Poverty Blues

With the upcoming election in New Zealand, I've been thinking alot about the gap between rich and poor. I have previously been of the opinion that if you're at rock bottom, you get the fuck up, dust yourself off and do everything within your power to change it. It's nobody's responsibility but your own. Now I've never, ever been rich so this is not an opinion that was formed from the top. But I've always tended to roll my eyes when somebody tries to blame 'the system'. But you know what? The system is totally effing me in the aye right now, and I'm starting to really understand the frustration. See, my car isn't registered or warranted, and I got a big ole fine for driving it that way. But I can't afford to get it fixed because I have to pay the bloody fine. So I'm saving for the fine, so that I can pay that, so that I can take it for a warrant it doesn't need, so I can get it registered with THE SYSTEM. I have also recently launched a business 4 months ago, with the full intention of changing my situation for the better, true to my beliefs. I am so proud of what I have built, and how quickly it has taken off, I really am. But in this whole time, and through all this success, I'm yet to even pay myself a wage. I pay thousands in rent and rates, hundreds in tax on what the shop earns and on what I pay my staff, I pay hundreds in power and eftpos and phone line rental and god knows what else. And guess what I get at the end of the day for all my hard work. JACK. SHIT. All my money goes to rich people with big coffers. It's really fabulous to know that all your hard work is going towards making rich people richer. Meanwhile, I've just received another rates bill and also a dog registration bill from the same council that I still owe the fine to. There's even more layers to the clusterfuck. I have seperated from my husband. Don't be sad for me, it's the best decision I've made in a long time. I'm not worried about him reading this because when he first discovered I liked writing he stated quite clearly, 'Don't expect me to read anything you write, I don't like reading.' Cheers, dude. You'd think I would have run to the hills at that point, not a decade later. But I digress. At the moment the kids and I are living in the house we own together and he is living at his father's house. It's hard, it's confusing for the kids, and it's unsettling. But guess what. The government won't financially support me getting set up in a rental somewhere because I am not being physically or mentally abused (the mental abuse I feel I could debate, but alas). We have to save for a $1800 bond deposit for a rental before we can set up something more permanent, but how the hell do we do that when we are earning less per week than our bills require? And even if we manage that, we are then looking at well over $300 rent per week on top of the mortgage and rates on the other house. Which again, is impossible to afford. And yet big companies like Sanitarium continue to pay ZERO TAX because they come under the charity bracket. However, if I buy one of their products I have to pay fucking tax on it! THE SYSTEM IS FUCKED. Unless you're already rich. Then it will rain on you gifts that you don't need and can afford to live without. Joy. What am I going to do about it? I'm going to work my god damn tits off until I can get my business to a point when I become one of the rich ones robbing the poor. What choice does the system give me?