[2026-01-02]Reddit评论区： 中国网络上的“斩杀线”概念传到了美国

I'm from China. On our Chinese internet, people recently use the term "斩杀线" (decapitation line) to describe a certain social phenomenon in the US (not referring to its gaming meaning).
The general idea is to describe a person's financial situation as extremely fragile—like their health bar has reached a critical "execution" threshold. For example, when someone's savings are nearly depleted, an unexpected car repair bill, a medical expense, or a few months of unemployment could directly cause them to be unable to pay rent, lose their housing, and even fall into worse circumstances.

我是中国人。最近在我们中国的网络上，人们用“斩杀线”这个词来形容美国的一种社会现象（不是指游戏里的意思）。
大概意思是形容一个人的财务状况极其脆弱，就像他的生命值已经到了一个关键的“斩杀”临界点。比如，当一个人的积蓄快花光时，一次意外的修车费、一笔医疗开支，或者几个月的失业，就可能直接导致他付不起房租、失去住处，甚至陷入更糟的境地。
--------------------

throwaway_88331
Its not a single thing. It is a whole system (capitalism) that is built to extract wealth from the workers.
"the cost of living crisis": Asset price inflation is a policy by the western governments to increase the price of housing, stocks, cars, other important things necessary for life in order to help extract rents from the population. This has caused a massive transfer of wealth from 90% poorest to the 10% richest.
"the debt crises": student debt, credit card debt, mortgage debt, car debt, medical debt. Apparently medical debt is one of the leading causes of bankruptcy.
lack of jobs: people apply for 1000s of jobs and still dont get responses. This is am intentional policy of the usa, they create unemployment because they claim it will keep inflation low.
Just go to YouTube and search "cost of living crisis" "debt crisis" "homeless crisis" "drugs crisis". This is why people keep saying that the west is going fascist, because when capitalism falls apart (because the state and capitalist class failed to save it) the workers either carry out revolution or the country makes a fascist turn.

这不是单一问题。这是一个完整的体系（资本主义），它被设计来从劳动者身上榨取财富。
“生活成本危机”：资产价格通胀是西方政府的一项政策，通过抬高住房、股票、汽车等生活必需品的价格来从民众身上收取租金。这导致财富从最贫穷的90%人口大规模转移到最富有的10%人口手中。
“债务危机”：学生贷款、信用卡债务、房贷、车贷、医疗债务。医疗债务显然是导致破产的主要原因之一。
就业机会匮乏：人们投了上千份简历却收不到回复。这是美国有意为之的政策，他们制造失业，声称这能抑制通胀。
直接上YouTube搜索“生活成本危机”、“债务危机”、“无家可归危机”、“毒品危机”。这就是为什么人们总说西方正在走向法西斯，当资本主义崩溃时（因为国家和资本家阶级未能挽救它），劳动者要么发动革命，要么国家就会转向法西斯。

False-Gain624
Because their government’s safety nets are so trash, Americans must rely on random strangers to help them. But hey, freedom am I right

因为政府的安全网太垃圾，美国人只能靠陌生人来帮忙。不过嘛，自由万岁，对吧？

ZynaxNeon -> False-Gain624
More like "freedom". They like shouting it as if doing so would make it true. All to distract themselves from looking at how other countries have real freedom.
It's funny how far gone they are as a society.

更像是“自由”这个词本身。他们喜欢高喊这个词，好像喊得越响就越真实。其实都是为了转移注意力，不去看其他国家真正享有的自由。
真可笑，他们整个社会已经迷失到这种地步了。

AdCool1638 -> False-Gain624
I am always amazed by it, because on paper their government spent billions and billions on all sorts of welfare programs, but in the end I doubt how much of that money actually goes to help poor Americans.

我总是对此很惊讶，因为从文件上看，他们的政府在各种福利项目上投入了数十亿，但我怀疑最终这些钱有多少真正用来帮助美国的穷人。

Icy-Bandicoot-8738
Sounds like you guys have an idealized view of American society.
But yes, it's true. I've known people with jobs and insurance who declared bankruptcy after a medical emergency. Then there are expenses--home repairs, property taxes, car repairs, insurance...all expensive.
Then there's the woeful lack of savings. Many Americans live paycheck to paycheck, many are in debt, and don't have enough saved up for an emergency.

听起来你们对美国社会有种理想化的看法。
不过确实是这样。我认识一些有工作和保险的人，因为一次医疗紧急情况就宣布破产了。然后还有各种开销——房屋维修、房产税、汽车修理、保险……样样都贵。
更糟糕的是储蓄严重不足。很多美国人靠工资过日子，很多人负债累累，根本存不下足够的钱来应对紧急情况。

MyCatIsLenin
Yah America is an individualistic capitalist shithole. 
Many Americans are a paycheck away from complete ruin. 
There are some caveats. If you have children there are more safety nets, if you live in certain states there are programs that can help keep you afloat, particularly if you have children. 
In general though, you're fucked. 

