Ledger of the Seventy-Four Percent
“This is not just my story. It is a ledger. A ritual. A call.”
My rent goes up every year in December just in time for Christmas! This is not just about me. It is about all of us boomers that are not wealthy. Every month I pay 74 % of my check of 1216 to rent, now it went up $20. Every month there are thousands of seniors in the same situation. I am overdrawn at the bank now. Payday loans turn into four every month to survive. At the third of the month the ritual repeats like clockwork. The stress is too much at times. I have healthcare and mental health care here in California. How long will this last under the Rumpty Dumpty and Satan Miller adminstration? What will we do? I live this way every month. My art, videos, and music are survival tools. I was never wealthy! There are millions of other folks living paycheck to paycheck, old and young. I live one day at a time in this dystopian nightmare of corporate greed, bigotry, and billionaires who do not care. They will throw us to lions, but wait, we have been living with beasts in time and space 2025.
"If this scene stirred something in you if the rent math, browser spirals, and jazz dispatches felt familiar don’t just scroll. Like. Subscribe. Let Sweetie Bird know you are listening. This is more than a video. It is a ritual. And you’re part of it."
Check 1216 Blues”
Verse 1
Rent went up, my rice went cold
Lease form shimmered, truth got sold
Three boxes, none fit me
So, I circled the void and set myself free.
Chorus
I got the seventy-four percent blues
But I still got my muse
Check 1216, and a bird that sings
I do not choose their math; I choose my wings.
Bridge
They say, “sign here,” I say “not quite”
I live in strife, I burn through night
But I got rhythm, I got fight
I got my dreams and archive light.
LEDGER OF THE SEVENTY-FOUT PERCENT
“The Math They Don’t Show.”
The rent in December goes up to $1715.
I receive $1216 a month.
Half the rent that is7.50.
Electricity is $160.
That leaves me $198.50 for everything else, food medicine, transit, life.
And that’s before pet rent, carport fees, or the price of dignity.
Why do they make it this tight for seniors to live?
We worked. We raised families. We survived wars, recessions, pandemics, and policy shifts. Older individuals are experiencing rising housing costs, facing complex financial calculations, and receiving lease forms that present assorted options.
This is not just my story. It is a ritual reckoning for every elder who wakes up to a hike in rent and wonders: How do I stretch truth across this ledger?
Why do they make it so tight for seniors to live?
The powers that be, landlords, corporations, silent algorithms treat aging like a liability. They raise rents, strip away carports, charge pet fees, and call it “policy.” They ignore math. They ignore their lives. They ignore the archive.
But we are still here. We are still sovereign. We are still mythic.
“I burned the pizza. I ate it anyway. I am still here.”
“This is not just my story. It is a ledger. A ritual. A call.”
Three boxes, no carport
I circle my truth. They call it noncompliance.”
I got seventy-four percent blues, But I still got my rice and my muse.”
The Three Boxes
1. Box One: $1715
The “base” rent.
No carport. No pet. No dignity.
Framed as the “lowest” option, but still beyond the math.
2. Box Two: $1815
The “middle” illusion.
Slightly higher, still no extras.
Suggests compromise but offers none.
3. Box Three: $1865
The “highest” tier.
Still excludes carport and pet.
Framed as premium, but it is just pressure.
None of them reflect my reality.
None of them honor Check 1216.
None of them include the emotional cost.
They are ceremonial decoys meant to confuse, not to serve.
“Survival Math”
How do we stay alive?
If a senior does not have money
We have not done anything in life.
Based on input from several individuals.
I live in strife,
Fight or flight.
I was never rich.
No respect.
No life, just strife.
So, isn’t life a bitch?
“The Three Boxes”
They sent me a lease form with three boxes.
Three numbers. Three illusions.
$1715. $1815. $1865.
None of them includes the carport.
None of them includes my pet.
None of them includes me.
They call it choice.
I call it a riddle.
I call it a trap.
I call it the seventy-four percent ordeal.
So, I circled the form.
I did not check the box.
I wrote in my own terms.
Because I am not a number.
I am not a deficit.
I am the ledger.
“Survival Math”
How do seniors survive in 2025?
How do we stay alive?
If a senior does not have money
We have not done anything in life.
Based on input from several individuals.
I live in strife,
Fight or flight.
I was never rich.
No respect.
No life, just strife.
So, isn’t life a bitch?
written, created, edited
by Vicki Lawana Trusselli
copyright 2025
Trusselli Art
About the Creator
Vicki Lawana Trusselli
Welcome to My Portal
I am a storyteller. This is where memory meets mysticism, music, multi-media, video, paranormal, rebellion, art, and life.
I nursing, business, & journalism in college. I worked in the film & music industry in LA, CA.
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Comments (5)
We call a gov't that helps those in need socialist but one that "helps" corporations and billionaires capitalism. Well capitalism is just socialism for the rich. The poor be damned.
Sorry to hear times are so rough for you, Vicki! Keep your spirits up! It’s tough, but you can do this!
Hey, Lawana. “If life’s a bitch just make sure that bitch is beautiful” as Lil’ Wayne once said. Also, I encouraged people to share and become your paid subscribers. Let’s get this money!
I'm angry on your behalf. This is all so awful.
Oh, Vicki, this is heartbreaking. Sorry this is happening to you.