money is not enough to satisfy.
jdf038@mander.xyz · 4 pts · 1y
Well if he were less of a sociopathic asshole we'd all be better off.
And yes wealth at that level corrupted him.
nBodyProblem@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 1y
Absolutely.
I lived a lot like this during the 2008 recession. I was always looking for work, but there was none to be had. So we spent all day watching arthouse DVDs from the library, having sex, cooking, making art, and talking philosophy in our 250 square foot apartment. At times, it was truly beautiful.
However, there came a time after a year or so where the money really ran out and we got evicted. The relationship imploded and it all went to shit.
My takeaway is that, for long term happiness, stability is important too.
intensely_human@lemm.ee · 4 pts · 1y
This is what I’m afraid of. I have a plan for getting rich but I don’t have much of a plan for getting over the loneliness I feel.
Actually I’m afraid to get rich because I feel like that will be the end of any opportunity to genuinely bond with people.
Nalivai@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1y
Statistically you don't have to worry about it. Unless you have rich parents, your plans of getting rich will very likely fail
bravesirrbn@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y
Then don't get rich :)
nizvicious@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1y
You reminded me of a song I had totally forgot about, thank you. I’ll post it here https://youtu.be/6TmJw8j2Eos
surph_ninja@lemmy.world · 42 pts · 1y
Part of the reason capitalists tie healthcare to employment is to prevent exactly this. They don’t want people to have this option.
buzz86us@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1y
Private equity firms are actively taking this option away you "own" your home, but there lot rent triples
Dungrad@feddit.org · 33 pts · 1y
unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de · 140 pts · 1y
Its not a joke, its just a message, telling people that being happy doesnt have to rely on wealth and fancy stuff. That there is nothing wrong with being happy with a simple life.
Venator@lemmy.nz · -53 pts · 1y
Most disappointing punchline ever 😂
unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de · 35 pts · 1y
There is no punchline and there isnt supposed to be. Are you trolling?
Venator@lemmy.nz · 1 pts · 1y
southsamurai@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 1y
I got where you were coming from :)
StarvingMartist@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 1y
Venator@lemmy.nz · -19 pts · 1y
Nah, I got trolled by the comic: was expecting a punchline, so I read all that story for nothing.
victorz@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 1y
I also expected a joke from a comic. But I read the whole thing, and when there wasn't a joke, I didn't mind. T'was a beautiful journey. Definitely wasn't for nothing, for me.
Venator@lemmy.nz · -3 pts · 1y
Yeah it was ok, I was just hoping for a little joke at the end like something norm macdonald would've told 😅
victorz@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1y
Norm isn't for me, but sure.
agent_nycto@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 1y
If you got nothing out of the comic, that's very sad for you.
Venator@lemmy.nz · -7 pts · 1y
Not really, it's just stating the obvious, and her boyfriend sounds like a moron 😅, but if she enjoys his shower thoughts that's nice for her.
agent_nycto@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 1y
I genuinely pity you.
obinice@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1y
Don't judge a book by it's cover.
YoiksAndAway@lemmy.zip · 7 pts · 1y
I think the punchline is that she can be distracted from an existential moment by something as simple as chicken nuggets because they are exactly the kind of simple pleasure thst makes her life with her partner worth living. I think it's rather sweet.
HeyJoe@lemmy.world · 29 pts · 1y
Not everyone has to strive to be the best to be happy?
Dungrad@feddit.org · 7 pts · 1y
MajorHavoc@programming.dev · 28 pts · 1y
Even someone who has achieved modern Zen mastery can still get excited about chicken fingers.
southsamurai@sh.itjust.works · 17 pts · 1y
RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 1y
You're not a tiny speck in a vast uncaring universe.
You're a person caught up in weave of the giant sweater that is our reality.
Enjoy the simple pleasures of life. And take some time to stare up at that great big universe that we're all part of.
piyuv@lemmy.world · 32 pts · 1y
If this comic resonated with you, watch Nomadland, it’s a masterpiece. There’s certain aspects of this lifestyle to be loved but I think this comic is overly romanticizing. Not many people “choose” this lifestyle but rather they’re forced to it by predatory capitalism and a lack of social safety net.
accideath@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 1y
Really didn’t like that movie. I didn’t find it to be particularly engaging. It was like watching a documentary. It’s well made but rather boring. And that’s coming from someone who likes long and slow paced films.
piyuv@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 1y
To each to their own. I liked it because it felt like a documentary - the people living in caravans were actual caravan dwellers!
Machinist@lemmy.world · 24 pts · 1y
And you keep a toolbox by the bed with everything you need to repair the shitty grey plastic pipes when a joint lets go in the middle of the night. You can usually hear the small sound when it lets go and it will now wake you from a dead sleep. There was a class action lawsuit but it was settled before you even bought the trailer. Underside of the trailer is covered in mold from the leaks and the mud under it is never dry and mixed with sewage.
Oh, and you're working sixty hours a week for not enough money and supporting a family of four. Your spouse has untreated mental illness or a personality disorder and is unable to hold a job. Sometimes she keeps you up all day screaming while you're working graveyard, sleep deprivation, you think she does it on purpose.
The trailer park is built on a swamp so when it rains the septic backs up and the backyards are all full of sewage. Don't let the little kids play in puddles.
