The Heirs And The Rest Of Us

Bills we can no longer pay, fuel and groceries rising every month, and ultra-cheap goods flooding our stores. Meanwhile, anger and loneliness become fuel for parties that always blame the weakest,and a wealthy few keep getting richer.

These have been days of evolutionary and revolutionary change. More and more people are beginning to realize how hard it is to get ahead. The only ones who can still afford a peaceful life are those who inherited it,those who, from the day they were born, already had two or three properties, a job waiting for them, and a family accountant looking after the family’s finances so they would never have to worry.

The rest of us have to endure the cold in winter and the heat in summer, unable to heat or cool our own homes because electricity bills have become outrageously expensive, forcing us to choose between eating and heating. As for the elderly, they either pay or get ready for the cemetery,and even there, nothing is free.

We live in a place where the son or daughter of someone famous, simply by being their child, enjoys greater privileges and lives in a sheltered world where it is easier to get a table at a restaurant or book a hotel, without giving a moment’s thought to the many people for whom rising diesel prices have meant drastic cuts in food and basic necessities.

What people don’t realize is that there are far more “poor” people than rich ones, and that is exactly where the “everything at a low price” phenomenon comes from. If something is that cheap, there must be a reason, and it is surely nothing good. We can find a dress or a piece of clothing for just a few euros, but nobody tells us the conditions under which it was made,the labor, the materials. They simply sell it to us in a European store at super-affordable prices because, don’t ask me how, it gets past customs and inspections and lands on the shelves with a catchy name, looking nice and cheap. And the thought goes: “I couldn’t care less if children are working over there and polluting the world, I have my own problems.” Living in a world of guilt and individualism, we just keep moving forward, trying to get by with what little we have, because it has become so difficult to solve a problem at its source. They really do find ways to get around European laws and flood our homes, and the world, with their products, and few people think about it, because right now we have so many other problems.

We are surrounded by clothes everywhere, and all we do is buy more. It is easier to buy than to fix things; we cover problems up instead of solving them, because if I don’t see it, it doesn’t exist. But there are things we cannot escape, even if we wanted to turn a blind eye: the prices of groceries, diesel and gasoline. And since here, and in Germany too, the trains are not what they show us on TV, I can see things getting worse every day.

And since I belong to the generation that was born with a sense of guilt, we have to pin it on someone. So of course it’s those in the East, those evil people who have taken everything from us, even what they used to give us at low prices and on excellent terms. They’re the bad guys, better them than those up north, who are doing a phenomenal job at the game of Monopoly. Apparently, that was the only game this guy with spiky yellow hair, the color of hangover vomit, ever learned to play well. But to put it better, in my opinion the problem lies with everyone: those who understand and those who don’t.

Those who think they know everything are actually the worst, because they don’t stay informed, and the way they act only makes things worse. I’m writing this because I see it every day: people who are upset because they feel alone, without a government to protect them, healthcare that heals them, social assistance that saves them, fuel at reasonable prices and, above all, a guaranteed future. They become vulnerable and are exploited by political parties that grow stronger on anger and helplessness, parties with no grassroots base, full of racism toward people who have nothing to do with this situation, and always quick to blame others. And the truth is, this is not the first time we have seen this. Perhaps we are not understanding anything at all, while every day someone takes advantage of it to serve a wealthy class that grows richer by the day.