The moral economy of the present

Friday brought me to tears. Things worked out, but with enormous stress.

We recently took our dog in for her three year rabies vaccine. The vet told us that she needed her teeth cleaned. Greyhounds traditionally have bad teeth. Back when everyone was working, even when we would have five greys at a time we were able to keep up. In our current situation we have more of a procrastinate and hope model. How were we going to get her teeth done?

It turned out that for over a year we were being improperly charged a copay for something that came up a lot. We recently received a refund on a bank card. It would have been nice to have that money all along, but okay, this is our answer. The card was a little over $700 and the estimate for the dental was a little under $700. It was almost guaranteed that extractions would put it over, but it seemed manageable. We can do this! We scheduled the appointment and took her in.

That afternoon I got a call confirming there would need to be extractions, and the new quote was $1909. It tripled. I had held off on paying some bills (thus being late) to have some leeway. It was a $500 leeway when we needed a $1200 one. 

We were able to convert to an hourly rate instead of per tooth. I had never known that was an option. That left the risk of the vet not finishing, but it could at least get as some teeth. You already have the dog under anesthesia. I could say "No, don't pull anything!" but that would not be good for the dog, and it would just mean more money later, when we are no more likely to have it.

One sister has a Care Credit and put it on there. That's how we made it through. The dog is fine, and we are okay for now, with an unspecified amount of time taken off of my life. Seriously, I am normally exhausted by the time we get to Saturday, but it was much worse this time.

Here's the thing: you know that $15 per hour minimum wage that many people are fighting for and some politicians promise but lots of people think is too much for types of labor they look down on? Working 40 hours, that gives you $600 per week before any taxes or expenses. It would take over three weeks of labor without that money going to anything else to pay for that one dental cleaning with extractions.

This is pretty standard. The last dental cleaning we did was definitely over $1000, and we have asked around and that is just standard pricing. No, when I was a kid forty years ago we did not do dental work for dogs, but it has become standard now, where it feels like part of being a good owner. It is also really hard to pay for if you are poor.

I have heard many people be judgmental about people not having pets if they can't afford them - probably from the same people who think fast food workers don't deserve a living wage and health care. So maybe only financially comfortable people should have pets. Of course I was working when we got her. Mom was still doing a little bit of cleaning and dog sitting. If I look back I can see some of the hints that dementia was coming in, but things were not like this.

That is part of the overall issue; a lot of people who are struggling now weren't well-off, but they weren't struggling as much.

Should poor people give up pets? I know I have seen people say that homeless people shouldn't have pets.

I do know that the shelters are full of animals who need someone to love them. It would be better to have more people taking animals.

I know that most of the joy in my life right now comes from the animals. I'm not saying that's ideal, but it's the way it is. I think a lot of homeless people don't get enough love, but their pets can help. There are things about it that aren't great for the animals, but it's not great for the humans either. Maybe that's what we should really worry about.

I'm not providing any answers here (though if you want to send money, please do), but I think it's important to look at the things we do to make life harder for some. Often the real reason isn't because we don't have the resources, but because we are choosing to divert those resources to people who are already rich. Then it gets tied up in offshore accounts and charitable foundations and maybe there is some application process I could use to try and get my needs in there too, but is that really the best way?