This week: It's All About the Money Edited by: NaNoKit  
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It's said that money doesn't buy happiness. A lack of money, though, can make for a miserable existence.
This week's Drama Newsletter is all about the money. 
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Everything’s getting so expensive. At least, it is where I live. My sister in the Netherlands, too, tells me everything’s gone up in price. Groceries, gas and electric, petrol… My energy bill’s doubled already and we’ll see another rise in October, and I’m using less rather than more. And I’m one of the lucky ones. For now, at least. It’s not fun, but I can manage the increase. I’m okay for food and shelter, bills, and I can even put some money into savings each month. Others are not as fortunate.
Here in the UK the majority of people in need of social security payments are in work. There are teachers, nurses, paramedics who are reliant on food banks. They are underpaid and overworked, but you’d never know it because the media talks about lazy scroungers mismanaging their money. Instead of addressing the crisis, people are told that if they just cancel their Netflix subscription and stop eating avocado toast they, too, can buy a property and everything will be okay.
Now, Netflix costs me £6.99 a month ($8.41) and I don’t think I’ve ever eaten an avocado. According to the Office for National Statistics, the average house price in the UK is £278,000 . It’ll only take me 39,771 months, or 3,314 years to save up for a house if I cancel Netflix! Hurrah! I should start looking at curtains!
I can’t afford to buy a house. Not that renting’s easy. My husband and I have been looking for a place in Scotland for a good while now, and we’re getting nowhere. We’re not looking for anything special, really. Just a two-bedroom cottage with a garden. Listings are filled with tiny house shares, places so small you wouldn’t be able to have a single bookcase… just yesterday we saw someone renting out their garden shed as a one-bedroom apartment! I don’t know what’s going on, but it isn’t good.
It’s said that money can’t buy happiness, but it sure makes life a whole lot easier. Money removes stressors. Many people live from paycheck to paycheck, without enough in the bank to assist in those times when the washing machine stops working, or the car breaks down. Worse, there are adults skipping meals in order to feed their children. People afraid to use the heating in winter, because they might not be able to pay the bills. That’s not a good life. That’s not a healthy life. It’s a stressful existence – a stress that would disappear if everyone had enough to live off.
It shouldn’t be this way, of course. We humans invented money to make trade that bit easier, which makes sense, but somewhere along the line our economic systems became messed up and here we are. I don’t know how to solve it. I’ve studied politics and economics and the message I got is that we’re in this situation where big corporations are more powerful than nations, and neither corporations nor politicians have proper respect for workers, so there’s not much will either way to improve life for people like you and I.
The relationship between employer and employee has become twisted. It ought to be an exchange between equals – time and skills in exchange for money. The balance of power has shifted over time, though there are some promising signs that workers are willing to stand up for their rights. I’m glad to see it.
In the meanwhile, though, many people are struggling. I don’t think it’s going to get any easier in the near future. I’m okay, as said, for now, and I try to help out where I can. If you are in a position to do so, perhaps you can drop off an item or two at a food bank. It shouldn’t be down to us. Companies should pay fair wages. We should have a solid social security system for those who need it. But we are where we are…
Money may not buy happiness, but being unable to eat, to heat one’s house or live without shelter, to live week-to-week and month-to-month with all the stress and uncertainty of not having a decent income is devastating. Wealthy people can be unhappy, too. I know this. I understand this. But they don’t suffer these extra pressures. They live in the knowledge that their basic needs will always be met.
Everyone should have that sense of safety and security. I hope that one day we’ll figure out how to make that a reality.
NaNoKit
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Drama: July 27, 2022 Issue [#11483]
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