In Roman times, people needed salt to live, thus they were paid in salt. That’s how we got the term “salary” and the idiom “worth his salt.” Salt was the big carrot on the end of the stick to keep people obedient and working toward someone else’s objective, like the expansion of the empire, and keeping the recently conquered in line.

Why am I thinking about ancient Romans and their salaries? Because we have our own salt, and it’s called “utilities.”

The rate cap on electricity is about to expire, and we are told constantly we should “expect huge increases”. This comes on top of the yearly huge increases we should expect every winter, because it gets cold in Chicago. Does that shock you? Apparently it shocks our natural gas provider, who is caught by surprise every winter.

As the cost of non-discretionary items continue to skyrocket, so does the willingness to do ANYTHING to keep a job, to keep money coming in, to keep our houses heated and our children eating food and the water flowing out of the faucet.

Of course, you could open your own business instead of choosing corporate indentured servitude. Then, you will still run into utility and insurance costs and all other sorts of problems. Does that sound like freedom? We just get to choose which master, but it’s still slavery.

I would say the free market is failing us, but we don’t have a free market. There is no competition, only coercion. And for this I pay taxes?

Okay, even I realize this is an overly bleak view of things. I'm being morose. But there is a grain of truth in there. It's only an illusion that we have it better than the peasants of old. I'm sure they grumbled, just like we grumble, but they still had their good times, too, that made it seem not so bad.

I just don't think we should kid ourselves that the human race has "progressed."