25 and Disappointed: When Help Became Credit

There was a time when, if someone fell behind, someone else reached out.

A neighbor. A friend. A stranger who noticed. Help came in human form.- through hands, not systems.

Now, when someone can't make rent, we offer them a credit card.

Not time. Not understanding. Just a product.

For many, credit cards aren't about luxury. They are about milk. Bus fare. Power bills. A cracked screen they can't afford to fix, but need to keep working.

They're survival. Bought on interest.

But why don't people help each other anymore?

Maybe it's not that they don't want to. Maybe they just can't/

Because in a world this unequal, even the ones who look fine are struggling silently. Trying to make ends meet. Trying to save something - anything. We've made life expensive and wages slow. We've made emergencies personal and help transactional.

And those with enough - the wealthy, the secure - 

They keep saving.

Keep growing.

Keep watching.

While the gap gets wider.

This is what inequality looks like.

Not just in headlines.

But in moments where no one showx up.

In lives held together by borrowed credit.

In people who pass by because they can't afford to stop.

We borrow from banks because we can't borrow from people. We carry debt, not because we lived beyond our means - but because our means were never enough.

This isn't about spending.

It's about structure.

It's about a system designed to keep help out of reach.

Because in a fair world, money wouldn't decide who gets to rest, who gets to help and who gets to survive.

P. S. Thanks to ChatGPT