"I live on $710.00 a month, what exactly am I supposed to cut?"

[delrem]

277. Most people won't understand this post.

They'll prefer to turn it into a political football, pro/anti-Obama, pro/anti-chained-CPI, whatever.

The writer is actually explaining that with a certain very minimal income he/she is able to survive, but that there isn't anything left to cut, whether the cut is thru' inflation or whatever. Let me say that when it comes to the poor, this writer is fortunate and knows it.

The writer is explaining about a situation that only the impoverished experience, and not only that, but only those impoverished who have considerable skills at "making do" experience. This means for example choosing this month to buy this multi-KG bag of the best whole grain rice at the one store that sells such rice for cheapest. It means choosing another month for buying this large size and so best priced container of olive oil at, again, the one store that sells such olive oil cheapest. All with 100% nutritional value and 0% junk food value taken into account. And so on through the entire monthly food budget, allowing the writer to make it. The writer has zero "impulse buys". In other words, the writer is doing something that most contributors to this site couldn't begin to imagine. The writer is explaining why there is no place to "cut", in the writers economy, in order to bail out the banks or pay for another war.

The writer isn't saying that the rope is frayed. The writer is saying that the rope is just long enough so that using every tool in sight, the writer can eke out a tolerable existence - but no more. There is no room to cut. There just fucking well isn't. And most people who're forced to survive on such a budget, can't.

The subtext is that the writer is very bright and tho' the writer may have been stomped on considerably, the writer is capable of surviving. This puts the writer in the upper echelons, in my mind - but that's just a subjective judgment. What I mean by "subtext" is that the writer is writing for all those who aren't so capable. The writer is writing to explain not only his/her situation but the situation of all those who might mess up a similar situation, who will already die when they mess up the situation and who will all the more certainly die when the situation is made even more desperate by self-serving assholes who'd rather spend trillions on wars than a few thousand on saving some american lives.

Just sayin'.