Are we living through a new Victorian era?

I am 73 I worked in Engineering factories...we needed less and less 'people' over the years as the machines and production became more and more automated...but Nobody who still had a job ever benefited...they still worked their 40/60 hour weeks. They didn't get loads more money or any less work. ..and that's the trouble, the benefits of Robots, automation, Ai ...very little of the benefits gets SHARED with the ordinary people. The real quality of any country/society depends on how well it is SHARING the work and the wealth and the improvements.

American here. Your Charles Dickens is our John Steinbeck, who once wrote: "If you're in trouble, or hurt or need - go to the poor people. They're the only ones that'll help - the only ones..." Solidarity from across the pond, brother.

That bit about press owned by wealthy people getting us all pointing fingers at each other instead of looking up - that's the bit that really landed for me. It's almost like the division itself is the product, you know? Keep everyone fighting over scraps while the actual structure goes unquestioned. I've been thinking a lot lately about how we even start to fix things when we can't agree on basic facts anymore - and I keep coming back to this idea that the media system itself is the bottleneck. Not left vs right bias, but who owns what and who's accountable to whom. If anyone else is chewing on this stuff, we're trying to build something around it at Truth Matters UK. No partisan angle, just looking at how we got here and what actual media accountability might look like. Might be worth a look. Happy new year Gary - get some rest, you've earned it.

A Christmas carol was written at the time of the Irish famine. Where millions died of starvation and millions more were exiled while British lords and businesses exported food from Ireland. Ireland was completely under British control and as Gary says, Britain was the wealthiest country in the world. These rich "Christians" presided over the death by famine almost 2 million poor people and the halving of the popularion of ireland from 8 million to 4 million. As Gary says be in no doubt about what the rich will do to the poor. The lessons from history are clear.

My dad told me over christmas dinner that he subscribes to this channel and ive never breathed a bigger sigh of relief. Youre helping to break the pipeline mate. Merry christmas

Gary! I was able to have a conversation with a fellow working class person, he's from the UK actually! (Im canadian) and I was able to change his mind about the benefits of a wealth tax and get him on our side! He had all the same arguments that you face and so I was able to rebuttle with pure factd having learned so much from you! It was so exciting to watch him change his mind and realize that we want the same thing and just believe that change is possible. I felt really proud of myself and him for being able to have a kind, dignified discussion that ended with connection. And i have you to thank! I see that as my christmas gift as i needed a reminder that we can and will unite against this struggle. Looking forward to returning the favour with my story when you're ready. Thanks Gary, much love ❤

When I was an 17-18 year old father, in the early 1990s, there were no programs here for free education or medical care that people, like me, could use (someone who risked doing the pretty dangerous job of being a chimney sweep for minimum wage, $4.25/hour for 12-14 hour days, six days a week). I managed to keep my little family housed, the lights turned on. and having barely enough food to eat). Then, one day the most fucked up situation happened: My kid got sick with a 104°F (40°C) fever, you know, when braincells start cooking off. Because I couldn't afford an ambulance, I drove her to the hospital in my beaten-down 1962 Ford Falcon that threatened to break down everytime I drove it. I sat there in the ER (A&E for you Brits) forhours with my burning up child, wondering how I was going to afford the hospital ER visit, when $20 could make or break me in a given month. I finally worked up enough courage to ask the hospital administrators how much it was going to cost for then to see my girl: Answer, $100. I about shit my pants. From the payphone, we called friends and family, trying to get the amount. Finally. someone drove me out the $100, but it took my girl being placed in a spot where her life was in jeopardy to get it. Much later, Obamacare came, when my other kids were school age, was marginally better than nothing. I ended up enlisting so my family would be better taken care of. It was there that the government could cover the expenses of housing, medical, and education, but the price was having to eventually go to war. After I got out. I was able to go to school and have a stipened that covered our housing and living needs, once they strengthened the MGI Bill. I learned how the system worked to fuck the impoverished and working classes (poverty is a policy choice) and why they do it, to not just me, to us all. That being steeped in Christian Nationalism as a kid guided my choice of enlisting to escape the problems of being poor. But it was also that fundamentalist upbringing that was so against taxing the rich or having programs to help the poor that made me ashamed, when I was young. When I was still a young father, eventually, I got food stamps and my daughter benefitted from a free school lunch program. When one has to miss meals, while working physically demanding jobs (I really needed those calories), in order to make sure my family had enough to eat, there is no dignity in that! We also benefitted from the WIC (women, infants, and children) program to help make sure that my infants had enough nutrition and vaccinations. The US spends trillions of dollars on its military, which is several times bigger than our biggest competitor. But my country said that giving SNAP and WIC. substidized healthcare, and education benefits result, somehow, to giving luxuries to the poor, who just can't seem to manage their money correctly!? Not only do we fuck the poor and working classes, we blame the systems' built-it short comings on the poor too. I don't care if its legal, but how we treat the people on the bottom of society's hierarchy piramid is CRIMINAL! I am in complete agreement with Gary ❤️‍🔥

We appreciate you Gary! Our voices are increasing - thanks for the hope ❤️❤️❤️

I was born in the 1980s, and before he passed, I often spoke with my grandfather, who immigrated here in the 1960s. He worked as a bus driver for twenty years before starting his own business, and we frequently discussed the economy. He was remarkably astute and seemed to anticipate many of the changes that were to come. He told me that as the sole breadwinner, earning a bus driver’s wage, he was able to buy a house after eight years of saving. When he later started his very simple, modest business in the 1970s, he managed to pay off the mortgage entirely, carrying that stability through into the 1980s. Even then, he recognised early on that the future would require two incomes per household, and he often wondered what the social consequences of that shift would be. Today, his prediction feels fully realised. Two incomes are now a necessity, often supplemented by support from previous generations just to afford a home. This raises an uncomfortable question about what lies ahead for future generations and what the long-term impact of this economic shift will be. One thing is certain the future generations of the working and and middle class is becoming poorer and poorer and the rich are getting very rich indeed.

8 years ago I ditched Facebook, 1 year ago I ditched Insta. Never uses TikTok. Don’t watch TV, unless there is something interesting airing or we get the movie in a physical copy or go to the movies, we cancelled Netflix and are back to our arts and crafts literally- we draw, we crochet, we encountered new hobbies along the way, it’s amazing because we have 2 small kids and they barely see us staring on our phones. We aren’t there yet, not chronically analog yet, but on our way to “normality “ and we love it !