Back into the gully: What the end of CERB means for the poor

This year… we don’t really have to mention how crazy the world’s been, do we?

Suffice to say, some spin doctors are trying to tell a good news story, saying look: we got rid of Trump, right? And in the first few weeks of the worldwide shutdown/lockdown, hide-your-face-hold-your-breath pandemic, global statistics on pollution simply plummeted!

See, now just off the top of my head – two really good things goin’ on, right?

The money was good too. But once we got used to the pandemic, the government started taking away the extra money they’d been giving us. They will have to start explaining again why we can’t get what we need even though we were good at the shopping mall, kept on our masks, didn’t dig for stuff and cleaned our rooms. Fact is, poor people (children particularly) are not gifted for being good. Poor kids get the same, good or bad, ‘cause it’s all the government can afford now.

It’s too bad that the best financial times I ever had was during the Covid isolation.

It’s too bad that the best financial times I ever had was during the Covid isolation. It felt like we had a chance to live like everyone else does. We had milk, bread, et cetera, we could just go buy it! I mean be smart and go to Walmart. Just be a little wise with your spending. Like everyone else.

During the hottest months, we had freezies all month long, not freezies for two and a half weeks and then nothing until cheque day. When the CERB money is gone, we have to use those words again: cheque day!

And with the new school year in September, we’ll be feeling like shit again ‘cause we won’t be able to afford the class picture; we’ll have to settle for the sample photo, with the word “sample” stamped right across our little angel’s smiling face.

I’d like to ask our government an important question: if we have enough money in Canada’s coffers to dole out so much more, but now you’ve taken it away, doesn’t that show our most important resource, our kids, the world shakers of tomorrow, that they aren’t worth the activities or educational tools that provide them with what they need to not slide down into their parents’ worn out fuzzy slippers, but let them dress smartly for success, to entitle their brains to function to their ultimate capacity? Covid is still here and so is poverty, so why is CERB gone? 

Covid is still here and so is poverty, so why is CERB gone?

The CERB and CRA monies and other allowances given due to wage loss or Covid stopping free markets is showing that while there’s enough cash to aid our children’s abilities to succeed in life, they don’t wanna give it to us. But as parents, we’ve felt that wave burst over us all; as disabled people, we’ve been able to balance out some bills that are always threatening cessation unless we pay more; as unemployed people we’ve gazed at the nutritious food with the dream of making it last all month; as we’ve looked for work we’ve calculated the car insurance payments so we can drive around to find work or what have you – so we can help ourselves! Are we starting to see the forest for the trees now? Cut down a tree or 40, it’ll come clear soon…

The reality is that families and children will very quickly start feeling that crunch that used to dictate their every move come back! All those “perks” that parents got are all done now, but man it was great while it lasted. It sounds silly, but I paid for half an online internet course (a payment of $99), but my wallet was stolen from my own house and now I can’t come up with the other $99 to finish the course. 

A lot of people are feeling a sense of extreme desperation at the onset of poverty again.

Isn’t it horrible that a world-threatening pandemic was the first thing in decades that gave poor people the chance to not behave poorly, but get to relax and feel like everyone else?

I want to rob the mint to lift up any families living in that gully so they can move back into the rich, warm sun!

A lot of people had some great money-making ideas triggered by Covid-19 – masks, for example, that are not plain, sterile pads on your face, but decorated with flowers or monstrous faces or animals, are creative and profitable! A person’s state of mind, as we all know, cannot truly demonstrate its full potential if it doesn’t feel equal to the task like everyone else. Instead they hang back, thinking how lucky other people are that they can think of such stuff!

Depression is skyrocketing in your neighbourhood again folks, now that we’ve been put back in our places.

Our government should hang their heads in shame for holding back confidence, creativity, and open minded thinking from tomorrow’s world shakers. For a short while we got to see our children realize their own potential, which makes me want to cry for its loss. I want to rob the mint to lift up any families living in that gully so they can move back into the rich, warm sun!

Trudeau – do you begin to understand? Just – open your eyes. Do the right thing!

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