When Only the Rich Can Afford a Dog
How inequality, technology and private equity are stealing the last joy we all shared
My elderly beagle-mix tripod Cashew has a tumor, the vet recently told me.
It’s benign, and general anesthesia would be risky at her age, so we’re just watching it. The visit cost nearly $500. A few weeks later, my other dog — Mr. Joe, age unknown, possibly immortal — hurt his leg. He needed X-rays. That was another $450.
The vet said he might need orthopedic surgery. The estimate? $4,500 to $5,500.
Thankfully, rest did the trick. But if he had needed that surgery?
I don't know what I would have done.
And that’s when it hit me: I can’t afford dogs anymore.
I’m a proud member of the working class
I used to believe that if I lived simply and avoided splurges, I could get by, and this used to be true. I raised two kids with this mindset, and have had pets my entire life. I’ve adopted multiple dogs from the local no-kill shelter. But healthcare for both humans and pets is wildly more expensive than it used to be.
Vet costs have soared, partly thanks to private equity. The joy of caring for pets now feels like a gamble I can’t afford to take.
Pets were the last affordable love
Many families consider a dog an essential part of family life. But a lot of people who don’t have children focus love on their pets. Dogs and cats make wonderful companions whether you’re partnered or single and whether you have kids or not.
My children are grown now. My grandchildren bring me great joy, but they live three hours away. My dogs are there when we wake up, deliriously happy to see us.
I can’t imagine not having them. But I might have to.
There was a time when almost everyone could do something to earn a living. Chop wood, deliver milk, sew clothes, clean houses. Hard work didn’t often lead to wealth, but it at least meant survival, and there was always something that needed doing.
Then came machines.
When we switched from fireplaces to furnaces, we lost the need for someone to chop wood — but we gained jobs for miners, engineers and utility workers. Progress didn’t eliminate labor. It just changed what labor looked like.
Until now.
AI and automation are different this time
People talk about the future effects of AI like it’s a distant future. But it’s not. It’s here. And it’s already eliminating jobs in manufacturing, media, customer service, education, law, design, coding and more. It’s taking over the kind of work I do and there’s a good chance it’s taking over the kind of work you do, too.
It used to take a small army of people to manufacture a book. From the paper mill to the bookstore, publishing required labor. Now, it takes the exact same amount of labor to publish and sell one ebook as it does to publish and sell a million copies. Only in my dreams will I sell a million copies of any of my ebooks, but even if I did, that money would benefit only Jeff Bezos and me. No drivers. No binders. No printers.
That’s what scalability does: it concentrates wealth in fewer hands. It takes the money that used to ripple out through communities and funnels it upward. That’s why billionaires get richer, even as everyday people quietly stop going to the dentist or delay getting their dog’s lump checked out.
We’re losing jobs and joy
AI doesn’t need a lunch break. It doesn’t get sick. It doesn’t demand a raise. That makes it perfect for businesses but devastating for workers. If you own the tech, you win. Everyone else loses.
This is not in the distance. It’s now. Most of us don’t earn enough to absorb a surprise vet bill. If I were a young woman now, I’d be afraid to have children for fear I couldn’t take care of them.
And if we can’t afford care for ourselves, our children and our animals, what happens to us? What happens to them?
A dog named Clover
Last summer I met a little shelter dog named Clover at a community festival. She reminded me of my old girl Ginger, and I petted her as she wriggled with joy. I already had two dogs at home, so I didn’t adopt her. But I followed her story online.
A few weeks later, Clover needed major surgery. Her new family couldn’t afford it, so they gave her up so a nonprofit could step in and cover the cost.
I thought about what I would’ve done if I had brought her home. I know the answer. I would’ve had to give her up or let her suffer. (I can’t let a dog suffer.)
And that’s the kind of choice more and more people are facing. Not just with dogs. With everything.
This isn’t really a story about dogs
It’s a story about our broken country.
It’s not just that wages are low or that billionaires don’t pay their fair share of taxes. It’s that we’ve engineered an economy in which joy, comfort and care are luxury goods and jobs are disappearing.
People already talk about the unaffordability of children. Dogs and cats are increasingly out of reach, too.
It’s not a small thing.
Dogs are the one thing we all agree on
I’m writing this on the day when Trump actually deployed Marines against American citizens. I don’t know where this ends.
Dogs may now be the only thing we all still agree on. We used to all agree on things like democracy and the rule of law, but that’s gone. Many’s the time I’ve disagreed with every single thing a Republican says, but we could at least share common ground on dogs.
So maybe we start there.
When simple survival required daily hard labor, it made sense to force everyone to work. But that’s not the world we live in now. You can’t insist everyone work if tech has taken over most of the jobs.
I’d like to think we’d redesign the world for the benefit of humanity, but it’s all too clear that many people are not fond of any humans who aren’t just like them.
So maybe we can do it for the dogs.
About Michelle Teheux
I’m a writer in central Illinois. If you like my work, subscribe to me here and on Medium. I also have a new Substack aimed at authors who want to self-publish books, called The Indie Author. My most recent 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.
All wealthy families are alike; each poor family is poor in its own way.
— Leo Tolstoy, if he had written about a trailer park
For residents of the Loire Mobile Home Park, surviving means understanding which rules to follow and which to break. Each has landed in the trailer park for wildly different reasons.
Jonesy is a failed journalist with one dream left. Angel is the kind of irresponsible single mother society just shakes its head about, and her daughter Maya is the kid everybody overlooks. Jimmy and Janiece Jackson wanted to be the first in their families to achieve the American dream, but all the positive attitude in the world can’t solve their predicament. Darren is a disabled man trying to enjoy his life despite a dark past. Kaitlin is a former stripper with a sugar daddy, while Shirley is an older lady who has come down in the world and lives in denial. Nancy runs the park like a tyrant but finds out when a larger corporation takes over that she’s not different from the residents.
When the new owners jack up the lot rent, the lives of everyone in the park shift dramatically and in some cases tragically.
Welcome to the Loire Mobile Home Park! Please observe all rules.
This is so horrible to think about. I would NEVER give up my dog for anything, even for a home. I'd rather live in my car than give her up because she has saved me.
It's despicable that society has come to this.
We have anon-profit here that helps vulnerable people who rely on their dogs, to actually stay with their dogs. It's called Parachutes for Pets and I thought of it immediately when I read this. https://www.parachutesforpets.com/
It gets worse for the whole vet industry. Vet companies are being bought out by large corporations. When the original vets retire they sell their practice to them---I understand, they all want to live 'the good life' too. But once it's corporate owned, profits are the reason for being. Vet fees go up. You are 'encouraged' to have 'wellness checks' for your pet... It'll be a different vet you see every time, etc... So the rich take over the business, like the rich buy up all the rural land and rent it out for much higher fees. It's a winner take all mentality. And it's the price of doing business. I've rescued dogs from the pound all my adult life. Now that I'm retired (on a fixed income) I still have a dog, but he costs me. Our world has become a very sad place.