At 0821, I had a revelation—yesterday morning—while we (the bodybuddy/lifemate and I) were riding our bikes home from errand running after our night shift at our part-time job (yes, I, too, am currently employed [part-time and for reasons that this is not about], but I am not ONLY employed; I am also a mother-fucking BOSS). As we were hauling our asses up the first of two hills (the larger of the two, thank Ladybug), I saw a ... chubby couple* jogging slowly on the sidewalk coming toward us.
But first, a word from our sponsors, “(Kunt) by KK” and “Whites Only by Bieber’s Bieber”:
[begin voice-over]
The whiny voice of Bieber’s Bieber, “But I suffer!” echoes in the background.
“Have you ever seen someone else’s idea and thought to yourself, ‘That should be my idea’? If so, participate in needless consumerism by shoveling millions of dollars into the brands ‘(Kunt) by KK’ and ‘Whites Only by Bieber’s Bieber’! They have it all. They lack ideas for real entrepreneurship. They lack substance when determining a new brand name. And they outright steal in the name of entitlement. Make your skkkn glow like no other by representing all things White and Entitled! It’s easy.”
The whiny voice of (K)KK shrieks in the background, “But I can’t be racist, my children are Black!”
“For three low payments of three slaps to the faces of real hard-working women, jump on board with the Entitled Whites, and suck it to the Black Creators, the Abundant** Doers, the Original Originals. It’s easy!”
“And just for good measure—another Misguided White— Fuck you, Jennifer Aniston. Get. A. Life. Who knew she needed one? *sigh* Oh the things you learn when others open their mouths.
“'(Kunt) by KK' and 'Whites Only by Bieber’s Bieber' available now to steal the cash right out of the hands of those who worked for it, because ‘We’re worth it. And you're not.’”
[return to programming]
My revelation was thus:
These focking phools, who have switched from working in the office to working remotely (or at home) have confused their “at home” situation with a “from home” situation.
Ah, the power of language.
I would argue that there’s a distinct difference between working AT home and working FROM home. If you work AT home, this means that you work for some entity or person, you are a worker from Fill-In-The-Blank Company who is working AT home for THEM. Those of us who work FROM home, work for OURSELVES.
How do you, yes, you dear reader, how do you determine whether or not you work AT or FROM home? Well, the answer is very very, very simple. Do you receive a paycheck, biweekly, monthly, salaried from an employer? Do you need that paycheck to pay your bills each month? If so, you are a wage-earner; you are no different from your hourly-wage-earning counterparts. You are simply doled out more cash because you (supposedly) have more “skills,” but really, you were just born into a different class, but you are still of the working class, nevertheless. But so are 90% of all Americans, so you’re in good company ;) Oh, and you work AT home.
In short, anyone who earns their income by trading their time is an economic slave in modern capitalistic societies, namely, the United States.
On the other hand, if you work FROM home, this means that you make your own money. There is no employer to fire you; there’s only going out of business. There is no doling out of paychecks. There are only expenses. You are a free agent. Your time is your money. You create money out of thin air.
Thus, what became such a revelationary thought—yesterday—was that the Pandemic brought forth this forced Remote Work, but what it has done, inadvertently, is further solidify the reality of economic slavery within the modern capitalistic system within which we are all trapped. The problem, for me, is that now there is a class of workers who are tricked—misguided—into thinking that they are “free,” when in fact, they are economically enslaved more than ever.
Between the home-ownership myth (or what I like to call the Mortgage Myth, but usually, people mistake this nomenclature as referring to mortgages being a lie as opposed to reading the verbiage as the criminal practice of selling the idea of home ownership as necessary or even wise) and the delusion of the JOB being anything more than one’s own economic slavery, I feel hopeless for those who have become entrapped in the lies of the Procrustean Bed.^ You know that the Bed is too small. The reality is that if you complain, someone will come by and cut you to size.
This is America.
Welcome to America. The Land where you can do anything you can afford (even rip off other people’s hard work), and if you can’t afford it, you can still have it in exchange for your life and pay off your credit card bill, car payment, and mortgage one month at a time, until you die, which means that not only can you NOT QUIT your job because you have to pay off your debtors, you MUST HAVE a job in order to fund your continued survival, i.e. paying your bills.
And so, when considering the economic reality in which we are all trapped—the one in which everyone who is not born into the 1% is an economic slave to this capitalist experiment—anyone (be it the world’s greatest superstar or the world’s stupidest man), anyone who implies or suggests to you that you ought to QUIT YOUR JOB or that your JOB should, somehow, make you happy, IS NO FRIEND OF YOURS.
I 100% guarantee you this.
This world that you and I all enjoy here in the Land of the Free is built for one purpose and one purpose only: Capitalism. If you do not understand what Capitalism is or how it works, you should educate yourself, quickly. Time is not on your side, and the day is fast approaching when being able to rise through the classes will become impossible (until the next inevitable spread within each class, etc., etc., 1,000 years from now, etc.).
My point is that if you are working AT home, do not fool yourself into thinking that you are somehow … FREE. You are employed. Your employer has all the power. The only way to have power over an employer is to be the employER, not the employEE. Duh. And no your manager is not your employer.
So, sure, live it up, enjoy the delusion and feel as “free” as you wish because you work AT home, which means that you can go on that jog at 0800 because all you have to do is log in by 0900, but then you’re sorta free to do with your day as you wish. Sure, this is all great. This is a great way to imagine your economic enslavement. Realize, however, that you are not free. You are still obligated to show up to some place (be it virtual or physical) at some time for some amount of time in exchange for a meager doling out of funds with which you can then pay for your continued survival.
The quickest and easiest way that I test whether or not a friend or new acquaintance (who poses as if they are “free” because they work AT home, AT their leisure) is truly “free” is by simply requesting a coffee date at 0900 on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday.
It’s easy.
*the couple does not represent about what i am writing in this piece, they simply inspired the train of thought, etc.
**thank you, Kiese Laymon
^thank you, N.N.Taleb