The Predator Trap

Predator Traps are still around today but millions of years ago they were a real hazard, they killed thousands of the most powerful animals ever to roam this planet - dinosaurs!

A Predator Trap was a deep pool of thick tar that would often be disguised by a thin layer of water that floated upon it. The lagoon would attract dinosaurs to drink. They would step into the water and inadvertently sink into the thick bitumen below. The animal became trapped and would cry out in terror.

This would in turn attract the larger, carnivorous predators who would dive headlong into the lethal mixture lured there by an 'easy meal'. They too would become ensnared and the more they struggled, the deeper they sank. Slowly, over time, their life would ebb away, but not before other predators had joined the carnage also seduced by the illusion of a free meal.

The Machine is as lethal as any Predator Trap!!!

People are lured in by the promise of an easy, secure life; ordered, stable, comfortable life. This is the bait.

People step into the trap, arms outstretched, anxious to take their place and grab a piece of society. Once in, it is almost impossible to get out.

To become a fully lubricated cog in the machine I had to first get a job which I did in the boatyards!

Quite a good one I thought, a reasonable salary with all the bells and whistles!

"This is alright!" I would say to myself, especially when, after a qualifying period I was able to get my precious mortgage.

I settled in nicely ... oblivious to the fact that I was sinking ever deeper into the modern day Predator Trap.

I thought I was the one calling the shots, I thought I was the one doing the maneuvering, the manipulator. If I’d bothered to look down I would have seen the thick black liquid enveloping my feet ... it was already up to my ankles!

Have you ever had that dream where it’s imperative that you get away from some evil
nemesis ... and you can’t? You run for all you’re worth but you get nowhere, it’s like trying to run on a marshmallow.

Well that’s where I was.

I was happy for a while. Each month the salary would be transferred into my account, each month the bills were covered, each weekend I had enough money to go out for a pint, I was financially secure.

Was I heck!!!

I had been working so hard getting what I wanted from The Machine that I had totally missed the fact that in doing so, The Machine was getting exactly what it wanted! It was trapping me! This little cog was turning smoothly, I was exactly where it wanted me.

You see, when you have an average job, on an average salary you are well and truly up to your neck in tar. You have to keep working to service the bills and because you are so busy earning a living, you never have the chance to make some ‘real money’. But that’s the idea!

I was taxed at source, bled dry at every opportunity by every organisation which cared to take a piece of me. I needed a roof over my head so had to get a mortgage. I had to keep slaving away to pay the interest. I thought I was in control ... think again Lord Trant!!

Incidentally, I wanted to own my property which is why I went for the mortgage but I'd have been in the same position had I rented except that I would have owned nothing for my efforts!

I was easy to pick off; I was an open target. I had a huge neon arrow hanging over my head and the flashing lights read: ‘Here I am, come and get me!’ ... So they did!

A sniper would have more trouble hitting a black rabbit in a snowfield.

The beasts gathered at the edge of the Predator Trap, but they were no ordinary monsters, they were smart. They were well aware of the deadly liquid in which I was floundering and didn’t run it. In fact, it was they which had laid the trail through the thicket right to its door.

They do not enter. They throw you a lifeline!

Unfortunately, the line is just strong enough to hold your weight, pull too hard and it will snap - back into the mire you slip! Yes, the lifeline will ensure you do not sink, but the downside is, that the predators can take pieces of you at will. You hold on to the line with an iron grip because 'your life depends on it!' ... Doesn't it?

I once saw some beautiful wildlife footage, its potency and vividness has always stayed with me.

It illustrated magnificently how, just when we think we are winning, when we are sure we are about to triumph ... we can be so very wrong!

The footage opened with the usual big cat chases petrified quarry over the scorched African plains scenario. What set this chase apart from the norm was the fact that the big cat was a young female lioness and the prey was a full size, angry, male wildebeest, horns and all.

The cat set off, the beast ran. A hard and arduous pursuit ensued. The lioness caught the Wildebeest several times but hadn’t the bodyweight to bring it down. Every time the cat pounced the prey would shake it off.

The battle went on for several minutes. It doesn’t take long for a lioness to become tired and trying to win such a mismatch took its toll. The wildebeest sensed this and slowly its fear waned.

