To think life is a bit pointless for many if you don't have much money

[Potato35]

This obviously doesn't apply to people who are happy with the bare minimum or are perhaps living mortgage or rent free or don't need to work.
Being on a low income restricts your life in so many ways. It's not about wanting millions and a luxurious lifestyle, but..
Imagine being able to go to the supermarket and not have to calculate the cost of everything to the last penny
To have choice over where you buy clothes, not just second hand/Primark etc.
To have more options about the size and conditions of your home and be able to afford the cost of renovations
Can afford more things like vitamins, supplements, health and beauty treatments
Can see more of the world
You can probably afford a pet or children
When your friends want to go to higher end restaurants you can afford to go and not just get a starter and a tap water
You can afford better food

What's the point of living to just earn a low wage and just get by? Where's the fun in life?
Somebody has to do the minimum wage jobs because many of these jobs are essential to society, like working as a carer.

And yet the poorest person in the UK is enormously rich compared to billions of people living in many other countries.

We won't evolve forever. Humans will become extinct. Other animals that don't evolve will also become extinct but some species will carry on. The world will keep turning without us and probably be healthier for it.

But life is inherently meaningless - we're born, we live, we die. Everyone we ever meet, know or love will also die. Our lives might be more or less comfortable or happy, but we all die. What's the point of life? Whether we make people happy or sad, whether we ourselves are happy or sad, we all die and so does every other person, animal or plant we ever come into contact with. It's nihilism, and is actually quite freeing - enjoy your time and your life while you have it, it's not going to last (and nor will pain). There is no greater plan or meaning to life, just appreciate every minute you have, all the joys and happiness you experience, and the people you love because it will all end and you will cease to exist and be forgotten. Life will go on without you, and so will the planet. ❤️

Joy can be found anywhere, every day if you choose to look for it. You just have to appreciate that it's fleeting. No-one feels one constant emotion all the time.

We don't know what is beyond the solar system or whether space is infinite. The sun may well eventually die but there may be many more suns and many more worlds out there.

We do know quite a lot beyond our solar system and space is infinite. But humans live here, in this solar system. Which is why the age of our sun is applicable to us.

I was being tongue in cheek.

YANBU at all unreasonable to point out that life can be pretty unrewarding when you don't have spare funds. I used to be quite well off, now I'm the opposite. Having money was way better!

But ... I really hate to state the obvious: it's a mindset. Once you've got the essentials covered, it is possible to find joy in the little things, to use your creativity, to find free things to do and to have a laugh. It really is!

I miss being able to do interesting stuff on a whim, taking opportunities as they arise, having CHOICES and being able to throw money at problems.

When I take a step back, though, I can see that I do have choices (less shiny ones, but choices all the same).

I can do some things on a whim: not hopping on a plane to somewhere sunny but I can decide to cook a dish I've never tried before, try a different outfit, pick up one of my half-abandoned hobbies, play some 1970s reggae and dance like a crazed woman.

I am pissed off that I've got to try and mend my air fryer instead of simply getting a new one.

It's still LIFE! It's not cushty ... but nobody promised me perfection 😏

Crocodiles, cockroaches, crabs and sea snails haven't bothered evolving for hundreds of millions of years. I'm fairly sure they don't experience joy, love or amazement ... or worry about their lives being pointless!

Probably better to be human, on balance 😎

I hear you and I have been there, but think it’s possible to look at things in a different way (while also trying to change things in your life if that is what you want to do). It’s all about perspective and you could choose to look at yourself as fortunate - you have that choice. The following sums it up for me - kind of based in Buddhism but it’s universal really.

"[She] who is of few needs and easy to serve swiftly finds peace, and is already close to happiness. The more complicated we make ourselves, the more complicated is our idea of ourselves.

The more we will perceive our needs to be, the more of a burden we will be to this planet whilst we spend our time here pursuing those needs.

The truth is: the only real needs are food, shelter and companionship.

Everything else is a bonus.

One who is content with food, shelter and companionship treads lightly on this world, and swiftly gets to the point where there is something to give back.

But one who is not content with that, and who feels they need an extraordinarily elaborate array of things in their life to feel their life is meaningful makes an awful ruckus in their time upon this planet.

Somebody asked me, 'Do we all have inside us that pure part, that pure consciousness?’
The answer is yes. ”

(lyrics to a song written by Burgs)

1 year ago I had just started a new job earning more than I ever had, we could afford treats, branded food and not worry about money. March this year I went to A&E with upper back and chest pains 4 days after I had an ambulance out for a possible DVT, I was diagnosed with bilateral pulmonary embolisms and mild aortic stenosis, having these on top of everything else made me have to stop working even though I was working from home. I have a 20% chance of having another embolism within 1 year of the first one, I’m on blood thinners for life. This killed my dad when he was 60, I’m 49. We now can’t afford to pay any bills, have got behind on our rent and our landlord has started proceedings to evict us. We can’t save enough to move and we cannot get help from the council. We have no family we could ask for money we need £3000 but cannot think of anyway to get it. So yes currently life does seem pointless without money.

I agree that struggling financially is miserable but past the novelty of buying a fast car etc I don't think being rich would really make me happy.

My interests are mainly making music, reading interesting stuff, and weightlifting. None of those are really helped by money unless I had enough to completely give up working. I've never understood people whose sole objective in life is to own a luxury car or super expensive handbag.

