It's All Performance Art 23

This is going to be an interesting time for keeping our heads above water.  It really was scandalously easy when I was eighteen and starting out on my own.  Even though it was already difficult convincing an employer to hire me, given my youth and lack of skills, most workplaces provided training and if you weren't happy there you could quit and if you had even a  couple of months of work under your belt you would be good for six months or more of Unemployment Enjoyment while pretending to look for another job.  It wasn't always cake, but it was still rather sweet.  Then our governments began tinkering with things, especially with unemployment insurance, made it harder to apply for, harder to get, gave us less money, and before we knew it, an awful lot of people were having to go on welfare, which paid a lot less.  Then poor-bashing governments got elected in the provinces and they decided to kick everyone off of welfare and force them into low-paying jobs that would get them nowhere, and now we have a situation that is already quite frightening and hellish.  Now that housing has become so deplorably expensive, this makes life in Vancouver practically untenable.  So, if you are lucky enough to have a place you can afford (as I am), then you still have to oh so carefully manage your employment strategies so that you will not end up out of work and having to beg on the streets, because that has become the one and only option now that even welfare is hard to get, and even if you are on social assistance, you are not going to have enough money to survive. 

As a low-income soon to be senior, who will soon be a low-income pensioner, I can only reflect on how stupid this country Canada really is, and how stupidly cruel our government and society still are towards people who are economically vulnerable, and there is no indication that things are going to improve.  We have wealthy people galore in this country and they all cry, scream and whinge oh so bitterly about having to pay even a token increase of taxes so that people like me can at least afford to eat properly.  They don't think they owe us.  However, we have had to cope with low-paying jobs without benefits and short-term low-paying contracts to help serve the needs of those same rich bastards.  Listen, rich pond-scum, you do so owe us.  You owe me.  I have worked most of these last forty years taking care of your relatives and colleagues and friends in home care and mental health work, wiping their stinky asses, feeding them, helping them walk, comforting them and their loved ones and all for less than a living fucking wage.  And just like the sales staff in Shoppers Drug mart or in Indigo Books, who have to toil for less than a decent wage for your service, and entertainment and what do we get?  Where is our reward?

Our governments and the conservative morons who elect them have been chronically delinquent in helping us and we need better, and we deserve better because we are also part of this country and our lives, work and services have done more than a lot to serve your needs so you all had sure as hell better start paying up.  Yes you can afford it.  Liars!!!!!