Soon, the beast realised that it might indeed come out of this encounter on top. You could see literally see its confidence grow. Fear turned to arrogance, which turned to anger and retribution.

The wildebeest spun round on its haunches and attacked the cat! The lioness ran. The beast gave chase. The young cat stayed in front just long enough to gather her thoughts.

Suddenly, without warning and in the blink of an eye she dropped to the ground and lay on her back.

The wildebeest, now boiling with testosterone and adrenaline continued its attack. As it bore down on the limp, exhausted body of the lioness you thought she was doomed ...

... she knew exactly what she was doing!

A lightening fast, deft, skillful maneuver. From her position on the ground she was perfectly placed to rise up in an instant and clamp onto the exposed windpipe above.

The beast never knew what hit it!!!

Just when it thought it was about to deliver a decisive blow it was taken out, spectacularly.

This is what happened to me. The system dealt a decisive blow and I didn’t see it ... until a long while later!

I had been in my job for a while and started to believe there might actually be a future in the company for me. The problem was that although I had a semi-decent income, an ‘average wage’, I never seemed to get ahead.

Just when I thought I had enough money to have a holiday it got swallowed up - in fact, when I finally got round to analyzing the situation I discovered I was going backwards every month and hadn’t a cat in hell’s chance of ever getting ahead.

So what happened?

Remember the ‘Number 1 rule for survival’?

S.T.O.P.

I took a step back, I thought about my situation. I took a deeper look into what was happening to my life.

Notice I write: ‘what was happening to my life’, because I was out of control, this was
happening to me - and I was letting it!

I realised that day why the ‘average wage’ is what it is.

It’s because each cog in The Machine needs to earn exactly that amount to keep it turning.

Any more and the cog would be able to break free from its spindle, any less and The Machine would seize.

The average wage is what it is so that The Machine can run at optimum efficiency, it is always able to reach up from its back and clamp onto the windpipe, it can drain away a life at will ... if you let it!!!

Let’s take a look at the state of your nation.

I’m going to use the average outgoings from an average salary that I am familiar with - if they don't match yours apply your own figures.

People go out to work for around 45 hours a week and will be paid a salary of around £20,000/$35,000 a year.

After tax they’ll take home around £15,000/$25,000 per year. That’s £1,250/$2,000 per month ... Give or take a few hundred dollars!

I’ll stress again: The figures are variable. What is important is that most people are trapped by the ‘average salary’. You’ll find that a person with a better income, in a more affluent area will generally be exposed to higher property prices and a heavier mortgage, the net result will be pretty much the same.

Incidentally, mortgage is Latin for ‘pledge unto death’ - a loan you pay until you die!!!

On a mortgage of £100,000/$150,000 you’ll pay back up to £300,000/$500,000 over a twenty-five year period and sometimes more!

Back to the cog:

We have already established for this example an average income, after tax of £1,250/$2,000 a month

Monthly outgoings go something like this:

Whhooooaaaaa! Hang on a minute.

"We’re up to £1,200/$1,920, 96% of the income already, we’ve still got hundreds of bills to pay, and that’s before we can even go down the pub for a drink - let alone go on holiday!!!"

This is the Predator Trap in all its Technicolor glory. People think they are carving an independent living; they think they are financially secure and are earning about as much as they can.

The plain truth is, people can never earn enough money on an 'average salary' to escape ...

I don’t care how you try to juggle the figures, there is no getting away from the fact you need one hell of a job to have a 'reasonable' (and I use reasonable in the loosest sense) standard of living.

Those with good salaries often believe they have escaped the trap.

They haven’t!

In fact, most have built glass towers, fragile and vulnerable. They are still a part of The Machine, albeit bigger cogs! The only significant difference is that they contribute more.

They are punished because they have had the where-with-all to climb the career ladder. They have worked smarter, harder and achieved those pay rises. The Machine, rubbing hands gleefully just takes a bigger bite; it clamps the windpipe of success mercilessly!!!

Those at the top of the salary ladder are no different from those stranded on the lower rungs. They are all trapped on it.

So how do they break free?

State of a Life