Bitten In My Working-Class Ass

Shame, money and self-promotion

I doubt this is actually a working-class ass! Photo by Geoffrey Crofte on Unsplash

Each time I pass a certain house, I flush with shame.

About three decades ago, as a young mom, I accepted a ride with another woman to attend a protest march in Chicago about safe childbirth. I was pregnant and had my toddler with me, and I couldn’t have attended without the free ride. I didn’t know the woman personally – the organization put me in touch with her so we could carpool.

After the protest, the group took up a collection and I felt pressured to contribute so I gave them what I had. I think it was two or three dollars. I didn’t have a credit card and I didn’t have any extra money in a savings account or anything else. That was everything.

All the way home, the woman kept telling me how much she needed money and I realized that I should have given her two bucks for gas money instead of giving it to the march organizers. I didn’t have the nerve to tell her I didn’t have anything left to give her – not even change. I was too ashamed.

It’s likely that if I had said, “I’m very sorry, but I gave the last two bucks I had to the march organizers. In two weeks, after my husband gets paid, I will probably be able to come up with one or two dollars I can give you then,” she probably would have said not to worry about it.

Judging by her car and house, she wasn’t rich but also not destitute, whereas in those years I decided whether to go to church each week based on whether I had a dollar bill I could put in the plate. Some weeks I didn’t have a dollar so I stayed home.

I didn’t know what to say, so I sat there in silent misery

I feel a flash of it each time I drive by her house, which is unfortunately on a highway I drive by often.

It’s a bad feeling to be guilted into giving money you don’t have, so I try not to ever cross that line.

That’s why this Substack, Untrickled, is free to all. I believe this topic is extremely important because our system’s income inequality has been funneling all the money earned by our country into a few ultra-wealthy hands. We workers are more efficient than ever before, but the gains are not going to us – the extra money lands in just a few pockets.

This would be bad enough if the oligarchs profiting from the work we’re doing just used the money to play on their yachts, but instead they’re using their (our) riches to bully the government. Musk is a virtual (not sure I need that qualifier!) dictator now. He’s too rich, and no, he does not earn this money through hard work. The taxpayers subsidize him.

We set up the system in such a way that an outside level of wealth flows directly to his pockets, and this is dangerous to the entire world.

Thus my hammering on the topic of income inequality

Every Tuesday I post an original story, and every Friday I present a round-up of all the best pieces about income inequality I’ve seen on Substack during the week. I collect them all together so everyone who cares about this subject can get a summary in one place, and can find other newsletters to follow. Sometimes, like today, I write a bonus post.

I keep Untrickled free because I want people in poverty to be able to read everything I write on this subject. I do not put bonus material behind a paywall. Nor do I drop a paywall right in the middle of a story to try to induce people to pay. That’s fine if others do – I may do the same for a different newsletter on a different topic. I just don’t think it’s a good thing to do if you’re writing about income inequality. I want people like Poor Young Mom me to be able to afford to read this.

This has now bitten me in my working class ass

I had believed all along that once I had 100 paid subscribers, I’d reach Bestseller status and would have that little check mark. I don’t covet these for vanity reasons. I want the reach that comes with that check mark. I want more people on Substack to see that I exist and to help organize a community of people who care about things like income inequality and working-class and middle-class issues.

As it turns out, Substack chooses not to reveal the exact number it takes to be a Bestseller. I learned this just now, after inquiring why I still don’t have that check mark even though I now have 105 paid subscribers.

Substack told me they do not reveal the exact number required. You get your check mark when they decide to give it to you, and that’s that.

Here’s what’s ironic: If I were comfortable pushing harder – by putting up a paywall, for example – I’d likely have many more paid subscribers and much greater visibility on this platform. I’d have a bigger voice to add to the conversation. Theoretically, more people would think about income inequality and realize what an existential threat to the world it poses. Maybe it would change some hearts, minds and votes.

Still, I’m not going to do that. This newsletter will remain free forever. (I’m about to launch a second newsletter that I feel more comfortable monetizing.) It’s more important to me that Untrickled be available to everyone. I want it to be the go-to newsletter for people who care about this topic.

So I’m not going to ask you to pay if you can’t comfortably do so. Instead, I’ll ask you to consider giving me some of the extra reach I need in ways that don’t cost you a dime. Please consider sharing my work on your social media or forwarding it to like-minded friends. A re-stack and comment don’t hurt, either.

I truly believe income inequality is an existential threat to the world

Everything Musk is doing right now is harming the entire world, and he’s only able to do it because he essentially purchased the presidency for Donald Trump. Trump is playing, but Musk is not. The world Musk wants for us is not the world I want my children and grandchildren to live in.

The non-wealthy people of this world have nothing to feel ashamed of. Most of us are working hard and trying to take care of our families the best we can. Most of us are not scheming to amass more money than we could ever spend in a thousand lifetimes or putting our heels on the necks of others. We’d like to have a fair share of the profits our labor produces. And we’d like to be able to vote for leaders who run the government in ways that make sense – without the wealthy steamrolling over what voters want.

Yes, income equality matters a lot! Please sign up for a free subscription if you haven’t yet. Please consider purchasing a paid subscription only if you can do so comfortably. Either way, each time I write something that you consider worthwhile, I hope you’ll share it with others.

I appreciate every single one of you. I’ll get that damn check mark eventually!

Michelle

You can buy Strapped: Fighting for the soul of the American working class here. If you want to read Strapped and cannot afford to purchase it, send an email to michelleteheux@gmail.com and put “Strapped” in the subject line, and I will send it to you for free, via Bookfunnel.

About Michelle Teheux

I’m a writer in central Illinois. If you like my work, subscribe to me here and on Medium. My new book is Strapped: Fighting for the soul of the American working class. My most recent novel is The Trailer Park Rules. If you prefer to give a one-time tip, I accept Ko-fi.

Did you know that originally the term “bootstrapping” was used sarcastically to describe an impossible task? Yet now, the meaning has morphed into the opposite.

I invite you to give it a try. Reach back, grab your bootstraps and pull with all your might. How did that work out for you?

There’s a reason we tell people to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps even though we know it can’t be done. It’s one of the ways people in power keep the rest of us from complaining that we’re being screwed. We keep trying and trying and blaming ourselves when we have trouble. Of course we blame ourselves. Who else can we blame?

This is not a self-help book because you cannot single-handedly fix what’s wrong with the system by working harder or working smarter. There’s a good possibility that some of your problems are out of your hands.

This book was not written for the top 10 percent or for anyone who had life handed to them on a silver platter.

Instead, this book is for every working-class, lower-class and even middle-class person who has done everything right but still feels strapped.