Saturday, July 05, 2003
Not Panicking
They just cut my unemployment from a whopping $191 a week to a useless $119, which is not enough to pay my rent even if I had no other bills, don’t rent movies, didn’t have to buy fresh cat litter, didn’t have to eat. This could be good for me though, a new diet sensation… ramen noodles for every meal. I’ve always hated ramen noodles and being something of a gourmand, I’ve never settled for them, even during my poorest times. But this may have to change, because my savings won’t last forever.
Food stamps are an option, one that I will look into on Monday. I’d sell my body, if anyone wanted it, I’d sell my soul, only it’s atrophied from a lifetime of atheism. I’m selling an air conditioner for $200, if anyone living in the Seattle area wants it.
The poverty in America, as experienced by a white, liberal person is characterized by the unswerving and unfounded belief that this state is inherently temporary, like puberty. This is characterized by the oft repeated phrase: “I’ll look back on this time and…” The poor person assumes that in the future, she will be better off, have more money, a career, a life; and that this is the natural progression, that to be poor in America is an amusing diversion: something that educated liberals do in their twenties before settling down and making money working for the ACLU.
I can tell my self that I’ll make it out of this eventually, with the corollary thought that it can’t possibly get any worse; but of course it can, and routinely does get worse for millions of people every day. I’m not crying out in sympathy for the starving children in Africa… the worstlifeinAmericaisbetterthanthebestlifethere theory of society. I’m saying that I could be a starving child in Africa, only in America, and not a child. I’m saying that there’s absolutely no guarantee of anything, despite our common delusion of safety and prosperity.
