Every year when I file my taxes I spend time reflecting on what I earned, and what I was able to save after all the expenses which includes basic living, a little mad money, and the still stunning and draining high cost of health care. (Last year was sucked up by recovery from hip surgery, but I still couldn’t afford much needed mental health care, and so, got slammed by a depression wave late in the year. Talk about a loss of productivity!) I look at the tax lines both federal and state, and for the most part am able to be fine with what the intention of that money is doing by paying for public services, roads, schools, maybe some social programs. For my sanity, I blow off the part about wars, corporate subsidies, and generally gross colonialism the US practices. But here’s the problem. I see my taxes increase, public services go down, and my salary, even in years there was a modest raise, has no net gain, perhaps even a loss, in the face of taxes going up and cost of living (fucking health care!!) increasing. Oh and every year I’m expected to work more hours. Although I’ve never bought the bullshit of “job creators” I was hopeful that the economy doing better would mean people like me could maybe actually find some financial security if there was money to pay me. But no. (Doxa!) That’s not happening. I live in the Bay Area surrounded by the biggest cluster fuck of inequality, highest cost of living, and biggest risk of it all crashing down. It’s that risk that no one here takes truly seriously, certainly not the tech sector which has caused this. So anyway, thank you for once again explaining WHY we got ourselves here again, and per an earlier post or tweet you wrote, radical change is the only cure.