They've Just About Done It!

They've just about done it.  The rich have just about figured out how to take ALL of the fun out of the lives of the poor.  That'll teach those poor people!  Who do they think they are being poor anyway?

The poor can no longer afford to go to a concert to listen to some music.  $289.05 for concert tickets, $50 for a carton of cigarettes, heck, just staying alive is hard enough these days.  Some of you might laugh this off as ridiculous, but until you've ended up living off of nothing but a fixed income from the government when you are sick and elderly, you have no idea how serious this is.

During the Great Depression in 1929 one of the things people could do to ease their minds was go to a movie.  It was cheap.  Now it's $15+ for a ticket, $10 for a bag of popcorn and $5 for a drink.  The price of gas is well above what it should be adjusting for inflation, too.  Adjusting for inflation, what used to be a $1.00 movie ticket in 1968 SHOULD now be $6.84 according to the CPI Inflation Calculator.  Just about every minutia of entertaining value has priced itself well outside of the ability of those with a meager income to afford.  The "Sin Tax" can be thanked for a lot of that in Texas.

People who aren't morons aren't going to gamble away their money, but many of the poor DO play the lottery hoping to one day be able to climb out of the hole of deep poverty.  It's not only a form of entertainment to them but a last shred of hope, albeit false hope.  Yes, one lucky someone heavily tied to the Mafia or the Texas Government might hit the lottery but the rest of the poor fools are just throwing their money, that they didn't have to spend, away.

 So, what is a person to do?  Well, he could turn to drinking I suppose.  A six pack is still within reach of most people who aren't having to deal with dangerous and expensive medications.  That makes sense, right?  Turn the poor into alcoholics?  That won't cost the community anything.  Besides, what poor don't die in a drunk driving accident might get to be arrested for cheap labor for the rich.