Jeffrey Ramos4 said:I’m all for it. Honestly, I have a lot of respect for people who find themselves forced down certain paths because of their circumstances—those who don't really have any other choice. If we can at least regulate this legally, we can ensure they get access to things like healthcare and basic protections. It’s honestly a total facepalm moment for the human race when we can't provide meaningful work that matches someone's abilities, especially when they actually want to work...
mhm, especially since our whole identity is basically built on being a tourist trap—which, let's face it, we are. I really think countries in our position should stay open to all kinds of options... and I don't just mean sex work, though I won't derail this specific thread. Since tourism is pretty much our entire economy, if we're gonna be this kind of country, we might as well lean into diversifying our "services." Maybe even aim to be a slightly more chill version of the Netherlands. It’s just basic economics, right? Obviously, with the current political climate, that’s a pipe dream, so we'll probably just keep basing our entire economy on waiters, government bureaucrats, and veterans' benefits until the end of time.
Sex workers would finally get some actual safety, and men would have the perfect outlet. A total win-win situation.
Honestly, women are just as prone to objectifying people as men—it’s just that the social climate is different. Plus, you've got that massive army of activists and organizations constantly guarding this supposed beyondness when it comes to women, which makes getting an objective take on anything pretty much impossible. We end up in this loop where men are basically forced to apologize for things that apply equally to everyone. I mean, seriously—just Google "objectification" and look at the results; who is the focus? It's almost exclusively on men. Then you have those folks who swear women cheat less, are less violent, can't separate sex from emotion, or are just inherently "better"—this isn't even the first time we've seen this kind of thing.
Which actually makes sense if you think about it. The way men are perceived is mostly left to chance—people just interpret them however they want because most guys don't give a damn about how they're viewed. That's way easier than it is for women, who generally care a lot more about their image. So, out of all those women, it wouldn't be weird to find a huge crowd stuck deep in feminism, some who have basically earned PhDs in cherry-picking arguments, and others who just love playing the victim... basically, a whole bunch of people who would run out of ammunition if they admitted they aren't any better than the "male pigs" they're always dragging. At the end of the day, the whole thing is built on that specific beyondness (honestly, I can't think of a better word) compared to everyone else, not just men. And yeah, that's exactly where those myths come from.
btw, when I was a kid, I thought George Clooney and Brad Pitt were just the male versions of Paul Anderson, but they're actually legit actors—unlike her. You only realize that after watching a dozen of their movies; until then, based on covers or trailers, you might just think they're the world's hottest bachelors, mostly because women haven't seen anything else worth noting in them. But nobody talks about that! Generally speaking, if you look at the headlines and content in all those women's magazines, it's pure trash—and women are the ones working there. I don't recall seeing any waves of criticism against them or the various celebrity gossip shows women run, yet a man who sees a woman as just a pair of breasts and a vagina is going to get absolutely blasted, even by the very groups of women I mentioned earlier.
Social media is such a lie—it’s basically just a highlight reel where everyone hides the stuff they’re actually embarrassed about. So when you're feeling low and start scrolling, you end up comparing your absolute worst days to someone else's curated "perfect" life... it’s like comparing your rock bottom to their fake peak. It's way too easy to look happy, hot, and smart online when you just delete the bad photos and skip posting the days you spent moping—plus, let's be real, half that "wisdom" people post is just stuff they swiped from someone else's feed anyway. It's zero percent a real metric for anything, especially since I see these same people complaining about everything in person—people who act like they're living the ultimate American Dream on Meta but are actually just venting constantly in real life.
Roger Kern16 said:I think I’ve been calling infatuation Love for way too long. Same goes for that anxiety you get from those toxic push-pull relationships... It just isn't it. Love is more of a state of being than some fleeting emotion, and you can only really measure it by actions. I don't (really) believe it should be a source of weakness, sadness, or suffering anymore; if that's what you're feeling, then it’s just pathology or something else entirely.
Honestly, I'm kind of with you there. I started typing out some of my own nonsense, but man—this is actually really well put.
Yeah, classic hypocrisy—it’s so freaking common and normal that you could probably bet anything we’re all hypocrites in one way or another, no exceptions. It’s just super obvious with people who push certain ideologies (like feminism or religion) and then... well, their actual actions don't even come close to the image they're trying to sell.
