I have to ask...

ILL CAPITALISM EVER BE FAIR?

The storm that is giving us rain yesterday and today  gave Alabama a tornado overnight..,A tornado ripped up the regional high school here last year, and they are about to start construction on a new one now.  Hopefully it was insured and we tax payers don't have to fork out even more money to build super covid spreader schools...it's a waste of money to sink millions into school buildings  while the education being offered is below standards.  I for one do not and have never voted for the school referendum.  THEY never lower the tax rates once they build a school they just keep adding more charges on top.

How are we supposed to keep up? AND yet the minimum wage in this state is $8.50 an hr....how the hell can anyone buy and keep up a home and raise kids and put them in those schools at that rate? They are creating a ghetto...trailer parks are springing up all over because people can't afford standard housing.  We have the highest electric rates in the country...the failed Nuclear plant is a good example of why.  They spent $9 BILLION dollars "To dig a hole in the ground and then fill it back in" is how one headline put it. 

Our rates were raised to PAY for the building as it went along not after receiving energy from it ....and due to wasteful spending,  delays, and government and regulatory oversight the project collapsed when they ran out of money and had nothing to show for it...AND they just asked for another rate hike and the Energy Commission denied it...

There was a law suit.....they were ordered to pay rate payer back....they gave me $60 back, they gave Mom $197 back (a check I can't even cash  because I closed her bank account and I could get into trouble cashing a dead person's check?) and there is supposed to be 3 more checks coming.  AND they will ask for another rate hike by the end of this year mark my words...

SO let us look at BARE minimum living expenses...

People living in cramped house trailers making $8.50 an hr and receiving $250 electric bills for a winter heating month... how does that work out?
8 hrs per week of your pay is going for your electric bill in winter 
8 hours per week of your work goes for food,
3 hours per week to gas your car,
2.5 hrs per week goes to your car insurance, 

2.5 hrs per week goes to pay your property tax 

7 hrs per week for  rent
If you don't own your own home or pay for a mortgage, and honestly people who make $8.50 an hr will not qualify for a mortgage they may have a trailer payment...of about what low rent would be or a little more....but most do NOT own their own place. 

So 31 hours of your 40 and lets face it most minimum wage jobs only give 32 hours to these employees to keep from ever paying OT wages...and taxes takes the rest if you get 40 hrs. 

That pretty much adds up to your entire paycheck going to base living expenses now where is the left overs for emergencies, health insurance, savings, entertainment, phone and internet, the boot strap money?  A $380 check by the time you get it is probably $290...And yet congressmen who send their kids to private schools pay the same rates for groceries, for gas, for electric, for taxes...how is that fair?

I pay 0.93 cents per kwh up to 750 kw, but after that I pay 7.55 per kwh.  And a base rate of $25 per week.  My research shows the average homeowner uses 914 KWH per month...And it depends on the time of day  you use that Kilowatt...if you get up in the morning and turn on the heat it's gonna cost you more than if it turned on in the middle of the night...when you're in bed... charging your more for it. when  you really need it.  They call that Peak...a sweet little word for you pay more during these hours, like in Summer it's 4-6pm and in winter it's 7-9am  Okay that when you get home from work, and when you wake up to go to work..SO when you are actually home enjoying your house it costs you more to live in it.

A man who earns $350,000 a year is making $167 an hr...did you wonder WHY they don't announce those salaries in the form of Per Hour?? Because it's completely vulgar that is why.  This man pays the same rate for electricity that I do...or that the single mom of 2 living in a single wide house trailer does.  A college football coach makes $7.2 million per yr, thats $20,000 per DAY...more than most people earn in a years time. 

She works 8 hrs to pay her entire living expenses for the day...it takes all her pay to do it and she probably goes in the hole some months.  The man pays his expenses for the week in just 2 hours of working. This is using the same base of a week of gas, a week of food, a week of rent altho his is more so I could tweek my formula, and he pays more in taxes, for sure...but she brings HOME for week in what he makes in 2 hours of work.  Her rent may be $400 a month, his mortgage may be $2500 a month...still he is making $29,000 per month, swinging that $2500 for rent is a piece of cake for him.. He earns more in one month than she will probably bring home for the entire year. Actually she makes  half his monthly salary for the entire year...her loaf of bread cost $4 his loaf of bread $4..

That $250 electric bill will eat up her entire paycheck for that week...YET the man will cover his in 2hrs of work....see when you compare Apples to Apples you can see how unbalanced the system is and how wage inequality is the driving force to discontent. 

 HE pays $1.99 a gallon for the gas for his 2020 BMW and she puts it in her 2001 Dodge Caravan.  She works 10 minutes to pay for that one gallon...he makes $3.47 per minute..so his one gallon is paid for in less than a minute...his 10 minutes pays for his entire fill up WHILE  her fill up is nearly 3 hrs of work.

So do you see how this is so unbalanced?? Now my math may be off a little but it's in the ball park. 

A capitalist system is set up only for a few to prosper and the rest are supposed to keep them going...iron their shirts, shine their shoes, cook their meals, repair their cars, keep their  yards, make sure their appliances work, give them a place to spend their wealth...and the ones supporting all that luxury living... make pnuts....go home to a trailer full of needy children who get educated in schools that do not teach them the real meaning of life but teaches them how to keep up the needs of the wealthy, by working a meager job. 

Soooo....

That is how I see our system...the haves and never will haves...My husband and I were very smart and we cut corners anyway we could to eek out a living, we both were self employed and could set our hours and our price per hour but we both worked to keep up the life style of the wealthy.  I was in the re-upholstery business making their homes lovely and he was in the horse shoeing business keeping their horses in tip top shape.  But we were not able to go buy the kind of place we wanted we had to do it from the ground up we bought some land, we couldn't afford to build a new house so we bought an old house and had it moved...and little by little we made it into an acceptable home. It took us 15 yrs to pay off the loans we made to get our home realized...and I had to buy it back from him at twice what we paid  for it..when we divorced, and it took my entire life savings ....so there you have it.  That's why I burn wood, that's why I scrimp and DIY most everything, and that's how it goes for some of us. 

I pay property tax rates at the Same rate as the man who made $350K per year and retired with a nice package from his employer and who makes good in the stock market because he can afford to lose...he bought a 2 story mansion at the Lake, and probably has a second home in the Mountains or at the Beach...So then you probably could come back with ....well he got an education worked really hard climbed the ladder...yes he did.  

SO do millions of others and yet they won't succeed....they will be fired, they will be laid off, their loans will be denied, they will go down instead of up and they will live in poverty.  There is only so much room at the top! 

Capitalism is not working for the majority of people in the world.