eat the rich

I hate authority.

I absolutely hate it.

The fact that I have a boss is one of the worst things in my entire life.

It doesn’t even matter who the boss is.

The boss I have now has her Jekyll and Hyde moments… or hours, or days… But overall, she’s a nice, pleasant, funny woman.

I often think that if we had met each other when we were children she would have been a friend I would have kept forever.

However, when she talks to me in a tone and looks at me like she believes I’m stupid, I forget all about her good qualities and just want to burn the whole fucking building down because that’s how much I hate having a boss.

I know that this is an entitled, petulant, gross thing to say when I legit want to get the words EAT THE RICH tattooed onto my body, but I was not made to be told what to do.

I am thoroughly unemployable, and perhaps 30 of every 60 minutes of my day are spent dreaming, scheming, planning, and taking action on things so I don’t have to be employed anymore.

With the job I have, although I love it, I hate that it pays me so little that I am living on one missed paycheck away from ruin.

I want to support myself.

I don’t want my life and livelihood to depend on the mood and whims of some woman who’s probably never had to worry about becoming homeless in her life.

Normal people don’t think this way.

Most people just go with the flow of life, keep their heads down, and do what they have to do to support themselves and their families, and maybe be fortunate enough to be able to afford to enjoy some of that time.

When I was growing up, I was witnessing a model and path for life that by the time I was 18, wasn’t so likely or easy to take anymore.

Go to school, go to college, get a good job, get married, get a better job, buy a house, have some babies, get an even better job, get a bigger house, hoard savings for retirement, sell your massive house, retire to Florida, and die happy and warm.

That’s not my path.

Let’s see where I fall now:

I am 42.5 years old.

I have no college degree.

I’m a single mom to a child who will need lifetime care.

I have a job that pays well over minimum wage, except with things being as expensive as they are, it’s a poverty wage.

The cost of my rent is 73% of my monthly income.

If someone asked me whether I was doing anything illegal or immoral to get by, I would plead the Fifth.

I really don’t know how “the people in charge” think millions of people like me are going to keep getting by on so little.

So, I can’t say I would change one law, but I would change one kind of law.

Tax laws.

I work at a food pantry in a rather wealthy area, and we serve over 2,000 individuals and families.

That sucks, right?

To think that even here, even in “the wealthiest country in the world” (which I am seriously beginning to doubt), there are still so many people who have trouble taking care of their most basic needs.

Food. Shelter. Warmth.

All of the shelters are full.

All of the emergency warming centers are full.

If you’re living in a tent in the woods during the winter?

Well, good for you, because that means you have shelter.

Gaza and Sudan are facing famines.

Eighteen million people are facing death by starvation right fucking now, on this earth with us, as you are reading this.

And?

The wealthiest man in the world is running the show. (NY Times gift link)

There is no reason, not a single one, that any of these people should die.

Every one of those eight million people can be fed and can survive – if only people cared enough to do more to help them.

Billionaires hoard wealth for what?