美国就是个个人主义的资本主义粪坑。
很多美国人断一次薪就彻底破产。
不过也有一些例外：如果你有孩子，保障会多一些；如果你住在某些州，会有项目帮你维持生计，尤其是有孩子的话。
但总的来说，你基本完蛋了。

FerrisTriangle
Here's an important bit of context. No matter where you look in America, it is a common sight to see people living on the street with sleeping bags and tents as their only shelter. If you are driving through America, you will often see people waiting at stop lights for cars to stop so that they can beg for spare change while holding signs that read "homeless, please help" or "Need money for food."
Our society has many nasty prejudices towards homeless people, calling them a blight that needs to be removed and alleging that the only reason that they are homeless is because they are lazy and refuse to work. These narratives are used to justify the poor treatment and abuse of homeless people, who are often harassed by police and have the few possessions they own confiscated simply for the "crime" of existing in public spaces.
There are many people who post reminders like the one in your post which point out that the majority of Americans are one unexpected bill away from finding themselves in a similar situation. These reminders are intended to encourage compassion towards the homeless in our country in order to combat the hatred and abuse they often see in practice.
As for how true these reminders are, I would say they are fairly accurate. An unexpected medical bill or an injury that causes you to be unable to work are common ways that people are made to be homeless here. Government safety nets exist, but there are so many barriers to access them and the benefits they provide are insufficient when compared to the cost of living, and there are many things that can cause you to lose access to government assistance for either arbitrary bureaucratic reasons, or deliberate cruelty enshrined as "policy."
Homelessness is not a problem that our society is trying to fix, because like other commenters have noted the threat of homelessness is an important tool of labor discipline that is used to manage the "industrial reserve army of surplus labor" in order to keep labor cheap and compliant on behalf of the capitalist class.

在美国，无论你走到哪里，都能看到人们带着睡袋和帐篷露宿街头。开车经过时，也常常会有人在红绿灯处等待车辆停下，举着写有“无家可归，请帮帮忙”或“需要钱买食物”的牌子乞讨零钱。
社会上对无家可归者存在许多恶劣的偏见，称他们是需要清除的污点，并声称他们流落街头的唯一原因就是懒惰、不愿工作。这些说法被用来合理化对无家可归者的虐待和粗暴对待——他们经常被警察骚扰，仅因“在公共场所存在”这一“罪名”，仅有的财物就会被没收。
很多人会像你这样发帖提醒大家：大多数美国人离陷入类似处境只差一张意外账单。这些提醒是为了鼓励人们对无家可归者抱有同情心，以对抗现实中常见的仇恨与伤害。
至于这些提醒有多真实，我认为相当准确。在美国，意外的医疗账单或受伤无法工作是导致人们无家可归的常见原因。政府确实有安全网，但申请障碍重重，而且提供的补助根本赶不上生活成本。此外，许多随意性的官僚规定或被美化为“政策”的刻意苛待，都可能让你失去政府援助资格。
无家可归，并不是我们社会真正想解决的问题。正如其他评论者所指出的：无家可归的威胁，是一种劳动管制的重要工具，用来管理“过剩劳动力的产业后备军”，从而替资产阶级维持廉价而顺从的劳动力。

Particular-Jacket-71 -> FerrisTriangle
I believe it is precisely this elimination mechanism in the United States and the public's prejudice against the homeless that have completely destroyed the technical workforce in the United States and sealed the fate of its manufacturing industry.

我认为正是美国的这种淘汰机制和公众对无家可归者的偏见，彻底摧毁了美国的技术劳动力，也注定了其制造业的命运。

Tapir_Tazuli -> Particular-Jacket-71
Depriving the locals is less profitable than playing the money game to deprive globally, and so the capitalists did the latter.

资本家发现，剥削本地人不如玩金融游戏剥削全球来得赚钱，所以他们选择了后者。

TserriednichHuiGuo -> Particular-Jacket-71
Offshoring and rising rents

离岸外包与租金上涨

Makasi_Motema -> FerrisTriangle
OP, if you want to see how much America hates the homeless, do an image search for “anti homeless architecture”. We have benches and window sills designed so that it’s impossible for a homeless person to sleep on them.

楼主，你要是想看看美国有多讨厌流浪汉，就去搜一下“反流浪汉设计”的图片。我们这儿的公共长椅和窗台都设计得让流浪汉根本没法在上面睡觉。

TheZonePhotographer
The silly name aside, it's has a lot of truth to it, particularly in less affluent states. If you're doing well you won't even notice it, if you're not you suffer in silence. In that sense the society is highly stratified.
Wealth is increasingly being transferred upwards through consolidation in different industries, financial trickery, war, etc.

抛开这个傻名称不谈，它确实反映了很多现实，尤其在不太富裕的州更是如此。如果你过得不错，你甚至根本不会注意到这现象。但如果你过得不好，你只能默默忍受。从这个意义上说，社会阶层分化非常严重。
财富正通过不同行业的整合、金融手段、战争等方式，不断向上转移。

thefirebrigades
The socialogists made a new term, the precariat

社会学家造了个新词，叫“不稳定无产者”。

Zealousideal-Gate282 -> thefirebrigades
As chinese, it's really hard to understand a mid class people can fall in homeless in just few weeks. So called the precariat. In our city is true that we are hard to move up to achieve class up. But when you lose your job, or lose all your money and your assets. At least you won't starve or become homeless. So it's truely shock when we heard about the "kill line"

作为中国人，真的很难理解一个中产阶层的人怎么能在短短几周内就沦落到无家可归。所谓的“不稳定无产者”在我们这儿确实存在，想往上爬、实现阶级跨越确实很难。但就算你丢了工作，或者赔光了钱和资产，至少不至于饿死或者流落街头。所以听到“斩杀线”这种说法时，确实挺震惊的。

GabeTheWarlock
I'd consider my family (parents) upper middle class (I had to move back in literally because rent was raised and I couldn't find a roommate in time and would've been homeless) but when my dad's job laid off their entire staff my mom's job was the only reason we weren't all homeless for about a year before he found something. We had to be very careful about our spending.

