Can money cure mental illness?

Hi, I'm K. I am mentally ill and Mostly Useless to society. Life sucks. I wish life didn't suck like a lot. I cant seem to make my life better. I keep trying but a lot of times it feels like I cant keep trying. Some days are harder than others. Some days are really good actually. Sometimes I cant stop crying. Most days I just keep moving forward. Because some days, all you can do is keep moving forward.

There is this thing called an ACE score, which stands for Adverse childhood experiences. It is used to quantify experiences that might contribute to you being a fuckup. Those with high ACE scores are admitted into an elite club of overachievers where we all sit around and mock poor people for being failures and not tough enough. Just kidding -- most of us are unhoused.

I have been unhoused. It wasn't fun. I kinda just waited to not be. You spend a lot of time waiting when you are poor. Waiting on someone to treat you with kindness. Waiting on toothaches to go away. Waiting on waiting lists.

My god are there so many waiting lists. Waiting lists for therapy. Waiting lists for assistance. Waiting lists for housing. Most of all there is a waiting list for the future. Because right now? Well right now fucking sucks and everyone wants on a list to get out.

I hated being poor. I hate being poor too. And I imagine if given the opprtunity, I will also hate being poor in the future.

There is a lot of talk these days about universal basic income. A lot of talk about how poverty itself is a cause as much as it is a symptom. Because trauma, mental illness, poverty, is all interconnected and none of us can escape the impacts.

The impacts? I am stuck in a triggering living situation. I need more dental work to repair and replace teeth lost by a lack of dental care since 18. I need to get better mental health to land a job but getting better mental health seems to require having a job -- which seems to be a flaw in the design of the system.

VCs love to have an impact. They want to make a difference. They fund apps, startups, good shit to remake the world a better more equitiable place. And maybe make some equity in the process. You have to run a lot of experiments to find things that will turn out to have value -- that will be useful.

I want to run an experiment. You give me money and I use that money to create value in myself.