@48mumof6 I'm so very sorry to hear that;. on top of everything else as well. Do you have a partner who is able to help out financially at all? Although I know it certainly isn't possible always to get by on one salary alone; no chance we could pay the rent on just one income. Can you get any other support? It is so unfair 😪

I hear you op.

I have been in both places. Having children and struggling is the hardest combination. I didn’t have children at the time, so I found joy being with my friends, we would go out for picnics same food consumed but outside. I became quite spiritual.

I appreciated absolutely everything. Christmases and birthdays meant a lot to me because I needed essential things. I didn’t mind wearing clean second hand clothes, and worked in a charity shop so I was given them for free. I was creative with my clothes. I didn’t eat very much, and enjoyed being slim. I had so many friends and a busy, happy life but no money at all. I visited churches, free museums, galleries, free concerts and never turned down an offer of new adventures. I definitely found lots of joy in my life, but it is harder and when things go wrong there’s no safety net whatsoever. There is a vulnerability absolutely. There can be meaning if you look for it op.

💐

But life is inherently meaningless - we're born, we live, we die.

you should read Viktor Frankl's book "Man's Search for Meaning". Life doesn't have to be inherently meaningless, not at all. But if you believe it is then that's your choice. If you can survive being incarcerated in a concentration camp and find your meaning and survive to tell your story, you would definitely not feel it is meaningless. Each person just has to find what life means to them. If Viktor Frankl can do it so can we all.

We're a single income household and I don't think life is pointless as such. But I do worry about how sustainable my life is. We would like to buy a house and have some security, so I'm going back to college to train and get back into work. I'm a full time carer to my disabled child, who is a crap sleeper and takes most of my time and energy.

Between my daughter's medical condition and disabilities, my own health issues, all the appointments I'll have to fit in (because my husband doesn't work locally), studying and doing a work placement, I do worry about how thinly I'm having to spread myself. BUT, it doesn't make my life pointless. How can life be pointless when I'm actively bettering myself and my family

Oh really??
WTF does that really mean?
Do you think the people sleeping on dirt, shitting wherever and starving for days or weeks NOW take any comfort whatsoever from your much lauded "Concept of Human Progress"? WTF do you MEAN?
Do please go and give yourself a slap.

You are really angry for someone who is presumably trying to say that happiness is possible despite lack of modern conveniencies.

I believe a point in life comes from contributing to a community. In our world that means jobs basically. Our society is so divergent in terms of wealth that most jobs simply mean servicing the rich (creating wealth), so it is hard to feel internal satisification from it. Or working such hard hours that even if you do get that satisification you are physcially and mentally depleted.

Broader community is so much weaker now that we use the TV and internet for entertainment. People are more isolated.

That's when people turn to external things like clothes and holidays to make them feel better. And I don't blame them. I work in a "vocational" job. Note: not in the uk, so I have much more disposable income than if I did. Being able to have family trips, going out for food and having a pet makes life nicer.

For me, wha gives life have a point is spending time with my family or getting into nature. (Although note that even that costs money - either a car or public transport to get there and clothing for the weather. No - walking around the pavements marvelling that people get to sleep in beds or how shoes are great isn't as good.)

Yes. It’s so boring being poor. And stressful. The constant worry. You just exist. You don’t live.

True.
We all have options to move to a different (less developed) country, a different town, a changed job (maybe charity), to shop at thrift shops etc. We can all end our life in prison or engaging in risky life threatening hobbies or by committing suicide.

Most of us choose to live happily enough seeing our nearest and dearest, seeing our local parklands and native creatures and pets and working to provide the bare necessities of life.

Hardly anyone is wealthy enough to not have to think about budgeting time and money.

I agree with you and agree some people need to do the low paying jobs. However I also feel that there are people doing low paying jobs with potential to earn more. They should try and better their position. Those abo cannot do more ahould perhaps get government help. However, it is difficult to identify who has potential to better their circumstances

I am married, my husband works full time but he is on a low income, it’s not enough to cover rent, bills and food. I am getting contribution based ESA but this is £109 a fortnight as they are taking back an overpayment from years ago.

Yup. It’s utterly pointless. Scrimping constantly just for the basics whilst some knob head on MN pontificates about the advocacy’s and posh coffees I don’t have.

@48mumof6 It must be such a worrying time. My hubby and I have been privately renting now for over a decade and we know that if either of us couldn't work for any reason (and we know this can happenin the blink of an eye) then we would lose the roof over our heads. I'm also self-employed so if I went off sick we also wouldn't be able to afford to pay the rent and bills.
I hope so much you can get the support you need 💐

What's the point of living to just earn a low wage and just get by? Where's the fun in life?
Somebody has to do the minimum wage jobs because many of these jobs are essential to society, like working as a carer.

I think the point is your last sentence really, these jobs are essential, or in demand to society and people benefit from having them done even though they don't value them at all.

While saying people should better themselves is valid to a certain degree, in order to get the work done that needs to be done, those roles need filling, whichever way you look at it, and there's the demand for them to be done well, with care and experience - but no one should be doing them that isn't just starting out or a student etc. The two pov just don't match up.

But on an individual level it's much more comfortable to believe people should be bettering themselves rather than thinking that the lack of value attributed to these jobs are a good way of getting them done for the least that can be paid while benefitting from both the work and the lower cost overall.

Many on lower wages know they're being taken the piss out of, and when they speak about it, the stock response to that is "Get a better job" because no one wants to think of themselves benefitting from that, but the fact is, they are.

That must be incredible stressful. Living so close to the edge.

Has your husband ever owned a property? Or always rented?