$269 This Week Playing Against Empire

Day 5 of Starving the Sociopaths Project. Fun. 2024. Acrylic on black-out curtain, 45 x 80"

Hi Blurt,

I am 13 weeks into a year long project where I keep my income and expenses below the poverty line in order to avoid paying taxes to the United States military industrial complex. I am back into crypto-social media because it is crazy that I ever disregarded it:) Over the next several days I will get readers up to speed on how it’s been going since I began accounting for every penny, and staying low so I don’t vicariously murder earthling flora and fauna with U.S. explosives. I wrote the following after my 1st week:

$269 This Week Playing Against Empire

At this rate, by keeping my life expenses under $300/week, I will defeat the forces of unhinged Empire. Not a single tax dollar can be squeezed from me. It will take a year, but I will teach myself how to live like a comfortable pauper once again, eating crackers and making art to take down all the power complicit in 21st century ethnic cleansing (euphemism for U.S. federal government conspiring with psychopathic Zionists to waste brown babies). The first battle is won. 51 more to go.

I have made a few adjustments.

A reader here mentioned the project might actually achieve success depicted as an art performance. I agree. Provide as much detail as possible so others can follow and remove their consciences from the kill lists of violent drunken power. It will be easier for young people (the justice-demanders among us) to play along. Most have not accumulated the junk house full of the false materialism baubles that bind. They can rent together in small groups for another year, attend Saturday afternoon protests, and sneak limocello shots from concealed flasks while clubbing late into Sunday morning. All one needs is a little book to keep a ledger, a sharp pencil, and expenses itemized. For those young and old who already make too much money not to be taxed, the solution is to donate all taxable income to charity organizations as long as Israel continues to carpet bomb starving families. Preferably, for even longer. Actually, remain poor eternally to impoverish all world governments associated with civilian murder. My life hope is to witness the United States drop fast to the proportional GDP of a modern Portugal or Finland, two countries very capable of providing social safety nets without the despicable tax breaks offered Boeing-Lockheed-Grunman thug faces. There will be a domino effect. Once the U.S. falls economically, killer nations like Israel and Saudi Arabia will instantly rupture, and Big Emperor China will lose the fidget-spinner trade that miraculously funds its stupid fake communism year after year.

I truly believe world poverty equals world peace. Perhaps “world peasantry” might be a better term. In the past, some lucky serfs were able to build nutritious, creative lives, even while under the ever-greedy eyes of their extortionists. Today, (in my dreams) with all the world just “scraping by”, think how much success local peasant communities can achieve, (redefining “success” as getting through life joyfully without ever having to starve a neighbor or vicariously kill a Palestinian). Like this dreamy modern-day Catalonian town we visited back in 2022 while oblivious to Israeli/U.S barbarism. Media was thoughtful enough during the tale end of COVID to keep notice of Israeli murders down to a minimum (under 100, or thereabouts), which was just what our mental health needed at the time. Beautiful, peaceful place. Innocent, dancing inhabitants of the New Spain. Cortez, Pissaro, Netanyahu, Trump and Biden long gone after the gold ran out.

If I am able to keep below U.S. poverty indicators, and still retain my health and relative sanity, then maybe others can be convinced to follow suit. Charity begins at home, so I would hope to set an example for my wife, children and grandchildren. Unlikely. Peer pressure will always win in a nuclear world. Lack of familial understanding drove Buddha to drink and think about enlightenment with a little buffalo boy. His princely lifestyle was just too resplendent for a coddled wife and kid to abandon willfully. I think he would have been a better servant to his people staying put and going broke, weakening the ostentatious kingdom with steadfast non-participation. Let the chips fall where they would.

But he chose to run away instead.

Today we have all the comforts (and more) of an ancient clan prince. There are faceless Americans making and delivering toilet paper. Some will actually visit sick bedsides to use rolls of it on dying rich people. The awful irony is that these “poor” folk with unlimited data on smartphones pay a federal tax to perpetuate real coolie-dom throughout the world. Yes, there are literally millions and millions of individuals more fortunate and never guilty, making less than $269/week, keeping expenses way low, with consciences shielded from investing in any government war agenda. In a peasant world it takes a ton of charisma and cajoling to convince another free person to wipe even the most persuasive ass.

Compared with other functioning, even happier nations, our standard of living is astonomically high. It’s an easy break for a citizen of the U.S. to do with less. I intend to prove it, although symbolically. There will be a teeny-tiny bit of discomfort for sure. I’ll switch to self-pampering the moment diverticulitis revisits my lazy gut, rushing to the morphine dripper quicker than you can ask, “But what about Genocide Joe?”

Some other changes to the project performance…

Making under $15,000 in the real world, I would not suffer a car and insurance payment, so I have cut those from my intitial expense list. Each local one way car ride will be charged $10 plus gas. About as much as an Uber. Any time my wife is with me, we split the cost. I will account the same for visits to family on special occasions (birthdays and holidays). Other pleasure roadtrips will be custom figured.

I will refrain from property tax, mortgage fees and homeowners insurance because no one living below the poverty line can “purchase” a house. $410 per month is half of what we pay for mortgage and escrow taxes and fees combined. It is also a realistic room rental cost for single person of my locale.

Adjusted expense list, monthly:

Rent and water : 445
National Grid: 90
Groceries and nightlife: 200
Car and gas: ≈120
Internet and television: 70 (high, will lower soon)
Phone: 40
Website: 20
Blood thinner: 30

Total montly expenses will likely fall between $1015 - $1,250. This week I spent $269. Still within the project’s parameters [269 x 4 weeks = 1076 + 3 days (103.50) = $1,1079.50] After a year I plan the montly average will keep expenses below $15,000. I promise to keep my poverty sustainable, accounting for every penny in the Poor Ronnie’s Anti-Ethnic Cleansing Almanac. Just like Benjamin Franklin, but without a fascist military industrial complex to mutilate civilians.

Here is something to think about. Just imagine if, all other U.S. insanities left constant, that our health care was paid for in full by this rogue government we blindly maintain. Part time jobs for the lot of us! More time for fireside parties. Less fear. Real connection.

What I Hate Most About a Northern January is the Hair Growth and Heavy Melancholy 2024. Acrylic on canvas, 16 x 20"