I have a job.

It keeps my life stable.

I use the money from my job to pay for things.

It pays for my home.

I have a home.

It gives me a consistent place to rest and to shelter from the weather.

It allows me to store my stuff.

My home has four bedrooms.  It has two and a half bathrooms.

My home has rooms full of stuff.

 

I sit on my deck and try to come up with a thesis that concerns the relationship between labour and ownership.  I am trying not to drink this evening.   The wind is rattling  the umbrella on the deck table.   My cat, James, is picking his way across our anemic garden. the wind is picking up and it is getting cool.  Away to the west, a lawnmower is buzzing.

Forty dollars an hour to hire someone to mow your lawn.    Mow it from May to mid -October.  One hour per week.   twenty – three weeks per year.  Nine hundred twenty dollars per year.   Own your home for fifty years?  Forty-six thousand for a lifetime of mowing.   That is with a small lawn.

I pay maybe five hundred per year for snow removal.  That is a small town bargain.  Twenty-five thousand for a lifetime of snow removal.

I pay twenty-five hundred per year in property taxes.  A hundred twenty-five thousand in a lifetime.

So far, snowing, mowing, and owning is costing me  one hundred ninety six thousand.

Five hundred per year goes to firewood. Twenty five thousand for a lifetime.

One hundred ninety per month for electricity. One hundred fourteen thousand for a lifetime.

Five hundred per year for water and sewage.  Twenty five thousand for a lifetime.

Two roofs for the life of the building –  twenty thousand.

Fifty thousand for renovations.

One hundred per month for internet – sixty thousand for a lifetime.

Sixteen hundred annually for insurance – eighty thousand over fifty years

Twelve hundred annually for life insurance against the mortgage – thirty thousand over the life of the mortgage.

A new vacuum each decade – three thousand.

Ten dollars per month for cleaners.  Six thousand over fifty years.

I will stop there.  Haven’t even thought about the interest on the mortgage.   Or the principal.

 Five Hundred Eightynine Thousand Dollars

It seems incredible, however I would guess that most of my estimates are on the low side.