Working Hard To Stay Broke

by DavidHawk Actor

If you've ever been so excited to get your paycheck, just to watch it go all away within minutes to all your bills, then you know exactly how I feel. Each and every week, I work forty hours to waste my days. Then, every other week, I get a paycheck that within a couple days is completely gone and I feel privileged if I got to swing through a drive thru for some dinner.

image from royalty free www.123rf.com

Rent, groceries, power, water, sewage, trash, kids and the list goes on and on. It seems like every week I'm falling further and further behind. 

Rent in any specific area is defined as cost of living. Basically, New York , NY is going to be more expensive than Boise , ID. When cost of living is higher, that means minimum wage has to go up to match. This is good and bad news. First, you make more money. But in the end, that goes directly to rent. Now the con side is when the cost of living is higher, stores raise the prices of goods and services we want.

What this does is creates a void. Basically, you get $10.00 an hour and due to the cost of all your bills, it makes it to where there is no surplus of your paycheck. This creates a problem where just to survive you have to roommates or if you're married, you have to have both people working to be able to afford to not live with your parents. 

Just thirty to forty years ago, a family of five could survive on the income of only one parent. For added savings the other parent would get a job. Once the community realized that two parents were working, it all went to hell. All of the sudden, everyone knew that a family had more money and they decided they wanted it. So the prices went up. Gas for the car went up because now that you have two people driving possibly two cars, they realized you don't have a choice but use gas more.

This greed has corrupted our entire economy. Think back to when you were a kid. In most cases, we had two parents working and even with that, our homes probably only cost around $30,000. Now look at that same home and its a quarter million if not more. What is going on with this system? When did everyone decide to bleed eachother? And unfortunately its a never ending cycle. The owner of a specific company has to pay the employees more and now ups the price of their goods or services to maintain their percentage of profit. And on and on without end through all the companies and services. Another thing pushing this problem is the debt the United States has, causing our dollar to become worth less and less so anything we import is more expensive to us.

Unfortunately, there isn't going to be any vast economic change bringing the prices of things down anytime soon. Contractors will still want $100,000 to build the home so the owners will still have to sell it at $250,000 just to make a profit. Same with cars and even cereal. So the next time you wonder if you deserve a raise, the quick answer is to say "yes, you do". But if you get a raise, then the other services in the area will notice and want more of that money, jacking up their prices. 

 

That's my view on how hard we all work just to stay broke. If you agree, like this article and share it with others. If you don't, comment down below. And remember, I love your avatars and I'll see you next time.

Loving the Breasts

by DavidHawk Actor

 (Photo taken from cancers.1000space.com)

For those of you who don't know, October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. It's a time where real men wear pink. I am a guy, and as such, I don't know much about breast cancer. I understand the concept, however. A woman develops a disease that affects their breasts. Luckily, they didn't bury the lead; they put it right out front. Breast Cancer. 

I want to start this article in complete ignorance. There are things I've heard, but this opinion has no research behind it. After I’ll put my thoughts to this writing though, I'll do a little fact checking. The amount depends on my laziness. 

So let’s put everything I know about cancer into one sentence. Cancer affects everyone. It really is that simple. We all know someone who has fought through a type of cancer, or chances are, we, ourselves, will have to fight it. 

Now that I've told you what I know, it’s time to bust into my opinions on breasts. First, as a man, I am really a breast man. Second, I’ve heard that one in eight women will have to deal with breast cancer.  That is huge. There are over three billion women in the world. Using my quick calculator, that means, approximately 375,000,000 women will contract breast cancer. If that number doesn’t seem huge to you, you must be from China. 

Earlier, when I said (even though it’s in print, I still said it aloud as I wrote it) that cancer affects everyone, I wasn’t saying that in a blanket effect. I guarantee that everyone reading this has someone in their life that has had cancer. My sister-in-law had ovarian cancer. If you're rolling a tear right now, I'll give you permission to stop because she did beat it. Unfortunately, she can’t have any more kids.

I know for a fact that the people who choose to fight any disease are strong. I read a lot of comic books, but that is not a subject that is usually addressed there. You might see a character who died of some form of cancer, but to actually see the treatments and the medications, it just shows your true colors. I definitely tip my hat to any cancer survivor because the worry, the stress, and the pain they all go through just make you know without a shadow of doubt that you should be thankful for every day you’re alive. 

Time for some facts. “Breast cancer is a type of cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk.” And yes, I literally just copy and pasted that. Now, I am not a doctor (I just play one in the bedroom), but that sounds very technical. Cancer is an unregulated cell growth. As the cells divide themselves and grow, they become malignant tumors. Those tumors then invade other areas. 

Once you are diagnosed with cancer, the preferred treatment is surgery where they carefully go in and cut the infected cells out. One of the most successful treatments for breast cancer is the one we’ve heard about a lot, chemotherapy. Chemo is where the infected person takes a variety of chemical medications that slow the speed of the cell divisions or kill those cancerous cells. And up until right now, I always confused chemo with our next therapy, radiation. As you can guess, I'm an idiot. But radiation is used to bombard the affected area with high doses of ionizing radiation. 

As a whole, approximately half of the people who are diagnosed with invasive cancer survive. That is a glass-half-full way of saying that half don’t make it. Wearing a pink ribbon is not going to save anyone’s life, but if a woman with breast cancer sees that and gains just another moment of strength—a moment that helps her recover—then we should all be wearing pink. 

The donations that everyday people make to assist in finding cures for this disease as well as many others is instrumental. Think about that when you see the donation boxes at stores or at the marathons asking for donations. We ALL will be affected by cancer. Finding cures to these diseases is one of the most important things this world needs. If you want to find ways to help organize fund raisers, donate or just learn more about breast cancer, click HERE and HERE and worst case scenario, go to Wikipedia. And always remember, I love your avatars!

 [Editor's note: Although it is rare, it is not uncommon too for men to be stricken with Breast Cancer. Cancer affects all, and this type of cancer is no exception.]