Wage Slaves! Rebel!

As soon as you're born they make you feel small
By giving you no time instead of it all,
Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all.
A working class hero is something to be.
They hit you at home and they hurt you at school,
They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool
Till you're so fucking crazy you can't follow their rules.
A working class hero is something to be.
When they've tortured and scared you for twenty odd years
Then they expect you to pick a career
When you can't really function you're so full of fear,
A working class hero is something to be.
Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV,
And you think you're so clever and classless and free
But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see.
A working class hero is something to be.
There's room at the top they're telling us still,
But first you must learn how to smile when you kill.
A working class hero is something to be.

John Lennon, of course. But Billy Joe Armstrong can sing it to me anytime if he wants.



When I get enough sleep, when there's good, fresh food to eat, when there's weed to smoke and enough methadone, and I manage to spend enough time alone to chill and settle down - times like this it's easier not to be such a huge bitch.

Mike got fired from his job, admittedly, for something stupid. He may annoy me but it's not because he isn't a good, hard worker. When he started at this place they got paid by how many pieces they picked, about ten cents per box. And he managed to be the second highest paid worker in the warehouse. But recently they changed over their whole system and it's no longer piece rate. Now they have this weird system where if you work at "100% productivity" you get paid $15/hr, if you go faster, say at 200% you would get $30/hr. But it's really hard to go over 100%. Mike would be at, like, 170% every night but he was busting his ass. So obviously he was complaining that he was working harder and making less, probably he was getting other sheep like fellows riled up. I think that's why he was really fired. He supposedly had a mispick, which is essentially a human error, and a minor one at that. Is that really a legit reason to be fired? I don't think so. But fuck it, honestly he's better off. But until he starts getting his unemployment checks we are living off my measly pay and that sucks. I don't really know why Mike started working in the corporate world anyhow. He's always made more money on his own. I think it started when we got on the M-done and his counselor was all, "You should get a real job to help you stay clean. Find some stability". I think that's bullshit, nothings really different in the years since we got on the M-done other than the fact that our legal troubles have been less likely to increase and it's been a lot more boring. We still live in a crappy apt., still only at school part-time trying to finish, still drive alright car, still wear cheap clothes, still need new shoes, still eat whatever I want spending the bulk of my money on food and drugs. The only time my life was getting noticeably better was when health insurance covered my methadone costs. When it's not covered, it's no different than being on dope. (How is that possible you're probably thinking. Because at the clinic for the two of us it's $210/week, methadone off the street is $1/mg and we need about 100mg a week for the two of us right now at the very least, and buying dope off the street we only spent no more than $200 of our own money per week. Say we payed at the most $80/bundle, we could still bring em home and cut each bag in half, still sell em for $20/bag and still get mad high, and we'd do that all week, sometimes making a profit.) My point is that I wish I had just started buying my methadone off the street as soon as had to pay for it out of pocket. And Mike should never have stopped blowing glass and got a "real" job. Because he made pipes, the counselor tried to claim that making the pipes would make him want to smoke and smoking would make him want to do dope. That's fucking absurd. Seriously. This hot, molten glass and this sweat dripping down my face from this huge flame inches from my face is doing nothing to take my mind off drugs. In fact, I'm gonna sit here and smoke out of every single one of these pipes and fuck selling them for thousands of dollars. Are people for real? Pipes or no, we never had any intention of ceasing the smoking of the weed anyhow. If anything, being able to smoke bud makes it easier not to use all the time.Mike's dream since I met him was to open a head shop and sell his and other people's pipes and paraphernalia. We almost did a few years back but it got broken into and so much stuff was ruined we had to postpone opening but we still talk about it all the time. Even if we break up I want to help open the store. We have an awesome name but I won't tell anyone so it doesn't get heisted. So he's been going to my mom's house the past couple weekends and blowing glass with my brothers. That way we can sell some if we have to until we get back up, and if not we can save them for a festival and make some real money in the fall. And it gets him out of the apartment and I get some time alone to clean without him in my way and just basically chill.
He's all depressed about being fired because he's never been fired before. But I don't think it should get him down. I think he should be happy and vow to never go back to a place like that ever again. I hope I don't have to stay here forever either. Time clocks, cement floors, supervisors, break areas, signs everywhere, forms, false friendliness, glass doors, truck fumes, long hours, and noxious cleaning agents - who needs it? And, shit, that's just the tip of the iceberg.
As far as I'm concerned, this whole crappy system could be vastly improved. And it could begin if people weren't so fucking scared of not having everything and people judging them that they won't stand up for change. For instance people at my work who work in the warehouse should be super pissed about this huge pay cut and basically having all the senior workers being forced out in favor of people who will accept half the pay they are getting now. How is that ethical? People should not be okay with minimum wage being as low as it is, almost half, HALF, of what the actual LIVABLE wage is. Can you believe that? And simply being educated and wanting to work does not guarantee that a person is able to find a job they enjoy and pays well enough to live happily.
I can't tell you how many college graduates I work with. At a warehouse, where Mike was the second highest paid selector and he was bringing home seven hundred a week after taxes at the very most, that sucks.
Especially for people who only have a GED and should have these jobs but have to compete with people who have a B.A. or better.
I have to actually work so I must finish my rant.