{"id":32367,"date":"2017-06-21T16:00:43","date_gmt":"2017-06-21T20:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/huntsville.dopperonline.ca\/?p=32367"},"modified":"2017-06-21T11:40:34","modified_gmt":"2017-06-21T15:40:34","slug":"the-working-poor-age-of-modern-slavery-opinion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/the-working-poor-age-of-modern-slavery-opinion\/","title":{"rendered":"The working poor: age of modern slavery – Opinion"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Agatha Farmer<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe working poor haven\u2019t abdicated responsibility for their lives. They’re drowning in it.\u201d \u2013 Ezra Klein, Washington Post<\/em><\/p>\n

If your day begins the night before with lunch and next day’s breakfast prep, your wake up call is at 6 a.m. and you are out of the house by 7:10 a.m., you have kissed your spouse goodbye who leaves at the same time or earlier, you have just enough time to wake up your kids who will be making their way to the bus stop an hour after you\u2019ve left, or you take them with you at that ungodly hour to daycare where they can spend a useless hour waiting for school to begin.<\/p>\n

<\/broadstreet-zone><\/strong><\/div>\n

If you are wondering why you have just dropped off your child at daycare to pay for care, or why your kids are eating breakfast on their own getting ready to walk to the bus\/school while you should be there with them, you\u2019re not alone. But you can\u2019t be there for something as natural and instinctive as raising your kids because you have a full-time job which is at least steady, has benefits and a decent Monday to Friday schedule. You are very aware that even with just that you are already ahead of others who are struggling to find employment in the first place, or those who work two to three jobs in a 24-hour period. Now this is living! Kevin O\u2019Leary has nothing on the exciting, high-stress lifestyle of the poor.<\/p>\n

If you work 40-plus hours per week in the poor man’s private sector and bring in under $35,000 per year.<\/p>\n

If you are at work from first thing in the morning and you don\u2019t step foot in your front door until 5:30 p.m. or later.<\/p>\n

If you are constantly budgeting money and food.<\/p>\n

If you are wondering how you will pay this month’s hydro bill while still trying to catch up from last month’s hydro bill without making payment arrangements.<\/p>\n

If you are wondering and stressing when you will make that walk to your boss’s office and blurt out the lines you have been rehearsing all morning because you need time off to take your kid to the dentist and dentists don\u2019t work weekends.<\/p>\n

If you are holding your breath when your car makes any unrecognizable noise because if you have to fix the car, hydro won\u2019t get paid what you arranged, or you will be short on groceries because, no matter what, mortgage\/rent needs to be paid or you\u2019ll be sleeping on the street.<\/p>\n

If you are anxious that after you have paid as much as you can to bills, loans, mortgage\/rent and purchased the necessary food for your family which, not surprisingly with the price of groceries, is almost never enough; figured out how much you\u2019ll need for gas to get to and from work; and accounted for all those school trips and any money the kids might need that week.<\/p>\n

If you feel like you are working just to pay bills, waking up to the same never-ending cycle every day.<\/p>\n

If you can relate to any of this, you are part of the working poor. You are a member of what used to be a middle class. Due to inflation, a housing market out of control, and wages stagnant since the mid 90s, you have thus earned a lifetime membership to the club of modern slavery. There is no way out unless we have massive economic and social reform.<\/p>\n

If you want off the hamster wheel, out of the bureaucratic mess which are governments, off the toxic monetary system, there simply is no other option for you. Live, breathe the hamster wheel, be the property of your employer or die of starvation as food banks can not keep up with demand.<\/p>\n

If you are ready for change and are more than willing to work and support yourself but without sacrificing your family. If you feel that employers need to offer more flexibility so that you don\u2019t feel like a slave to corporate and have balance in your work\/personal life. If you feel that you should have the right – without fear – to tell your boss that you need time off or, to meet the standard of living, need a wage increase (and as long as your work ethic is on par you should be entitled to that right without any negative repercussions). If you feel that prices need to stop climbing or wages in the private sector NEED to increase then you are one rebellious little peasant ? – keep pushing change forward because Ontario labour laws are hopelessly outdated and completely out of touch with what employees with families require in the year 2017.<\/p>\n

\"\"Agatha Farmer is a wife, mother of two, personal trainer and local business owner. She is a self professed political junkie, centred very much in the ideological middle. After moving from Milton to Huntsville in 2015 and living through major life changes which have further shaped her perspective and opinions she doesn’t hold any punches. Her blog mantra “the planet does not belong to us, we belong to the planet” has shaped her ideological views for the past 10+ years.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more on her blog here<\/a><\/span>.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Want more Commentary? Click here<\/a><\/span>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on Doppler! Sign up for our free newsletter here<\/u>.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/broadstreet-zone>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Agatha Farmer \u201cThe working poor haven\u2019t abdicated responsibility for their lives. They’re drowning in it.\u201d \u2013 Ezra Klein, Washington Post If your day begins the night before with lunch […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":33216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-32367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","tag-breaking"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe working poor: age of modern slavery - Opinion - Huntsville Doppler<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Can you relate?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/the-working-poor-age-of-modern-slavery-opinion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The working poor: age of modern slavery - 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