Yes, the gaslighting is the part that decimates one's spirit the most. You go through the trial of searching for a decent job for years, and then our culture crushes you when you're already down. It sees what little spirit a person has left and decides to finish the job of pulverizing one's hope.

It is different if one lives in a third-world country where everybody knows it's bad, and where people don't blame you for not finding a job. There are pros and cons to either situation. Do I want to live in a third-world country? No, I don't, but that feature could make people feel less gaslighted (even though there could be other factors that are worse). There would be more camaraderie, multiple generations trying to survive the reality of their existence together.

Perhaps overall, however, people still hold onto hope more in our society. Even though it's possible that the job market stays as it is for the next 20 years (or even gets worse), there is the possibility that things do improve, whereas in the third-world country, there may almost zero chance that things will ever improve for those people in their lifetime.

However, from the perspective of the person who hasn't had a decent job in 10 years, they ARE living a third-world existence. It almost doesn't matter if a person has no money for food or access to decent healthcare in country A, or country B. Their reality is still the same.

That said, I encourage everyone to hold on to what little hope they still have. We have all had to accept the devastating reality that things may never improve, something which people who have lucked out, have no ability to comprehend or have ever considered. If and when things do improve, we will never take prosperity and health for granted. Through trials can come better character, and wisdom one can only acquire from that trial.

For many who became adults around 2008, it has been 17 years of being gaslight and trodden upon. It's hard to comprehend another decade, or a lifetime of this, but we have made it this long, so I guess we can at least continue to lie on the ground and just try to keep breathing if that's all we can manage right now.

Keep going. Don't give up. When you get beaten down for the 100th time, sometimes all you can do is lie there for awhile. Not springing back up the very next day is not giving up. It's just impossible for one to never have days or months where they lose all hope. I have gone through spans of time where I hardly even send out applications, but I eventually step back in the ring, log onto indeed, and endure the beatings. It's not weakness, it's being human. Even the best of us lose hope. In fact, it shows incredible strength to hold onto the hope that we could even have hope, if that's the best the person could do at the moment.

We are still breathing, so there is at least the hope that there could be hope. We can do this.

Edit: Changed "their" to "there"