My first ever wage garnishment kicked in unexpectedly, and entirely unannounced, in my pay check last Friday.

It is for $167. I am unsure what debt it is even servicing, student loans assumably. That or medical debt.

Living pay check to pay check, while working full time, as an EMT in an ambulance treating and transporting the sick, injured, and dying. Every two weeks I go those last few days before my paycheck with inadequate nutrition - a sparsely filled pantry - and no liquidity in the bank. I work full time, and live in poverty. I live in a subsidized housing project, and haven't carried a monthly cell phone plan in years.

And I'm the moocher, by their summation. I am the leech. Someone entirely foreign to me, likely the 1000th person to "hold" my "debt" considering how frequently they change hands for pennies on the dollar, does some paperwork and now they can sit back as money is taken directly out of my paycheck.

I work in an ambulance, and live in poverty, and love my work in spite of it. I make a tremendous difference in many peoples lives on a repeated and daily basis.

Honestly I don't know why I am just repeating this stuff here. Just trying to conceptualize how askew the priorities in this nation are. The treatment and transport of the sick, injured, and dying does not land very high on our priority list. Instantaneous delivery of consumer goods, that ranks super high. So Jeff Bezos is a billionaire, and I live in poverty.

I hope one day Jeff Bezos is lying on the gurney in my ambulance.