We’re worked to uselessness, and given a fraction of our share. We’re working more and harder and still being driven further from security. Some of us have been forced onto the streets, and for what? The crime of not making 50, 80, 100, 200 thousand a year? Every year the goal post moves a little further away. The cost to simply live our own lives has become a privilege for the few, not a right for us all. Our lives have been taken from us.
So we toil and worry and struggle, and some of us give up. The option to have children has become a financial impossibility for many of us. The option to move to another city and get a job and simply rent has become a financial impossibility for most of us. The freedom to work and live on our own is a maze of side hustles, negotiations, and compromises. Our lives have been taken from us.
The older generations will say “just work harder”. 40 hours a week isn’t enough. Proving yourself and giving your all is expected, no longer rewarded. They’ll call us lazy, unmotivated, entitled. “Nothing is for free” Yet that’s not what we ask. We’re priced out of even the most basic of living. Our lives have been taken from us.
There are houses, condos, apartments… yurts why not. There are enough for all of us. I’ve seen how much food goes to waste. I’ve seen the masses of tents outside the cities for those not lucky enough to get in. I’ve seen how much money is spent catering to the rich. Yet, those with nothing will remain with nothing, because there’s no money in helping them. Our lives have been taken from us.
I don’t know what to do, where to go, what to say. I know writing our congressman, representative, or media won’t help. They’re bought, paid for, and their twisted and out of touch points of view offer no consolation to us. I work, I like to work, and I will continue to try to make this world and myself better in whatever small ways this singular person can. I ask though, for the freedom to live as I please. They call it late stage capitalism, but I say…
We’re not nearly as outraged as we should be.