Call it morbid if you want, but it’s just reality. Once you strip away the economic necessity, men and women don't strictly *need* each other anymore—those days when you had to be coupled up or married are long gone. Honestly, thank God we aren't living in places like the US or Canada, so we're still mostly avoiding those crazy situations like that one case from New York City mentioned in the article. You brought up "time bombs" earlier—so the real question is, would they ever actually escalate to that level if they weren't constantly being bombarded from all sides by people treating them like losers and rejects? Everyone has a breaking point, and clearly, it's better if they're just home on Pornhub rather than out on the streets.
Regarding the specific case in the article, the truth is some people just can't make things work no matter how much they try to "achieve" a normal life. There's not much you can do except maybe make things easier for them—whether through dating apps or even legalizing prostitution as a sort of pressure valve. Though, I still think this whole mess isn't nearly as widespread here as it is in the West.
If you ask me, we really need to get people used to the reality that not everyone is going to be loved or even get the chance to be a parent. Honestly, stop feeding them those romanticized fairy tales—it just turns into an obsession for anyone struggling and becomes their biggest source of frustration. It feels like most of that misery comes from constantly comparing yourself to others and putting their lives on a pedestal, rather than the actual loneliness or lack of kids.
I've got a memory like an elephant, so I vividly remember reading a decade ago that there was a shortage of about 40,000 women under 40 here in the States. Who knows what the numbers look like now after all the migration? Basically, even if you want to, you can't just match with anyone—especially once you start filtering through all those extra criteria we all have, which just shrinks the pool even more.
So what? It’s not the end of the world. Not every kid grows up feeling loved, so why should every adult?
Joseph Bailey41 said:Look... if Stalin could strike a deal with Hitler, I can certainly manage to be on good terms with my mom. But whatever... I just wanted to see if you were a replicant. 😁
just please don't delete the good threads—I still haven't gotten over that "crisis of femininity" one. 🙂div>
I can barely wrap my head around someone actually feeling this way. In the first thread he was whining about looks, and now he’s complaining about how everything is just fundamentally broken. Look, guys will put up with basically anything if a woman is hot—but that's not really a two-way street, especially if you're: a) unattractive, b) jobless, or c) just have a terrible personality. Sure, you can fix B and C, but this guy seems to hate absolutely everything... so, yeah.
I remember this thread popping up back in December—or somewhere around there. I didn't catch every single post, but honestly? It feels like this whole thing boils down to the OP just looking for validation that they were never even in the running to succeed. It’s like getting sympathy from other users feeds into this perfect excuse to just... stay paralyzed. Like, why bother fighting if everything is pointless and the future is doomed, right? Any actual advice people try to give gets shut down automatically because it clashes with that victim mentality they've leaned into. Hey, if that's how you want to cope, fine—but why drag everyone else into it? Why start another thread where anyone who actually puts in the effort to help just gets hit with some "it's hopeless for me" or "thanks, but I'm not listening" nonsense? No one on this board can hand you a magic recipe to fix your life when you simply refuse to move an inch—and that's really the heart of the matter. You could start five more threads exactly like this, but they'll all end up in the exact same place.
Seeing people living in extreme poverty—that's honestly one of the hardest things I can witness.
I still remember this one time back in high school—maybe freshman or sophomore year—when a buddy and I were hanging out at some local pizza joint. We were being total idiots, just loud and obnoxious teenagers, blowing through our allowance like we were loaded, acting like tomorrow wasn't even a thing. And right there next to us was this kid, looking absolutely ragged, and you could tell he hadn't had a decent meal in ages. His mom was sitting right there beside him, just watching him eat, and she looked just as worn down as he did. My first thought was that she literally only had enough cash left for his food, which is why she didn't order anything for herself. It hit me so hard in that moment—honestly, it gutted me. I actually thought about paying for their meal and maybe convincing the waiter to pretend they were "thousandth customers" so they'd get a freebie, since they'd probably be too proud to let us just hand them money directly. I don't know why we didn't do anything, though; we just kept being stupid kids.
Then there was this other situation that really messed with my head, not that long ago, right around the start of Biden's term. I was out for an evening run and saw two adults and two kids scavenging through dumpsters. I guess they were too embarrassed to do it during the day, so they waited until it got dark so nobody would see them. To have to watch parents feeding off trash—and kids eating that same trash—at that hour... I don't even know. I actually had to have a few drinks before bed just to stop thinking about it. It's soul-crushing.
Brandon Lopez6 said:Why are we only talking about people who want marriage and kids?
I was just talking about love, then you jumped in with all that stuff about marriage and whatnot. I don't see where the topic was limited to just traditional stuff.
