Whether you want it or not, revolution is coming- most likely of an authoritarian nature. The worst hasn't even happened yet.

A few weeks ago, there was a feel-good story about an individual's against- all the odds survival in extreme conditions, which the news media leapt all over like a dog greeting a long absent master. A New Zealander in his 60s fell off his boat miles from shore while on a fishing trip.

Photo by Stormseeker on Unsplash

By all accounts, he should have drowned. But the man endured and treaded water for 23 hours until rescued by a passing ship. Grit and luck kept that sailor afloat when he should have drowned. It's what most of us hope will be our ending during this cost of living crisis that has become as grim as the one in the 1930s for many.

We are all one paycheque away from being swept under the waves into the depths of housing insecurity and, ultimately, a life on the street. 

From one month to the next, millions of under-waged workers, disabled citizens and other vulnerable people tread water kept going by the slim hope that safety may soon be at hand. However, when one in four in Britain lives in poverty or- where in Canada its wealthiest 20% own 2/3rds of the nation's riches, rescue is out of reach for many as they are near financial drowning.

Once in poverty, the only escape for most from it is death. Britain's Rowntree Foundation, as good as said today in their newly published study that concluded those living in poverty now have a harder time leaving than those who experienced it in the 1990s. No shit because  that's what happens when governments sell state infrastructure to private enterprises and offload social welfare initiatives to private corporations to turn a profit.

Every day, I brush past what may be your future or mine when, on my walks, I encounter my city's homeless citizens. On a frigid night walk recently- I observed a homeless man limping, weeping and muttering about how cold he was. He was in a strip mall parking lot, and the people around ignored him to get to their cars to drive home. He limped off his duffle bag dragged on the ground in the manner of, an exhausted child at the end of a long school day.

His predicament was heart-breaking, as well as the indifference of the housed to it- including my own because my attempt to help the homeless man was tepid.

I asked him if he wanted a meal, a cup of coffee or my gloves. There was no reply even after several tries to engage with him. Helpless, I went home and was afraid that he might die in the cold. I reluctantly phoned the police and asked them to check on him, which they agreed to do. I implored them that he was no harm to anyone but himself and asked them to treat him kindly. I don't know what happened after that.

Capitalism views poverty as a tragedy for the individual rather than society. It means as long as the stock market is booming, the system functions as intended to create wealth for some at the expense of many others.

It's why you can't expect capitalism to fix the housing crisis it created, especially when most politicians are either landlords or have had "donations" to their re-election campaigns from large property developers.

Society is in the most unenviable corners at the moment because neither corporate journalism nor neoliberal political parties are allies to free and fair societies. They both demonised socialism as a failure that over-taxes the hard-earned wealth of middle-class citizens. Neoliberalism's only solution on offer is more of the same or hardcore fascism.

The housing crisis exists in every neoliberal Western nation. But, are there international political conferences for it attended by Presidents and Prime Ministers as is done for the environment? No, because that would be bad for the wealth of the 1%.

We are living through historic societal upheavals because the housing crisis is ubiquitous. There is no passing ship to rescue us from the ocean the entitled cast us into because of their greed. Whether you want it or not, revolution is coming- most likely of an authoritarian nature rather than egalitarian owing to class disconnection.

Hi all:

Thanks for reading and supporting my substack. At this time of the month it is always a bit of an SOS with the rent. I really need your help and need 20 new subscribers to keep me under a roof. Your subscriptions to this newsletter do that. They also help keep my housed which has become a precarious thing- thanks to getting cancer along with lung disease and other co- morbidities as I age 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. Take Care, John