By Kabelo Mollo
The cost of living crisis we are currently saddled with dictates that we have three or four streams of income. It demands we have steady income, as well as a periodic lump sum and also a cash injection every so often. The job market recognising scarcity has seemingly responded by constricting. There are jobs available but HR practitioners are either not alive to the realities on the ground or simply don’t care. Salaries (especially at the bottom and middle bands) are not matching the high cost of living. It’s a bloodbath, and everyone is feeling the effects.
When I decided at the beginning of this year that this would be a year of fun, I was calculating that not everything needs finances. Some things just require a can do attitude. I was probably right, but unfortunately another reality is that even peace of mind requires money. And so you end up becoming a slave to capitalism trying to earn that little bit of supplementary income that will give you peace of mind, which will allow you to do fun stuff.
I have come across so many people and their bet slips. The old adage “the house always wins” has taken a back seat in favour of the earning potential sports betting offers. We have unlocked a new wave of desperation and need for financial security. Sports betting has become so mainstream it’s not even really seen as gambling anymore, just another opportunity to earn a (quick) buck.
What kind of society is this scarcity and constriction making? What is the net effect of the low wages, three jobs and strange ancillary income? All the while the pressures of social media and its influencers is never far away. So called influencers flaunting their largesse while the ordinary Joe Soap with their 9-5 and numerous streams of income can’t rub two nickels together.
Then on the other side you have the corrupt politicians and civil servants in bed with tenderpreneurs.
‘Tenderpreneur’ is one of my least favourite terms because of the latent racism attached to it. The biggest beneficiaries of business with the state in South Africa is “big (white owned) business” and yet somehow the moniker has come to mean the black small owned business that’s earning crumbs compared to the big business. I digress however, because in Lesotho the tenderpreneur is a politically connected someone who offers the second stream of income to a civil servant or politician. The answer to my question about what kind of society we have is getting clearer. We’re a gambling, scheming, tired society.
They say you can tell the state of the economy by the number of churches popping up. Indeed, every corner now seems to have a pastor, or apostle, or minister seeking to take you back to “the house of the Lord”. With their up-tempo singing and positive messaging that you will get out of the financial quagmire why wouldn’t we turn to divine intervention for salvation? It’s bad out here.
I wish I had a positive ending for this doomsday piece. But I don’t, instead I’m reminded that petrol will go up this week meaning everything will shoot up with it. It’s a cost of living crisis. Truly!
