Well, I'm a dog person. :)

All of this starts with business - the business of profit. It's a system of unequal exchange. I have no problem with the boss man earning more than the rest of them. I have a problem when profit is derived from underpaying labour and overcharging on goods.

Whereas previoulsy price was the cost of production plus a percentage, so that the price of the goods were related to the cost of production, that is no longer so.

The end result - without my going into detail of all the in between steps - is that people are becoming poorer and poorer and goods are becoming more and more unafordable. The end result of that (again without going into all the steps in between) is that civil unrest, ignorance, lack of educastion begin to flourish.

The USA is well on its way to becoming a third world country - if it isn't already in many respects.

You moan about all the fees you have to pay, Stu.

You constantly read my stories - free. You take up my time by commenting. Free. As far as I know, you are not one of my patrons. Just curious. What do you expect me to live on?

My social security is $112 per month. I receive about the same amount from the UK. I have no other means of existence apart from my income at Medium. If it wasn't for one very generous contriubtor, I would be out on the streets. The people who support me on Medium are contributing towards me on Patreon and Ko-fi.

So, forgive me. Those fees might not be to your liking, but the world over, we workers have been screwed by business owners over and over again. I have no sympathy for them whatsoever, and I hope that goverment taxes them on every single thing and redistributes the money to us.