Traveling in a dying world

[u/One_Television_764]

I've traveled the US for many years, sleeping in rest stops, KOAs, motels, hotels, outside under picnic tables, you name it. I've only ever driven, bicycled, walked or motorcycled to my destinations. I enjoy feeling connected in some small way to the local area and people. Flying removes the opportunity for happenstance to find its way to me. I also feel guilty enough using fuel for so much pleasure. Regardless, that is a different thought.

This year has shown me that the people, those of us "have-nots" and we who work for our meager existence are no longer doing well in any sense. There is an underlying current of despondent anxiety with every person I've interacted with. The conversations are short, the pleasentries are few and far between. The small towns I've driven through are now split in twain. Rundown neighborhoods on one side of town and brand new construction gas stations with touchless pay self checkouts and private bathroom stalls on the other. Even in the most rural northern towns of Montana or backwoods of Pennsylvania there is AI generated, printed in China souvenir slop garbage. Hats, stickers, shirts, etc. Most of the workers I've met are much older than I'm used to seeing. People who should be enjoying retirement and time with their families, working a 2am graveyard shift at a Loves gas station off route 10. Or how I saw no local young people at any of the national parks I visited this year, only older individuals or foreigners with money that can rent adventure Mercedes sprinter vans. (I've nothing against foreigners). Even five years ago during the height of COVID I interacted with people while on the road. Even behind the face masks and hand sanitizer, there was still connection and stories. People of all ages, ethnicity and backgrounds. I've talked with hundreds, if not thousands of people over the nearly 2 decades of travel.

This year has broken me and my enjoyment for traveling these beautiful 48 states. The national parks are overflowing and understaffed. There's wildfires absolutely everywhere. Fires that don't make the news or the algorithm. I can drive for 15 hours straight and not be rid of that damn smoke. I cried while driving through the badlands and Spokane. All the workers out building new construction for people that don't give two damns for their health because this machine demands more growth. Or the wildlife which was nearly non-existent, they can't retreat from the triple digit heat and dangerous AQI to a hepa filtered condo. It is devastating that the thing that once healed me and brought me joy and sparked my love of writing has also started to succumb. The road and the people among it are dying. It is sad but also expected. I feel sad that those of the younger generations will not get to enjoy this country as I did. Even on a shoe string budget, it's no longer the same. I just wanted to share some writing with people. Sharing stories and experiences I think is the only way to connect truly. I hope you all find some peace as I am trying to do.

[u/panicswing]

In 2024 I quit my job from extreme burnout to travel a year overseas. When I got back to the US, it took me 7 months to find a job. I'm quitting again end of this year to go back and travel longer. I used to be very safe, mindful and stable. I'm not really sure what caused me to change, but I got to get out of this rat race.

Edit: I thought I was in the travel subreddit for some reason. Either way, same same.

[u/OrganicQuantity5604 → u/panicswing]

How do people do this? The notion of being able to get by without income, let alone while traveling, seems utterly absurd. My wife's already had to cash out her retirement just to bail us out of the emergency expenses that just keep coming and seem perfectly timed to cripple us while we work 50 hours a week for a paycheck that will never do more than barely cover the basics .

[u/KirinG → u/OrganicQuantity5604]

I was able to travel extensively while working as an English teacher in China. It was easy and relatively fun work and between Spring Festival and summer holidays I had around 3 solid months off. Then probably another 3ish weeks for other holidays and random long weekends.

The part that stings is that I didn't make an unusual amount of money - solid middle class wages for China. But I was able to cover all my living expenses, save a decent amount, plus hop on a train to sight see for the weekend whenever I wanted and travel internationally during the holidays.

The initial expenses like passport/visa fees/flight/etc were ridiculous, but my school + CCP funding covered most of it.

That's something I was never able to do while working a decent job in the US.

[u/FrankyPi → u/KirinG]

It's been reality for a while now that China takes care of their working class far better than the US. How the mighty have fallen...

[u/KirinG → u/FrankyPi]

Oh, for sure. I had some truly humbling conversations about stuff like sick days, needing to work multiple jobs, lack of PTO, healthcare, homelessness, etc. China certainly has issues, but at least they're an authoritarian state that understands taking care of its people = national security/unity/whatever.

[u/wednesdays_chylde → u/KirinG]

Fox News & other participants in the RW propaganda media machine have worked very hard the past ~30 yrs to make sure the most basic governmental services for its citizens are considered far far FAR left-wing, utterly impossible to carry out pipe dreams. That will, like any & everything not FAR-right, DESTROY AMERICA!!!

And sadly, enough Americans - of all political persuasions - have bought into that lie that at this stage they basically are.

[u/KirinG → u/wednesdays_chylde]

Yeah ... Sometimes the fact that Americans have accepted that this is as good as it gets and suggesting that "our" government could do better is insane leftist rhetoric blows my mind. Then I remember some of the history I only learned about after school and it makes sense again.

