I have always worked, usually multiple jobs while tenuously attempting to balance college with work and pay the bills, and I have struggled. I worked two and sometimes three jobs while going to school when I was in my twenties, and I did it without too much complaint. As I got older I put my focus on school and began to cut down my work hours , I was making 27k a year and after the government took their money I was making maybe 20,000, about 7,800 went to my rent another 3,000 went to National Grid (blood sucking mafia that they are) another 1,000 for my phone, close to 1,000 for car insurance (thank goodness I had a good record), and then I had a car payment and food, and gas to get to my job as school, all said and done I was spending at least 17,000 a year on what I NEEDED leaving me with 3,000 a year for clothes for work, shoes, books, and anything else I might need, forget about the stress trying to re-figure everything for holidays and birthdays, but our government says no you don’t need any help, you are just over the benchmark for needing help. Really, okay so I have to work 2 jobs if I want to get ahead, and if I do that my grades suffer. Tell me, does this country really want their young people to be educated, because from my experience I am not sure. No wonder we are falling behind the rest of the world.
Fast forward, now I have two kids and I made around 44k a year, I took them in with nothing, and spent everything I had on them, then I lost my job but at least unemployment was afforded to me (after all I had never been out of work and never changed jobs without another one) and so it came time once again to see if the government would help. After all they had helped other people who had kids and had no job and worked part time at jobs, I’m a hard worker, a good person, they should help right? Wrong! No they declined me, with no reason given, I can only assume it was because during the process I received my tax refund and so now I showed that as an asset. Tell me, do you have to be dirt poor to get assistance? Should we wait this long to help people, shouldn’t we instead want to help them before they have exhausted all of their savings.
Given the situation I am inclined to believe that our government would prefer for us to have nothing, they reward those that are poor, lazy, or adept at abusing the system and then punish those of us that are honest middle class citizens. I swallowed my pride and asked for help, and it did nothing for me but leave a bad taste in my mouth. I will file again and this time insist on an appointment, not relying on the electronic system that I fear government workers don’t check or know how to use. I suspect I will find that I am on my own, my good work ethic and thrifty ways are my undoing. I will have to find another way, will the children suffer? When they refuse to aid me and I must search for a multiple jobs once again to never be home and assist them with their homework and be sure they know they are loved. Will our government ever see that they have spiraled so far our from the core values of family, forcing everyone to work, facilitating a society that requires a dual income to live comfortably.
In a few months this will all be a non-issue for me, as I graduate with my Masters in Information Technology, and I look for a job far away from states that will bleed you dry. Yet for too many middle class families this is the story, they are stuck in a never ending rut, facilitated by our government, designed to keep them right where they are. Only the most brave and adventurous are rewarded in our society today and parents do not like to be brave and take chances that might affect their children. They accept what is because they feel they must and our government does nothing for them. In the city I once lived there were drug dealers and hood rats with Escalades, not in their name of course, they lived ghetto rich, taking from the government was something they were adept at, and yet the single mother (or father) of two working two jobs barely had food on the table and they get no assistance. For Shame, for shame.
In closing, lets discuss National Grid the MONOPOLY giant akin to the mafia who squeeze the middle class until they might implode. National Grid is a monopoly, many might disagree but they are, in fact I once lived in another city where I was able to have a different provider NYSEG who I loved the bill was one third that of National Grid and the power usage was roughly the same. Now where I live there is no option, and National Grid allows other companies to be listed as providers but it is all a sham to protect them, they argue this makes it fair. NO, National Grid this does not make it fair, you maintain the control of the delivery and a supplier is still at your mercy. Oh, and on the delivery charges you failed to explain to Channel 6 when asked, what a joke. So you mean to tell me you have a need to charge nearly as much in delivery as you do in supply when the same lines run to every house in the neighborhood? No, I daresay this is one more way for you to capitalize on your monopoly, people have no other supplier in our area to go to, so you charge those people for a service they cannot live without! Then you harass them when they can’t pay their 300 a month bill that is half delivery fees! In the summer in a house that was not frequented in a tenant paid around $100 for delivery fees, the supply was only $20! People should be outraged, and many are, but what choice do they have. Which brings me back to our government who allows this to happen, our government that supports big business over its people, that bails out big business but not its people, that gives grants selectively to big business and foreign opportunist but not to its people.
I’m sure I could go on all day long about this but I want to hear your story now, leave me a comment what is your story with big business and government?
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