Impoverished America

Passively watching the news this morning - the hot topic was this child tax credit thingy to help families to survive.

Got me thinking about the poverty in the world. There are many countries much worse off than we are where people suffer and life is hard. Where people just don't stand a chance of living a dignified life; where "the pursuit of happiness" is a pipe dream.

But there is a hell of a lot of poverty and suffering in this embarrassingly rich country called America.

Why?

Comes down to my pet theory - that most people are completely lost in life, with no focus, direction or goals - through no fault of their own. 

Liberals love to spout anesthesia-inducing cliches like "everybody has a unique talent; you just have to identify it and exploit it." Bullshit. There's a commercial for an NH college where a guy pompously says "Talent is equally distributed but opportunity is not." His smugness turns my stomach.

Talent is not equally distributed; everybody does not have a unique talent. Most people do not have a singular focus they can work on, pursue and evolve into a rewarding career. And I am not shitting on anybody - that is just the way life works. Remember - life is an evil son of a bitch.

The majority of us have jobs, not careers. Most likely that pay less than a dignified wage, because if you are not on a career path you get punished and exploited.

But you still gotta eat, still gotta pay the rent. Still gotta work. The kicker is that the odds are stacked against you. There is no level playing field in this country. Once you are down the powers that be are committed to keeping you down.

So you don't have a savings account, you drive a 12 year old car, pizza is an extravagance and the "pursuit of happiness" starts on Friday night and ends on Sunday night.

And of course the people with fat wallets have no interest in helping you because it is easier to call you lazy than it is to care.

I have no solutions. This is why I am not King of the World.

But life is so ironic. It really is a precious gift. Being alive is better than being dead. At least generally, anyway. Although not being born might be a precious gift too.

So you fight to stay alive but you don't get to enjoy it.

Is it worth it?