What is going on! Why are gas prices so high? Will we ever get a break? The sad thing is it’s only going to get worse. Sure the majority of the world will be ok, but what about the poor people? I’m not talking middle class people that think they are poor, I’m talking really poor. I think anyone that makes less than $12,000.00 a year should be considered poor. I know; I am now one of those people. This is my story.

I worked as a waitress for almost 12 years and I thought that it was hard to get by making around $20,000.00. Boy was I wrong! I gave up the food business and tried to find a better job. I was so excited when I got a call from one of the biggest retailers in the world. I thought benefits, good pay, full time hours, I thought things were going to finally turn around. My husband was working for the same company already, and he was doing great, he loved it. I loved the work but I was in a totally new environment, so I was nervous but keeping positive.

At first, I didn’t really think about what I was trading up for. I was just so happy to finally have a REAL job. No more grits, eggs or coffee. I went to work every day happy, giving my all to the customers and my 110% to the job. I got my check and I was really a little disappointed when I first seen it, but I stayed positive and told myself it will get better. I thought I can work more hours and things will be ok. I just had to adjust.

Then all of a sudden, little by little my hours were changing around, my days off were crazy. Insurance and benefits were not immediately ready for part time employees and that really upset me. I was willing to work more hours and even over time, but it wasn’t allowed. Now I was missing my old job. The Old Faithful waitress job. It was kind of ironic to me now, because some of my customers at my waitress job were management employees of the company I now work for. I looked at them as having this great job and life and now I see why they would always tip very well. Of course, the upper management in the Retail Company was above me, the waitress, financially, but little did I know it’s ONLY the management in the company that can tip well. They get most of the full time positions. Now, here I am working in a place where I am now below the waitress, financially. I am now just a cashier.

I took for Granted that I had a great job. I was too busy looking for the next best thing. I sabotaged my own financial future being greedy. Now, I get paid every two weeks and sometimes it’s hard to save enough for gas to get to work. I don’t get state benefits for my children and I haven’t got insurance. I just can’t believe that a waitress has more benefits than a cashier does. We should all be able to afford insurance on our families. Somehow, I find that a little, un-American. Shouldn’t everyone that lives in the greatest country be able to have insurance? This is supposed to be the land of opportunity. Why does that seem unacceptable to me? I know I am just a number on a population census, but I am a real person and it’s hard to get by in this world on the salaries that low class or poor class or the little people that keeps the world running class, live on. Keep gas prices up and the un-employment rates are going to go up. Then more people are going to be living off the state. It’s a viscous, viscous cycle we keep completing over and over, again and again.

When are we going to finally say enough is enough and finally use our minds and power to force them to lower prices. There has to be a better way. Some how we have to create newer, cleaner, cheaper ways of fueling this hectic, gotta have, gotta drive life we have created. There is no way around it. We have too or life could get very ugly for the lower class people, that are the fuel of this worlds daily system. Without them, things don’t work so well for the wealthy.