我觉得我家（父母）算是中上阶层（我搬回去住纯粹是因为房租涨了，一时找不到室友，不然就无家可归了），但后来我爸公司整个部门裁员，差不多有一年时间，全靠我妈的工作才让我们没流落街头，直到他找到新工作。那段时间我们花钱必须特别小心。

Wob_Nobbler
Yes, medical debt is a big cause of homelessness here. Its sick and twisted

是的，医疗债务是这里无家可归的主要原因。真是病态又扭曲。

ch1kusoo
I think what you described applies not just to the U.S. but the entire western world. It's just a matter which country gets hit harder than the other. I live in Canada and we are known to have more social welfare than the U.S. but despite all that, standard of living has been eroded with high inflation, taxation and a lack of opportunities. There's a sub that focuses on just Canadian jobs and I can just see pages upon pages of people talking about applying hundreds of jobs and no call back. A lot of them just recently graduated and they have to compete with the newer graduates coming up. I don't want to downplay the unemployment situation with the younger folks but a lot of the older folks, I am talking about Gen X who just hit their early 50's, would they even hit retirement on time? or at least, would they ever see retirement? God forbid, someone in that age gets laid off and it would be hard to find new employment due to implicit age discrimination.
I graduated from university during the 2008 financial crisis that that was branded back then as THEE financial crisis and fast forward to today, we heading in that same direction and most likely being even worse. I don't expect any governments to learn from their lessons much like they never learned their lesson that led to 2008. This time around, we got a trade war and potential hot war.

我觉得你说的这种现象，不仅适用于美国，整个西方世界都差不多。无非是哪个国家受影响更严重些。我住在加拿大，大家都知道我们的社会福利比美国好，但即便如此，高通胀、高税收和机会匮乏还是让生活水平不断下降。
有个专门讨论加拿大就业的论坛版块，我看到一页又一页的人都在说自己投了几百份简历却石沉大海的帖子。很多人刚毕业就得和下一届毕业生竞争。我不想低估年轻人的失业问题，但很多年纪大的人，我说的是刚满50岁出头的X世代，他们真的能按时退休吗？或者说，这辈子还能等到退休吗？更别提这个年纪万一被裁员，隐性年龄歧视会让他们很难再找到工作。
我是在2008年金融危机那年大学毕业的，当时都说那是“史上最严重的金融危机”。转眼到现在，我们又在往同样的方向走，而且很可能更糟。我不指望任何政府能吸取教训，就像他们当年没从导致2008年危机的错误中学到东西一样。这次我们还多了贸易战，甚至可能爆发热战。

Sourkarate
All true. Evidence: myself

千真万确。证据：我自己。

beingandbecoming
Precariousness is absolutely an essential element of American life. Some safety nets exist, but you have to qualify. For example: to get disability insurance for some conditions, you must have worked a certain number of hours to qualify. Having parents or a stable family is a blessing not everyone has, but family is almost certainly the biggest safety net. No universal programs, you have to find services or hope they exist in your area and aren’t stretched to their limits.
Losing your job, becoming disabled, bad investment, medical or psychiatric problems, falling out with family, etc. can make you homeless. It really can happen to anyone.

在美国生活，不稳定绝对是常态。虽然有安全网，但得符合条件才行。比如某些疾病的残疾保险，必须工作够一定时长才有资格。有父母或稳定的家庭是很幸运的，不是人人都有，但家庭基本肯定是最重要的保障。没有全民福利，你得自己找服务，或者指望你所在地区有这些服务，而且还没被挤爆。
失业、残疾、投资失败、身体或精神出问题、和家人闹翻… 这些都可能导致无家可归。真的可能发生在任何人身上。

sphydrodynamix
Yes that's called "living paycheck to paycheck," it's extremely common and people take on debt to avoid homelessness, but that often just makes things worse.

对，这就叫“月光族”，这种情况非常普遍。人们为了不流落街头而背上债务，但这往往只会让情况变得更糟。

Rafael_Luisi
Most capitalist countries do bare bone jobs at trying to keep people in a bad situation away from getting into an even worse situation, the Idiot Doom Spiral, as ali like to call it.
The US is one of the particularly bad examples, where the government not only does not give a shit about helping you, but can also be one of the main reasons you are going ultra bankrupt. It not only let's you fall, but also it kicks you in the balls while you are down.

大多数资本主义国家在防止人们从糟糕处境滑向更糟处境，也就是阿里常说的“*白痴厄运漩涡”这方面，做得只是最基本的表面功夫。（*译注：就是一个中年人在和生活的斗争中落败了，在厄运的漩涡里打了三百个转转，之后被吸入到无底深渊里）
美国在这方面尤其糟糕，政府不仅压根不关心帮你，甚至可能成为让你彻底破产的主要原因。它不光让你跌倒，还要在你倒地时再补上一脚。

MotorStruggle1
In the west, it's mostly called "living paycheck to paycheck". It generally refers to the thing where a lot of Americans can't afford a sudden 300$ expense, can't afford a car or house mortgage, have no retirement savings, essentially, when people can barely afford to survive and don't have any money for anything beyond the bare minimums for their short term survival.

