Is Working Hard Worth It?

I don’t know about you, but I hear often about the people who live in the world who are hungry, have water that is unclean, or have little or no money. Is it happening everywhere, but in your neighborhood or is it happening next door?

I can think of a couple of people who I know that life could be much better who live near me. The circumstances are different but I believe the suffering is all the same. The first instance is a lovely lady who was once married, now divorced. She lives in a beautiful home and was rewarded the home through the divorce papers.

Is it a reward or can it be a burden? Is it a reward when the struggles become too  deep to keep the payments going? It has to be difficult to lie down at nights only to have these worrisome thoughts about losing not only the one you love but maybe the house you have become familiar with and have many ties with.

Always thinking up new ideas to gain a little money to keep all bills going. I guess a lot of it would depend on how much I loved that property compared to how much turmoil I wanted to place myself in. For others it may be a fight to win, to not have to give up or give in to someone who doesn’t give a shit whether I have my home or not.

Not being able to go to the grocery store and get the food needed or maybe having to seek aid for things needed. It is sad to me, that even with college degrees and all the work people can find, there is still risk of losing one’s home.

The other person I know is a sweet and lovable one. Also having to count pennies. Being retired and always having worked hard at a white-collar job, realizing now that all that hard work just doesn’t pay off real well as the economics are out of balance.

The government helps but not before you are on poverty street. People will not get help until they have less than fifteen hundred dollars to their name. This low amount of money allowed to keep is nothing to dance around about.

In today’s times fifteen hundred dollars is nothing. I know that sounds cold, but look at the prices of rental properties. In less than two months your money could be wiped out over having a place to meet.

Oh yes, you can get help from different programs, but the amount allotted is considered nothing above the poverty level. Somewhere the idea got lost that we, the people, have paid in our entire adult life, so shouldn’t we have a fair compensation when we grow to the point of retirement?

To realize there is little or zero work at that age and to receive a monthly check makes me sick to my stomach when you think about the years of hard labor and then you have to be even more cautious as you feel the pricking of aches and pains and the golden years.

Vehicle trouble is or can be very costly. What if we can’t afford that? After all we only have that level of money we are allowed to keep and a pension check. Car issues can start at a level of 100.00 and rise to very high levels. How do people get around when the car doesn’t run right or at all?

Having to count on a ride when we have been self-sufficient for so many adult years is embarrassing and humiliating. Maybe walking is too painful or the weather isn’t cooperating to get out. So many circumstances in our world, and so few ways to make life what it once was.

I am heading in that direction one day also. I am not married, I have no partner to help out. What monies I have I may not have long. What if I also one day only receive 100.00 for food stamps because of my lack of ability to work or my age. Could I make it on that amount of money when it is so easy to spend the amount entitled to me in one week?

What do we do when we are faced with life decisions like that? I have to say it is scary to me. The Lord will help me but there is a part of me that doesn’t want to have to worry each night I lay my head down to rest, about what am I going to eat the next day. Or how am I going to get to the grocery store, who can I bother to ask for a ride, or will I have a place to call my own.

Life is not as it used to be. We worked hard, we were able to save a few dollars back. Retirement was easier to work for and achieve. Pensions were better. Savings programs were options through your paycheck, but not now. Now we scrape by, working harder than ever, sometimes doing the job of two people for less benefits and money.

I don’t really feel any better writing this post as I realize I am also unable to help those around me that are suffering. I feel that the three classes of people are no longer there. The poverty, middle class and the wealthy. Now we have more poverty and the wealthy.

We are born, we live, we work and try to play and then we rest, but does  true rest  really come? Is there still the slogan called The Golden Years? I don’t think so unless you are very lucky. I think there will be even more suffering through the years to come.