veronica_rich (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
veronica_rich) wrote2011-11-13 03:53 pm
veronica_rich) wrote2011-11-13 03:53 pm
problem, squared
I used to have a friend when I lived down South years ago, who got to go to college job-free because her folks paid for it. After graduation in the late 80s, she got a good job in insurance with a small, caring agency and still has the job now. I lived near her between 2000-07, much of which on my part was spent technically unemployed (but functionally employed in various odd and part-time jobs). Every so often she would complain about things like "deadbeats" who wanted taxpayer-supported health insurance (while she enjoyed employer-paid insurance), "hippies" who opposed two wars (that many of them were helping pay for - instead of their tax dollars going for their own insurance), lazy jobless folks who simply didn't want to work a menial job (often because they were told they were overqualified when they applied, and "would just leave for a better job before long").
In case you couldn't guess from context, I fell into all three of these categories (the last to an extent, since I did work multiple jobs at any given time, but no full-time job for 6 years). But of course when I would point out I was in the population she was criticizing, I was "different." I knew some other people in my similar situation, and they weren't lazy or unpatriotic or Communist any more than I was. They were just caught in bad situations, sometimes by their own choices - my troubles actually were a direct result of moving and seeking career advancement and better pay (as it turns out, with the wrong employer), all things we're encouraged to try.
Compared to the jobs situation now in the U.S., at least, those years were somewhat fat and happy for our country. I'm actually financially better off than I was then, and more than a lot of people now. So when I see the 99-percent protesters, I think, sure, there are some granola nuts taking advantage of it to be weird and be seen. But I also see people in business suits, middle-aged people dressed normally and not leaping at cameras. I see elderly people, who can remember what REAL hard times are like and worry they're nearly here again. Most of what I see look like normal people who would probably rather be sitting in an office or building something, or generally being paid and earning insurance, or able to enjoy a peaceful retirement, instead of standing or sitting outside where it's cold and probably kind of stinky. But staying home and applying for jobs and being quiet and obedient to the system hasn't worked in several years to persuade the people who CAN make decisions to outlaw credit usery; to penalize companies who outsource jobs; to impose higher taxes on those who can afford them and should be paying them (and should be happy to do so, to show gratitude to the country and society that made it possible for them to be that wealthy in the first place) to do so.
I saw a political cartoon the other day that indicated the protesters are basically whining about first-world problems, when there are people doing worse in the world. The rage this stirred in me cannot be expressed adequately here. I have two chronic medical conditions that really affect quality of life that, had I had access to affordable insurance/preventive health care 8 years ago, I likely could have stopped in their tracks or minimized, instead of having to treat them for the rest of my life ... and I know I'm lucky. I'm lucky I didn't need tumors removed in those 6 years; I'm lucky I never broke a bone; I'm lucky I didn't develop cancer. This is just a small part of the anger I felt; I've worked as hard since I was 18 as many people with great sums of money (and more than some), and I don't appreciate some asshole's straw man that because I always just managed to NOT end up living in a mud hut drinking feces-laced water, that I ought to be happy for the way things are right now in my country.
By the way, that was a newspaper staff cartoonist who I'm sure has health insurance and benefits, and don't you think he'd be happy to keep working if he lost all that and most of his salary and had to live in a box on the sidewalk? Sure he would.
My point is, I think things are far worse now than they were when things were bad for me - and I think these protesters have a right to do what they're doing. The great majority aren't nutjobs, any more than the great majority of the general population are nutjobs. What happened in Wisconsin is a good microcosm of the root problem, overall - basic lack of respect for the majority, from the minority that derives their power from the votes of the majority and/or their wealth from the sweat of the majority. Those public workers weren't largely upset that their pay might be cut; they were upset that the state was telling them they didn't have any right any longer to try to negotiate about it (even if it meant losing), period - you know, the state that wouldn't exist without taxpayer dollars, including what public employees pay into the coffers?
My broken wrist hurts, but I thought this important enough to try to type out, is all.
In case you couldn't guess from context, I fell into all three of these categories (the last to an extent, since I did work multiple jobs at any given time, but no full-time job for 6 years). But of course when I would point out I was in the population she was criticizing, I was "different." I knew some other people in my similar situation, and they weren't lazy or unpatriotic or Communist any more than I was. They were just caught in bad situations, sometimes by their own choices - my troubles actually were a direct result of moving and seeking career advancement and better pay (as it turns out, with the wrong employer), all things we're encouraged to try.
Compared to the jobs situation now in the U.S., at least, those years were somewhat fat and happy for our country. I'm actually financially better off than I was then, and more than a lot of people now. So when I see the 99-percent protesters, I think, sure, there are some granola nuts taking advantage of it to be weird and be seen. But I also see people in business suits, middle-aged people dressed normally and not leaping at cameras. I see elderly people, who can remember what REAL hard times are like and worry they're nearly here again. Most of what I see look like normal people who would probably rather be sitting in an office or building something, or generally being paid and earning insurance, or able to enjoy a peaceful retirement, instead of standing or sitting outside where it's cold and probably kind of stinky. But staying home and applying for jobs and being quiet and obedient to the system hasn't worked in several years to persuade the people who CAN make decisions to outlaw credit usery; to penalize companies who outsource jobs; to impose higher taxes on those who can afford them and should be paying them (and should be happy to do so, to show gratitude to the country and society that made it possible for them to be that wealthy in the first place) to do so.
