Our Struggles

The other day I was walking down the street here in Chicago and I noticed a woman holding up a sign to drivers as they were stopped for a red light. I've been seeing this happening more and more lately on different street corners and I wondered what exactly she was doing.

Her sign seemed to be another plea for help from an ever expanding lower class of individuals. It said the following: "I have 5 children. I don't have a job. Please I ask for help with anything you can help to pay for rent and get food for my kids. GOD BLESS YOU. Have naici day."

Reading her sign I began to question whether she really has five children and needs money to pay for food and shelter. The sad thing is that the neighborhood is full of people who truly need help, while others want to avoid working and make a living solely by begging on street corners. By talking to the woman, I found it hard to tell in which category she belongs. I gave her some money and walked away.

Whether she is really needy or just a con artist doesn't really matter, because in either case the culture of big corporations and a ever increasing bureaucratic government is clearly the blame. The "corporate aliens" as I call them are making it hard for everyone.

What does it take to be successful these days?

1. White-collar crooks are successful. Just look at the politicians: Some have already been to jail or are currently serving time. Most of the rest just haven't been caught yet. They all have nice homes and drive late model cars.
2. Those who are greedy and highly unethical are successful. Most CEOs and top corporate managers care little about their employees. They move their factories to third world countries to exploit cheap labor. They ruthlessly downsize to increase profits. They overwork their employees and raid employee pension funds. They get outlandish salaries and live their lives in luxury.
3. People who are lucky are successful. People who win the lottery or get discovered as singers, actors, models, sports figures, and so on. There's millions of good, or even great, actors or singers out there, but only a few get fame and fortune if they're lucky enough to get noticed.
4. Children of rich and connected individuals become successful. How successful would Paris Hilton be if she wasn't an heiress? In many cases success runs in the family. The success of "rehab" hospitals largely depends on the empty-headed habits of the spoiled offspring of the wealthy.

What about the rest of us, the middle and lower classes. We have to work very hard just to survive. Aristotle believed in moderation, and this is what I feel should be the plight of the majority of human beings. Reasonable work for reasonable pay. But this is far from being today's norm. These days middle class individuals must not only be over stressed at work, but must suffer traffic jams and crowded trains while getting there and coming home. Then they all are forced to pay part of their salary as protection to the syndicate, or in other words, taxes to the government. With food, housing, and utility bills steadily rising, almost every middle class individual faces some form of dept.

But it's really not so bad here, if you consider countries where people spend their waking hours working for a few pennies a day and starvation is rampant. These are the nations whose citizens are exploited by corporate aliens from the U.S. and other richer countries.

Can you really blame people if they become white collar criminals to survive? As long as wealth is so unevenly distributed, the struggle for survival amid the middle and lower classes will continue.

There are people all over Chicago holding up signs like the woman in the picture. The people who drive on these streets are mainly middle class. The rich live in gated communities that aren't very tolerant of beggars and pan-handlers. What happens when the middle class hasn't anything more to give? What happens when the middle class is a civilization that is "gone with the wind?"