在西方，这通常被称为“月光族”。它一般指的是很多美国人付不起突然的300美元开销，买不起车或付不起房贷，没有退休储蓄，基本上就是人们勉强维持生计，除了短期生存的基本需求外，没有任何钱用于其他事情。

Soggy-Leave5035
The United States really is a country of jaw-dropping paradoxes: dizzyingly rich, yet starkly poor. I was born into a middle-class family in China. There I received nine years of free compulsory education, then paid about 5,000 USD for my bachelor’s degree. My master’s cost roughly 2,000 USD, and my Ph.D. is tuition-free. Right now, with a national doctoral stipend, my wife and I have been able to start a family. As students, we’ve had near-total medical coverage for years. My parents earn only modest salaries, so our household income is far from affluent—yet we’ve never once feared economic ruin.

美国真是个让人瞠目结舌的矛盾体：富得令人咋舌，却也穷得触目惊心。我出生在中国一个中产家庭，接受了九年免费义务教育，本科花了大约五千美元，硕士两千美元左右，博士阶段免学费。现在靠着国家发放的博士津贴，我和爱人已经能安稳成家。作为学生，我们多年来享受着几乎全覆盖的医疗保障。父母收入普通，家里谈不上富裕，但我们从未担心过会陷入经济困境。

Physical-Virus1764
As the momentum of rapid development brought by the technological explosion gradually diminishes, the United States and the Western world as a whole are losing their leading positions; they can no longer unrestrictedly seize materials and wealth from other parts of the world as they once did. Social contradictions are becoming increasingly prominent, and the ruling class will appropriate a greater share of the value created by ordinary people to consolidate their own status, rather than using it for social development. I believe that phenomena like the 'Decapitation line' will not disappear in the future; rather, they are more likely to intensify periodically until people can no longer endure their lives."

随着技术爆炸带来的快速发展势头逐渐减弱，美国和整个西方世界正在失去领先地位；他们无法再像过去那样无限制地从世界其他地区掠夺物质和财富。社会矛盾日益凸显，统治阶级将把普通人创造的更多价值据为己有以巩固自身地位，而不是用于社会发展。我认为，像“斩杀线”这样的现象未来不会消失，反而更可能周期性加剧，直到人们再也无法忍受自己的生活。

Portablela -> Physical-Virus1764
Even then the spoils of war goes straight to the 1% while the poorer 99% gets jackshit.

即便如此，战争的好处也全进了那1%的腰包，剩下99%的穷人屁都捞不着。

Lunar_Landing_Hoax
It's like any broad statement made about any large group, it's more complicated. For people with supportive families and a strong social network, this isn't so likely. However if you don't have such a network your situation is far more precarious. 

就像对任何大群体做出的笼统论断一样，实际情况要复杂得多。对于那些有家庭支持、社交圈稳固的人来说，这种情况不太可能发生。但如果你没有这样的支持网络，处境就会危险得多。

raddishradish
I live in a Midwestern town of about 3000 people. This isn't a reality for me or my community. I imagine things are much harder for the average person in more expensive urban areas.

我住在一个大约3000人的中西部小镇。这（种情况）对我和我生活的社区来说并不现实。我想，在生活成本更高的大城市里，普通人的日子要艰难得多。

Tapir_Tazuli -> raddishradish
What do people do for a living in such towns? Are you mostly landowners?

在这种小镇上，人们靠什么谋生？你们大多是地主吗？

raddishradish -> Tapir_Tazuli
It depends on how you define landowners. I rent a small house, and I grew up in government-subsidized apartments until my mother received a government grant to help purchase a home, which I lived in until I left for college. A lot of people own their own homes and farms, but only a few are large landowners. I work as a contractor, installing internet for people all around the state. A lot of people work at the factories. We have a nice main street with little shops and restaurants owned by the people with old money. We also have a handful of restaurants, bars, and other businesses around town, run and owned by people of varying financial and ethnic backgrounds. Going to school was nice here; nothing like you see in the movies, but the vibe has been bad since all the racists and morons took their masks off. Despite all its charm, this is a deeply brainwashed Trump town. I'm a white guy. I don't feel too threatened, but I do feel like a stranger to the friends I grew up with in the town I grew up in.

这得看你怎么定义地主了。我租了个小房子，从小在政府补贴的公寓里长大，后来我妈拿到政府补助买了房，我一直住到上大学。很多人有自己的房子和农场，但大地主没几个。我是做承包商的，在全州给人装网络。不少人在工厂上班。我们主街挺漂亮，有些小店和餐厅是那些老钱家族开的。镇上还有几家餐馆、酒吧和其他生意，老板们经济条件和族裔背景各不相同。在这儿上学挺舒服的，不像电影里那样，但自从那些种族主义者和蠢货摘下面具后，氛围就变差了。尽管这地方有它的魅力，但本质上是个被洗脑很深的特朗普支持者小镇。我是个白人男性，倒没觉得太受威胁，但确实感觉和从小一起长大的朋友们越来越陌生了。

CrimsonRedSoviet
As an american, this is not exaggeration, this is how the system works here unfortunately.
In fact it is even worse than how it is described here. Not only is the "decapitation line" real, but also america has so many homeless people (who are homeless for reasons outside their control) living in tents in the street and the government is too greedy to do anything to help them.