I saw a political cartoon the other day that indicated the protesters are basically whining about first-world problems, when there are people doing worse in the world. The rage this stirred in me cannot be expressed adequately here. I have two chronic medical conditions that really affect quality of life that, had I had access to affordable insurance/preventive health care 8 years ago, I likely could have stopped in their tracks or minimized, instead of having to treat them for the rest of my life ... and I know I'm lucky. I'm lucky I didn't need tumors removed in those 6 years; I'm lucky I never broke a bone; I'm lucky I didn't develop cancer. This is just a small part of the anger I felt; I've worked as hard since I was 18 as many people with great sums of money (and more than some), and I don't appreciate some asshole's straw man that because I always just managed to NOT end up living in a mud hut drinking feces-laced water, that I ought to be happy for the way things are right now in my country.
By the way, that was a newspaper staff cartoonist who I'm sure has health insurance and benefits, and don't you think he'd be happy to keep working if he lost all that and most of his salary and had to live in a box on the sidewalk? Sure he would.
My point is, I think things are far worse now than they were when things were bad for me - and I think these protesters have a right to do what they're doing. The great majority aren't nutjobs, any more than the great majority of the general population are nutjobs. What happened in Wisconsin is a good microcosm of the root problem, overall - basic lack of respect for the majority, from the minority that derives their power from the votes of the majority and/or their wealth from the sweat of the majority. Those public workers weren't largely upset that their pay might be cut; they were upset that the state was telling them they didn't have any right any longer to try to negotiate about it (even if it meant losing), period - you know, the state that wouldn't exist without taxpayer dollars, including what public employees pay into the coffers?
My broken wrist hurts, but I thought this important enough to try to type out, is all.
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He was 15 when our National Health Service was introduced. I remember him telling me about a horrible childhood incident where he sliced his thumb open and had to suffer in agony because his family couldn't afford a doctor. Those were the kind of formative experiences which informed his left-of-centre political views and support for trade unions. How anyone could object to health care and employment protection for all is beyond me.
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The right wing suffers from a form of Modern Day Puritanism. They simply cannot believe that chance plays a big role in how most lives play out, that hard work can and does end in poverty (for all the reasons you mentioned and more). It is frustrating and rage-inducing to keep hearing that party line (from anybody) while the recession drags on.
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Out NHS isn't perfect, but I'd certainly never swap it for the American system.
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First, I think most of the protesters were paid by unions to protest. I don't think half of them believed in the cause.
That why. Movements like Martin Luther King Jr's was so successful, they believed in it.
Those protests in Massachusetts and the lime make no sense, what they want can't be paid for without raising taxes and I think raising taxes is a bad idea.
The protests like occupy wall street won't get no where fast, those pele really have nothing to loose. They're also protesting the wrong people. george Soros makes a ton of money and no one is protesting him. U ions are behind this one too. And those used to be so cool. It's funny how in history class I was taught that joining a union was a good thing, but, they too have become corrupted. They think they deserve all these rights, things we can't afford. The government can't run without the taxpayers, and I think that the best way to protest is to refuse to pay our taxes until the politicians get their asses out of their butts and do what is right for the people, not for themselves or for the game of politics.
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I don't see anyone legislating to outlaw churches, and there's reams of corruption rife in those; when there's money, there will always be corruption by some of those dipping their hands into it.
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Maybe, there is one or two u ions that aren't bad. But I can't name one. And I'll give you that some cnurches are corrupted, but some aren't. It's like that saying - there will always be few bad apples in every basket.
That's when we have to get down the the bottom line and do the research ourselves, so that we know what's going on and why.
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Thankfully, I work. I have a job with good benefits. What I earn does not put me in the 1%. Not by a long shot. I am grateful that I have what I have. Before this I had a termination, a temp job, a permenent job, a dibilitating illness followed by a layoff. I was out of work for only two months, but it was a wake up call.
It made me realize all the money I paid into the system meant nothing. I have put 30 years into the work world, paying my taxes. I needed medical care, but because I was unable to produce a little future tax payer as far as the government was concerned I am expendable. Now, if I had 5 kids, and could not name the father for any one of them, then I could have all the help I need. This to me is BS.
When I was growing up the idea was this. If you go to school, and get a college education that meant you would have a good paying job. It didn't matter what you got the degree in, just that you went to college was good enough. Then the ante was upped. Now you need to have a Masters to be considered for employment.
So, what we now have sitting in the unemployment lines, and in Occupy camps are people who bought the lie. They have degrees in solid subjects, they have degrees in underwater basket weaving 1A. In addition they have a butt load of student debt, that was going to go away with that awesome new job you could get with that degree. Now all they have is student debt and no prospects.
When people look down on them, and call them bums, and lazy do nothings who don't want to work that is insulting. When someone has submitted the 100th resume, and still can't find a job. It becomes apparent that there is a problem, and it is not always the applicant. It is very easy to call someone a bum, when you are sitting in a cushy office with good benefits. Unless you have lived the life of being unemployed, near homeless, and can't get essential medical care it is easy to dismiss someone out of hand. In that case only a sharp dose of reality is going to change that mindset.
People are done with all the money sitting at the top while everyone else get crumbs. I'm not saying that people who have should do without. If they earned it good for them. It's theirs, they earned it. But for them to be demeaning to the less fortunate is inexcusable. All it takes is one catastrophic event for the tide to change in a big way. But unless you have never lived hungry you can't even imagine.
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And the fact that it was a *newspaper* cartoonist drawing that... I can't even articulate the outrage beyond a simple "fuck you, buddy." They're lucky to have the job they've got when so many city papers still have hiring freezes.