Power Outage

The power went out in the building The Complete and Total Loser works in. The air got moist and hot within an hour. The Loser took off his tie. A large block of apartments nearby hadn't had power for twelve hours. It's full of old people. In the past month, three major water lines have ruptured in the Loser's city, spilling over a million gallons of potable water. The average pipe is nearly seventy years old. 

When the Loser bikes in the city he has to choose which to look out for: the awful roads or the distracted drivers. 

New pipes are attached to old after a water main break that wasted over a million gallons.

After the power went out the Loser, who's in his mid-fifties, said to his much younger coworkers, "You know, when you're my age something like this will happen so often that you'll say, 'Remember when it was a big deal when the power went out?'" The looked at him and blinked. Then they did something else, the way they usually do when the Loser says something to them.

Nobody wants to pay for anything but everyone wants perfect services. No politician can get elected by saying he wants to raise taxes to repair America's crumbled infrastructure. Meanwhile, the Loser meets Europeans who are surprised at how dirty and out of date things here are.

Taxes and the Complete and Total Loser

He is too stupid to make real money, so he's happy to pay his taxes. Oddly, even though he makes in the $10 an hour range, at the end of the year, when his peers look forward to getting their returns, the Complete and Total Loser actually owes money. He has gone to an accountant who assures him this is because he isn't having the money withheld during the year like everyone else is.

The Loser wonders about this. When he started his meaningless job at the place he works he filled out the tax form the normal way—single, no dependents, loser—and he assumes everyone else in his position does that too. So why is he the only one he's ever known in his income bracket to owe instead of expect?
But pondering this and trying to decipher tax forms with his tiny, loser brain does nothing but make his big, greasy head spin. He gives up and decides to trust his accountant and take a nap.