Capitalism is winning: how we make money and our search for survival
My partner, Patrick, and I have always fit into more traditional roles when it comes to how we both care for our little family. Patrick is a people person and is great at blending into society, while I am a caretaker - great at keeping everyone fed and our living space clean. So it was natural for Patrick to work outside of the home and for me to make sure all the shit at home didn't fall apart.
But when covid hit, Patrick lost his job teaching classes to kids and our living situation became unsafe. So we packed up, moved into our camper van, and started driving north from southern California.
At this time, we were getting unemployment and stimulus checks from the government so we were better off financially than when Patrick was working before the pandemic. What a relief it was to have some stability in such an uncertain time.
Eventually, the money stopped and we were okay financially for a few more months while we traveled up to Washington. Our plan had been to live in Washington, get jobs, and settle down, but once we arrived we couldn't picture our lives in Washington long term. We made the hard decided to abandon our plans and head south for the winter.
Along the way somewhere in Oregon, the transmission in our camper broke and that is when things got really tough for us financially.
We didn't have the money to fix it, but this camper was our house and we were freezing our bums off in Oregon. So we made made the decision to borrow the money to fix our home and head south to get out of the cold.
We landed in southern California and immediately started working to figure out how to survive. We had no money left and lived the entire winter off a credit card while we tried to figure out how to make money. Part of what made this so difficult was that we both were living with a mountain of mental and physical struggles that made traditional employment under the current capitalist systems feel impossible.
Patrick is an amazing videographer and was trying to get a business making videos for clients off the ground while I was working on getting my art store online.
Eventually, as much as we wished winter in the desert would last forever, spring arrived and it was too hot to stay in the desert any longer.
With only a couple hundred dollars before we maxed out our credit card, we drove north towards cooler temperatures. We knew we hadn't succeeded in getting our businesses off the ground enough to support ourselves... It was time to look for remote online work.
We starting applying in March. You know how it goes - resumes, cover letters and constantly checking the online job boards. We sent out probably 100 applications over the course of three months, only to hear back from less than 10 people and have one interview. It was a tough process. Our hearts were broken again and again. It felt like the world didn't think we had anything to contribute.
After three long months of applications, Patrick finally got a remote online job, transcribing videos for TV shows. It paid NOTHING (like less than $5/ hour to start), but we were so desperate at this point that he took the job with the idea that over time he would get faster at transcribing and make more money. It turned out that in addition to unfair pay, they didn't have the consistent work that they promised and he only made $100 his first month working there.
We had hoped for change, but after a month it was clear that this job wasn't going to help us survive capitalism and it wasn't worth our time to continue.
I felt so defeated. I couldn't imagine filling out any more online applications, but what choice did we have.
Finding in person work just wasn't an option for us. Our house is attached to our car so we would all (me, Patrick, and our dog, Bodhi) have to go into town everyday and that would add hours of set up and tear down. To add to all that, our dog hates driving and needs medication on driving days. It was just too much. So we resigned to keep looking for remote work.
Around that time, a family member noticed how hard we were struggling to make it. They offered to help us get a loan on a car to make in person work more attainable. So grateful, we agreed to a repayment plan and started looking for cars. Finally, a solution to our problems that felt like it could actually make a difference. I felt hopeful again.
Car shopping was not fun, but after a month of searching, we bought a car. It was in the Bay Area so Patrick made the journey to go pick it up while I stayed behind with our dog in our camper van.
We finally had a car. Our lives felt so much easier and it felt like there was hope in our capitalism survival journey again!
Patrick had decided that he wanted to pursue work as a barista. After a little resume rewriting and research about the most queer friendly coffee shops in Mammoth, he was ready to apply.
With a maxed out credit card and only $50 left in our checking account, Patrick went into the coffee shop that he wanted to work at with his job application. He sat down to chat with the owner that same day and walked away with a job.
He started his new job at 6AM the next morning. He has been working there for a week and a half and so far he loves it!
I am at home holding everything else together. It is not the most fun job (lots of cooking and cleaning), but, at this point, I am just so grateful to have a job that Patrick likes.
This capitalist hellscape has definitely gotten the better of us over the last year, but I have hope this new chapter is where things will start to turn around for our little family. Here's to fucking hoping...
Let's be friends! How are your current capitalism survival methods going? How does your privilege or lack of privilege make survival easier or harder?
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