作为一个美国人，这不是夸张，不幸的是我们这里的体制就是这么运作的。
实际上情况比描述的还要糟糕。不仅“斩杀线”真实存在，而且美国还有那么多无家可归者（他们流落街头的原因并非自己能控制），只能住在街边的帐篷里，而政府却贪婪到不愿采取任何措施去帮助他们。

Ok-Statistician5574
welcome to the reality of capitalism where money is the one true GOD but meat doesn’t matter

欢迎来到资本主义的现实世界：金钱才是唯一真神，而血肉之躯无足轻重。

Lalalama
I'm Chinese American. It really depends on the person. The middle class is extremely gutted in America. Those with money are doing perfectly fine. I am in my 30's and do not worry about money at all. I drive an 80,000 dollar car and own two houses. It really depends.

我是美籍华人。这真的要看个人情况。美国的中产阶级被严重削弱了。有钱人过得完全没问题。我三十多岁，根本不担心钱的问题。我开八万美元的车，有两套房子。真的因人而异。

fillllll
The final safety net is a shredder that mulches your body into compost for the golf fields of maralago

最后的安全网是一台粉碎机，把你的身体搅碎成肥料，用于海湖庄园的高尔夫球场上。

Miserable_Celery9416 -> fillllll
Come on, don’t say that. That’s really upsetting to hear.

还是别这么说吧。听着真让人难受。

TserriednichHuiGuo
That perception is true and recent due to the influx of americans on Rednote and maybe other such platforms

这种看法没错，而且最近因为小红书等平台上涌入大量美国人，这种感觉更明显了。

ElectricalStation43 -> TserriednichHuiGuo
I hope this question is not offensive. There are so many middle-class and lower-income people in the United States. Why didn't your voices get heard before? Even now, the number of people who hear these real voices is still only a small fraction of the world. Many more people are still under the powerful military intimidation of the US military bases.

我希望这个问题不会冒犯到谁。美国有这么多中产阶级和低收入人群，为什么之前你们的声音没有被听到？即便现在，能听到这些真实声音的人仍然只是世界上的一小部分。还有更多人依然处于美军基地的强大军事威慑之下。

shreditdude0
I'm no longer living this (even though I lived like this for 14+ years, my entire adult life), but I'd say the threshold is higher (maybe around 1000-1500k instead of 400, so definitely "middle class", petit-bourgeois, now). My final "safety net" would've been activity outside the law, to say the least. I had the skill set and the know how, but I also know the consequences of this sort of activity. This sort of things almost always affects the people you don't want it to affect (other working class people), so this was another deterrent for me. Not to mention that I have a spouse. But yeah, I'm one of the better off people now; I've been fortunate enough to be able to go to school, get a degree (the industry for which I went and studied for collapsed with massive layoffs, not to mention $50k+ in debt plus my spouse's $100k+), go back to school and get certifications and hope to get employed with this new education. I know other people are stuck in abject destitution and/or spending every waking hour laboring with hardly anything to show for it at multiple waged-jobs.
America and the West, overall, are in a very bad spot, but it isn't surprising, as this is what capitalist systems do and have done to working people in every single society across generations.
Just hoping more and more people wake up to reality and realize that we have to get rid of this system in its entirety.

我已经不再过那种生活了（尽管我曾那样过了14年以上，整个成年时期都是如此），但我觉得门槛其实更高了（可能要到100-150万，而不是40万，所以现在肯定算“中产阶级”、小资产阶级了）。我最后的“安全网”至少也得是干点违法的事。我有那技能，也知道怎么操作，但我也清楚这种事的后果。这种事几乎总是会波及你不想波及的人（其他工薪阶层），所以这也是让我却步的一个原因。更别说我还有配偶。不过，我现在算是过得比较好的了；我幸运地能够上学，拿到学位（但我去学的那个行业已经垮了，大规模裁员，更别提我还背了5万多美元的债，我配偶还有10万多美元），然后又回去读书考证书，指望靠这个新学历找到工作。我知道其他人还陷在赤贫里，或者每天醒着的时间都在打多份工，累死累活却几乎一无所获。
总的来说，美国和西方现在处境很糟，但这并不奇怪，资本主义体系历来如此，世世代代都在这样对待劳动者。只是希望越来越多的人能认清现实，意识到我们必须彻底推翻这个制度。

Saint_Huang
Yes, I personally knew a friend of several years that became homeless for a while and had to sleep in his car, then finally got back on his feet a few years later and has since became extremely frugal with his money, and also had to partake in the American's "hustle culture" (basically working multiple side gigs at once that don't really count as a 'job' officially but it's still working). Apparently this story isn't too uncommon.
Most people here are living by borrowing from their future to pay for the present (credit cards abuse, large tuitions, huge mortgage, long term car loans, etc).
Coupled with a very individualistic culture as well as a mode of economy (capitalism) both of which promote selfishness and taking advantage of other people, the line between homelessness and not is thin for many people. The US is a place that is almost utopia for the people with money (which is a small minority), while it's a Battle Royale for everyone else.
This is not an error, but the system was designed this way. In capitalism, in order for there to be "bread winners" (people who makes tons of money), there needs to be losers (people who are taken advantaged of and exploited). This boils down to a lack of critical thinking skills and lack of class consciousness amongst the masses.
Society and civilization are inherently socialistic at its core—civilization first formed by people coming together to form a community and make compromises to one another in the first place (e.g restricting one's own freedom and enforce rules and regulations, or contribute a portion of our income to build public infrastructures to support the collective, etc) to increase our chances of survival as a collective and make living more comfortable for everyone as a whole. For this reason, most Americans are actually a part of that socialist framework as well just like every single society and civilization out there ever—this should be common sense and a no brainer but unfortunately it isn't—however this socialist framework is hijacked by private interests (the capitalists) to exploit everyone else within that socialist framework in order to disproportionately increase their own gains (greed); they're like leeches that are draining the system off the much needed resources to distribute for everyone else.

