[zackmorris]

Not sure if this makes you feel any better, but: people around the world are waking up to the understanding that countries like the US vilified countries like Iran to make vast fortunes in oil and other resources, while keeping wages artificially low through the threat of violence. I'm burned out from knowing that a large share of my income comes from exploitation of other countries.

In a very real sense, an increase in your income depends on us working to heal the racist/sexist/classist wounds of our own cultures to de-escalate the violence which props up income inequality.

But since that doesn't seem to be happening anytime soon.. the best bet is probably stoicism. What helped me was to drop expectation and focus on the current moment. So for example, when the boss is demanding, do you know why? Is it to save the business, or to increase profit for the owner? Those sorts of details inform us as to when we should go the extra mile or set a boundary and take care of our own body/mind/soul. I don't do much for money anymore, but I throw myself on my sword all the time for the greater good.

We can direct our attention towards virtuous paths by listening to our instincts. I've found that following my intuition towards service to others causes me to shift into realities that are more meaningful spiritually. Basically, the universe provides for us regardless of our economic circumstance, as long as we believe. But if we deny our inner child and soul contract, life crushes down on us harder and harder every day until we finally burn out (like I did in 2019).

So: yes there are a multitude of developer jobs, and working for a client directly is often far less stressful than working for an agency which seeks to maximize billable hours. The tradeoff being that money really does buy happiness, but idle time gets siphoned away so life goals sometimes slip out of reach. You mentioned moonlighting with remote work and the difficulties around bank accounts. But I suspect that the real difficulty is that if the boss finds out, you might lose your job. That's why you're kept so busy. Which creates cognitive dissonance, because a job that rules your life like that isn't worth having.. but it pays the bills. So I'd recommend ignoring the details like choice of programming language, and instead focus on just exactly what it is that you'd like to do with your life, and begin making small choices every day that will lead you there. You may lose your job and end up homeless, but half the people on this site are a month away from that anyway. Letting go of that fear and embracing love and gratitude for all things is where miracles begin IMHO. Just give the universe some time to manifest what you ask for. The bigger the ask, the longer it can take. I'm seeing changes in the world that I dreamed of over 20 years ago! I'm also receiving small blessings daily that I didn't even ask for or know I wanted. Basically the manual work I was doing through ego has largely been replaced with co-creation. Which is another way of saying that I rediscovered faith in something greater than myself, and that saved me from the wretched state I was in.

[randomopining]

How are they exploiting Iran? The gov there wants to upset stable power alignments and expand their reach to the Mediterranean, so they can have more power. They openly say they want to destroy Israel. How would that be the "good guy" in your worldview?

[zackmorris]

Sorry, I maybe should have been more specific.

The conflict we see today in the Middle East and also the Global South largely comes from colonialism and unpaid reparations. Specially, stuff like the Sykes-Picot agreement that assigned arbitrary borders to countries composed of overlapping cultural groups that previously had their own peace/trade agreements. I'm not super strong on history, but the rabbit hole goes down endlessly and countless books have been written about work by the CIA to destabilize various regions to maintain western (US) control during the Cold War, for example by overthrowing Iran's elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953, which flipped Iran from democracy to theocracy:

https://www.npr.org/2019/01/31/690363402/how-the-cia-overthr...

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/cia-assisted-cou...

My understanding is that what we see on the news today is double-talk and chest thumping where opposing sides talk past one another because the truth has been obfusecated under decades of falsehoods designed to perpetuate certain narratives. Similar plots have played out in Central America and Southeast Asia.

So basically a billion or more people have been caught in conflict that prevents the kind of long-term stability needed to build strong economies. Which keeps prices an order of magnitude lower than they should be so that developed nations can import cheap goods and services to maintain hegemony over the "developing" nations.

But with the internet transcending borders and the world transitioning to sustainability, it's not clear how resource wars will play out. Personally, I believe that the world was poised to make the transition to sustainability around 2000 (and maybe as early as 1980), but due to Peak Oil and the fall of the Soviet Union, the illuminati (I'm being a bit silly using that word) doubled down on unsustainability and funded divisive leaders around the world to encourage nationalism and maintain the status quo. So the last 20-40 years is kind of an alternate timeline based in ideology instead of say, egalitarianism.

Most people's incomes in developed nations are either propped up by or come entirely from this exploitation. My feeling is that peace with Iran could happen tomorrow, all we have to do is educate the rest of the world on a century of subterfuge. That's why education is often defunded and in the US we still can't look ourselves in the mirror when it comes to stuff like critical race theory. Without colonies to exploit, we've begun exploiting ourselves, and doubling down on ever more austerity policies designed to destroy the middle class to create more cheap workers for the capitalist class.

TL;DR: Middle East conflict is spun to divide us, but if the players talked openly and honestly about peace without interference from profiteers, we would all find that we have far more in common than we've been led to believe.

[randomopining]

Hmm I like some of your points but I think it could be too conspiracy driven. I don't see how stability would increase prices of oil? Wouldn't it actually decrease the prices, in that there would be more supply and more consistent supply? Less/No Disruptions would be priced in.

Really wouldn't the resource-rich countries just collude to increase the prices and extract extra value out of the other countries?

You're assuming that countries like Iran aren't playing a zero sum game to get as much of money and power as they can?

[zackmorris]

No, you're right and I agree with your points. The key point I was trying to make is that the US demonizes Iran precisely because it can't control it and skim its oil profits. Iran knows this, which is why it's always saber-rattling to protect its livelihood.

I feel that the US went wrong back in the late 1970s when Jimmy Carter was trying to transition off oil to solar and other renewable resources. I'd guess that he probably supports nuclear power too since that was his job in the Navy. That was all buried under a wave of propaganda when Ronald Reagan came in, and we're still living under that disinformation campaign today. Our dependence on fossil fuels and that conspiracy are what prevent Middle East peace today IMHO.