We Should Not Be Paying For This

    When you think about it, there’s a lot of bullshit that we pay for that really shouldn’t cost anything because it’s bullshit that we need. 
    Healthcare. Even in Canada, healthcare here is stupid. Sure, if you break your arm every Tuesday or need a breast reduction or get knee surgery, then, aye it’s no cost. Dental though? Forget it. My friend just dropped twelve hundred dollars on fillings since her teeth hadn’t seen a dentist in a decade because visits are also expensive. Eyecare? Nah, you don’t need to see. I just dropped four hundred dollars on contacts after spending over a hundred on a checkup and I have another one tomorrow. Mental health? Just die instead. Did you know that there is no free option to get tested for autism once you’re an adult? Doctors just assume that since you made it this far, you’re fine. It’s thousands of dollars to pay for testing after you turn eighteen. That should straight up be illegal. Also any other kind of mental health like counselling or therapy is costly as hell. And then there’s the medications to worry about. Which brings me to prescriptions. If you have a short novels worth of health problems, your wallet is fucked. Even if it’s just a single prescription like birth control, ya gotta pay for that even though it’s needed. So have fun if your body isn’t exquisite and your brain isn’t derailed in any way.
    Menstrual products. Why the bloody fuck does it cost any money to pipe down the monthly bloodfest anyone with a uterus endures? Like, I didn’t choose to have a uterus, and honestly would absolutely get rid of it if it didn’t throw me into early menopause. I have no choice but to flood for a week and on top of that inconvenience, I have to pay for shit to make it bearable. The government here took off the taxes but the prices aren’t cheap to begin with. It’s a small fortune for pads, tampons, liners, and menstrual cups. That shouldn’t be the case.
    Internet. Unless you’re Amish, you’re using the internet. That shit is mandatory and yet, I pay a hundred dollars per month for a cursed data box just so I can do computer stuff. There is literally no way to do anything in this day and age without internet connection but we are robbed of our hard earned money paying for devices and modems to be able to function in life. It’s a sham of incredible proportions being bound to something that costs way too much. 
    This one’s more specific to where I live but the ferries have no right to cost as much as they do. First off, they say they’re part of the Trans-Canada Highway so why is there a price at all? Secondly, uuuh I live on an island, I need boat to get off island. Even when I lived on the mainland, it was in such a place that you needed boat there too to get to another portion of mainland that was an actual city with things and stuff that we couldn’t get at home. It costs an unreasonable amount for a necessary mode of transportation and BC Ferries makes enough I’m sure from their cafe and gift shop. It just seems shifty to me to milk the people of their wages for something they have no choice to avoid. 
    Here’s a handful of things that can be paid for but should be way cheaper.
    Post secondary schooling. It should not be a rich people only thing, furthering one’s education, nor should it put the poor into decades worth of debt if they pursue it. Learning should be accessible for everyone especially if it’s to help get people into better jobs and careers. We should be pushing for that so there’s no shortage of folk in higher professions. 
    Rent. Fuck landlords that rack up prices for no damn reason other than turning a ridiculous profit. It’s so bloody hard to live in this city mainly because rent keeps going up even though it’s often homeowners who have multiple houses or building managers that could afford to keep things reasonable but just don’t. Living absolutely shouldn’t be as hard as it is mainly due to housing costing an arm, a leg, and half a soul.
    Bras. Please for the love of the gods, have mercy on people's boobs. Not everyone can go braless and those who really can’t have to pay more because the bigger the size, the more expensive. It’s not like everyone chooses to have sizable milk wagons, so give them a break, yeah?
    Pregnancy tests and Plan B. I know not what price these should be but it seems like a lot where it’s at now. It ain’t cheap and it seems rather important to be able to get it when you need it. 
I know I’m asking a lot from life right now when it comes to livable wages and reasonable costs and stability and support and quality of life. I know that, but I've been downright miserable of late and stressed as all hell because everything is expensive and awful and hard and I genuinely don’t know how long I can live on my own here, or if a second job will solve my problems. It just feels like my life faces one injustice after another in terms of the treatment of humans. So many of us face financial hardships and it is terrifying and weighs you down constantly. Meanwhile Jeff mcfucking Bezos could give every person on the planet twenty nine dollars because that’s how much money he owns. Twenty nine dollars for each human on this planet of eight billion. Why is this possible? Almost all the costs above, I worry about daily and this man could lose a billion dollars and not blink an eye. Let’s even the scales a bit shall we?