I read these articles about the terrible shape a country, place, generation is in. Then I see real people out and about, of all ages, enjoying restaurants and spending money. Malls, parking lots, restaurants are always packed in my city. I speak to real families and we are growing together, and everything feels fine? Yeah, people are stretched in some ways, but they figure it out.

Is this a K-shaped economy thing? Am I simply surrounding myself and observing the people who "made it"? Is there truly a whole section of the population not leaving their homes and not having sex? I find it hard to believe it's the majority.

My grandma used to say "You assume some things do not exist just because you don't see", and "you assume nobody goes there because you don't visit there".

Just because we see people look healthy and smile around we assume everything is OK. No, not everyone is that happy. Most of them wear masks, or their bonds keep them alive. Every home is a different world, every person is a different universe.

I know people who'd commit suicide the moment they lose every connection they have. A cat, a single friend, an alive mother. Some of us are connected to life via thin strings.

People don't like to read "everything is doing great" articles, they prefer to read "the world is going to end, here's how you can save yourself".

It is just sensationalism. They find a picture of a salary man sleeping on the train (I saw maybe 1?) and act like everyone is a zombie or everyone is getting groped.

I mean, they need to wrap the statistics in a narrative. That's the medium of delivery. But the statistics don't lie: birthrates are well below replacement levels.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/05/japan-records-...