The Price of Existing

There's a fee to be alive. Lots of fees, actually. A new fee just hit me, delivered from my nemesis, Wells Fargo. If you have a debit card, you are going to pay a debit card transaction fee of $3 per month. Maybe you don't think that's much. It is to the likes of me.



Utility rates of skyrocketed. Gas prices have sky rocketed. Sewer rates are up. Garbage rates are up.



I can't say "Cut off my sewer and water". I'd like to, since the water tastes like chlorine anyhow.



Could I live without electricity, heat, cooking, lights, hot water, refrigeration, TV? Probably. Been there, done that. I lived in a shack with a visquin roof out in Alaska for awhile.



I don't know how to live without a bank. The whole system is set up so you have to use them. You get paid with a check, not cash, so you have to cash that somewhere. You can't pay all utilities anymore by cash. Garbage to name one. I used to be able to pay it by cash, until they were sold to a bigger out of state company. After that, I went to pay my bill at the local garbage office and they said they don't take payments anymore, that I'd have to send payment to the out of state address.



I'd like to kiss that bank goodbye. I will look for another, without all the fees. Riles me to think of those fat cat rich ass bank CEO's, then how they look for every way they can find to squeeze out the last blood from little people.



Even the thought of banks these days brings to mind the movie "It's a Wonderful Life". How can one not think of that evil little banker who tried to force George out of business and screw the townspeople when one thinks of the big impersonal fee happy bail us out with billions, screw the little people banks of today.



I'd like to live without a bank intermediary. Our society is not set up that way.



It's set up to force us into banks.



There's a price to being alive. A high price.



I can't watch shows like Good Morning America anymore either. Not after seeing a list of their salaries.



They're delivering basically fluff not news. News delivery has gone downhill. I like newspapers. Sure, there aren't many in depth reports anymore or investigative reporters. The Gazette Times is an exception. There's a hot shot no fear investigative reporter they have named Bennett Hall. He does great reports.



When those rich news people, making $15 million or more a year, express outrage over poverty in their stories, I don't feel it. They live in completely different worlds and have no connection to most of America.



You got to pay your dues back to the fat cats for the privilege of breathing their air.