These days, I spend a lot of time concerned with how to be as efficient as possible, all with an eye towards "saving" a few more minutes of time.
I need those minutes to keep doing something useful; to get closer to paying one more bill.
Sometimes I find it difficult to just stop and think about this predicament in the context of what I thought life was going to be like when I was a young person. The idea that I would have to use every waking moment to do something income producing just in order to keep from becoming homeless and destitute was ridiculously far outside of what my thoughts about life were when I was hopeful and 18 years old.
Of course, I'm still hopeful to some extent, but I have almost no expectations with respect to anything turning out for the better. Better luck next lifetime...
As I have alluded to before, I think a large part of our problem — as a society; as a species — is that we live in a world where we have been conditioned to measure what we think of as "success" and "happiness" in terms of how much we have, rather than the actual quality of what we have.
There is something mildly ironic about this because there are lots of surveys — and even workshops — out there that measure people's quality of life, but when you look at a little deeper level you discover that mostly they are measuring the quantity of a person's life.
But more isn't always better!
Most people don't want to have to live a life in which they are working two — and even three — jobs, simply so they can keep a roof over their heads.
Recently, I came across an article analyzing how large real estate investment companies are now making inroads on the last area of (somewhat) affordable housing in the USA: Mobile homes.
These mega corporations buy the land that gets leased to mobile home owners and just keep raising the rent, in the knowledge that people who are living in a mobile home cannot afford to move, so they'll just have to grin and bear a 20% a year land rent increase.
No wonder so many of us are desperately trying to "save a few more minutes," so we can afford to pay a few more dollars for something as essential as housing, utilities or food.
I'm grateful I'm not beholden to a mobile home park landlord... but we *are beholden to a Homeowners Association who recently deemed that our quarterly payment will rise from the current $354 a quarter rate to about $530 per quarter in 2025. That's basically a 50% increase, year over year.
The "excuse" is that our roads in the neighborhood need to be repaired and resurfaced.
And so, I will find a way to scrape a few more dollars together... and the knowledge that it's only for about 18 months more, then we move somewhere cheaper.
Thanks for coming by, and have a great week ahead!
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Created at 2024-10-07 00:12 PST
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