One,
Two, I had no idea, at only two, but had I, I would have said “eff you.”
By ten, I knew. As I was being whisked away, I wrote you “eff you.”
By fifteen, as I was being whisked away again, I wrote you “eff you.”
At twenty five, when you made a surprise appearance when you had someone for me to fix for you but nothing for me, I told you “eff you.”
At fifty, when you sent an emissary to convince me to invalidate my very existence for you, I called you and gave you my final “eff you.”
See that face gazing back at you? It’s me, saying “eff you.”
It was widely seen as a counter-argument to claims that poor people are “to blame” for bad decisions and a rebuke to policies that withhold money from the poorest families unless they behave in a certain way. After all, if being poor leads to bad decision-making (as opposed to the other way around), then giving cash should alleviate the cognitive burdens of poverty, all on its own. 