Have Needle… Will Travel

Why is it so important? As Americans we seem to either have too much or too little.

Those with too much appear to live oblivious to the fate of the rest of the people. Sure, they send money to their little charities, adopt poor children from other countries (as if we don’t have enough needy orphans here), drive Maseratii and wear designer clothes. Oh, wait… fancy cars and clothes don’t help anyone but the rich people using them.

The rest of the people work their butts off for, at best, a measly living. Let’s face it… if you have to work 50-70 hours a week to make yourself useful enough that you don’t get fired, and you get compensated barely enough to get by, then you’re not making enough money.

A good chunk of the American people aren’t even doing that well. Most families can’t get by on the same income that they could 10 years ago. Inflation has outstripped pay increases by a huge margin. So, is inflation fair or are crappy pay raises fair? Where do we start to fix this system? Is there a way to fix it, or do we need to change the system altogether?

Why can’t farmers produce a dozen eggs for 10¢ like they could in the 1920s? Are chickens more expensive? Have they gotten less efficient at laying eggs??? If anything, the process has gotten smoother, more efficient… so what are we paying for? I just don’t understand…

Being on the wrong side of the current monetary inequity has made me care less and less for our current capitalist system. It’s really very flawed. Whether or not we, the people, get frustrated enough to do something about it remains to be seen. Even if the majority, the 99%, get off their butts and try to change things, is it possible to change an entire nation without civil war, bloodshed and unrest?

I’ve been told that I’m a good writer… but that I use too many ellipsis. I guess we’ll find out. Apparently, I’ve been using them incorrectly anyway as they are intended to represent a place where information has not been written out but is implied. I generally use them to represent a pause for dramatic effect. Epic fail…

I’m pretty sure that I also stink at using commas properly. That’s pretty sad, considering that I used to tutor college level English to people twice my age. Maybe the aforementioned fact says more about the education provided for our children and immigrants than it says about me. I mean, if my mediocre English skills were more than good enough to help people in their college English classes, clearly our education system has failed. Oooooh… I think that I just used commas correctly… still screwed up on the ellipsis, though.

When it comes down to it, we really suck at teaching our children how to speak, read and write. English is not that difficult of a language to get right. It doesn’t take too much effort for a person to sound well-educated, especially in writing. Let’s face it… when you’re writing an email to someone (for example) you have all the time in the world to correct it, re-read it for accuracy and check your spelling/grammar. Why is it, then, that I continually receive poorly written emails with copious spelling and grammatical errors even from people who are sending correspondence in a professional capacity? Am I not worth the trouble or do they send out these poorly worded texts to everyone? Am I the only person who notices or cares?

Why is this acceptable? Please feel free to comment and correct my own grammar and spelling if necessary… just don’t say anything about the ellipsis. I already know how big a failure I am with those.