是的，我有个认识好几年的朋友，他曾一度无家可归，只能睡在车里。几年后他终于翻身了，从此变得极其节俭，还不得不卷入美国的“拼命文化”（就是同时打好几份零工，这些不算正式“工作”，但也是在干活）。显然，这种故事并不少见。
这里大多数人靠透支未来维持现在的生活（滥用信用卡、高昂学费、巨额房贷、长期车贷等等）。再加上极度个人主义的文化和经济模式（资本主义），这两者都助长自私自利和利用他人，对很多人来说，是否沦落街头往往只有一线之隔。美国对有钱人（只是极少数）几乎是乌托邦，但对其他所有人来说，却像一场大逃杀。
这不是系统出错，而是如此设计。在资本主义制度下，要有“赢家”（赚大钱的人），就必须有输家（被利用和剥削的人）。归根结底，这源于大众缺乏批判性思维和阶级意识。
社会和文明本质上都是社会主义的——文明最初就是人们聚集起来形成社区，彼此妥协（比如限制个人自由、制定规则，或者贡献部分收入建设公共基础设施以支持集体），以提高集体生存几率，让整体生活更舒适。因此，大多数美国人其实也属于这个社会主义框架，就像历史上所有社会一样——这本该是常识，但可惜并不是。然而，这个社会主义框架被私人利益（资本家）劫持，用来剥削框架内的其他人，以不成比例地增加自身收益（贪婪）；他们就像水蛭，吸干了本应分配给所有人的宝贵资源。

And of course, since resources is finite, the more the minority capitalists gain means the smaller the share of the pie for everyone else, but what's even more unfortunate is due to the lack of class consciousness in America, much of the victims under this arrangement are actually defending the leeches. 99% of the people living in capitalist countries aren't capitalists, they're inherently socialists (a.k.a the exploited class, the 'wage slaves') but those people don't seem to realize that, some of them even delusional enough to think of themselves a part of that exclusive circle but just not quite there yet.
Fortunately there seems to be a reversal in the younger generations with the popularity of Zohran Mamdani's rise, or how most of the younger Americans actually celebrate & defend Luigi Mangione's actions, but that's still just a drop of water in the ocean and still far too early to celebrate. I suspect nothing short of a Cultural Revolution-like event will cure this cancer due to how deep it has penetrated into American culture (The "American Dream" is basically just endless & mindless consumerism as well as hedonism, oh what else do capitalists love more than that?).
However, we do have AI and automation to look forward to. If used right, humans being forced to slave away most of their life to those above them in order to live might be finally at an end and we can focus on things that matter: ourselves, family, and society. This is also one of the end goal of communism and socialism and probably why China is pushing so hard and leading in these sectors.
China, although more socialist than US and not going full speed ahead into some Cyberpunk dystopia like the US is doing, still faces some of the same problems due to the privatizations it brought in its economy. Hopefully the Party can stay on track and not lose sight of its original goals, like the USSR did.

当然，资源是有限的，少数资本家拿得越多，其他人分到的就越少。但更不幸的是，由于美国缺乏阶级意识，这种制度下的许多受害者竟然在维护这些“水蛭”。生活在资本主义国家的99%的人并不是资本家，他们本质上是社会主义者（即被剥削阶级，“工资奴隶”），但这些人似乎没有意识到这一点，有些人甚至幻想自己属于那个特权圈子，只是还没挤进去。
幸运的是，年轻一代似乎出现了转变，比如佐赫兰·马姆达尼的崛起受到欢迎，或者大多数美国年轻人实际上赞扬并支持路易吉·曼吉奥内的行为。但这仍是沧海一粟，庆祝还为时过早。我感觉，除非发生一场“文化大革命”式的事件，否则难以根除这个毒瘤，因为它已深深渗透进美国文化（“美国梦”基本上就是无止境、无意识的消费主义和享乐主义——资本家最爱这些了）。
不过，我们还可以期待人工智能和自动化。如果运用得当，人类被迫为上层奴役大半生才能生存的日子或许终于能结束了，我们可以专注于重要的事：自己、家庭和社会。这也是共产主义和社会主义的终极目标之一，或许这正是中国在这些领域大力推动并领先的原因。
中国虽然比美国更社会主义，没有像美国那样全速冲向赛博朋克式的反乌托邦，但由于经济中引入了私有化，仍面临一些类似问题。希望党能保持正轨，不忘初心，不像苏联那样迷失方向。

max38576
I used to often see people saying: China is so great, so why do all the wealthy Chinese move to the United States?
Well, now I see.
Those with genuine wealth can do as they please in America.
Those with only a little money yet consider themselves wealthy are merely fuel for America's elite—spending their fortunes there only to end up as fuel for the nation's top-tier wealthy.

以前总看到有人说：中国这么好，怎么有钱的中国人全往美国跑？
现在明白了。
真正有钱的人在美国想怎么玩就怎么玩。
那些有点钱就觉得自己了不起的人，不过是美国精英的燃料——在那里挥霍完财富，最终也只是给美国最顶层的富人当垫脚石。

Altking123
The decapitation line has always existed in the US. It just so happens that the US post-WW2 created the most sophisticated and powerful propaganda tool in history through Hollywood and other global media conglomerates. The US can talking about China's "saving face" or "Wolf Warrior" diplomacy all day long, but China's propaganda machine pales in comparison to the US's mainstream media.
You're only hearing this concept now because the wealth inequality in the US has gotten so egregious not even its media can hide it.

