I couldn’t sleep last because this caught my eye during the day:
I recently asked my friends’ little girl what she wanted to be when she grows up. She said she wanted to be President of the United States.
Both of her parents, liberal Democrats, were standing there. So I asked her, “If you were President, what would be the first thing you would do?” She replied, “I’d give food and houses to all the homeless people…
Her parents proudly beamed. “Wow…what a worthy goal.”
I told her. “But you don’t have to wait until you’re President to do that. Tell you what – you can come over to my house and mow the lawn, pull weeds, and sweep my driveway, and I’ll pay you $50. Then I’ll take you over to the grocery store where this homeless guy hangs out, and you can give him the $50 to use toward food and a new house. How about doing something wonderful like that?”
She thought that over for a few seconds, then she looked me straight in the eye and asked, “Why doesn’t the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50?”
I said, “Welcome to the Republican Party.”
Her parents still aren’t speaking to me.
A year ago this would have made me chuckle. Not anymore. After 11 months of unemployment, I have run out of savings. Fortunately, I learned my lesson from my last period of unemployment and lived on less than half of my salary during the last 5 years. After taxes, I saved the remaining dollars in mutual funds and tax-deferred savings instruments. Those funds, of course, lost about half of their value during the market crash of 2007-2008 (caused in no small part by banks unethical lending practices). All that money is now gone.
I went from upper-middle class to poverty in less than a year. If I hadn’t had my 401Ks, my IRAs, my ESSP, and my other funds, I’d have been destitute in less than a month. I’m fortunate. I am nearly debt free, with only two loans: a small student loan with less than $1500 remaining, and a car loan I acquired in 2010 —long before I lost my job. I haven’t purchased a brand new car since 1996. However, my car, a 12 year-old vehicle, needs $5000 in repair. My wife’s 4 year-old car (the one we have the loan on) is ~15K over its 60,000 mile maintenance – when we can afford to do that.
If I had COBRAed my insurance, I would have needed to spend another $200 a month on top of my unemployment compensation to pay the premium. Consequently, we’ve been without medical/dental/life insurance since I lost my job. We’re generally a healthy family, so paying the doctor and pharmacy in cash has been manageable, despite two us requiring daily maintenance meds. But this month, my senior in high school ended up in the ER. Twice. Once due to bronchitis, which caused an asthma attack, where he was losing his ability to breathe. That 4 hours in the ER left us with ~$1700 in medical bills. Last week he had an emergency appendectomy, and had to spend 30 hours in the hospital. We haven’t yet received those bills — I can’t imagine what the total will be. I have no idea where the money to pay those bills will come from. Should I just have let him die, since I knew going in I couldn’t afford to pay his bills? DSHS has told me my two boys may qualify for medical assistance, however, if something happens to my wife or me, the two of us will definitely not be covered.
The “Republican Party” would apparently tell me the “church” should help me out. The church I attend does. It has the only food and clothing bank in the area –- serving approximately 200 families a month. (We have ~550 families in the church.) Our parish also contributes several times a year to other kinds of relief (CRO, CCS, SVdP, etc.). They are not stingy with their giving. There’s more need than one church can support. The other churches in the area may provide some assistance to their members, but they aren’t helping out those who aren’t part of their churches’ communities –- I was part of the local pastors’ group for a while: they “couldn’t take care of those who weren’t part of their flock.” My church may be able to help with my groceries, but they cannot pay my rent, my car insurance, my gasoline, my medical bills, nor my utilities.
Much to the consternation of some conservative lawmakers here in Washington State, my unemployment benefits were extended for the 2012-2013 biennium, so I can continue to pay my rent, and some of my other bills. DSHS is providing the food on my table.
The “Republican Party” also apparently is telling me I should just go to work and all will be well. But, it appears that no one seems to be willing to hire me. I’ve been looking for over 10 months. I’m overqualified, or have too much experience. At our age, it becomes more and more impossible to get hired. My wife’s stepbrother was visiting from out of state and told me that his company had just hired someone who somehow had gotten through their screening process. Normally, they’d “never hire someone who was older than their mid-to-late 30s.” Yup, to my face he admitted his company’s HR department practices “ageism” in their hiring process. Now, of course, proving that is another thing altogether. I’m constantly being told that the companies I’ve applied to are “pursuing other candidates who more closely match their needs.”
I might be able to get a minimum wage job selling computers, but that would bring home less than my unemployment — even if I got 40 hours a week. The minimum wage in the State of Washington is one of the highest in the nation. In King County, 40 hours a week at minimum wage means a family of four is below the poverty line. They will not be able to pay rent and put food on their table, let alone pay for anything like transportation to get them to and from that minimum wage job. My rent is “below market” because I live out in the boonies. The bus system my taxes pay for doesn’t serve my area of the county. I have to have a car.
I’m not looking for a handout; I’m looking for a job. This is longest period of unemployment I’ve had since I began working at age 16. Previously, my longest period was 3 months. Without the government safety net, I’d be starving and homeless. There is nothing more degrading to one’s self-esteem than having to sit in DSHS waiting for the social worker to ask you intimate questions about your finances in the presence of a roomful of strangers, also waiting for a “handout.” Most of those same people in the waiting room at DSHS are not trying to rip off the government or take money others have earned. They are in similar situations to what I am. They are trying to hold their lives together, just like I am.
I don’t want the wealthy to give me their money. I want them to pay their share of the tax burden so I can continue looking for work. When I was at “Big Software Corporation” the senior leadership team made seven figure salaries. When they stopped paying bonuses to employees because of the poor economy, the board made sure they still received their bonuses. None of them paid as much in taxes, percentage-wise, as I did.
Those “liberal Democrats” act like this is a “Christian Nation” a lot more than their counterparts across the aisle, who actually claim that it is. Jesus told his followers over and over and over again to care for the poor; just like Moses did. The current Republican Party has strayed far from it roots as defenders of the defenseless. (The Democrats are not much better when it comes to defending the innocent, however.) Where in the entire Bible (or the Quran, or the Gitas, or any holy book), does it say to ignore the poor and act like the Pharisee, offering their pittance to the poor and then loudly proclaiming that at least they are not as sinful as the poor Publican?
I don’t want a handout; I just want to be working.
