I remember those many years ago around tax time when you have to figure out how much money you made the previous year and you give the government the rest.

My Mother-in-law bragged that “We took in $100,000!”

She added in the interest of honest accuracy, “Well, 75% went to the business.”

That still left enough for them to go to Vegas and gamble like a Greek which my Father-in-law was and it was a good successful trip if they broke even.

I, with my little teacher salary, of course could not compete. Teacher friends had been telling me advisedly, “Take more college classes. For every fifteen units, they bump you up a notch. Get a higher degree. That’s worth gold.”

So I did, and they did and it was.

But still, not quite enough, never enough, because, as you know, teaching, like anyone who does actual work for a living, is always underpaid.

The people who write the laws of economics aren’t the ones who do the work.

They say, “It’s a level playing field,” but when I grab the edge to pull myself up onto that field, they stomp my fingers and I fall back down.

They say, “That’s life.”

If it is, life isn’t fair.

They say, “If you don’t have it, you don’t deserve it.”

I say, “Why do you have it?”

They say, “Because I deserve it.”

I say, “That’s unreasonable.”

They say, “We don’t listen to reason.”

I say, “How did you get your manager job without qualifications or experience?”

They say, “We put the sin in sinecure.”

The whole world rushes past me and leaves me behind.

Example: The house we just barely bought in 1970, two years later we could never have afforded.

They say, “You’re making more now than you did then. Your salary is rising.”

I say, “Not as fast as inflation. I’m still working on my lower digits. Everything else is several digits higher.”

They say, “You can still buy stuff.”

I say, “Not as much as I used to.”

They say, “Just live with it.”

I say, “I’m trying. Why don’t you?”

They say, “I don’t have to talk to you.”

I say, “Yes you do. The world I signed up for is democracy and equality and opportunity and decency and…”

They say, “Blah blah blah. I’m not listening.”

I say, “That’s your problem.”

They say, “No, you are.”

I say, “There was a time not so long ago when people decided there was a limit, that anyone who earned $200,000 a year had enough to live on comfortably, and everything above that should go to the government for the people to run things and provide services for all of us.”

They say, “Blah blah blah.”

I say, “We have those beautiful words to live by and we all signed on. For, by, and of. Can’t you read?”

They say, “We can count.”

I say, “So can we.”

They say, “You don’t count.”

The empty head is like a helium balloon that lifts them up.

They say, “Don’t bother me with details. They just get in the way.”

I say, “Is there ANYTHING you know how to do?”

They say, “Quaquaquaqua.”

I say, “I can see clearly.”

They say, “That’s why I’m invisible.”

I look around me and try to decide what’s next.

I see the People in Power are there because they’ve cheated and lied and all they know is money and all they care about is themselves and it doesn’t matter to them that they’re destroying the whole system to collapse but they figure they’ll live long enough in their own comfort and when it happens after them, they don’t even care if it crushes their children because they’ll be gone by then.

What to do, what to do.

It does help to explain things to make them clearer.

But thoughts and words aren’t enough to change things, but the good part of the silver lining is that there are smart people, mostly younger, who do know and are actually coming forward to do the needed.

I’ll join them.

They make better lists than mine of what to do and are already doing.