Things Left Unsaid

My employer tosses me table scraps while they devour a ten course meal, and then they say they can't afford anything. Especially not decent raises. They act like they are doing me a favour by letting me work for them. Like I should be grateful for getting anything at all in return for it. They slather us with platitudes occasionally, or reward and thank us with a slice of pizza and a pop, but those good gestures are overshadowed by the endless day to day living pay to pay.

When we are out there doing the things we do to earn their billions for them there is always a feeling, an undertone of resentment towards us. The platitudes vanish with the wind. The pizza digests. Our boss gets shit from their boss, then we get shit from them. As they say, shit slides downhill. A feeling that no matter how hard we try it will never be enough. Head down, shut up, and get to work. Don't think about it, and if you do think about it don't ever speak your thoughts out loud. Add to that the underlying current of misery from everyone just like me stuck in the same rut. Sounds so depressing. But seriously, it is not all bad all the time, really it isn't. We do find ways to make the most of it. I actually don't hate my job.

The balance has tipped precariously towards the ultra-wealthy. Profit is paramount. The workers earning it for them are somewhere down the priority list. Maybe in the top ten. Not sure. We are as important to the company as disposable lighters are to smokers. I don't know who to blame. It isn't my boss, or his boss. Likely not even anyone in the building where I work. Not even from the corporation at all. More like a mysterious message being transmitted from somewhere in the void, whispering from the darkness: Keep them scared, angry, intoxicated, medicated, miserable, broke, distracted and exhausted. Blame them for everything. Don't ever pay them more, or let them have time to think.

Corporations and billionaires worldwide are hoarding most of the wealth for no reason other than to accumulate more wealth. Buying things, and power with it. The wealth they are hoarding could make life better for so many. Maybe even enjoyable. They simply just do not care about anything other than hoarding and accumulating more than they did yesterday, and buying more things and more power with it. Insatiable, unnecessary, illogical greed and need to control.

The monthly rent that I pay to a multi-billion dollar corporation is about five times more than it once was. In the same span of time that it grew that much, my hourly wage has only gone up about five bucks.

Landlords get to profit more and more from taking more of my pay, adding to the many things making my life more unaffordable. Their rights are always expanding, and in equal measure my rights as a tenant are disappearing. I currently have an apartment, but the threat of it going away is always there. I rent, so I don't comment on home ownership. I think it is just as unattainable to most people too now.

One hundred dollars used to be enough to fill a grocery cart to the top. It would be two or more trips to the car to bring in all the bags. Now one hundred dollars is two bags. Only one bag if I need things like laundry detergent and coffee at the same time.

I call myself part of the working poor. I suppose I'm lucky that I am able to work. So many in this world are even worse off, with wars and famine, unemployment and homelessness. With the world the way it is right now I feel like it would be very naive of me to rule out any one of those things, or all, for my future self. None of us has any realistic way to fight it. Fight, fight fight. I guess that is who we are as humans.

The few ultra wealthy war mongering greedy manipulative propagandizing fucks running the shit show of humanity could fix it tomorrow. They just choose not to. They are maximum taking with minimal giving. They all want it all. We, the many, are unheard, a herd to be herded, and data to be extracted. Used and abused.