Democracy never survives an affordability crisis

Everyone is tired. The times we live have become an age of exhaustion. Overwork, underwork, the cost of living crisis, stress, the end of public healthcare, and a pandemic along with a forever war in Ukraine and a genocide in Gaza have derailed our society. It has left us no time to catch our breath. So we are weary, uncertain, angry and very afraid. They are all the ingredients necessary to cause a flashpoint in history that either leads to revolutionary change or brutal suppression. But- keep, keeping on is not an option, even if we want to do just that.

Photo by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona on Unsplash

I am physically, emotionally and spiritually exhausted. I can't remember the last time I got a good night's sleep. I am up too often in the night from chronic complaints along with the stress of existing in the 21st century to ever feel rested when morning arrives. When I am awake I am grinding away at keeping myself alive and it is a terrifying and energy-draining ordeal.

The trod of living during this long darkness of capitalism unhinged by neoliberalism consumes my existence as well as yours.

But there are a happy few who don't experience what we are undergoing. I know people from more privileged classes, who are oblivious to the upheavals going on in society. I have heard them claim the economy is working and inflation is down because it never touched them. But they are tetchy and short-tempered from all these negative economic and political stories that even the corporate news media can't bury.

They are like a first-class passenger on the Titanic, angered by all the commotion- going on around them, including the call to lifeboat stations after their ship struck an iceberg. "Surely, we were told neoliberalism was unsinkable." Observing them, I notice there is an element of outrage to their words. I think they sense that events here or around the world have the potential for prematurely ending their good times, which merely consist of indulging themselves with whatever pleasure money can buy.

People from my class, however, are in the thick of it. We are touched by the disintegration of society every day. Decisions made in parliaments or corporate boardrooms designed to enrich the well-off must rob us first of our right to a decent standard of living. Yet all the incremental economic policies that give cover to a corrupt status quo take years to arrive at our doorstep- if they ever do come.

Governments, the news media, and economists knew- for at least 10 years that affordable housing was in crisis. But nothing was done to fix it because to make housing affordable, either wages must rise or prices must be lowered. As these two actions financially hurt the 1% and don’t have political leaders like FDR, they will never be enacted. It’s a delaying game by the political class which will cause greater economic disparity between the few and the many. We are now beginning to live in a digital version of the 19th century where unlike then an omniscient surveillance state run by big tech stifles dissent.

It is horrifically dystopian that for the great majority, the middle class is no longer attainable except through being born into it. Neoliberalism has become a system of aristocracy minus many of the honorific titles.

Statistics show over 30% of renters now pay more than 50% of their income to keep a roof over their heads. Renters where the majority of their wage is taken up by rent, food and medical expenses will only own one thing their rage at a system denying them a good life. Democracy didn't die from disinterest but because its citizens were overworked and underpaid and not allowed the leisure to be civic-minded. Neoliberalism has no answers to fix it. Once you hyper-monetize something, like housing, you can't put that toothpaste back in the tube. Democracy never survives an affordability crisis and both Russia in 1917 and Germany in the 1930s prove that. We are on the cusp of uncertainty because what is coming in 2024 or 2025 is change that I fear will be unimaginably dreadful for us all.

For me, rent day approaches like the headlights from a truck with an unsteady load on its trailer. It leaves me stuck in the middle of the road, transfixed by it, or perhaps I am too tired to react this time and jump out of its way.

A yearly subscriptions will cover much of next month’s rent because all I need is 8 to make June’s payment. But with 3 days to go, it is getting tight.
Your subscriptions are so important to my personal survival because like so many others who struggle to keep afloat, my survival is a precarious daily undertaking. The fight to keep going was made worse- thanks to getting cancer along with lung disease and other co- morbidities which makes life more difficult to combat in these cost of living crisis times. So if you can join with a paid subscription which is just 3.50 a month or a yearly subscription or a gift subscription. I promise the content is good, relevant and thoughtful. But if you can’t it all good too because I appreciate we are in the same boat. Take Care, John

Photo by Colin Lloyd on Unsplash