Uncle Sam and Aunt Pam

            

            Paying Uncle Sam is a bitch, especially when you work overtime and you get taxed at a higher rate. There is nothing worse than racking up 20-30 hours of overtime only to see about 7 hours of overtime pay on your check. But a lot of us have to pay Aunt Pam and that keeps you in a financial rut, that keeps the cycle of poverty going. Who is Aunt Pam? Aunt Pam aka The Black Tax. That is when your paycheck is going towards your family to keep them from drowning. 

 

            A lot of us have paid or are continuing to pay Aunt Pam. When you’re in college or fresh from graduating you are supposed to be working on building your foundation. A lot of college graduates move back home (rent free) to find a new job and save $$$ to buy their first home or get a place to stay. That’s not the case with us that are subject to paying the Black Tax. A lot of times we are holding down our parent’s household while trying to build for ourselves. Paying rent, utilities, buying groceries, and buying school clothes/supplies for our younger siblings. It’s frustrating that when you’re the only one working the whole household gets paid too…without doing the work. 

            There is always that family guilt that’s put on you, about how family is everything and how much your parent(s) sacrificed for you to get this far. When the truth is they feel as if you owe them for having you. It’s like reverse parenting, the former head of household falls back, stops working, and expect you to make the household thrive off of $9/hr. At this point you love your parents, but it’s hard to respect them, when they play you like that. You turn in to a parent without having in any kids, so to speak. 

            Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with helping your folks out when they are struggling. Paying a light bill here, buying groceries there, but it gets tough when the able bodied become disabled due to the child working. The sacrifices made excuse is pure bullshit…most of our folks were out partying and bullshitting in their 20’s and early 30’s. So don’t feed us that bullshit. This is partly how the cycle of poverty keeps going. You’re working to hold down two households when in fact if it was just one household, You could invest the rest of your money in to something that would make you even more money…like the S&P 500. 

            I didn’t want to write this blog due to some folks being offended, but coming in to the New Year a lot folks need to stop the bullshit and stop putting up with bullshit. And if you’re a parent that’s living off of your child…make the sacrifice and get a job. Let your young adult be a young adult. Don’t take their lives from them, let them build their own.

@OmahaHostage

#WeWorking

#BlackOmaha