Editorial Commentary
For some, the water is already boiling. They’re drowning in higher bills, heavier taxes, and rising prices with no way out. Every month is a struggle. Every paycheck disappears before it even reaches their hands. This isn’t just a warning about the future—it’s a reality for millions of people right now.
Yet, the response from those in power is always the same:
- “We’re working on it.”
- “Maybe later.”
- “It’s just the way things are.”
But “later” doesn’t put food on the table today. “Later” doesn’t stop the eviction notice or tax man. “Later” doesn’t delay decisions between water, food, and medicine affecting our citizens right now.
We are not dealing with honest mistakes across the board. Some of this is incompetence, some of it is indifference, and some of it is just the nature of a system that prioritizes the system itself over the people in it. If we keep letting others turn up the heat, we will reach a point where escaping becomes impossible. You will own nothing and be invariably “cooked”, or happy as some have put it.
The Cycle of Squeeze and Suffer
Every time a new tax, fee, or price increase is introduced, it has a cascading effect. The government and corporations take their cut at the top, and the burden rolls downhill—onto businesses, homeowners, and workers.
Current Squeezes
- Taxes go up → Small businesses raise prices to survive.
- Property values “reassessed” → Rents rise, mortgages become unmanageable.
- Energy costs skyrocket → Utility bills devour incomes.
- Inflation weakens the dollar → Groceries, gas, and essentials cost more.
- Food quality in question as prices skyrocketing
It’s the same people paying the price every single time: us. The same people holding the bag.
Politicians don’t largely feel it. Their salaries are funded by taxes—our taxes. Corporate executives don’t feel it. They just raise their prices and collect bigger profits.
But we feel it. We always pay.
And the worst part? They know we’re trapped.
The Trap of Dependence
This system where Government and Corporations take turns pummeling the masses isn’t just inefficient—it’s designed to keep us dependent. If we struggle to afford food, water, and electricity, we have no energy to resist. If we live paycheck to paycheck, we have no resources to escape. Soon thereafter, when those that helped build this country can no longer acquiesce, they’ll take their last possessions, their remaining wealth, home and property.
This is how control works. The Government and Corporations create problems, then sell solutions that never truly fix anything.
- Wages stagnate? Just take on more debt. Get another job. How else are many going to compensate?
- Rent too high? Government assistance will “help” (while landlords keep raising prices). Or find lesser living arrangements and/or transient living options to survive.
- Food prices soaring? Corporate alternatives are often cheaper but generally processed and not as healthy. Many are filled with preservatives, chemicals and ingredients banned in other parts of the world. What else are many going to be able to eat? What other options do they have but bad options?
- Taxation killing you? Please be sure to support our non-stop rising taxes, levies and fees. What else can those on a fixed income do besides say no?
What happens when you can’t pay? When the Government reasess your property s value up 40% and you can’t pay their taxes? You lose your home or have to sell and find lesser options.
Don’t worry, those options are largely not there. If you’ve been following our coverage of the township and the city council meetings, you will see that Serving Our Seniors have been stressing this. That seniors are selling their homes because they’re being priced out of living within municipalities and they can’t find places to rent within their budgets.
It’s not incompetence across the board—some of it is just strategy. A dependent population under huge stress is a population that can’t push back. For many, owning their home and their property is a large semblance of their Freedom.
The Way Out: Thinking Outside the Box & Pushing Back
The system thrives when people feel trapped, powerless, and dependent. That means the only way out is to think differently, act differently, and engage differently.
1. Self-Sufficiency: Thinking Outside the Box
No one solution will fix this, but shifting our mindset toward resourcefulness, bartering, and self-reliance can weaken the grip of corporate and government control.
- Victory Gardens: Historically, in times of economic hardship and war, people grew their own food to survive. Why not now?
- Trading & Bartering: Not everything needs to be bought. Communities thrive when people trade skills, goods, and services.
- DIY & Local Sourcing: The more you can create, fix, or source locally, the less dependent you are on inflated prices and failing supply chains.
- Alternative Energy: Solar panels, rainwater collection, and other methods aren’t perfect, but they chip away at corporate control over basic necessities.
- Strategically Lower Consumption: Especially of water. Do not reward the City for mismanagement. Why should they get revenue from your hardship for a problem that they and their predecessors created?
- Municipalities shifting to being friendly to alternative dwelling situations that are friendly to seniors and many of our working class. So they in turn can live and provide for themselves on the means they have.
The point isn’t to live off the grid, it’s about breaking free from the “just accept it” mentality. Stop making it so easy for Government to take from you. Stop always agreeing by paying and staying silent.
2. Show Up & Get Involved
The people taking advantage of you count on citizens not paying attention. That’s how taxes, fees, and regulations get slipped in under the radar. It’s how prices go up and it’s how large corporations get away with harm and disaster.
It’s imperative that you:
- Show up to council meetings. Decisions that affect your wallet and your neighborhood happen there.
- Know what’s going on. If you don’t pay attention, someone else will—and it won’t always be in your best interest.
- Call your local officials. They work for you, not the other way around. Make sure they know your expectations.
- Stop supporting those who harm you. Stop voting for them. Stop buying from corporations that sell harmful products.
- Buy local. If you’re going to sacrifice, sacrifice for the farmer, not the politician. The farmer eats the same food as you and tends it with sweat and hard work. When you buy from them, they reinvest it in you repeatedly. When you don’t buy, they feel it the most.
If you don’t like how things are going, change the players in the game. Sitting back and hoping things improve hasn’t worked yet. Vote for candidates that will honor your values and respect your wallet. Stop buying food and products from people that put profits over people’s health and well being. You can say No!
3. Say “No” – and Mean It
We’ve been pushed and squeezed for years. Now we push back.
- No to new taxes that fund government failures.
- No to unchecked corporate control over food, water, and energy.
- No to politicians who betray us while many live comfortably on our dime.
- No to eating and consuming food that harms you.
We either take action now, or we accept a future where we own nothing, control nothing, and survive only at the mercy of those who profit from our struggles.
It doesn’t have to be that way, things won’t change unless we as societies and communities force change. There’s a lesson to be learned from not defending attacks on Free Speech or other Constitutionally protected Freedoms. Those type of attacks unanswered, harm the public and eventually become a tax on your overall Freedom and money. This silent approval also emboldens government to take even more and continues to turn up the flame notch by notch.
The water starts scalding and the blame goes round. Soon all in the pot are cooked. Then it doesn’t really matter anymore. What’s done is done. Is that the future you want? It’s the one your about to get.
