New Reflections on the Working Poor

The addictions now make sense in a broader way. The excessive smoking and drinking, maybe other substances too (you might even include the sugary foods and sodas), is not simply a form of chemical escape from their misery--and by their misery I mean the car payments due on a car they owned a decade ago, the consumer debt for sofas and stereos and outfits and jewelry they no longer possess, the spouse that stalks them, the children they pay child support for, etc. etc. The cigarettes and alcohol and other toxins are in fact a way of shortening their miserable lives, thereby shortening the misery.

A shortened life does not bother them. They may be troubled by the idea of crippling diseases and reduced faculties, but their current misery is too tangible to be overwhelmed by a distant, vague fear of emphysema or liver failure. Instead, the thought that the poisons they put into their bodies could shorten their lives is a welcoming thought. There is nothing at all wrong with checking out a little early. And to feel good while doing it makes it all the more agreeable.

Finally, their laziness and aversion to hard work means they don't even get the exercise the activity of the job offers them. But when your aim is to weaken and die, any form of exercise is anathema.