to think that modern life is utter shite

[OfCourse]

EVERYTHING is expensive; food, cars, houses, utilities, travel for work and the service is crap.

ANY GOVERNMENT PROVIDED SERVICE IS FUCKED; education, NHS, social welfare, police.

None of the above are in any particular order. Is it me? Am I just having a bad day?

SELL ME MODERN LIFE

I just wrote a long response to this bit it will out me so I'll summarise by saying yanbu!

I'm having a bad day too and feeling like modern life sucks right now.

YANBU

I'm surprised more people aren't rejecting it all and going off grid in Welsh cottages. Maybe they can't even afford that?

I have been doing sums on discarded envolopes and concluding modern life isn't really a winnable game for most people. Particularly in London/SE

Ok - modern life....

Well as a woman I can do what I like, sit in a café, pub or restaurant alone, carry on working after marriage / babies, get my own mortgage without needing a man present - all these things that women couldn't do in the old days.

The NHS has it's bad points but thank god we've got it! At least 2 of my granddad's siblings died from minor illnesses that they couldn't afford to pay a dr to treat.

We don't have outside toilets anymore that we have to share with neighbouring houses!

Looking at my home now I have so many modern conveniences - access to internet, a washing machine, dryer, central heating, power shower, tv - my nan would've killed for those things when she was my age.

Then there are things like deodorants, daily showers, fluoride toothpaste, GHD hair straighteners, modern hair colours, all the things that make us look & smell better than in the past.

And back in the 1950s my great-gran was a psychiatric nurse - she met women patients (inmates) at the asylum who'd been committed by male relatives for the most minor reasons. She managed to get one lady freed happily. Also suicide was illegal so anyone who tried it went to court instead of being treated - my great-gran used to speak in their defence.

Well at least we have such things as the NHS, social welfare and education not like in the 1900's and i'll add 24 hr TV and transport and wide availability of different foods. OK not everybody can access all the choices on offer, but we have so much to choose from in relative terms

I find it's the expectation of what a number of those services should be providing for the 21st century that is causing a lot of angst. Should all treatments no matter what the cost or extension of life expectancy be funded by the NHS?

I love my life . Biggest problem I have at the moment is trying to persuade my DS not to have the tattoo he's determined to have. I hate them with a passion.

But....i am aware the status quo is fragile. I don't take things for granted.

Inside toilets sell modern life to me every day. I grew up in a house that still had a working outside loo (we did have an inside one as well!) and it was cold, damp and full of spiders.

YABU

Before "modern life" - social welfare, the NHS, free education for all children, the justice system, votes for women, technological & scientific advances in medicine, industry and even domestic appliances (!), things were pretty shit. More shit than they are now, I'd venture.

Yabu and actually very ungrateful. There are many countries who don't even have the quality of services above to even complain about. Maybe take a step back, try think of how much you have in comparison to many others and then decide if you are worse off.

Modern medicine.

'Nuff said.

YANBU

What I find particularly galling is that the government knows full well that the NHS is totally screwed and elderly care provision is a nightmare, but they still won't offer us the option of ending it all when life becomes intolerable.

They're forcing desperate citizens to remain alive against their will

I found out a few days ago, from an NHS insider, that my local hospital has one of the worst reputations in the area. If any of us become very sick, we're fucked

Rose tinted spectacles. The past is not all it's cracked up to be. Without modern medicine, I'd be dead several times over. In fact, I probably would have died at birth.

Grow up. You are free to leave, too. I just got back from a poor Asian country. Why not try a developing nation without all the modern conveniences and see how you get on.

I find it's the expectation of what a number of those services should be providing for the 21st century that is causing a lot of angst.

I know my view is influenced by being heavily involved with SEN issues, but it is common, for example, for LAs to act very cynically, affectively denying children accessible, adequate education. The default position in many areas is that nothing substantial will be offered unless parents bring a tribunal case. Where does that leave the children of the poor and ill-educated?

It might be shite here, but there are few places better and many, many places where life is far far worse. Especially for women.

YABU! Modern life is fantastic.

Free healthcare and education for everyone.
On the whole, those who can't work are looked after, not cast out.
We live in a relatively safe country.
Supermarkets are full of a variety of food.
Transport system is well developed.
Central heating is considered standard, not a luxury.
Turn on the tap, and clean hot water comes out!
Women can be the boss of their own life, have financial independence, be educated, able to vote..

Overall, I feel extremely lucky to live in modern day UK.

I'm very grateful for what we have. People literally risk life and limb to try and get in to this country to escape the state of things in their homelands. I'm friends with a Kosovar couple who came here in the 90s with their kids. They and their kids have seen and experienced things people in this country couldn't imagine, and this is not even more than a quick flight away. Looking at the atrocities happening in Syria etc I'm grateful every day for my home, job, rights and opportunities my kids have. I don't want to sound sanctimonious because things aren't perfect and life can be very hard at times, but I choose to look at the things we do have rather than what we don't.
Looking back in the past can seem like it was a simpler time, but they had all the problems of today (well, maybe not cyber bullying internet or) too much sugar in their diets for example) but we have to face these things with the added bonuses of running water, washing machines and inside loos!

I've been able to have an education despite being a woman (and despite my grandma's plans that I should stay unmarried and look after her and my grandpa in their old age). In fact, I've had an international education (was a foreign student at Oxbridge). I've travelled all over the world, I've connected with "my people" in person and online, I've seen things you people wouldn't believe, attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion...oops sorry got carried away

I don't blame you for feeling the way you do, OP, a few years ago when I was single and working my ass off to pay the mortgage on my tiny flat in London, I felt a bit like that.

On the whole, those who can't work are looked after, not cast out.

Open a newspaper Ass. People are now starving to death courtesy of our 'welfare state'.

Modern life is great!

My top one: Being able to travel the world for really not that much money and to get there quickly. Australia in a day! Tourism open to all levels of society (thickos on TripAdvisor notwithstanding).

And a "small" one - antenatal scans. Seeing your baby in the womb as part of routine care.

Health care! It may not be perfect, but we are so fortunate that, if you have a heart attack in the street, an ambulance will be with you within minutes and treat you/take you to hospital immediately, no matter who you are or how much money you have.

I agree with LeftRight. That's the problem though, when you have so much you feel entitled to expect much more.
There are people dying from the treatable flu, yet you complain about the free nhs, children eating from bins is so common yet there is a benefit and social services system here, people who will never get to use the internet and you complain. And you think life is shit? Get some perspective and be grateful for all that you have.

"ANY GOVERNMENT PROVIDED SERVICE IS FUCKED; education, NHS, social welfare, police."

I think there's a lot about those things that doesn't work perfectly but before "modern life" we didn't have any of those things, at all.

The poor didn't have any education or any health care and justice was either handed out by the lord of the manor or the biggest bloke in the pub.

The main thing that's wrong with modern life is expectations of what government should be able to provide to people who don't want to pay much tax and don't want to work particularly hard. I'm not talking about benefits BTW but even most "hard working" families are working way less hard than they were 100 years ago. That's another great thing about modern life.

LadyLuck10; that's the speech I dish out to my DCs when they are moaning, the starving kids around the world.

Yes I know because I am being sold every day the 'you've never had it better', by massive corporations who want to sell me more shit than I will ever need ruled by a government who pussy foot around the rest of the world.

I agree advances in medical care & warm houses with loos are good.

im ill today so im liking soft toilet roll and my laptop apart from that YANBU

Arse that's why I said 'on the whole' it's also good that the prevailing attitude is that people should be looked after, not ignored or left to fend for themselves.