&gt;After that, I think you will find that you are no longer being stomped in the face every day.<p>Yeah, all of that is all well and good, <i>for you</i>. What you wrote has no effect on me as I&#x27;ve already made the same realizations way way back. They weren&#x27;t even conscious realizations worthy of merit. I&#x27;ve just always lived this way.<p>I don&#x27;t care about anything in my life except my hobbies. Day job -&gt; piano. I hang out with a couple of people a couple times a year.<p>Currently saving for a remote cottage way out north so I can isolate myself and work on my music. That&#x27;s all I want to do.<p>And that&#x27;s what I mean about the invisible boot. Just to have a modest dream like that here where I live, I need 250k minimum for the land+cottage and all things included in that.<p>Even the tiniest dreams are straight impossible. Owning any semblance of a property that is close to the downtown core if you&#x27;re not a multi millionaire? Hahahahahaha good luck. 0% of my friends will be buying property in their life times, which means they will move further and further away.<p>The invisible boot is the stagnation of wages and the exploding cost of every day things, combined to shatter any and all dreams.<p>There&#x27;s nothing to actually live for, and I don&#x27;t mean folks like me who are in the unique position of being in a highly paid job without any &quot;life strings&quot;. But my friends? It&#x27;s over, working their entire lives just to <i>maybe</i> afford necessities for that month.