Weekly Observations: What signs of collapse do you see in your region? [in-depth]

Location: USA, Lower 48 States, East of the Rocky Mountains Cost of living, up. Wages, not so much. Pretty much the same old song and dance, but with each time the price of food and other basic necessities creeps up, it hits my wallet a little harder. Luckily, I don't eat much (though, not being able to eat much has its own problems,) but I also feel almost uncomfortable buying food sometimes thinking about all the money I have to spend on it, it's not a good feeling at all. It makes me feel really guilty and ashamed of myself when my stomach flares up and I can't finish what I'm eating, which sometimes happens to me when I'm having a bad day symptom wise, even though I know it's not my fault and that if I try to eat when my pain is past a certain level it won't stay down and will just put me in even more pain. Luckily, my instincts about what I can and can't eat are usually pretty on point but I often struggle with the idea of not being able to finish a normal sized meal sometimes when I know I'd feel better and have more energy if I could just eat it. Coughing, like a deep hacking smoker's cough, is basically a constant soundtrack every time I go anywhere. How people ignore this shit and act like it's normal and that it's always been this way is baffling. I don't begrudge people for not wearing masks outdoors in the heat, since it's almost 100 degrees where I am, but putting one on for a few minutes to go to the grocery store or pharmacy isn't that big of an ask. That said, with the smoke from the wildfire in Canada causing the air quality to turn into absolute dogwater sometimes, it's probably a good idea to keep one available at all times no matter where you are. I've noticed a distinct lack of bugs aside from flies and mosquitoes. Everything else, I hardly ever see them around. I've also planted a few flowers, some basil, some oregano, and a bell pepper plant this year so far and while the flowers are more or less okay (though they seem to wilt quickly,) the oregano turned into crumbly dust in just a few days despite me watering it regularly and keeping it in a partly shaded area and the pepper plant is leaning over on its side like the Leaning Tower of Pisa and there's only one tiny little pepper about the size of my thumb on it so far even though I planted it a few weeks ago and water it and make sure it gets the proper amount of sun. I tried growing a bell pepper plant last year but the pepper only got to about the size of my fist (which is about the size of a child's fist, since I have small hands,) before rotting while it was on the vine and then falling off. The ocean temperature is apparently hotter than it's ever been before since they started keeping track of it. There was a story on the news tonight about the water temperature being about 98 degrees, which is close to the average human body temperature. The thought of the ocean water being as hot as the average human body is fucked, and I can only imagine what it's doing to all the fish and the coral reefs and everything else that lives in the ocean. I also have heard of several people I know, many around my age, suddenly developing new health problems, like cancer and cardiovascular problems, seemingly out of nowhere-these people were all in decent health and decent shape before the pandemic and pretty much all of them have had covid at least once so far. As far as covid's concerned, we're playing with fire and I don't think most people even realize how bad it's going to get if we just let it rip with no attempt to slow the spread until we can clean indoor air and come up with better vaccines. Many other viruses have been known to cause long term effects, but most of those viruses aren't as easily transmittable as covid and people with long covid often have a pretty terrible quality of life even compared to other serious illnesses like AIDS. This all seems like a huge disaster in the making that could punch humanity's card a lot faster than expected but most people are just acting like nothing's wrong, sleepwalking into an apocalyptic nightmare. Life's weird. And it feels weird as hell sometimes to have to pretend things are normal when I'm around other people, and honestly I don't know how other people do it. It's exhausting and sometimes even anger inducing. What's the point of life if you don't try to find solutions to the problems that affect your fellow humans-hell, if you can't be part of the solution, at least don't be part of the problem. But a lot of people can't even be bothered to do that. And at the end of the day, that's what really grinds my gears. It sucks, and I wish I had answers, but I don't, all I can do is try the best I can to do what I think is right and hope that the feeling that it'll never be enough stops someday.