I mean…none of what you said is incorrect, but none of it precludes the premise either.
On Earth here in 2023 we have cars and trucks, yet many people in developing countries still walk or ride animals to get where they need to go.
E-waste is a major issue and smartphones are ubiquitous, yet there are still areas even in the US that have limited or no Internet access, and in developing countries, access to even fresh water, let alone electricity and Internet, can be hard to come by.
We are capable of amazing medical feats like gene therapy and advanced prosthetics, yet millions lack access to basic care, and millions more die from preventable disease every year.
So maybe in Star Wars it’s less an issue of “they have bad skin because there’s nothing that can be done about it” and more, “They’re poor people struggling to get by in an unforgiving, backwater location, so that type of care is inaccessible, prohibitively expensive, or seen as a non-essential luxury.”
Cobra might as well not even exist for most people.
The two layoffs I’ve been through, Cobra was offered as an option and in both cases it was wildly unaffordable. Like…I couldn’t have afforded it even if I still had the job I had just lost, let alone while unemployed.
In both cases I just basically only had the option to cross my fingers and hope I didn’t need healthcare while letting it lapse completely until I found a new job. Thankfully in the first case I was only unemployed about 3 weeks, but the other time, it was about 6 months.
What eventually came through for me was my state’s version of Medicaid in that situation. Basically it was only available to people earning less than XYZ, but any funds you received as aid from the state didn’t count toward that, meaning that unemployment was exempt and as such, my income was zero. Of course there was like an 8 week waiting period and then it took several more weeks for all the paperwork to go through, but eventually it did kick in.
I think that the whole thing about the pumpkin spice phenomenon is that it’s intrinsically tied to autumn in the US. Pumpkin pie, Halloween with pumpkins, apples, bonfires, etc. it’s all part of the season, and pumpkin spice flavoring is just one of the ways that the season in general can be experienced.
Socially, it seems like white women, more than most other demographics in the States, are especially enthusiastic about celebrating and experiencing the various seasons (and is that really such a bad thing?), and since the autumn season has so many specific items and trends that go along with it that appeal to this demographic (picture the stereotypical white girl in the fall: PSL, fall style, at the farmers market or apple picking, family photos, etc.), it’s just the most distilled example that gets tied to a type of person.
Other people get hyped for fall too…lots of rural American men are excited to go hunting in the fall…but camo and blaze orange with an old Stanley thermos of cheap coffee in an old truck at 4am isn’t quite as marketable as the PSL.
I’m disappointed in myself that my first thought wasn’t utter revulsion, but instead, “Hmmm, I should get a few packs when they go on sale after moving zero units on Halloween…I bet they’ll make fantastic catfish bait.”
A 17 year old kid is forced into taking on debt to attend college with, at the time they agree to it, no way of paying it off. It’s a gamble any which way you slice it. And they have no frame of reference to understand the decision they’re making.
The school isn’t on the hook to ensure they get gainful employment that would pay them enough to manage that debt. The loan servicer isn’t either. Only the kid is going to be held to anything, yet the shitty take is always, “They knew what they were signing up for, so fuck em. I want them to suffer for their bad decision.”
With all sincerity, I hope you encounter misfortune through no fault of your own that ruins your financial security for the next 20 years.