27 March 2021

m_d_h: (Default)
More than 4 billion people live on less than $5 per day.  That's most of the human population.

For a moment I had the most right-wing of thoughts, "How can they be both poor and still alive?"

Then, "What even is poverty?"

Of course the definition of poverty is relative and arbitrary.  The official US formula for the poverty line hasn't been updated since the 1960s, which is a pet peeve of mine that I bring up occasionally in my LJ.  The Obama administration was experimenting with an updated measure, but Trump didn't care.  So, my official stance is that we don't even know how many people live in poverty in the US.

Nearly 10 million households in the US are behind on their rent payments, I'd count that as poverty.  43 million people receive food stamps in the US, I'd count that as poverty.

I've never been dependent on federal aid for my breakfast, have never missed a rent or mortgage payment.  Personally, I don't know what poverty is.  I was a little short on money during college at one point, so my roommate lent me some cash for food, but he assumed I'd pay him back eventually, because my family was upper-middle class.  I think my brother lent me some cash at one point also during my 20s, but I paid him back with interest.  It's been a long time since I needed that kind of help.  Nowadays I keep a cash cushion, one that was large enough to absorb our basement upgrade, and I've already rebuilt it, so I'm starting to spend more again.

Humans don't automatically take care of each other, this is clear.  If I were King of the World I would enact a worldwide universal basic income at 50% of per capita global GDP -- this would be about $5,000 per person.  Anybody whose family/household income was below $5,000/person would receive a monthly support payment to bring them up to that level.  No matter where they lived.  For some countries, this would boost their total spending power by 10x.

The policies I would advocate are so far from the median political attitude that I cannot even vote for them.  I bet nobody running for Governor in Maryland next year will advocate a state-wide UBI of $5,000/person.  Perhaps after I retire, when the Hatch Act no longer limits my political activity, I will run for office on my Impossible Dreams platform.  That should be the name of my new political party!  Impossible Dreams!
m_d_h: (Default)
I should make a point of talking with somebody on the phone whenever I do two nights at the condo during Quarantine.  It helps a lot with the feelings of loneliness.  I just spoke with my sister Ellen for as long as she wanted, I didn't care what she wanted to talk about, it was talking!  I'm totally caught up now :-)

Also had a great lunch delivered, yum.  After my stomach has had two hours to digest -- the GERD requirement -- I'll hop back onto my toys.  I checked in with T, he seemed OK, so I'm sticking with the two-night plan.

Music was so good last night!  Reading Tracey Thorn's memoir put me deep into the music-loving headspace.  Really makes me think that after I retire I'll spend entire days making music all day long.  It's difficult to get into making music right now because it is a big commitment of mental energy, and I'm wary of doing that to myself, I don't even know how I made it through NaNoWriMo ... I look back at it now and think HOW DID I WRITE ALL THAT?

But I write a lot in here anyway.  I write quickly.  All I had to do was commit to it.  But that was a one-month thing, creating my first music album will take longer and will require a more structured time investment, I can't record my vocals at 2am while I'm awake and T is sleeping.

OK, new rule, when I spend two nights by myself I should speak with a loved one on the phone :-)

And, yeah, her eldest daughter just got her first COVID shot, so I give up!
m_d_h: (Default)
rewatching some Buffy greatest hits, and this one had me crying so hard, wrenching sobs, as Xander tells Willow, repeatedly, as she tries but cannot kill him, that he loves her
m_d_h: (Default)
I don't remember why I was crying, some 45 years ago, but I remember my grandmother telling me that, "Big boys don't cry."

I remembered this while sobbing at Buffy 6x22 earlier, and felt as though --> I'm sobbing because of my own grief, yes, video occasionally triggers my own grief, allows me to wallow in it, and wallow I did,

uncontrollable sobbing, which is the point, to let go of control, to grieve uncontrollably, that's the only way we can grieve,

WTF is this control, why am I not always sobbing uncontrollably,

But I'm OK.




-----

I also have fun, I dump too much negativity into this LJ sometimes, I'm doing fine, I'm not depressed or anxious, I'm chillin', I have mastered the art of accepting the world as fucked up while also pointing out how fucked up.

BTW, I tried watching Episode IX before, Disney+ tells me, and after restarting it's as easy to ignore again as before, bye bye.  Rogue One is the only newer Star Wars film I'd recommend.  Mandalorian was OK as a "watch TV with T" activity, though I'm mad they fired her for being a Trumper.

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How much damage they do to boys telling us we should not cry?  People go on and on about the patriarchy, but most men are as stuck in this shit as everybody else.  The requirements of manhood.  I was never up for those.  They're easy to disclaim -- I'm not a man.  Nonbinary is the anti-identity.
m_d_h: (Default)
rewatching one of my all-time favorite indie films on the big plasma TV here at the condo (plasma is the best TV tech but you cannot buy it anymore) (retro Bug) and I won't even say which film but each line, each beat, each scene, feels fried in butter to my eyes/ears

and there's another I'll have to rewatch after this one,

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