The trailer park owner gives you shit if you work on a vehicle in the driveway, but you ain't buying anything while you can keep these running. Sometimes you sit in your truck at the gas station for 15 minutes because you don't want to go home.
NikkiDimes@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 1y
This sounds like personal experience... I know because it sounds almost exactly like my experience of trailer life for 3 years, aside from the kids. It was cheap, but I do not recommend it.
Also, you forgot the 96Kbps internet for $100 a month from ATT.
Machinist@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y
I've said, ever since, that I'd rather live in a cardboard box than a trailer. It was pure hell.
IIRC, NetZero was $25/mo., this was the aughts. There were some months I couldn't pay it.
There is very little I look on with fondness from back then. My twenties were the most miserable time in my life.
NikkiDimes@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1y
My time was from a couple years before and until a decent way into covid. People outside of the park were enjoying modern internet, we were stuck in the past. I used a Verizon jetpack which was awful, but good enough for remote work at least.
Not to mention, the park ended up being bought up by some big ass megacorp in a hostile takeover. They bought enough smaller shares to gain control, then fucked over the elderly woman who ran it prior who'd inherited it from her dad and raised prices just to meet inflation, not to make a profit. Her dad started the place in the 1920s. She only owned 40%, but was the largest individual percentage owner before the company managed to collect the other 60%. They literally said she had to start paying them $4000 a month to stay there or hit the road. She left for Oregon and never came back. Then they jacked up the prices for everyone else and the place started bleeding tenants, either not willing to pay more or sick of how management treated us like we were subhuman.
0/10 overall, do not recommend.
Ain't that the fuckin truth.
Xaphanos@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 1y
I really like Rodney and Carly. I'd love to sit outside that trailer and have a conversation with them. Bring some drums. Talk about the stars.
b3an@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 1y
I would join you with the weed and chicken nuggets, chill and listening to drumming and looking at stars.
phant@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1y
The stars are projectors, yeah. Projectin our lives down to this planet earth.
piyuv@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 1y
If they are unemployed, how do they earn money for necessities like electricity and food? No sarcasm, want to learn
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 1y
Welfare
E: y’all downvoting? It’s a perfectly reasonable explanation. Both are unemployed and money just magically appears? If you’re downvoting because you think my take has negative connotations that’s on you. We should accept as a society that there are those that will never work or will never attain income to provide enough for themselves, people like that have always existed in civilization, the difference is that they were (still are even today) exploited or left to die in poverty, whereas today a civilized society should recognize that and provide a minimum of care. That care being welfare or whatever you want to call it.
TORFdot0@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1y
At least in my state, there is no way that 2 able bodied people who can’t pass a drug test would ever get any sort of assistance
RebekahWSD@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y
Electricity, unsure. There are programs to help out, but usually are reliant on season. Food is easy. Food banks are or were plentiful. Also food stamps.
agent_nycto@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y
Didn't say they were unemployed, but you get by with odd jobs, scrapping, finding junk and flipping it, stuff like that. Food banks of there are any. You buy things almost exclusively from dollar stores and maybe flea markets. If you're lucky help from family or the government.
insaneinthemembrane@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1y
They're both introduced as unemployed
agent_nycto@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1y
Fair enough, didn't reread it while I was getting breakfast ready or something.
ToiletFlushShowerScream@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 1y
I don’t smoke, and I have some pretty fancy friends who eat fancy food, but I think I would rather spend an evening with these two. I’d bring all the nuggets we could eat. Great job comic artist.
Sam_Bass@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 1y
Yeah, let the rats do the racing, li'l mouse
shalafi@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 1y
That slammed home to me. No wonder we can't have healthcare, we'd be too comfortable not participating in the wider economy.
My wife and I have many advantages, some through luck, some through work, but what we can't have without an employer is health. Well.
agent_nycto@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1y
If that were true, most of the rest of the world wouldn't hold jobs. Don't forget, universal healthcare is the norm.
Bitswap@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1y
Love it. This was me and my now wife for our 20s and early 30s. I remember those times very fondly and think it really solidified lots of things for me.
It's a far cry from my life today...
CrowAirbrush@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1y
This is why i try to not judge others, they have the right to live life their own way.
I'm surrounded by judgemental people who all think they know how i should live my life, dealing with them is bloody exhausting.
But it's standard behaviour for the Dutch apparently.
Valmond@lemmy.world · -2 pts · 1y
Swedes are masters of that. You just can't be outside the mold or random people (quote from Pulp Fiction, but maybe it was Switzerland) starts to talk to you about it.
Like take your bicycle down the slope to buy a litre of milk, and someone just have to remark that you haven't got your bicycle helmet on.
So I left 🤸🏻♀️
Holyginz@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 1y
You should really have a bicycle helmet on though.
Valmond@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y
Oh no they followed me!
neonred@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 1y
Valmond@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 1y
Those swedes are everywhere, I swear.
What's next, a walking helmet and walking gloves? You'd be amazed how much broken fingers cost.
Better even, don't go outside at all!
Pfff.
agent_nycto@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1y
This was beautiful
mPony@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 1y
it still is
grissino@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1y
https://c8.alamy.com/comp/HD9KT3/south-park-eric-cartman-front-die-hippie-die-season-9-epis-902-1997-HD9KT3.jpg