Living paycheck to paycheck is disturbingly common
Don’t discount the weight of emotional trauma and the self-sabotaging habits it has the potential to engender.Most people are slaves to their limbic systems.Most people don’t have self-education or resources to seek the help they need to fix these underlying problems.Society does them no favors. Media and advertising are designed to promote consumption. And not even healthy consumption.The idea that we are black boxes with private worlds and perfect agency is being eroded by the empirical evidence that, at scale, we are ultimately manipulable.I know because I wrestle with this constantly. My higher self knows what’s right and how I should spend my time and money. On a daily and minutely basis, my lower self vyes for control and often succeeds in taking the wheel. And I have to catch myself and recognize when my long term efforts are being subverted automatically and mechanistically.I know that, over the years, my unaddressed early childhood traumas have compounded into deeply-ingrained habits of self-medicating.It’s a constant struggle.I am not surprised that there are huge numbers of people who struggle similarly and are not as successful as I am at managing this internal conflict.edit: why is this article now flagged? :(