Life is one giant statistic. Come now, from the moment you were conceived, you’ve been a statistic. Even before then, you were a statistic. Were you an unplanned, unwanted pregnancy? At what age was your mother pregnant with you? What are the ethnicities of your parents? You’re a part of that statistic, too. At birth: Gender, weight, length, vital stats and a handful of other numbers and symbols were measured and logged. Did you come out head first? Feet first? Were you crying? Answers to those questions were recorded. What percentage of people living in your city are of the same ethnic background? Religion? Both?

Did you attend preschool? Did your mother work at home to look after you or did you have a nanny? What age did you get chicken pox? Did you attend a public or a private school? What grades did you get? How much time did you study? What sports did you participate in? Have you broken a bone? When did you get your driver’s permit? Driver’s license? Were you involved with any car collisions? At what age? How many times has your family moved? Have you always had two parents? Did your parents get a divorce? Did you ever have a pet? What kind? How many? Did you apply for college? Did you apply for a job during high school? How many AP courses did you take? How many times did you take the SAT? PSAT? What were your scores? What Subject SATs did you take? Did you pass the CAHSEE on your first try?

Did you participate in any clubs? How many friends did you have? Were you happy? Are you clinically depressed? How many colleges did you apply to? What major did you apply for? How many colleges accepted you? Did you apply because it was a big name school? Was it a JC? Did you dorm the first year? Did you change your major halfway? Did you add a minor? Did you double major? How many years did it take for you to graduate? Did you go to grad school?

What were your GRE/MCAT/PCAT/GMAT/LSAT scores? Did you even take any of those? Did you know what those were? Did you get a job off right after graduation? Did you have an internship? What field did you enter? Do you smoke? Drink? Are you married? What age did you get married? Have children? How many? How old were you when you had your first child? What is your salary? Are you happy? The cycle goes on. There are a billion others, like medical problems, family history of medical conditions, ethnic history of medical conditions, IQ, EQ, adult height, weight, age of puberty, political standpoint, voter status, travel time, vacation time, criminal background, debt, etc…

All these numbers and labels are ultimately used to typecast humans. Sure, some rules and regulations are devised to protect people. Others, well, they’re just business ploys to make more money off your sorry lives. Insurance. Loans. Of course there’s merit to every argument, and for those of you who are forced to pay a higher price because of age or gender, it’s a damn shame if you don’t fall into the stereotype. Unfortunately, one bad seed can make the entire garden look like crap.

There really isn’t much that can be done. Consumerism doesn’t really work out too well when the laws force people to have insurance. If that’s the case, legislators YOU vote for MAY be able to help. Write them letters to address the situation. People believe that voting doesn’t help. Find a political figure in your area who will support your ideas, write them, and vote them into office if they’re not already in.

People “need” loans to buy their new car, or just don’t like to pay their credit card bills. After falling into debt, they blame the creditors’ unforgiving responses when they can’t clear up their own messes. Whose fault would that be? Sure, occasionally a family breadwinner is laid off and left without a job and income to pay off the car loan or home loan. But not 100% of people in debt lose their jobs halfway and default on a loan.

Many of these people in debt and can’t pay it back are there because of inability to think properly. Seriously. You don’t have money? Stop spending! Find another job instead of waiting for the right one to come around. If you’re good at what you do, you should get promoted and earn even more money. If you’re stuck, either find a new job or suck it up. Yes, I have just generalized a group of people. Not really.