美国一直都有这种“斩杀线”的现象。只不过二战后美国通过好莱坞和其他全球媒体集团，建立了史上最精密、最强大的宣传机器。美国可以整天谈论中国的“面子外交”或“战狼外交”，但中国的宣传机构与美国主流媒体相比简直是小巫见大巫。你现在才听说这个概念，是因为美国的贫富差距已经严重到连自家媒体都掩盖不住了。

random_agency
Using an old World of Warcraft term to describe life in the US.
It depends if a Chinese American is well versed in the various entitlement benefits in various US cities that are offered to low income people.
So one could become a welfare king/queen in the US and not worried aboit being completely wiped out.
But if you have heavy student loans, mortgages, etc; without a healthy saving account it is kind of risky to maintain your lifestyle.
Take the 2008 mortagage back security crisis. I knew many Chinese Americans that needed to downsize to a small home or lost their jobs and had to rent a place.
I myself had to manage a soft landing and exit from a commercial property, only to reallocate investment to residential property for income.
Basically actively manage to stay above water.
Even in old age I've come across cases where elderly Chinese American have a sudden health crisis and needed to go to a nursing home. To protect their assets they hire an expensive lawyer to create a trust and move cash to other family accounts, so they qualify for Medicaid. It cost about $900 a week out of pocket at a nursing home.
So yes it is true. But one has to be acclimated and accultured enough in US soceity to protects ones wealth.

用了《魔兽世界》的老术语来形容美国的生活。
这得看一个美籍华人是否熟悉美国各个城市为低收入人群提供的各种福利待遇。
所以，有人可以在美国成为“福利之王/后”，完全不用担心被彻底击垮。
但如果你背负着沉重的学生贷款、房贷等等，又没有充足的储蓄，想维持生活方式还是挺冒险的。
拿2008年的次贷危机来说，我认识不少美籍华人不得不换小房子，或者丢了工作只能租房住。
我自己当时也得设法软着陆，从商业房产中抽身，转而投资住宅房产来获取收入。
说白了，就是得主动经营，才能勉强维持下去。
甚至到老年，我也见过一些美籍华人长辈突然健康出问题，不得不进养老院。
为了保护财产，他们请昂贵的律师设立信托，把现金转到其他家庭成员的账户，这样就能符合医疗补助的资格。在养老院每周自费就要大约900美元。
所以，这概念没错。但一个人必须足够适应和融入美国社会，才能保护好自己的财富。

blkirishbastard -> random_agency
Most people in the US do not have "wealth" and benefits are paltry. I know people with severe disabilities that prevent them from working and they receive about $700 a month from the government.

美国大多数人并没有“财富”，福利也少得可怜。我认识一些有严重残疾、无法工作的人，他们每月从政府那里只能领到大约700美元。

Terrible--Message -> random_agency
It depends if a Chinese American is well versed in the various entitlement benefits in various US cities that are offered to low income people.
So one could become a welfare king/queen in the US and not worried aboit being completely wiped out.
This is absolutely not true but I'm glad you brought it up. Using the public benefits you are eligible for does not make you a "welfare queen" it makes you a welfare recipient. The "welfare queen" stereotype is a myth from the Reagan era used to cut social safety nets by blaming individual citizens for the government's failures to protect the country's laborers from exploitation. Profiteers paint welfare recipients as lazy, greedy people living like kings for not working in order to make everyone who works hard resent that their tax dollars go towards the social services that help people, so that bought government officials can cut those social services and make people more dependent on their employers to survive, because that desperation makes people more willing to endure unfair labor practices and suppressed wages.

“这得看一个美籍华人是否熟悉美国各个城市为低收入人群提供的各种福利待遇。所以，有人可以在美国成为“福利之王/后”，完全不用担心被彻底击垮。”
这完全是错误的说法，但我很高兴你提出来。使用你有资格享受的公共福利并不会让你成为“福利皇后”，这只会让你成为一个福利领取者。“福利皇后”这种刻板印象是里根时代的一个神话，用来削减社会安全网，通过指责普通公民来掩盖政府未能保护本国劳动者免受剥削的失败。
牟利者将福利领取者描绘成懒惰、贪婪、像国王一样生活而不工作的人，目的是让所有努力工作的人怨恨自己的税款被用于帮助他人的社会服务。这样一来，被收买的政府官员就可以削减这些社会服务，使人们更加依赖雇主生存，因为这种绝望感会让人们更愿意忍受不公平的劳动行为和被压低的工资。

It's a kind of "useless eaters" propaganda weaponized especially against single black mothers left to raise their families alone because racist police practices disproportionately take black fathers out of their homes who would have been able to contribute to the household income if they remained free. Prison labor pays a fraction of the federal minimum wage, and even that drops further below the livable wage it is meant to be every year. There are even places in America that will rent out prisoners to work at McDonald's for a cut of their wages and then say they're too dangerous to be freed on parole. Seriously. Still a slave country.
"Welfare queens" are not the low income people dependent on public assistance to survive a broken system, they're the Walmarts our tax dollars subsidize, the military contractors who can't tell us how our tax dollars are spent, the loan sharks shackling teenagers to predatory student loans and perhaps worst of all the for-profit health insurance companies that take government subsidies just to gouge the sick and dying so that medical expenses are a leading cause of bankruptcy%20%E2%80%9Cvery,530%20000%20medical%20bankruptcies%20annually.).
TL;DR I dont think you meant "welfare queen" since that's a derogatory term but it is emblematic of the suicidal individualism we've been groomed into; shaming people for relying on welfare instead of the people who make so many others need it is how things got this bad.

