Merrily Dancing Ape

Today I awoke at 7:30am to a hydraulic hammer pounding on a rock bed. I really really dislike Kahi Welo, the housing development next door to me.

I bear no ill will to the construction workers, whom I’m sure are nice people. But I’m pretty sure their Community Noise Permit disallows use of this sort of equipment before 9am, and their continued violations are a real aggravation.

Some day in the future this sort of thing will be much more tightly regulated. Right now our society is overly tolerant of the ills associated with new construction because it’s so addicted to the benefits of new construction.

The political system here in Hawaii is virtually run by the development corporations and construction unions. Any democracy is bound to be taken over by these sorts of villains when the voters and even the news media are as apathetic as Hawaii’s are. The truth is that people like the sound of Democracy, a system in which the governed take part in their own government, but they’re far too busy with their lives to take part in their own government unless someone pays them to do so. And they don’t want to be seen making a fuss in public. We’re lucky if people even get off their asses to vote in elections. At least this is the case until the situation begins to hurt their daily lives in tangible ways. Then suddenly they become Benjamin Franklins and Thomas Jeffersons and Paul Reveres.

Apathy is the enemy of democracy. Even if a people are ill-informed, reactionary, gullible, and untrained in critical thinking, a democracy can still succeed, but when they are apathetic, self-government withers and dies. Without changing a single letter in the constitution, diabolical forces take possession of the “democracy.” All they need is money. Money buys candidates, campaign staff, ads, and, ultimately, elections.

To me it seems like most members of the legislative bodies here on Oahu aren’t really interested in representing citizens. They represent the people with money who paid for their campaigns, and who will give them high paying jobs in the private sector when they leave “public service.”

The Kapolei Neighborhood Board may be an exception. There is a handful of genuinely good people on that Board. I don’t know if I agree with them on all issues. I’m a liberal Democrat and I know not all of them are. As politicians some of them are a little rough around the edges. But I like them because they have that all important quality: they genuinely care.

I’m rambling. Basically what I’m trying to say is that I was awoken this morning by construction noise, and therefore Satan must secretly be in control of our society. Err… yeah. 🙂

I mean it’s literally expensive.

Poor people obviously have less money than rich people. What’s not so obvious is that things cost more for them. And they have extra expenses that rich people don’t have.

When you’re poor, you can’t afford to buy high quality things that actually work and that last. So instead you pay the ongoing cost of continually repairing or replacing your crappy stuff, which ends up being more expensive in the long run. From clothes to washing machines to cars to towels to flooring, you get cheapo stuff that turns out not to be cheap at all.

You’re more likely to use a credit card to pay for big ticket items, so not only do you pay full retail, your interest payments increase your overall costs considerably. (Rich people get significant discounts by paying in cash and they never have to pay interest.) And you can’t afford to buy in bulk, so you pay more per unit than wealthier people. The Washington Post reports that poor people actually pay more for groceries than rich people – not just because they can’t afford to buy in bulk, but also because the stores in their neighborhoods actually charge more.

You can’t afford a Cadillac health-care plan. You’re lucky if you can afford the bottom-of-the-barrel plan with much higher deductibles. If you ever have a real health crisis, your sucky plan leaves you footing much more of the bill. Many poor people cannot afford health insurance at all, which means a health crisis results in mind boggling levels of debt and often in bankruptcy.

You’re less likely to have the time and money to do the things that maintain your health. You can’t afford a fancy gym membership (even if you had time to work out). You can’t afford healthy food so instead you eat crap that makes you sick. You can’t afford biannual teeth cleanings so instead your teeth rot, and then when you finally go to the dentist the bills are outrageous.

If you don’t have enough money to maintain the minimum balance, then instead of your bank paying you interest on your checking account, the bank charges you monthly fees. It can be difficult to predict when these fees will be subtracted from your balance, so you’re more likely to bounce checks. Bouncing checks incurs even more fees. As Matthew Yglesias at Slate points out, poor people are also forced to pay fees to use ATMs. These fees are waived for wealthier customers.

Your credit usually isn’t great, so your credit cards charge exorbitant interest rates. You’re never offered gold or platinum memberships in anything, never receive perks, never accrue sky miles. You can’t afford membership so you don’t receive the sale prices offered to members. You’re constantly paying fines and late fees that keep you from getting ahead. You cannot leverage your money because you can’t get loans. If you can get a loan, you’ll pay a higher interest rate than anybody else.

You rent rather than own because renting is more affordable, and so each month you help your landlord turn a profit instead of helping yourself build equity.

I support capitalism. The alternatives to it have so far proved inferior. But the division of our society into economic classes that have nothing to do with work ethic or merit seems pretty unfair to me. And it’s uncool that our economic system is geared to kick you when you’re down.