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Where did my money go?!
Yesterday I had an experience that I have had before, but it really got under my skin this time. While waiting in line at Wal-Mart a man about my age stopped me just before checking out. At a quick glance I noticed his entire matching orange outfit, from his obviously expensive hat and jacket all the way to the matching Jordan's on his feet. I would estimate this entire outfit to be around 250-300 dollars, and worth much more then my work outfit made up of 10 dollar khaki pants, plain collared shirt, and 20 dollar Wal-Mart special business shoes, and my Oracle badge.
The man stopped me just before I rang up my items, and asked if I was paying cash for them. I told him no, but his intent was to exchange my cash for his federally provided food stamp debit card. Some of you may not see the problem in this since my groceries get paid the same in either case, but there is more that crossed my mind when I was asked to do this.
I consider my income a middle class wage, and I have worked very hard since I was young to make what I do at this age. However, I've come to realize as I've moved up the salary ladder that even though I am paid more, my financial obligations have also grown. Even though I am glad to be one who has my head above water, my school loans, house mortgage, and taxes make up almost the entirety of my paycheck. I spend a lot of my entertainment time on WoW simply because it is a cheap form of entertainment and that keeps me out of debt. By now I'm sure you can see where I am going with this.
By asking me to exchange my cash for this man's food stamps as payment for my groceries, he is literally asking me to pay for my groceries as well as use the tax money I paid in to the food stamp system to pay for my same set of groceries. When I am paid, I am taxed. When I pay for groceries, I am taxed again. I refuse to see the money that I am stripped of go to pay for someone to enjoy a new set of clothes while I am wearing the same rotation of clothes for multiple years. I refuse to submit to the idea that this man deserves to drive away in his SUV with aftermarket rims and paint job, while I head home in my base model 2004 Nissan Sentra with no factory packages. It frustrates me to see the person head of me leave with Ribeye steaks paid for on a Food Stamp card, while I walk home to grill a cheap cut of beef.
I realized in my teenage years what exactly money is. It is the physical manifestation of your labor, so that you can trade it with anyone who does not necessarily need anything that your labor provides. When you give away money, you are giving away your labor, and time. I am more then happy to put in work for things that will benefit my community. I would be overjoyed to be able to keep the cash in my paycheck, and give it to help build business's in my area, pay people to do jobs I need done, or even straight donation to sick and elderly in hospitals or poor living environments. The reality is though, that I am unable to do so because this money is taken from my paycheck before I even receive it, leaving me no room to give of my own heart and free will. Instead it is given to people like I described earlier, that by most observations live a higher class lifestyle then I do.
I am thankful for everything I have, and the people I have surrounded myself with. I am thankful for the ethics and morals my parents instilled in me, and I am even thankful to have experienced and understand what hard work does for your mind, body, and soul. The opinions I have expressed in this writing are not based on envy, but reflect my frustrations with my labor being given freely to those who are not in need and even some with more to give then myself. I will continue doing what I do, and attempting to be a positive influence on society. Hopefully there are more of you out there who are willing to do the same thing, then those who wish to steal from us.
Well written and I agree 100%. Society has literally made it acceptable to not put in your fair share. There are people out there that don't work, but still EXPECT something from the government. Sadly, this is happening more and more. I really believe that Obama is going to negatively affect this as well. He's all about take from the rich and give to the poor, a modern day Robin Hood. I don't have a solution to this situation unfortunately, but I really don't see this getting any better. Especially with our current President.
--Race
Nice posting...
I remember, a long time back, when I first got a Nintendo. I had a couple games, and whenever we would go to the video rental store I'd try to convince my parents to let me rent an additional one. Eventually I realized that if I wanted to have more games I'd have to buy them myself. So, my siblings and I worked out chores that we'd do around the house for an allowance. The allowances were scaled based on who did the most work. I saved for a few months, and eventually scrapped together the cash to buy my first game on my own.
I picked up a game I'd heard about from a friend called Final Fantasy. The game itself was awesome, as I'm sure most of you who grew up with the series know, but it really represented something more to me. It was something I'd bought with my own money, something I'd worked for and it represented the time that I'd put into buying it.
As I've gotten older, I've worked in some pretty random jobs (dishwasher, coffee vendor, short order cook, hawker (those guys who walk around with trays of drinks at sporting events), retail cashier, mail clerk/parcel delivery, building security, office assistant, research assistant, teacher, tech support, librarian) to try to pay for the things I've wanted and needed. Since leaving high school I've paid for my transportation (cars, subway, buses), my school (undergrad and grad loans), rent, taxes... It feels overwhelming at times but if you manage to get by month to month with enough money to pay all your bills, eat, play wow, and go out on occasion to a movie or something, you feel like you're doing okay.
Maybe this will sound wrong, but every once in a while you run into someone like the guy Muzz describes, who feels like they operate outside of this system and it just makes you angry. When they want something, they expect that someone else will give it to them, because they 'deserve' to have it. There is just an unrealistic sense of entitlement that people ascribe to, and rather than work for the things they want they simply expect these things to be given to them. Then, once they get them, it destroys the concept of working for what you want, because in their mind why should they bother if they know they can just get it for free.
You watch television and see those MTV Sweet Sixteen shows, and people get on and are OUTRAGED! when their mommies and daddies won't buy them a brand new Hummer for their birthday. People on these shows talk about their 'lifestyle' and why they need these brand new things all the time. Most of them will never work a day in their life, and will never know what it feels like to have worked and earned something on their own.
You then see those daytime talk shows, where people cry about ruining their lives, and the lives of the people around them trying to live 'their lifestyle'. They have an image of what they want their life to be like, and dig themselves into debt living the way they feel they should. They borrow and steal from others, and in the end really don't care about the repercussions of their actions, because they feel like they won't be held accountable. If you can't afford it, maybe it isn't your lifestyle.
I know that I'm never going to be a millionaire, and while we'd all like to be, I'm still be perfectly happy living within my means. I've never felt that I had to live beyond my means so that I could live a lifestyle I feel I should have. If you can pay your bills, eat well, and have place you can consider your own, do you really need that much more. What sucks, is that the people who are perfectly content living within their means are the same ones who get screwed by the people who leech off the system (legally or illegally), or the people who fuck around with get rich quick schemes in the stock markets. I pay taxes that don't go towards making my community better, I pay taxes that go to octomom's new house. I think there is a lot of good that can be done with my tax money, to help my community and to help people in need, but at what point did the gross excesses of some people become what we consider need. I feel like these well intentioned programs have created a monster, and rather then try to kill it we just keep feeding it.
Things were simpler when I was a kid. If you wanted something, you saved up for a couple months and bought it. It seemed like a pretty simple system at the time, I don't understand why more people don't get it.
The difference is, in the end you come down to knowing you went the right way with everything in your life. And you worked hard, you made your life into something, from absolutely nothing. I know I've heard your life story a few times, you've come a long way. Whereas someone like Orange dude will continuously feel the temporary satisfaction of getting what he wants, but he will always want more.
I mean, everyone always wants something more. It's difficult to become truly content with what you have around you. But the satisfaction of working and buying something with your own money. Owning your own car, owning your own house, living comfortably because you succeeded doing something you're particularly good at has a greater depth of satisfaction that someone like him will probably never understand.
was orange dude actually chaosruby in disguise?
Muz
You never stop amazing me. I am filled with pride because of the sons I have raised. I know it is hard but you have a great attitude and the hard work will pay off. You have came so far in such a short time. You have a lot of people that love and care about you because of who you are and not what you have. Keep smiling and laughing. Love YA MOM