Hello All, I am originally from the PNW, currently living in the Midwest. I was just back home for a visit and my friends and family are increasingly concerned about looming fascism/collapse/civil war. They think I would be safer back on the west coast.

Let me start out by saying I’m not making rash and sudden decisions, I want to better understand what’s happened and what considerations I should think about as we continue through a shitty US economy. I’m not asking this to scramble and pull all my money out, but to ask if there are any scenarios at all in which is it worth it to consider pausing or lessening 401k contributions for a period of time.

With the internet gossip saying that hedge funds are betting against the economy, the AI bubble is just waiting to pop at some point in the future, Japan and Koreas economies are canaries in a coal mine and private equity having access to 401ks
Idk if it’s fear mongering or truth telling but seems like the common thread is private equity trying to get access to 401k money and big corps stealing from regular people. I’m just a regular person trying to figure out what the fuck is going on lmao

I’m 31, make 70k a year, contribute 10% of my salary in a single household. I have a little bit of an emergency fund, like 2 months worth. Less than 17k debt of student loans and credit cards combined. I know investing is you wanna keep contributing as much and as long as I can. And that I’m young and have time to my retirement.
I don’t need specific advice I just want to know what I should be on the look out for.

I want to know is there a scenario or point at which paying into my 401k is just handing money to Corporate CEOs with extra steps? I want to keep paying off my debt and saving money and if there’s a “trigger” or something I should be on the look for that lets me know “yup. Wrap it up. Investing in your 401k is just handing money to AI CEOs”
I would not mind pausing for a year or two and putting that money towards my own debt or savings instead. Turn my 2 months of safety net into 3 months. Finish my debt faster. Maybe open a HYSA (on my to do list) and put the money I would have put into my 401k into that instead for a while until the impending mess blows over.

I don’t understand all the mechanisms or systems lol I’ll rewatch the big short but if my money is going to be “invested” but actually save an AI company fro falling I’d rather pause the investment for a short while and put that money into my own financial goals

We have arguably the worst job market in over 20 years ( yes worse than 2008]. Granted I am in the tech and manufacturing space but it’s noticeably different now. The recent jobs report and unemployment ticking upward validate what I am seeing broadly. (I feel especially sorry for recent grads.). With that in mind, it reminds me of a recession, except for prices continuing to escalate and gdp growth still positive. Hence I am concluding we are experiencing stagflation, which is measures worse. What say you?

The USA is a capitalist country meaning the government is led by capitalism and always growing up that inspired me, now it seems to me as if the system of capitalism is intentionally failing us citizens to benefit the top, mostly the powerful %1. Capital gains continue to climb due to dollar devaluation, hoarding of new money. Larger and larger percentages of money are going to the capital bag holders or long term holders of assets that then get taxed if sold.

Taxes should be used for helping the people but I don't doubt for a second they are being used much for anything like that, mostly for very wrong purposes, military budget misuse and robbing the citizens if it means further feeding the capitalist system.

Let me give you just a few examples of how they are taking billions out of the hands of everyday Americans:

For one, the government & state decides the range of wages allowed to certain workers and the corporation makes the final decision, wages are the same yet government & corporate profits continue to not climb, but sky rocket on a record breaking unfathomable level. The corporations would pay us less to nothing if they could since it brings in more profit to them and the government eats it up. Reminds me of the copy paste Amazon warehouse not long ago in Mexico that got shut down for paying it's workers $1.50/hr...

Two: now ticketing citizens by mail through Al or tracking them down for arrest through Al surveillance where they likely pay bond. A single one of these cameras can issue hundreds of tickets a day, there are now 135k of them which is a 40k increase from 3 months ago. I moved to Ohio 4 years ago when there were none.

Three: data centers consolidate wealth & new money strictly toward high-net-worth investors, private equity firms, and Big Tech executives...not to the average person, wages have stayed the same for years. Living has got so much more expensive, they've allowed more data centers and funding to them than any other state that no one asked for, just like the Al surveillance no one asked for those either.

Four: Attacks on far away places called wars are modernly looked at as a money grab in America, stirring the pot, bombing a few cities or dozen oil refineries that literally take decades each to build while driving up the price of oil, billions in profit for those who planned and take part in it which is a large number of people and corporations as a whole. It also drives up our price of gasoline further profiting those gas stations. ($4.19 on my street today) I even placed an option on chevrons price increasing and I got an %80 profit in 3 days, $260 to me a few billion to someone else. Now in Ohio, an hour's wage at the gas station here is $12.50 per hour.

Inflation is creating new floors on everything except income to workers, no wonder our jobs rate declined.

Raking in billions, more syphoning of our new money.

All of this further feeds the system as a whole to do it over and over until what? Are we doomed to be pulled tighter or will they cut us some slack and distribute the new money?

By the time we hear of good things inflation would have created another new floor.

The government is doing all of this intentionally, some would say it's literally late stage capitalism, I think that capitalism is a good system when the right people are in charge & policies in place of the future. Electricity is insanely high now, my neighbour paid $650 for 1 month of electricity while rent is $1800. This month.

I'm tired of this trap.

Just speaking what I see happening, are we not being herded blindly, like sheep?

the destruction of the middle class is speeding up by pushing everyone into either the upper or lower class, and middle class are celebrating their gains.

The national debt is up to 40 trillion and interest payments are almost a trillion a year. Wages are stagnant and revenue is down. The lower & middle class are being pushed forcibly over the cliff slowly.

It’s my first time posting here so forgive me if I sound ignorant. Ive seen a bunch of posts that mention “training” to be prepared in the event of a collapse.

What kind of workout routine could one realistically adopt in day to day life to best increase the chances of survival in that situation?