Nov 8th, 2019
these dark days and 🦂 season got me thinking about all that is hidden, underground and not talked about
for me a big one is money
I realized that many folks assume that when they pay me for services the whole amount goes to me
not so
the hidden truth is that 30% or more of each treatment goes to room rental, another 30% goes to taxes, and an additional 3% goes to Square for payment processing
that means that out of $20 someone pays for a treatment, only about $7.50 is left
and then there are supplies, website, and scheduling app fees
there are license costs ($500 every two years for acupuncturists), malpractice insurance ($480 a year) and a 🏔 of student debt (acupuncture school is about 100K)
real talk: trying to provide affordable medicine while meeting my own survival needs has been very difficult
as someone who grew up poor, my relationship to money alternates between survivalist panic, and nonchalant willful head-in-the-sand just hoping everything will be ok somehow, but it's has been a struggle to find a way to sustain myself AND keep providing low cost sliding scale treatments
if you offer services, how do you sustain yourself while prioritizing access?
if you pay for services, how do you decide how much to pay on the sliding scale? are you aware of how the money you pay is distributed and how much of it goes to your provider?
let's uncover this dirty business together
let's stick it to the capitalist notion that money should not be talked about, and let's build sustainable ways to create abundance with and for each other
✨💛✨
