Humans weren’t meant to just work
But increasingly in the U.S., that’s exactly what’s happening
By Yvonne C. Claes
I paid nearly $10 the other day for a small cappuccino at a local mom and pop coffee shop. I hadn’t bothered to look at the price before ordering and was too embarrassed to say I had changed my mind, especially since the barista was sweating from trying get the cappuccino machine to work properly.
I suppose I could have gone to McDonald’s and avoided the sticker shock all together, but I make a point to support local establishments.
But ten bucks for a small cappuccino?
The barista noticed my surprise as she rang me up.
“We used to charge five dollars a couple months ago, but with inflation, the price keeps going up,” she said sympathetically. “We pay more for ingredients, and don’t get me started on how much coffee alone has gone up.”
Yikes!
I next went to a gas station to fill up my 2010 Dodge Journey. My heart sank as I watched the display on the pump tick higher and higher, eventually stopping at $80.14.
I immediately thought: How in the hell can someone working a minimum wage job afford these prices?
Greed is why most companies are price-gouging customers, with the President and Congress loathe to do anything about it. After all, politicians only are accountable to their largest donors: corporations, not average Americans who lack lobbying power.
Sure, most states pay above the ridiculously low $7.25 an hour federal minimum wage. But even if you make $12 or $15 an hour, simply filling your gas tank will eat a large portion of your paycheck.
By the way, had salaries kept up with inflation and productivity, the federal minimum wage today would — and should be — $24 an hour.
But politicians and their corporate masters aren’t stupid.
Keeping earnings low among minimum wage workers allows employers who demand college degrees of their employees to suppress the latter’s salaries as well.
Perhaps that’s why so many people are foregoing college all together. Less than 40 percent of adults in this country have a bachelor’s degree or higher. Of that percentage, only 14.4 percent have a master’s degree or higher.
Not good for the richest country in the history of the world.
Besides not being able to afford college, many can’t afford a roof over their head. Forget about being able to afford buying a home. The base rent alone at my mobile home park has gone up three times in the past 18 months.
But I’m lucky. I make a reasonably good salary as a longtime high school teacher. The unlucky part is that I’m in student loan hell because my job required me to earn a master’s degree, and I changed careers in my mid-30s.
(Prediction: Biden’s campaign promise to forgive up to $20,000 for people making under a certain income level will never come to pass, and if it does, it’s woefully inadequate, especially since the federal government refuses to address the real problem: student loan companies charging borrowers 8–10 percent interest that is accumulated daily. For comparison's sake, the average mortgage carries a 4–6 percent interest rate that accrues monthly. I already have paid back what I borrowed but still owe $77,000, which is approximately $20,000 MORE than I borrowed).
Talk about the government turning a huge profit off the backs of its own people!
Retirement is not part of my personal vocabulary and never will be, despite doing everything society told me to do: earn a college degree(s), work hard, don’t get arrested, and keep your head down and nose clean.
But the broken promises of college are another issue for another time.
After my cappuccino and fuel fiascoes, I went grocery shopping. I didn’t need much: a few canned goods, a couple pounds of beef, a carton of milk, a dozen eggs, and a few fruits and vegetables. I didn’t purchase any “big-ticket” items like toilet paper, cleaning supplies, or cases of cat food I normally buy to help feed a few neighborhood strays.
My bill came to more than $70. I looked at the conveyor belt and wondered, for what?
In the evening some friends invited me for drinks and dinner. We went to our favorite Mexican place. I indulged. I had two margaritas and three fish tacos. With tip, my portion of the bill came to $37.
So, in the course of one day, I spent about $200. Yes, I didn’t need the cappuccino and I could have declined my friends’ invitation.
But seriously, why should I? I work hard and deserve, at minimum, a night out with friends. I practically live as a hermit as it is. None of us should live to simply work.
We should be able to occasionally enjoy the fruits of our labor, without shame or guilt.
But increasingly in the United States employees are just living to work, so they can fill their gas tank to drive to a job they hate, and live in a tiny, overpriced apartment.
About 37 percent of Americans earn less than $50,000 annually, and with inflation soaring, it is getting harder and harder to afford the basics, including healthcare.
And can we please drop the corporate media lies that the real problem is millennials who devour avocado toast and every other generation — except Boomers, of course — who live beyond their means?
Sure, some people spend more than they earn, preferring to put daily expenditures on plastic. But the majority don’t. No one likes being in debt. And frankly, humans weren’t meant to just work.
As it is, I never take vacations because I can’t afford them. I take “Staycations” whenever I have time off. Netflix, a pint of ice cream, and my own home (on a rented lot) are my idea of “fun” away from work.
When President Biden and economists say we are on the “verge” of a recession, I wonder if they have stepped outside their mansions nestled in their affluent gated communities.
From where I’m seated, the recession has been going strong for months, leaving many Americans to live to work instead of work to live.
©Yvonne C. Claes, 2022. I own this content. You can share my column, but make sure my name is left on it. If you don’t, be prepared to deal with my copyright attorney. Thanks!