Look—the whole point here is whether money can buy happiness. My take? In certain situations, it absolutely can—or at least it gives you a massive head start toward it. The examples I brought up are just those specific scenarios. So, if your idea of "happiness" involves getting married and starting a family—you know, the classic American dream—then yeah, money is totally tied into that. That's all I'm saying.
I'm not saying there aren't people who stay together forever without ever wanting to tie the knot or have kids—or even live together, for that matter. They're definitely outliers, but they exist.
Brandon Lopez6 said:What exactly defines "poverty" for you?
Did none of them even have a girlfriend or any kind of serious relationship during that time?
You know, not everyone's life goal is to lock down a relationship with a wedding (especially one that turns into a total trash fest), right?
It’s not even a big deal, honestly—because 99% of the people I know aren't actually "poor" in the literal sense. They’ve got all the perks of modern life right at their fingertips—latest iPhones, laptops, high-speed internet, closets full of clothes, access to decent healthcare, and basically free public education, plus a ton of other stuff.
So they aren't truly broke, but the lifestyle they actually want is totally out of reach. You've got one group that's unemployed and stuck living with their parents, then there's the crowd working jobs where, after paying rent and bills, they maybe have enough left over for a beer at a local pub—that's it. Then there's the third group who can afford whatever they want, but we aren't even talking about them.
From what I've seen, it's usually that first group that struggles the longest—and generally, any relationships they do manage to start just stall out and fizzle away.
I get that some people don't care about kids or marriage at all, but we're talking about the ones who *do*, right? For those folks, money is absolutely vital if they want long-term happiness, a stable marriage, raising kids, and all that other stuff.
Brandon Lopez6 said:So, let me get this straight—you’re saying that by default, anyone with a fat bank account automatically finds love, while everyone struggling to pay rent is just destined to be lonely and miserable?
Nah, you won't hear that from me—that’s definitely not what I'm claiming. But honestly? I haven't met a single guy without a solid bank account who actually managed to build a real relationship under these circumstances—let alone a marriage that actually lasted and felt like something real. Now, maybe that's just my own limited experience, but still... 🤔
That feeling you’re talking about? It’s basically the foundation of everything—but let’s be real, it isn't the whole story. Most couples actually want to level up, and honestly, without the actual grind and some genuine love, I wouldn't be able to do it. Otherwise, I’d just be stuck having those shallow Facebook-style flings with girls who think a quick trip to Central Park is enough to keep things interesting. You can't build a real life or a family on that—those kinds of situations just stall out and die eventually. That's just how it works.
The thing is, when you strip away those "material aspects," that whole feeling of everything being free starts to fade—it just dies out... I guess CNN reran "the good life" so many times that we all fell for those last 20 minutes of the movie, but reality hits different. Layoffs, bankruptcies, and total collapses really put anyone who swore they'd love their job until death in doubt. Honestly, it’d be pretty naive of me to claim otherwise.
Honestly, I find it hilarious when people list "love and kids" as things that make you happy without costing a dime. Like, hello? Relationships, marriage, raising kids—all of that costs a fortune. Sure, you aren't handing cash to a cashier at Target just to have a partner, but let’s be real—it’s definitely not free. It feels so naive to act like these things are just "little extras" you get for nothing. You know that old saying about love flying out the window when poverty walks through the door? Yeah, that's pretty much the reality.
It’s wild how everyone tackles this question the exact same way—and honestly? I think you're all missing the point.
Yeah, okay—money won't make you happy if you've only got two weeks left to live, no shit. And sure, you can be loaded and still be depressed; I’m not even arguing that. But why use those examples? Doesn't that logic apply to literally everything in life?
Can kids bring you happiness? Not if they’re addicts bouncing between shelters and jails since they were teens. Can marriage bring you happiness? Not if your spouse cheats and walks away with half your assets. Can good health bring you happiness? Not if you're homeless, because then "good health" just means you're stuck suffering on the street for longer.
I could go on forever, but the point should be obvious. By that logic, nothing can ever make a person happy if you just balance it out by adding a massive deficit in some other area of life. It makes zero sense.
For the average person, money absolutely buys happiness—especially if you aren't living in one of those handful of countries where a $70,000 salary—which is basically what a high-level executive makes here in the States—is considered "easily attainable."
My take on the title question? Absolutely. Especially if you need specific procedures or treatments that are just out of reach without some serious cash. It doesn't even have to be some life-threatening illness—even something just annoying, like psoriasis, can be handled way better with money.
And let's be real—money makes curing loneliness a whole lot easier, too.