Just another ordinary day in paradise.

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15. You are definitely not alone.

I'm right there with you as well as millions of other Americans barely getting by. I have a master's degree, but at the moment I am working two jobs just to be able to pay rent and pay barely enough on my utilities so they don't get shut off (which has happened to me several times in the past). I was fortunate enough to have a relative give me money to pay off some debt a few months ago, which was great. But what he doesn't understand, and what most of the people in my family don't understand is the reality of what people like myself and you and a ton of other people face. That is a band-aid for a gaping wound. The reality is that the way this country works is that poor people just keep getting poorer. Money to fix debt is great, but that doesn't help me pay my everyday bills. I just took out another payday loan so that my electric wouldn't be turned off. I will have to pay that back from my next paycheck plus an extra $100 because the interest is so high. And then I will have to turn back around and take out another loan from them so I can pay the other half of my rent that I couldn't pay my landlord on time this month. It's a vicious cycle. Poor people just keep getting poorer trying to live a shitty life.

And then family asks why you don't call or why you are so closed off. It's because you get depressed when you can't do "normal" things like go to the movies every so once in awhile or go out to dinner. What kind of life is it when you can't afford to live? The stress and pressure of just keeping a roof over your head becomes so high, it makes it impossible to have normal relationships with people because you can't see how other people can't see how hard it is for you to live. Being poor can make a person super lonely, which makes everything else worse.

The harsh reality is that there seem to be fewer and fewer jobs that pay a decent wage. That's what really needs to change. People need to be paid at least enough to live on if they are willing to work. End of story. I don't care what your job is, if you are doing something that is considered a job, you should be paid enough to do it. I don't care if you are a janitor, a server, a liquor store cashier or you work at Walmart. These jobs benefit someone somewhere, so why should you work at that job and not get paid to live a decent life like the people you help?

And I read your post about the heat not working at your job... The same thing happened to me. During the polar vortex no less. Our heat went out at the store I work at for about a week. I worked every single one of those days with multiple layers on freezing because they didn't seem to care that it was cold out. The only reason they got the heater fixed was because one of those days my boss had to work for a bit and he didn't like it. Go figure. No one cares about the little people anymore. And what really pisses me off is that he made his money by lying about his academic background to get a great sales job where he made ridiculous commission (he said he graduated from a great school when really he flunked out after 3 semesters). And here I am, working for $9 an hour wasting my hard earned degrees (for which I am going to have to pay back a ton of money that I don't have because I can't a job that I'm supposed to get with my expensive degree).

So sorry, I went on a rant as well, but you, myself and everyone else in this position has a right to rant. This is our LIVES. Every single person who is willing to work but is still living in poverty has a right to rant. And we SHOULD RANT. Rant to everyone who has never experienced this. Rant to our government that is allowing this to happen. Rant and rant and rant until every single one of us has been heard and things are changed. People should not to live in fear for their lives because they are poor.