这是一种针对“无用食客”的宣传武器，尤其针对独自抚养家庭的单身黑人母亲。因为种族主义的警察行为不成比例地将黑人父亲从家庭中带走，而如果他们保持自由，本可以为家庭收入做出贡献。监狱劳动的报酬远低于联邦最低工资标准，甚至每年都进一步压低本应维持生活的工资水平。在美国甚至有些地方会将囚犯租给麦当劳工作，从中抽取他们的工资，然后声称他们太危险，不能假释。说真的，这仍然是一个奴隶制国家。
“福利皇后”并不是那些依赖公共援助在破碎系统中生存的低收入人群，而是我们用税款补贴的沃尔玛，那些无法告诉我们税款去向的军事承包商，那些用掠夺性学生贷款束缚青少年的放贷者，以及最糟糕的营利性医疗保险公司，它们拿着政府补贴，却肆意压榨生病和垂死的人，导致医疗费用成为破产的主要原因（每年约有53万起医疗破产案例）。
长话短说，我认为你并不是故意说“福利皇后”，因为这是一个贬义词，但它象征着我们被灌输的自毁性个人主义：羞辱依赖福利的人，而不是指责那些让如此多人需要福利的人，这正是事情变得这么糟糕的原因。

ghstrprtn -> random_agency
Using an old World of Warcraft term to describe life in the US.
what is it?

“用了《魔兽世界》的老术语来形容美国的生活”
是什么术语？

random_agency -> ghstrprtn
kill line. Basically you aggro and bunch of meatshields to a certain health line then use a wide area skill kill everyone.
Basically, it an analogy life in the US. If you don't accumulate enough wealth or asset. One unforseen crisis can wipe you out.

“斩杀线”，就是你先把怪引到一起，打到残血，然后一个范围技能清场。
基本上，这是对美国生活的类比。如果你没攒够钱或资产，一次意外危机就能把你干掉。

Benzene114 -> ghstrprtn
Execute , a Warrior skill that deals massive damage to an enemy below a set HP percentage (the Execution line). Refers to how people swiftly slip into homelessness once a certain threshold is crossed

斩杀，战士技能，对生命值低于一定百分比（斩杀线）的敌人造成巨大伤害。指人们一旦越过某个临界点，就会迅速陷入无家可归的境地。

coolerstorybruv -> random_agency
It helps if you have a disability too to access entitlement benefits, which if able-bodied now have work requirements.
LTC Medicaid asset look-back period is 5 years, I believe.
The entitlement system was designed for whites in mind at first. It just the whites had an unprecedented postwar boomer prosperity where they didn’t need it as lifer-at-one-employer-for-life sponsored pensions and benefits triumphed.
Think of your entire working lifetime spent at General Electric or United Technologies in ‘Stepford Wives’ Connecticut with a boat, tuition for UConn, and comfortable retirement for dabbling at 2000s peak Mohegan Sun/Foxwoods casinos.
They didn’t need to rely on welfare/entitlement programs which were better in the olden days than now. A system designed by the white elites.. Yankee Establishment WASPs
It’s when neoliberalism America decoupled from the Gold Standard to finance the Vietnam War with offshoring and financialization is what eroded the Boomer Middle Class and successive generations leading up to today.
Whites would rather self-sabotage themselves by voting for Trump to destroy these social safety nets, than reconcile with the cognitive dissonance of devolving into becoming lumped-in and characterized as a “welfare queen/king” they vilified stereotyped welfare-assisted minorities participating.
The irony is that whites make up the largest racial group of EBT SNAP and whatnot. It’s all rhetorical goal shifting by them to obfuscate (admit) to the truth that they are double standard hypocrites and have misplaced pride of seeking help on the level of poor racial minorities now.

如果你有残疾，也更容易获得福利补贴，而现在健全人则需要满足工作要求。
长期护理医疗补助的资产审查期我记得是5年。
福利体系最初是为白人设计的。只是战后白人经历了前所未有的婴儿潮繁荣期，他们不需要这些福利，因为终身雇佣制下的养老金和福利待遇更好。
想象一下，整个职业生涯都在康涅狄格州的通用电气或联合技术公司度过，像《复制娇妻》里那样，有游艇，孩子能上康涅狄格大学，退休后还能悠闲地去2000年代鼎盛时期的莫希干太阳赌场或福克斯伍德赌场玩两把。
他们不需要依赖福利体系，而过去的福利比现在更好。这个体系是由白人精英设计的，就是那些美国东北部的新教徒当权派。
直到新自由主义美国脱离金本位制，通过离岸外包和金融化来资助越南战争，这才侵蚀了婴儿潮一代的中产阶级，并影响到了之后的几代人，一直延续到今天。
白人宁愿通过投票给特朗普来自毁这些社会安全网，也不愿面对自己沦为被他们污名化的“福利皇后/国王”的认知矛盾，而过去他们总是刻板地指责少数族裔依赖福利。
讽刺的是，白人其实是食品券等福利项目中最大的种族群体。他们只是在玩弄话术，混淆视听（不愿承认）一个事实：他们就是双标的伪君子，明明自己已经沦落到和少数族裔穷人一样领救济的地步了，却还端着可笑的骄傲不肯承认。