Well the article is from 2020, so you don’t have much longer to wait!

This is actually very interesting and gets at the heart of the problem in many different ways. Very true that there’s a money barrier that excludes some that might be most in need of services. There needs to be a more focused effort on providing assistance to those who need it at reduced rates or with additional insurance help.

But the bigger problem still remains with helping men (and women frankly, but moreso men) to understand what therapy/counseling is and is not. For years psychologists have been naming symptoms and diagnosing individuals with such and such disease or shortcoming on the part of the individual. Just like everything in the corporate world, they rely on statistics and numbers to come up with definitions for problems and for solutions.

I’m currently enrolled in a master’s program to obtain my licensing for professional counseling, and I can tell you that the attitude on that is finally starting to bend. I hear what you’re saying about not wanting therapy to simply be a self-affirmation circle-jerk because it doesn’t feel helpful to be told how wonderful you are by a person just to be knocked right back down again in a real-world experience.

But beneath even your resistance there’s still an admission that support can be helpful. In my personal opinion, I think counseling/therapy is a purposeful space to open up about experiences and feelings that you wouldn’t otherwise have an opportunity to express. Talking to yourself or talking to animals is helpful, but simply being able to unburden your thoughts to another human being that doesn’t know you and won’t judge you (or at least… they’re paid not to judge you) for your opinions or past mistakes can be a hugely beneficial step towards true healing.

Ultimately no counseling or therapy techniques can be effective until you decide they can be. It’s about helping to reframe your thoughts in ways you might not have considered, and it’s also meant to give you useful tools for coping with feelings both now and in the future. Successful counseling is one in which the client feels comfortable and confident about how to deal with the hardest parts of human existence.

More needs to be done to educate people about what they can expect from counseling so they can make their own decisions about whether or not it would be useful to them. Being able to word vomit my insecurities with a stranger for an hour is surprisingly uplifting and helps me clear my head towards whatever’s coming next.

What’s this “whole country” thing…how do you get that to happen? No, I’m seriously asking cause as an American, I wanna know how we can revolt for healthcare and a livable wage. Just takes all of us right? Maybe tomorrow 🤞

Yeah I also heard the American banking system is as strong as ever… 👀. Not like they’d actually tell us and risk a bank run!

What action was the general public supposed to take? Opposing voices have ended up in jail or worse. If you think this can’t happen to you in your country then you’re very much mistaken!

Pizza party solves everything!!

That’s what I was thinking. Pretty much what I would expect them to say publicly. Who knows what they actually think…you don’t find it in the news, that’s for sure.

Don’t worry, I’ll go first.

So I ultimately agree that the first thing to do is to recognize your known amounts. I start with a simple Excel spreadsheet and begin with known monthly income amounts first. Fixed or relatively consistent income gets it’s own row. Then I try to think about other sources of income that I make throughout the year (if any) and then average that to a monthly amount.

Next I start with all of my known fixed expenses. Mortgage/rent, car payments, insurance, etc. Next comes known variable expenses like gas, groceries, etc. I always average out the last few months and try to lean towards a higher amount to be conservative. Last, I try to always budget for unexpected expenses. Vehicle maintenance, child injury, unexpected bachelor party…you name it, but every month on average SOMETHING unexpected comes along.

What I’m left with, I divide by 30 days to figure out what I can spend on a daily basis. Some days I spend over, sometimes way under…but this gives me a good idea every day on how I should be doing for the month. I find it helps to have that “per day” thought in your mind at all times!

So this is just advocating for budgeting in general? Well let’s take it a step further…how do you (and others) go about building your budget?

There’s a LOT that goes into global monetary policy. I know more than some, but it’s complicated in a way that’s not easy or quick to explain here.

So to try and keep it short, there’s at least a couple major trade-offs. First, it would be somewhat offset by Australian immigrants working in other foreign countries and sending money home to Australia. Second, Australia has global trade partners for a multitude of things and can offset imbalances through borrowing or lending through international trade if and when needed.

There’s really so much more that goes into it and it’s a bit different for every country, but that’s a broad idea of how it can balance out.