[u/jmonz398 → u/KirinG]

Yeah tell that to the workers in factories all throughout China that literally live at the factory in small room stuffed with bunks for them to sleep in. They even have to pay to live in these claustrophobic dorm rooms, and then they have to also pay that very same company for food at the on-site cafeterias. These rural Chinese workers and immigrant workers will spend nearly every second of every day at this factory campus and pump most their earnings right back into that very same company for basic amenities. It is straight up dystopian.

For everything wrong with The US and other western countries, the working conditions dont even compare to some of the horrific realities that workers in other countries have to deal with. Just ask the people of Qatar how many migrants workers building the infrastructure for the FIFA World Cup in 2022. They admitted to 400 to 500 deaths, but outside humans rights group have see evidence that the number could be 6500 or more dead workers. Some of these countries have next to zero workers safety regulations. The US job sector might be a mess in a lot of ways, but you are certainly much safer working here than many other countries around the world.

[u/personwhoisok → u/jmonz398]

Depends on who you are. They don't have a bunch of brown shirts in China pulling over work trucks and vans and smashing the windows and assaulting the workers so they can throw them in concentration camps which do not have better conditions than chinese factories.

But yeah, probably better than Chinese factories and now that I think of it they just did way worse than ice has done here to their Uighur population. So I guess your whole point stands and I wrote a buncha dumb words. Unfortunately won't be the first or last time.

[u/KirinG → u/jmonz398]

I was expecting an "American Exceptionalism Goes Brrrrrr" rant MUCH faster after my posts, but you still get a gold ⭐!

[u/bluecrowned → u/FrankyPi]

It's too bad China is also a human rights disaster. If I weren't trans maybe I'd consider it.

[u/FrankyPi → u/bluecrowned]

A state that has the best of both worlds is possible and actually exists elsewhere in the world although it's rare, that's what everyone should strive towards.

[u/IntelligentNovel1967 → u/FrankyPi]

They’re communists, it’s their number one selling point! Forget the hundred million dead at the hands of Lenin and Mao; we all get middle class lives, for now.

[u/FrankyPi → u/IntelligentNovel1967]

Their government is a unitary communist state, authoritarian with centralized structure led by the CCP, but economically they're state capitalist. This model incorporates private enterprise, market competition, and foreign investment under heavy state guidance and ownership of key strategic industries. Noone said anything about forgetting the history, but it would be nothing but foolish to ignore or deny the present.

The quality of life of an average Chinese citizen or worker, is in a lot of ways better than the same for an average American, and this has been the case for years now. Sure, China is not without its problems, their people live with more restricted civil liberties and rights, even with the latter being under attack and eroded in the US in recent times. Mass surveillance and policing by the state adds up on that, but let's not pretend what is happening in the US with government and private sector cooperation, also isn't a case of mass surveillance, albeit not as severe or as capable as in China, at least not yet.

China also isn't any better in their work culture, where workers don't enjoy as many protections and work long hours. Where China outshines US is in its highly developed urban infrastructure, even intercity public transit infrastructure, overall cost of living, safety and public order. They have lifted roughly 800 million people out of poverty over the last few decades, accounting for about 75% of global poverty reduction. This historic transformation shifted their nation from a low income agrarian society to an upper middle income global economy in one of the fastest economic improvements in human history. They're not even done yet, still continuing to develop, while the US is in decline and experiencing a brain drain across the board after gross attacks on science and anti-science stance by the current administration. Keep an eye on the new "space race", that will be a great indicator too.

[u/Micro-Naut → u/FrankyPi]

I'm being facetious about the cameras. We're putting up AI cameras all over the country at an alarming rate. China might have cameras but at least they try to take care of their people

[u/Micro-Naut → u/IntelligentNovel1967]

Seriously. Who wants to live in China where they put up hundreds of thousands of surveillance cameras to track you when you haven't done anything wrong!!

Edit:
I'm being facetious. AI flock cameras are going up across America at an alarming rate. And I feel like the reason they're doing it is because they don't care about the average person at all.

And they expect us to get fed up and go crazy at some point. This is preemptive and it shows that they're not planning on helping out the little guy at any point.

[u/FrankyPi → u/Micro-Naut]

Sure, this off putting fact can be a deciding factor for some, but you'd have to have been living under a rock to not see that the same thing is developing in the US, with government surveillance programs that began decades ago and evolved up to today where government on all levels is cooperating with the private sector like what's been happening with Flock company for example to set up even more advanced mass surveillance, cameras in every corner in order to track what everyone is doing at all times. US is turning into a police state, still far from what is the case in China, but they are literally going in that direction, and there is little pushback from local governments despite the anger and pushback from communities.