So, I am living in poverty. So what? I manage.

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Under 35,000.00 per year is below poverty and even that is about 3,000.00 a month! The world is full of people like me. People with little or no money. People who long for the day when they win the lotto! Progress is based on the 1% rich S O B s who rule us with an iron fist and the real work is done by us, the other 99% Is progress being optimistic? I am mostly optimistic, in spite of the fact that most people who I knew are dead. In spite of the global imperial network, I am still able to enjoy YouTube even though NET Neutrality is now dead. If I were even middle class, I would be as well off as I am now. I would own 3 cars, pay higher bills for internet television cable streaming videos. I would subscribe to more expensive magazines. By the way, I don't subscribe to any magazines. The murder rate is going up. This morning, the first thing on the TV was the news of a school shooting. I don't even know where this happened. I didn't even bother looking to see what it was about because I have become dulled down by the latest news today. The world is more abundant with material wealth on one end of the spectrum, but still 86% of people are optimistic about health, wealth and comfort, but even the most optimistic people hate the news. I grew up poor and never knew it until I read the statistics about what wage earners in blue collar industry had to earn to make ends meet, I thought we were middle class. We lived in a middle class neighborhood. I had middle class and upper class friends. I read books by well educated nationally well known authors. So I never felt like I deserved to live in poverty but the job market was such that only college educated, with degrees, could get the kind of occupations or careers that paid good money. So I went to college and studied my favorite subjects. Art, architecture, computer science and so forth, so why the hell did I end up like I am now? Bad things happen while we're making other plans is what happened. Illness, accidents, being with the drug crowd and traveling in low social circles was my downfall. I managed to get jobs that were almost white collar, but only because I was willing to accept the lowest possible pay with the promise of higher wages in due time. But I never stuck to a job long enough to realize it. Why? once again it was because I was only interested in art, music, literature and history. I was interested in playing chess all day and swimming in a back yard pool all summer with a few friends, drinking beer and wine and hanging out. I never really accepted my demise. I had the potential to reach for the sky but I was afraid of success, afraid I might actually succeed and all my friends would leave me. I had many friends in low places. That is why now I am looking more to the future than the dreadful past. I see myself being in the category of the dirt poor in America, but at least I have my mind still and am able to engage in intellectual learning. Maybe being poor and in poverty is not that bad when there are no worries about how to maintain a Hummer, a huge mansion and 60 acres of land. The idea of what makes us poor is fortunately not just about how much pocket change we have handy, but more what we enjoy of simple pleasures and the art of living without want. I do not want. I am happy with having nothing, because there will be less for others to clean up and give away when I die. Meantime, do you feel like you are just not happy with your current state of financial security? There are ways to earn money, but for me, it's not so important as I feel like we are living in the final days anyway. Why bother saving for an island all your own? Tsunamis are all too common. Even volcanoes are spewing out hot lava in Hawaii. The educated and the rich know this is not a paradise. There are days I would like to win a lottery but what I don't gain in material wealth and high end possessions, I gain in personal time when I can spend it with my wife and enjoy a good conversation and good companionship. You can't take it when you go anyway, so for those who have lots of money, remember, easy come, easy go.