Caught in the resource rat race

- Face it dude, you can't get out! You should better learn to accept it, you're just a resource but you are lucky enough to be a corporate resource, you are paid more than you deserve anyway, the work is not bad, what do you want?

Gabe had once again one of his in love with the Corporation moments. I said nothing looking absent and he continued:

- You keep saying you wanna beat the System, you think you are frickin Neo in the frickin Matrix? Very few can beat the System so quit complaining and play along. Buy a frickin' car, get a credit card, get some new clothes, spend and have fun at least while you still can. And face it, you will get to retire in 40 years or so ...
- That ain't me I replied, I'm gonna beat this frickin' System, quit the Corporation and retire early, free and rich enough to live like I always wanted.
- Bogus, said Gabe, the System is interested in keeping you as a resource for life or until your seventy and no good anymore. But then your kids will be ready to replace you, they will be even more brainwashed and more docile resources for the Corporation. You see how school gets better and better these days, so does propaganda so kids already want to grow up so they can work their butts off to have a car as cool as daddy's no? Or now you will say you don't want no kids? You think Ally will support you in all this mumbo-jumbo plan of yours?

I don't know, she was complaining a few days ago on how late I get to work in the evenings, more and more often and we don't get to spend enough time together anymore. I don't want to see you only in the weekends she whispered while hugging me, don't want to stay away from you so long. But did I want to see her more often, I wasn't sure on that ... I wasn't sure she was the one indeed, I wasn't sure I was ready to confront her that I didn't want a regular resource life. I gave her a couple of hints, we talked a bit, she even started to read some pages of a Kyosaki book I was reading... But did they make any sense to her?

Gabe interrupted my thoughts abruptly : Here's your Sexy Redhead just going out for a cigarette break. Short skirt, nice body - I have to admit she can be hot.

Yes, and there was her to consider too as I couldn't get her off my mind.

A resource vacation

Finally at the end of the season we could afford to go on holiday, the big moment we've been expecting all summer. Months of doing plans, looking for best offers, analyzing costs and so on. I went with my girlfriend, Dave and his wife- small party of four.

We travelled to an island in Greece early September when most of the tourists left already and the hotels lowered the prices to half for the unlucky resources who hoped to still catch a couple of almost sunny days and swim in the cold autumn sea. Obviously we got a good share of rain. Even so we had a lot of trouble with calculating the budget as Dave would not go without a plane. "You're much too picky for a resource" I always told him but finally we got a low cost offer and landed on the island.

The hotel was very small and in the middle of nowhere but it was cheap and had a great sea view. And of course we couldn't have afforded more. We also rented a small car to tour around the island seeing lots of luxury hotels and yachts. We even got to see a big palace in the nineteenth century.

- I wish I could buy this place and live here big style! said Dave
- Ha, like a resource like you could afford it, we're lucky we can visit it at least.

In the coming days I guess we stayed too much in the sun as we started wondering how much the lobster would cost with me and Dave betting on the price. Good thing we didn't ask the waiter as he would have had a good laugh right there asking if we wanted to spend the next couple of days washing dishes to cover its price.

The holiday was over pretty quickly so we headed back home preparing for a long year of work and starting dreaming of the next holiday. I can already imagine the ton of tasks the Dragon has in store for us once we're back.

The long way back home

You rarely see any happy faces in the late train taking the resources home from the Corporation premises, located in an industrial area of the city. The same long faces everywhere, exhausted and sleepy, lacking any energy. They're in for a long one hour ride until getting home, spending what was left of their free day as a vegetable in front of the TV or computer waiting for the next day to return to work.

The train conductor resource is as bored and exhausted as the passengers, mumbling the station announcements in a low voice. At least if he had the sense of humor to announce when leaving the Corporation station: All zombies aboard please!

A resource works in general about 9 hours a day although it's pretty common they get to stay late and do overtime which is never paid. They spend another two hours on the road. But most of all they spend all their energy leaving them like brainless cattle in the evening to be transported home for the daily media intoxication. There is always the risk that some resources realize how miserably they spend their life and their youth without doing anything important to them so the mass-media has to brainwash them day by day. That new car, the vacation you've been waiting all year, a new smart phone, new fashionable clothes, you have to get them. And you have to get them quickly! You have to work more and more to afford them because you really really need them. And if you don't afford them now just get them in credit, you can always work more and harder to pay the taxes too. And each morning with an empty wallet you hurry to catch that frickin train to the Corporation.