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Jessica Bernard

When Listening is Key


Green Swamp with trees and trunks growing from the water.

Are you finding it hard to stay out of politics on social media?


The place where I spend all my marketing energy has become a hot bed of heated exchange, unkind words and slaps in the faces of your follower count. If you're feeling like I am, being tone deaf is the last thing you want to appear to be, but so often than not, the lack of contextual feeling in the words typed across the white wall of shame we call Facebook leaves us all feeling raw and exposed. Couple that with my unfiltered brutal honesty and sometimes, people get what they came for.


Arguing with strangers online is a hobby for some, a life's mission for others and I have found myself intrigued in all the headlines this year. I re-post things that fascinate me, spark questions and sometimes ruffle feathers of my friends. Ultimately, I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, but I have strong opinions on the way our system of Government has developed over the past hundred years.


We were sold a Bill of Rights...


From early childhood, public school education taught us about the early settlers, Roman Empires, Mysterious Egyptian Pyramids, and all the disease and disparity that humans cast upon one another. In the past twenty years alone the human race has killed more people than Covid-19, true story. We have a world wide pandemic and its not just a virus, it's the people using human lives in exchange for cash.


I'm anti- Big Pharma, Big Tobacco, Healthcare for profit, police brutality... among so many other hot topics. With declassified info being exposed weekly, it's a whirlwind of OMG information that I can't articulate as beautifully as I want to. Overall, I'm just pissed. Humanity is an ever evolving experiment to see how far we can push our boundaries. With so much of our current history being exposed as of late, it's more important than ever to put your initial discomfort aside. Understand the triggering parts for you first before reacting off course. Arguing with strangers over the internet isn't a debate or a discussion for progressive change, it's a distraction into who's right and who's wrong.


Somewhere between the left and right is the truth and as history has served, World Governments aren't as open and honest about their inner workings as we think they should be. For safety or shady reasons, we should always assume both. As a human with basic rights, I am one hundred percent behind you in being a success, having the wealth to live your best life and take care of your loved ones. Our Government bodies keep getting in the way.


If you find yourself saying out loud that you're not into politics, I highly suggest you change your strategy. There are so many things going through transition in 2020 and the biggest one for the working class appears to be the shift to digital currency. If cash becomes null and void, every self employed worker in the US becomes dependent on credit card fees, processing fees, convenience fees, etc.; and as of this afternoon, the federal minimum wage is still 7.25 an hour.


How do these things relate?


They are an attack on small business and entrepreneurs. With no cash payments to offset these inescapable charges, automatically they are losing on average 2.5% of their revenue straight off the top. Raising prices for the cost of business is a catch-22 because the same government body that seems to be phasing out our physical currency hasn't even attempted at throwing a bone to alleviate the rising cost of living for our working class. Raising prices could push your existing customer base to seek your services elsewhere.


Guess who can afford to lower their every day prices in this current economy, while simultaneously raising cost on basic necessities like cleaning supplies that have become "scarce"?


Walmart and Amazon.


There are so many layers to peel back here, I don't even know where to start. Even the things that we thought were cool conveniences have been a detriment to small business across the country. Food and Grocery delivery is a great perk for big business but those Mom and Pop 'ballin' on a budget' shops are having to eat those costs, without the perks of billion dollar tax write offs; and side note: Restaurateurs had a tax credit that allowed them to deduct tipped wages in order to lower their tax obligations. It's really nice until I realized that business owners in other service industries were not given this same IRS perk; an issue that the Professional Beauty Association has been attempting to rectify for years. Now that I work with the Tattoo industry, I need to find out if they would be included in the fight.


This has all been a slow lead up for our economy but the most devastating part is the introduction of a pandemic that has us all divided, and just to throw salt in the wounds; add a dash of racial tensions, put it in hyperdrive and watch us inadvertently change the dynamics of our economy forever. Even scarier, someone mentioned on social media that the lower income class will be rocked the hardest. No more making a quick buck selling your goods or doing a side job to make rent, all your earnings become traceable and could be subject to automatic withholding, delay in transfer, account freezes, Oh my!


It isn't a cycle I want to get into as a working class nation, to be a slave to the job, forty plus hours a week and barely making ends meet while CEO's of mega corporations are settling their million dollar divorces, paying off judges for leniency in crimes against humanity and jetting around the world causing destruction, despair and poverty to other nations.


You need to care about who we have running the show here.

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