At What Cost?

 At what cost…

I used to believe that there were some “professions” that held some social gravitas. 

Doctors, lawyers, teachers…..

Yes, you worked hard and needed a plethora of qualifications but you gained respect, stability… status. 

I look around me now and I see liars, cheats, some might even say “murderers” being paraded as the paragons of society. They are rewarded and forgiven for greed and duplicity. They are fawned over and revered by every day people as something to aspire to. 

Their selfish, egotistical narcissism has gilded them with an air of confidence that the world has bought into: hook, line and sinker. 

I stood in a supermarket today having a lighthearted chat with two ladies about having finally succumbed to switching our heating on. We laughed. The elder of the two commented that it reminded her of her youth when fires were lit only at Christmas. 

There have always been times of hardship and there has always been those who feel it more than others. 

But what is relatively new phenomenon is the sycophantic idolatry of the obscenely wealthy. 

Marketing relies upon us feeling that we need and deserve MORE. It’s how you sell! You sell aspirations, dreams. 

And to do that you need the poster people for the sales ads. The wealthy, the decadent, the frivolous. The people so ladened with “STUFF” that everyone points, gasps and thinks “one day, maybe, I will get there!”

My fellow humans… it is a beautifully, intricately constructed LIE. 

You will NEVER be Boris with his careless, nonchalant disregard for the lives of others. You will NEVER be Rishi Sunak with his outlook so skewed by privilege that he simply doesn’t SEE the poor. 

They want you to think that they offer the promise of more… just buy into it and you too can hold parties, jet off on holiday…. Not worry about heating. Just just need to do one simple thing…..

WORK HARDER.

Lies. Lies. Lies. 

Your hard work does not create more money for you. It lines the pockets of those who rely on a bottom heavy hierarchy to prosper. The harder you work the less they have to be seen to care! 

There is no end to the profiteering. You can work 60+ years in a profession and STILL worry about switching on your heating in November. 

Why?

Because men in suits made business deals that mean an essential resource is priced beyond the means of the average worker. Because those who have NEVER worried about being cold and hungry have decided the cost of human life. 

I used to think, even though this has always been the kind of system that existed, that certain professions at least afforded you a level of dignity, pride, recognition. 

I have been proved wrong. 

Nurses, Doctors, Teachers, Barristers, Train Drivers, Postal workers have all used their professional voices. 

Pushed to the limit, they have done the unthinkable and are voting to step away from their duties to make their grievances heard. 

And what do these oligarchs do?

They laugh. They change the rules. They make the very backbone of society into CRIMINALS. 

I am angry. I am devastate at the system we have perpetuated. 

It is cruel, dangerous & morally barren. 

I fear it will only change with extreme heartache and sacrifice…. Again. 

When will learn the true cost of things?