I have a good job and I have a nice place to live (although paying for it is part of the impetus for this post--I have to keep reminding myself that I'm building equity instead of giving my money to a landlord, but that doesn't always make it easier to swallow). I know in the back of my mind that I could put it back on the market and go back to renting (or buy a cheaper place with fewer amenities), and since I bought at a very good time, I might even make a few thousand dollars if I were to sell it. But I don't want it to come to that. I love my apartment and I love almost everything about it. I don't want to live somewhere else--and I hate moving.
I just read a headline on the NY Times website that read: "Health Insurers Raise Some Rates by Double Digits".
Well, of course they were going to do that. That's what this country is all about: making sure the rich don't suffer and fucking the rest of us at every turn.
My company has already used the tired old excuse that the economy is in the shitter to avoid giving us pay raises, or even a decent end of year bonus (I got $750 this year--compare that to previous years when it ranged from $2000-$5000). But still, I was happy to get it, and I feel grateful that I even have this job. A job. Any job.
But back to the insurance rates--this is why we need a single-payer system, like most other progressive countries have. Allowing the free market to dictate how much we pay for premiums is only going to hurt the very people the law was intended to help, and it won't be just the very poor. In fact, I think the people who will suffer most are the people like me, in the middle. The government already has programs in place for the very poor, inadequate as they may be in some cases.
Some days, I feel like staying in bed. Will things get better for us regular people, or will they get even worse before that happens?
Sorry for this self-pitying moan--I do know that, even in my current state of brokeness, I am much better off than many, many people, but I just despair at the social and economic disparity that seems to be at an all-time high in the USA (and, I'm sure it's no different in the UK or any other industrialized countries).
I honestly sometimes wonder just what is the fucking point?
I just read a headline on the NY Times website that read: "Health Insurers Raise Some Rates by Double Digits".
Well, of course they were going to do that. That's what this country is all about: making sure the rich don't suffer and fucking the rest of us at every turn.
My company has already used the tired old excuse that the economy is in the shitter to avoid giving us pay raises, or even a decent end of year bonus (I got $750 this year--compare that to previous years when it ranged from $2000-$5000). But still, I was happy to get it, and I feel grateful that I even have this job. A job. Any job.
But back to the insurance rates--this is why we need a single-payer system, like most other progressive countries have. Allowing the free market to dictate how much we pay for premiums is only going to hurt the very people the law was intended to help, and it won't be just the very poor. In fact, I think the people who will suffer most are the people like me, in the middle. The government already has programs in place for the very poor, inadequate as they may be in some cases.
Some days, I feel like staying in bed. Will things get better for us regular people, or will they get even worse before that happens?
Sorry for this self-pitying moan--I do know that, even in my current state of brokeness, I am much better off than many, many people, but I just despair at the social and economic disparity that seems to be at an all-time high in the USA (and, I'm sure it's no different in the UK or any other industrialized countries).
I honestly sometimes wonder just what is the fucking point?
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