Happy International Women's Day

I launched google this morning and there it was. A lovely doodle dedicated to International Women's Day. I even received a text wishing me happy women's day which made me smile and made me think. I dug up something I wrote in a very old blog I had on Deadjournal. Thank you sweetheart for reminding me about it's lighter counterpart. ;) But I digress. The following is a re-vamping of my long lost deadjournal which I feel is still relevant. Nice to know some things just dont change... Remember the Occupy Toronto movement which stemmed from the Occupy Wall Street movement in the United States? The movement claimed to embrace the 99% of people who make up society. The average working joe and even the not so average working joe - lawyers, doctors, scientists and police officers are included. The argument is simple. Why do we need to work so hard and where does all our money go? What happened to the working middle class? *Shakes free trade ghost out of it's tree* Who is running this joint anyway? Some decisions made by government and the banks have obvious consequences for the average joe. For myself, it has been the cost of shelter and daycare. My parents managed to pay their mortgage off in 5 years. Even if I impoverish myself and my family by proxy and gave 2/3 of my wage toward the mortgage, it will take me another 20 years to accomplish that. Why bother working if you have 2 children in need of full time daycare? An excerpt from the Toronto Star dated March 8 2015 quotes a not so startling fact: “In Toronto, parents with kids under age 2 can expect to pay $1,676 a month for the service. In contrast, that cost is $152 for parents in cities across Quebec. In Winnipeg, the next cheapest city, families spend about $650.” http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2014/11/10/gta_childcare_costs_tops_in_national_study.html Parents are faced with a debilitating reality. Go to work so that half your partner's wages fund a stranger taking care of your kid(s) or remove one parent from the workforce and deal with a stark change in your quality of living. KD here we come. Thank god for those grandparents though, most young couple's answer to affordable daycare. A question that's been haunting me for years is this: Do I continue to live in this society and play by it's rules, maybe try and affect social change in some small way by marching, advocating or writing – or do my children and I drop out of this society and find a real nice Yurt? My dream honestly would be the Yurt. Not exactly practical with Canadian winters being what they are. So ask yourself - what keeps you in debt? How does your wage compare to the cost of living? How much do you spend getting to work and back? How many years will you be in debt to the bank so you can have a roof over your head? How long did it or will it take you to pay student loan for that degree that didn't exactly get you a job? Instead of an "aha" moment, each of us deals with an "oh no" moment that will last for the rest of our lives. Maybe it doesn't have to last for the rest of our lives...but it does call for a revolution.