My sister's Communist Manifesto.

[gottawonder]

I somewhat agree with this sister, and then I am also frustrated with her at times.

I know I've mentioned this sister before, with her extreme Communist views.

She's lived most of her life in poverty (no way around saying that), though sometimes I have to think that was due to her choices. Marrying a lunatic, having three children with him even though they didn't have any money, divorcing him and getting no support from him. Living with a much older man with ongoing financial issues (and she knew that) who probably didn't contribute much financially to her raising the kids.

She really feels that every person deserves an income from the government, and I do agree with a guaranteed basic income. That said, there do have to be some people who earn a good living and pay taxes, or the whole thing falls apart.

Somehow though, you have to reward those people for earning money, and this is where she ends up frustrating me. She says things like how we should all only live in the smallest possible home, and only have one bathroom, no extra bedrooms, and have a wood stove and be able to grow our own food, and on and on. If she had her way, we'd all be raising chickens and washing our clothes by hand.

She forgets that in order for some of us to make enough money that we can take care of those who don't make enough money to pay taxes, we likely aren't going to do that without some kind of rewards.

If my husband and I were still going to live in a one bedroom tiny home and had to raise our own food and do laundry by hand and not own luxury items, then likely we'd say "fuck it" and not bother working so hard.

His job isn't easy. He works ten hour days, sometimes longer days. He often works away from home. Sometimes he lives in a man camp in the middle of the bush for weeks on end. His job means he has to be able to think and problem solve, and have skills, and use software for tracking progress and materials. He has to have enough of an understanding of construction to be able to work with the tradespeople and read the blueprints. He has a pretty good skill set. Not a lot of people could do his job, or would put up with the hours and the frequent isolation. It's why he gets paid more than a basic wage.

I know that on one hand, my sister thinks that if we all went back to living that way, maybe we could save the planet. I feel that we can have our bigger homes and appliances, but we need to move all the way forward and use better technology so that we are using solar power, and build houses efficiently, and make appliances so that they can be easily repaired and recycled when the time comes.

I feel like our solutions aren't going to come from telling people to give up modern life, but to push ahead so that we are living in a smarter way.

I don't want to have to live on what I can raise in our garden, and many people don't have that option. She feels that produce should be more local, and I agree with her, but the solution isn't to have every person trying to feed themselves, and starve if their crop fails. Instead, I think Canada needs to look at more greenhouses, and doing things like converting old mines into underground food production for things like lettuce and so on.

Anyhow, she often just writes these long-winded diatribes on Facebook about how everyone "should" live, and it's always just thinking we should go back to living like pioneers in tiny houses. Canada is COLD. Half the year we are mostly stuck indoors. I don't want to live in a tiny house and have to wash my clothes by hand and dry them by the wood stove and only go to town once a month. I like having more than one pair of shoes. I like having my luxuries, like having a horse in training at a barn. We aren't rich assholes by any stretch of the imagination. We drive small, older cars. We do a lot of work ourselves on the house and property to save money. I don't get my hair or my nails done. We don't vacation in Costa Rica.

I kind of agree that some people are obscenely wealthy. The very wealthy really don't pay a fair share of taxes, and I agree that should change. That said, I don't think it's right either to limit the size of a person's home, or how many bathrooms they can have,or to outlaw household appliances, or tell them how many pairs of shoes they can own, or limit what they spend on a hand bag.

I often feel that what she really feels is frustration for not being wealthy enough to have a bigger home or a nicer lifestyle. She hasn't had an easy life, and this would be totally understandable.